Ekagra doesn't like eating anything except some fruits. It is really very difficult to feed him the main rice-based meal. But one thing that he likes is McDonald's burger.
Two weeks back, Ekagra told us that he wanted to eat burger. We took him to the McDonald's outlet at the Forum Value Mall and bought a McChicken burger for him. Then last week Gitika was not well and it was impossible for me to feed him rice. So I took him to the McDonald's outlet again. He was happy. But now almost every day he asks us for burger. This morning Ekagra woke up from his sleep and told us that he wanted a burger in the bed!
I thought I would try preparing a burger myself today. So I bought a few burger-buns from Hypercity this morning and tried to prepare a burger for Ekagra in the evening. He was happy when he saw the burger being cooked in the microwave. But his expressions changed when I gave him to eat. He touched it, felt it and realized that it's not his favorite burger. He didn't eat even half!
Kids are actually much smarter than what we think.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Admission to Greenwood High
Ekagra would turn three in December this year and would start going to Nursery from next academic session (June 2011 onwards). We had two options - we would let him continue in Eurokids and then look for his Lower KG (LKG, KG-I, K-I) admission in the following year. Second option was to send him to a big school that has classes from nursery to class XII.
Honestly speaking, first option was only my option. Gitika never liked that. Getting admission to nursery is the easiest. It's usually on first-come-first-serve basis. After nursery, getting admission is not that easy. I thought of the first option because it's cheaper :-). One more year at Eurokids would cost us Rs 32,000; whereas admission fees-cum-tuition fees in good school would cost us more than 1 lakh rupees. I thought about the first option because our industry was recession hit and salaries were hardly growing in last three years.
But finally I was convinced by Gitika's arguments that it's better if we send him to a good school from nursery onwards. Gitika visited all the following schools:
We liked Greenwood High compared to all the other schools. It follows ICSE and IGCSE syllabus. The school provides ample opportunities for extra-curricular activities. We felt that this is the right school for Ekagra's overall development. Greenwood has a pre-activity center at Whitefield also where they have Nursery, LKG, and UKG and then students naturally transition to the main campus at Vartur Road. But we thought of giving him admission to the main campus itself.
Greenwood has started the admission for next academic session from this month (September 2010). Finally we gave him admission on September 6th. On that day, we reached the school early morning at 8:15AM. We first met the principal Aloycius D'Mello and had a chat with him at his office.
Ekagra would start attending nursery classes from June 2011 at Greenwood High International School.
Honestly speaking, first option was only my option. Gitika never liked that. Getting admission to nursery is the easiest. It's usually on first-come-first-serve basis. After nursery, getting admission is not that easy. I thought of the first option because it's cheaper :-). One more year at Eurokids would cost us Rs 32,000; whereas admission fees-cum-tuition fees in good school would cost us more than 1 lakh rupees. I thought about the first option because our industry was recession hit and salaries were hardly growing in last three years.
But finally I was convinced by Gitika's arguments that it's better if we send him to a good school from nursery onwards. Gitika visited all the following schools:
- Greenwood High
- VIBGYOR High
- Deens Academy
- Gopalan International School
- New Horizon Gurukul School
- Inventure Academy
- Delhi Public School, Bangalore East
We liked Greenwood High compared to all the other schools. It follows ICSE and IGCSE syllabus. The school provides ample opportunities for extra-curricular activities. We felt that this is the right school for Ekagra's overall development. Greenwood has a pre-activity center at Whitefield also where they have Nursery, LKG, and UKG and then students naturally transition to the main campus at Vartur Road. But we thought of giving him admission to the main campus itself.
Greenwood has started the admission for next academic session from this month (September 2010). Finally we gave him admission on September 6th. On that day, we reached the school early morning at 8:15AM. We first met the principal Aloycius D'Mello and had a chat with him at his office.
Ekagra would start attending nursery classes from June 2011 at Greenwood High International School.
Tonsured
It's a Hindu tradition that babies are tonsured. My parents told me that I was tonsured when I wast one month old. I think there is no definite rule regarding the time and people do it at their convenience.
Ekagra was two and half year old already and we were yet to tonsure him. His mother always wanted that we would go to Tirupati temple and will do the ritual there. I was always postponing that.
Finally we decided that we'd go to Tirupati in mid of June 2010. We were going to Tirupati for the first time. I was not sure how will be the environment there where hairs are shaved - will it be very crowded, will we be able to control Ekagra there in a crowded place etc. We had apprehensions. So we went for a middle ground. We decided that we'd shave his hairs at Green Trends saloon, AECS layout and offer the hairs at Tirumala.
Ekagra's started going to play-school just three days back on June 10th. I had a doubt if he would feel awkward in the school with his shaved head. I asked the head of the school. She said it was perfectly alright and now Ekagra won't feel anything.
