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.

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.

Mahekiya (মাহেকীয়া) - Function to celebrate one month

We celebrate the completion of first month of a baby in Assam. There is some puja followed by lunch or dinner. When Krishu completed one year, there was no one from our families with us. (I wrote about it in an earlier post. My mother-in-law had to rush back home). We went to a temple in Banasvadi to offer puja on January 25th.  Since the next day was a holiday (Republic Day), we decided to host the lunch on January 26th, 2008. We were then living in a rented house at Kasturi Nagar (House#211, 1D Cross). Our landlord Shankar-Ramen was kind enough to allow us to host the party at the terrace of the house.  For us that was also an occasion to meet some of our old friends. We were new to Bangalore and haven't met many of them after reaching Bangalore three months back.

I was looking for a decent north-Indian restaurant in Indira Nagar area who also does catering for parties. One of my colleagues Ashok recommended Raga at CMH road. I went to Raga and discussed the menu with Sandhya Pujari, the owner of Raga. The food was good. We had about 50+ guests that day.

Here is the link to the photo album for this function.