Mottai boss with some hair

40 days after the 'mottai', hair is growing thick and fast. These days, he could be heard proclaiming "mottai mandaila mutti (mudi)" (hair on the shaven head). :)

Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk

After returning from India, Anirud's chatter has increased manifold. He constantly comments, questions, announce something or other. His incessant chatter drives us nuts and quite literally so when he does that while driving the car. There was a time when we were eagerly waiting for him to utter a word or two. Now we wish he could keep quiet at least for few minutes.

Snippets from India Trip

Cow Farm - On the day we arrived at our home in Chennai, there were quite a few cows sitting on our street. Immediately, Anirud declared the place as 'cow farm' and continues to refer it that way.

Crackers - It was the first Deepavali in India for Anirud. Though there weren't that many crackers in the neighbourhood as was the case few years ago, whatever noise that came out was a bit too much for him. At first, he was shocked at the sound but later on he got along with that and even showed interest in handling the sparklers. Whenever a cracker went off on the street, he referred to that as 'vedi saththam'.

Motorbike - For the first time ever, Anirud travelled in a motor bike. He was seated on the tank while driving, but the trouble is he was getting bored that he started turning sideways. So, we gave him the job of honking whenever we needed to and he did that job to perfection. However, as an extra service he switched on the lights and indicators very often.

Appa College - For days before our trip to India, we have been telling Anirud that we would be visiting the college where his dad studied and we did. It was for a college re-union and as it happened to be a holiday, he was happily running around the place saying 'appa college'. Being a kid, quite naturally he was the toast of the gathering and some guys were using him to pull each other's legs. Some of his dad's mates made Anirud call a guy named 'swamy' as 'poli swamy'.

Thaathaa - Both of Anirud's thaathaas (grandpas) turned out to be his world during our three week stay in India, for they were the ones who tried every bit to bring the world towards him. Both of them walked, ate, slept and breathed with Anirud that no wonder he chose to ignore everyone else. If Anirud is asked to name someone he misses from India, he would name both his thaathaas without a moment of hesitation.

Trains - Anirud had his heart's fill with trains. Apart from travelling in super fast Pallavan Express to Trichy, his grandpa ensured that he was taken in local trains as well, just for the sake of travelling. He was taken upto Mambalam Railway station, made to wait for an hour or so seeing all the trains that went past and got into one and travelled back home. Weeks after we returned back to UK, all of a sudden he was saying that he wants to visit 'Tambaram Railway Station'. :)

Cuckoo Clock - A non-functional Cuckoo clock in our home at Chennai turned out to be one of Anirud's favourite toys. His grandpa would make the cuckoo come out of its nest by pressing a button and that seemed to fascinate Anirud. He would have called out the cuckoo not less than 300 times during our stay.

Elephant - For the first time in his life, Anirud saw an elephant. He was really awed by its sheer size and majesty. He was taken to the Rockfort temple at Trichy and shown the elephant there. The animal touched Anirud's head with its tusk and he was quite thrilled at that. Back home, he is using his hand to touch everyone's head to explain the above and proudly says that he went to 'mallaikottai' (Rockfort) to see the elephant. While saying the word 'mallaikottai', he would say it in such a way that the words would crumble along.

Silver Colour Gun Shop - I think Anirud loves specialisation. According to him, each item in the world will have an exclusive shop for itself. Like he would go to 'kadalamuttai shop' (peanut candy shop) to buy 'kadalamuttai', a day before Diwali he went to 'silver colour gun shop' to buy a 'Silver colour gun'.

Mottai Boss

Anirud is now a 'mottai boss', having got his head tonsured at our family deity's temple near Sirkazhi. While we expected him to make a big scene while getting his hair shaved off, he didn't even make a whimper. He was happily juggling with a mobile phone and was talking to the barber who went about doing the job with utmost ease. From that day on, he proudly shows off his head as 'mottai mandai' and sometimes he wants us to call him 'mottai boss'.

Royally Pampered

We went to India on a three week trip and Anirud has returned back royally pampered. He was treated as a royal at both his grand parent's house that reality is a bit tough for him to take after returning to UK. If his maternal grand parents in Trichy appeased by feeding him by getting him seated on a motor bike, at Chennai his paternal grandpa took pampering to new levels. Anirud had his own, small chair to sit. Where ever he went, his grandpa not only followed him with a chair, but also a little stool to rest his feet. No wonder children and grand parents are great allies.

Vijayadasami

On the auspicious Vijayadasami Day, at an auspicious time, Anirud prayed to God and with the help of his mom wrote 'OM' and few other Tamil alphabets on the rice spread out on a plate. Though he has been scribbling a lot on the walls already, this is meant to be the beginning of his education and traditionally it would be done with a little ceremony where the child would write few letters on the paddy amidst reciting of slokams. Being in UK, we neither had paddy, nor were we aware of the exact traditional way of doing things. So, we had to settle for 'whatever possible here' approach.