On the sunday morning, June 13th, we went to Green Trends. Ohhhhh...what a scene it was! Ekagra resisted a lot while his hairs were shaved. He cried so much. I was holding him on my lap and it was difficult for me too. The actual shaving process hardly took five minutes.
Then we went to Tirupati the very same day and offered his hairs there. Well, it was not the perfect tonsure at Tirupati. We choose a middle ground thinking about Ekagra's possible discomfiture at Tirupati.
We bought two caps for him from Toys-n-Toys. He liked one of these. He was always wearing the red-cap for many days.
Play school at Eurokids
Usually these schools admit kids from 1 year 10 month onwards. Ekagra was to turn two in the month of December 2009. We called up both Eurokids and PupilTree in the month of November 2009. PupilTree told me to contact them in January. For play-group, their annual fee was approximately Rs 50,000. The lady at Eurokids told me that I should contact them in November. Eurokids annual fee is about Rs 32,000.
We visited Eurokids in the month of November and met Tara Sharma, the head of this Eurokids. We asked her if we could send Ekagra to play-group from December 2009 onwards. Ekagra is December-born. So he would be 2.5 year in June 2010. So Tara told us that even if we send him to the play-group in December, he would continue in the same class in June as he won't go to Nursery. Again, Tara told us that when the classes would start after Christmas vacations, they would spend time in revising what was taught in the first half from June and then again they'd start preparing for the annual day. So she advised us to send Ekagra to play-group from June 2010 session.
There are two timing for the playschool - one starts at 8:45AM and the second one starts at 11:45AM. We booked a morning slot for Ekagra.
In the month of December, Gitika went to Eurokids again with my father. (I was recuperating from a surgery and couldn't drive). Ekagra's grand-father was interested in paying the first installment of the annual fee. Deuta didn't allow Gitika to pay it. Thus Ekagra got admitted to Eurokids.
Ekagra's play-group class started on June 10th, 2010. All the kids were crying for the first few days. Mothers also were present in the classes for first three or four days.
Now Ekagra don't cry when he goes to the school. Both Gitika and I go to drop him in the morning. (We've not availed of the transportation. Personally, we feel that Maruti vans are unsafe for kids to travel to school). Then Gitika again goes to pick him from the school at 11AM. I've not seen this scene yet; but Gitika told me that every day Ekagra comes out of the school smiling, running and saying mamma-mamma to Gitika. Of course, Gitika enjoys that.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Mickey Mania
Ekagra loves to watch cartoons. He watches Little Krishna, Bheem, Tom & Jerry, Mickey, Doraemon, Ninja Hattori and many other cartoon shows. How does he pronounce these characters? He calls Krishna as Kikan. Mickey was Bicky in the beginning. Now he calls Micky. Donald is Dodald. Doraemon is Dowam, Kiteretsu is Kitu. Bheem is Beem. Chinchan is Chi-Chen.
Ekagra's most favorite cartoon characters are Krishna and Mickey.He loved the Little Krishna shows aired in Nick sometime back. He'd stop crying if this show started in the TV. We recorded some of these using our handycam. Then we bought VCDs of all the episodes when these were available in the market. There were six DVDs packed in three titles called: Vrindavan, Warrior and Wondrous Feats. We'd play these during his lunch or dinner time. But then he started asking for these Little Krishna shows at any random time. We couldn't watch any other program in TV! Switch on the TV and he would demand Little Krishna. He would even go behind the TV to connect the audio-out and video-out wires!
Ekagra has recently caught a Mickey-mania. We bought him a story book of Mickey-Mouse when he was six months old. So he recognizes Mickey character since his early days. The latest craze started with a t-shirt that we bought for him a few months back from Toys-n-Toys. This dark blue t-shirt contains a picture of Mickey mouse. All the time he wants to wear this Mickey t-shirt. In the morning when we change his dress for school, he wants that. If he is wearing that in the night and we want to change his dress before going to bed, he resists and creates big tantrums. He'll wake up in the morning to watch the Mickey mouse clubhouse show. Ekagra has started chanting the magic password: "Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse". He loves the Hot Dog song and would dance to the tune of this song.
I guess that day is not very far off when Ekagra will tell me: "Deuta, take me to Disney Land". :-)
Ekagra's most favorite cartoon characters are Krishna and Mickey.He loved the Little Krishna shows aired in Nick sometime back. He'd stop crying if this show started in the TV. We recorded some of these using our handycam. Then we bought VCDs of all the episodes when these were available in the market. There were six DVDs packed in three titles called: Vrindavan, Warrior and Wondrous Feats. We'd play these during his lunch or dinner time. But then he started asking for these Little Krishna shows at any random time. We couldn't watch any other program in TV! Switch on the TV and he would demand Little Krishna. He would even go behind the TV to connect the audio-out and video-out wires!
