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.)

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.

Fisher Price Rocker

One integral part of Ekagra's journey till now is the Fisher Price Rocker that we bought for him when he was about four months old.  We went to buy the Fisher Price Bouncer for him from Orkidz at 80 feet road, Indiranagar. But we found that the bouncer was good till only about six months old. He was almost about to complete fourth month then. We didn't like to spend about Rs 3000/- just for a month or so. Then we found this rocker which can be used by a newborn to a toddler. The price was Rs 3600/-; but we found that he could use it for three years. And we did the right choice. He has thoroughly enjoyed it. Usually Ekagra loses attraction of a new thing very quickly, in a few days or weeks. The rocker is something he is still attracted to even after two years. He watches TV sitting there. He sometimes goes to sleep while resting on it. He turns the pages of a book or a newspaper while sitting on it. It was really worth buying the rocker.

First month

Oh yeah, first month was really a tough time. Ekagra didn't sleep during the night for almost the whole of the first month. He was probably getting adjusted to the new environment after coming out of the comfort of mother's womb.

Dabu (my cousin) went to Assam for his semester break. Gitika's mom were with us. But we got a bad news: one of Gitika's uncles passed away who were also their neighbour at their native place. So my mother-in-law had to go back home. In third week, we were alone with the new born baby. My parents couldn't come as it was the time for panchayat (local body at the village level) elections and my mother was on elections duty. I couldn't go to office and worked from home during that period.

Finally Junti khuri (my aunt) and my cousin Jaanmoni volunteered to come here from Assam. They stayed with us for about a month. We will forever be grateful to my auntie and Jaanmoni for that help.

From baby-of-Gitika to Ekagra (Krishu)

He was officially nameless and remained baby-of-Gitika for initial some days. But Gitika had already started calling him with probably hundred different nick names.

Before he was born, both Gitika and I shortlisted some names. We bought three books on Indian names of boys and girls. One of these were written by Menaka Gandhi. I don't remember the names of the other two books. We googled for names. Both of us don't believe in astrology. We thought we won't consult astrologers to give our baby a name. Instead we would decide his or her name. We had certain criteria for the name:

1. It should be a sanskrit name with a nice meaning.
2. It should not be a commonly used name. (Shout for Manjunath in a moderately crowded place in Bangalore and you'll be surprised if half of the people respond to you:-) )
3. It shouldn't be a tongue-twisting name (my name Jyotirmoy is kinda tongue-twisting for people from south-India)
4. It shouldn't be a long name, preferably within three syllable.

On the basis of our criteria, we shortlisted some ten names of a baby boy and some ten names of a girl. We liked the name Ekagra (একাগ্র in Assamese and एकाग्र in Hindi) most for a boy.  Eka in sanskrit and many other Indian languages means one. Ekagra is a sanskrit word which means one-pointed, fixing one's attention on one point. Ekagra is an adjective. The noun form is ekagrata (একাগ্রতা).  It is also used as ekagra-chitta. This was a really unique name.

Our parents consulted some astrologers and they said that the name of the baby should start with kri (কৃ).  Gitika and I decided that we would give his nick name with that. We immediately thought of Krish which is shortened form of Krishna. But Gitika thought Krish was too common a name. So she modified it to Krishu (কৃশু in Assamese and कृशु in Hindi). Both us liked the name Krishu.

When I registered his name at the BBMP office, the official there told me that he knew the meaning of the name. He said it was one of the most unique names he has ever registered in his whole career at the office.

One of our friends blessed him that may he always be ekagra-chitta (single-minded and focused), and may his focus be on excellence, goodness and greatness.  Amen!

Thus baby-of-Gitika became Ekagra (Krishu).

Four days at Manipal Hospital

Ekagra was born in Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. Dr Jaya Bhatt was the gynecologist of Gitika. We were very happy with the services of the hospital. We were there for four days. I was with Gitika and our new baby all the time. My cousin Dabu and mother-in-law would come to the hospital in the morning and go back to our rented house in the evening. Dabu finished his semester exam and stayed back with us instead of going home immediately after his exam.

Our baby was still nameless. He was called baby-of-Gitika in all the records of Manipal hospital during these days.

Christmas Eve morning, 2007

We were blessed with a baby boy on December 24th, 2007.  As Gitika was taken to the operation theater (OT) in the wee hours, I was waiting outside with my cousin Dabu and my mother-in-law. It looked like the rush-hour in the maternity ward of Manipal Hospital. As we waited eagerly for the good news, many other babies were born. Doctors, nurses, other hospital staffs were busy running around. We didn't know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I thought it would be a girl. Gitika thought it would be a boy. At around 8AM, some hospital staff announced: baby of Gitika. All three of us rushed. We saw the cute little baby. We were told it was a baby boy. He weighed 3.52 kg. He was wrapped in a green cloth. As I tried to hold him, he passed his first motion :-).  The hospital staff then took him away.