Thengaai Saadham

'Thengaai Saadham' (Coconut Rice) is the flavour of the current season for Anirud. He wants that prepared very often claiming that he likes it very much ('romba romba pudikkum'). On the other day, we were at our friend's place when someone asked Anirud 'What do you like to eat?'. Before they could finish the question, pat came his reply - "enakku thengaai saadham romba romba pudikkum" (I like Coconut Rice very much).

For the moment, 'kadalamuttai' (peanut candy) has taken the back seat.

Chennai Dosa

After taking Anirud to Chennai Dosa restaurant at Wembley quite a few times in the recent months, he seems to have become a fan of that place. All of a sudden, he would ask 'Chennai toosa polaam' (Lets go to Chennai Dosa) and when taken to, he knows what exactly he wants - a plain dosai. He would happily take out pieces of dosa from the plate, put them in his mouth after dipping them in 'geen colour chutney' (Green), 'ettu colour chutney' (Red coloured chutney) and 'sambhar' in such a way that he would not even be able to have a remote sense of taste of those chutneys.

Introduction

Most of the time Anirud sees a kid of his age, he stretches out his hand and mutters, "hello paapa. my name is aninudh". However much we try to cut out the 'paapa' (baby) in the monologue, he mentions that without fail. He is very amused and disappointed when the other kid doesn't respond and runs away.

Thillumullu

Rajini (referred as 'Ashini') is Anirud's favourite hero at the moment. He has watched the movie 'Thillumullu' to his heart's content, but would still want to watch it more often. :)

Get-together

Anirud had a good time at the Deepavali get-together we had organised recently. He never bothered us and so did we, though we kept an eye on him. At one stage, he went missing for few minutes before emerging from behind the curtains. As there were couple of push doors at the venue leading to the exit, that caused some anxious moments before we spotted him.

After the get-together, we came to know from one of our friends that Anirud and one another boy of same age were naughtily trying to climb up the chair and access something kept at a height.

Whining

Of late, Anirud is whining for everything. The moment we say something to correct him, however softer the tone is, tears start to roll down his cheeks and he starts to protest. Basically, he has entered the phase where he doesn't like to be told that he needs to mend his ways. This is a solvable issue and we are not unduly bothered. We are travelling to India in the next 10 days and we expect him to pick up few more bad habits as a result of being coochie-cooed by all and sundry. Once we return to our base, we must start 'Operation Anirud' to set things straight.

Timidity

Whenever he meets any strangers (adults) these days, Anirud puts his head down and hardly looks up. This is a total contrast to the scene few months ago when he was relatively ease in mixing with people. Even now, he is comfortable after about 15 minutes or so and in case there is a child around, he doesn't feel timid.

Bed Time

Anirud has got his own bed now. He calls it fish bed as the quilt and pillow cover has got colourful fishes in them. He has also got a companion in 'Noddy' that most of the days (whenever Anirud remembers) Noddy is made to sleep first at the bed time. The only trouble we have at the moment is Anirud doesn't go to bed on his own. He would like us to put off the lights and sleep as well.

Bank Shop

According to Anirud, every building in the High Street is a shop. So, it means that we have a 'Bank Shop' in our town.

Tesco's Brand Ambassador

Anirud is well suited to be called as the Brand Ambassador for Tesco. He has taken an immense liking for the supermarket (probably coz he is able to say that name properly) that whenever we mention a thing about shopping, he brings in Tesco's name. Also, he is able to recognise Tesco's logo painted anywhere - be it a carry bag, vans, petrol stations, catalogue, buildings etc from any distance and whenever he spots one his face lits up.

Chatter

Anirud is constantly chattering these days. Day by day, his words are becoming clearer and he keeps on talking, especially if we are travelling in a car. Sometimes it becomes a bit difficult to concentrate on the road that we ask him to shut up and feel sorry about that.

List

Whenever we speak to our folks in India, Anirud gives out a list of shops that he wants him to be taken to. It goes on like 'kadalamuttaaai shop, mixture shop, vedi shop, dress shop, toy shop' in that order.

School Visit

As Anirud is fast approaching school age, we made a visit to two of the schools nearby. As is the practice here, one of the senior members of the staff took us around the school and watch the activities for ourselves. In one of the schools, we spent more than 1.5 hours and Anirud started playing with the children over there. He would be starting with 'playgroup' in Jan next year and would move to Nursery only in September 2008.

Play Area

Anirud was taken to the soft play area in the nearby town. He loved it so much that he played there like mad for 2 hours. Back home, he was damn tired and had severe leg aches that he woke up so many times in the night crying with pain.