Ekagra has recently caught a Mickey-mania. We bought him a story book of Mickey-Mouse when he was six months old. So he recognizes Mickey character since his early days. The latest craze started with a t-shirt that we bought for him a few months back from Toys-n-Toys. This dark blue t-shirt contains a picture of Mickey mouse. All the time he wants to wear this Mickey t-shirt. In the morning when we change his dress for school, he wants that. If he is wearing that in the night and we want to change his dress before going to bed, he resists and creates big tantrums. He'll wake up in the morning to watch the Mickey mouse clubhouse show. Ekagra has started chanting the magic password: "Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse". He loves the Hot Dog song and would dance to the tune of this song.
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I guess that day is not very far off when Ekagra will tell me: "Deuta, take me to Disney Land". :-)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
First long drive
I went to US for a few weeks in the month of March-April 2008. My parents came and stayed with Gitika and Ekagra while I was traveling. On coming back from US, I wanted to take my whole family for a vacation. I thought of going to Pondicherry as my parents haven't seen a sea yet. Pondicherry is about 320km (about 200 miles) from Bangalore.
Ekagra was three and half months old at that time. My father was a bit reluctant to travel. First he thought that it was too much of along drive and then Krishu was too young to travel. Gitika, maa and I could convince him about the trip and finally we were on our way out for Pondicherry. The express-way till Krishnagiri (NH-7) was too good. After Krishnagiri, we took a state highway and half of the road was in bad condition. We started at 6:30AM from Bangalore and reached Pondicherry at 1:30PM with two thirty minutes break on the way.
We stayed at Pondicherry for two nights. We stayed a Sea -Side Guest House run by Sri Aurobindo trust. We enjoyed the trip very much. We didn't face any problem with our three months old baby Krishu. He was still breast-feeding and we didn't have to care much about his food. (As I write this post, he is about 2 year 5 month. If we travel now, his food is one of our main concerns as he can't eat any spicy food cooked outside.)
Ekagra was three and half months old at that time. My father was a bit reluctant to travel. First he thought that it was too much of along drive and then Krishu was too young to travel. Gitika, maa and I could convince him about the trip and finally we were on our way out for Pondicherry. The express-way till Krishnagiri (NH-7) was too good. After Krishnagiri, we took a state highway and half of the road was in bad condition. We started at 6:30AM from Bangalore and reached Pondicherry at 1:30PM with two thirty minutes break on the way.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Annaprashan (অণ্ণপ্রশন) - the function to celebrate first meal of rice
In our side of India (i.e., Assam and Bengal etc.), we celebrate a ceremony called Annaprashan at around 5th month of the baby. On this day, there is some puja and then the maternal uncle (mama) gives the first rice to baby. It's usually followed by a lunch with family and friends.
Since we were in Bangalore at that time, and Gitika's brothers couldn't travel, we decided to celebrate this function at ISKCON temple Bangalore. (We heard from some friends that we can celebrate events like Annaprashan, birthday etc at ISKCON temple).
The date chosen was June 16th, 2008. My father told us that it's a good day for Annaprashan. (Well, I don't believe in astrology; but sometime I have to go by these dates). We went to the ISKCON temple about a week before the occasion and met some priest there. We took an appointment for June 16th. They told us to reach there at 8AM. They told us that we've to give a donation of Rs 3500/- for this ceremony. They said six persons from us can have breakfast at the temple after the ceremony.
My cousin Piju and his wife Monali came from Hyderabad to attend the ceremony. We reached the temple at 8 AM. Two priests performed the ceremony there. They gave a silver spoon, a silver bowl and a Bhagawad-Gita as gifts to Krishu.
We invited four families for dinner at our place. Gitika cooked an excellent dinner.
Since we were in Bangalore at that time, and Gitika's brothers couldn't travel, we decided to celebrate this function at ISKCON temple Bangalore. (We heard from some friends that we can celebrate events like Annaprashan, birthday etc at ISKCON temple).
The date chosen was June 16th, 2008. My father told us that it's a good day for Annaprashan. (Well, I don't believe in astrology; but sometime I have to go by these dates). We went to the ISKCON temple about a week before the occasion and met some priest there. We took an appointment for June 16th. They told us to reach there at 8AM. They told us that we've to give a donation of Rs 3500/- for this ceremony. They said six persons from us can have breakfast at the temple after the ceremony.
My cousin Piju and his wife Monali came from Hyderabad to attend the ceremony. We reached the temple at 8 AM. Two priests performed the ceremony there. They gave a silver spoon, a silver bowl and a Bhagawad-Gita as gifts to Krishu.
We invited four families for dinner at our place. Gitika cooked an excellent dinner.
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