My Latest Post at World Moms Blog

Check out my latest post at World Moms Blog : Wedding Blues

It describes the travails of travelling with a 15-month old who simply will not let himself be set down anywhere with people within a 100 m radius.

Boys vs. Climbing

I wonder what it is with boys and climbing – anything 2 feet above the ground seems to sends them into spasms of utter joy and lands them in climbing heaven.

Little One has decided that climbing over tables and chairs is the current ‘IN’ thing for one-year-olds and is now busy climbing over all the furniture in the house.

His favourite pastime is climbing over the living-room couch, and then moving on to the next one by crawling over the hand-rests and then pulling up the curtains near it.

And finally, yesterday I got a real bad scare.

Running the Race for ‘One’

Here is my darling with less than 20 days to his first birthday:

How to (not) lose weight after pregnancy

11 months ago -

I looked with dismay at my ever-increasing girth. Not even XXL would fit me, let alone the dainty designer wear salwars that I had stitched 6 months back.

Hubby watched me admiring myself in the mirror and said “Don’t worry. You’ll be back to normal within 3 months after your delivery.” I snorted in reply. As if he understood what female bodies go through to have a kid.

9 months ago -

D-day just one month away and I was now officially waddling like a duck (not that I walked much differently before, but still). I could neither stand, sit nor lie down comfortably. Either my back was aching or my legs or my shoulders or ……the list went on.

Then came D-Day. A beautiful little baby – I was half relieved. At least now I didn’t have to carry him around in my belly, I could comfortably pass him over to my mom or my hubby. Of course, my size problem still existed. Though the baby was out, I still looked like I was carrying another one inside.

My mom contributed her share to the efforts to get rid of my girth – by hiring a maid to take care of post delivery ‘uzhichil’ and ‘pizhichil*’. In India, a lot of care is given to a woman after delivery. A special woman is hired who is an expert masseuse and expertise in post-delivery care. The lady is also in charge of washing both mother and baby’s clothes as well as bathing them. She is hired for 28 or 56 days. Or even more, depending on the family’s affluence or preference. In my case, the maid was a 70-year old lady. She would come every morning ready to take care of us and would leave by noon, after bathing us and washing our clothes. It is assumed that the exertions of this lady on the mother’s body will cut her girth and bring her body back to pre-delivery proportions (more or less).

Of course, my body was the unyielding type….no matter what, it had no intention to go back to its previous state. Finally, around 6 months ago, I started pestering Hubby to get me one of those new ‘Lavana Thailams‘…the wonder oil which was being touted as the latest slimming device. After pestering and pouting for half a day, he finally agreed to get a bottle for me – with a clause – “You should use it regularly, just as instructed on the bottle.” Of course, since I was dead set on slimming, I would have agreed to just about anything right then. I couldn’t wait to try its slimming properties. I started envisaging myself in designer wear, all toned and slimmed down…all thanks to Lavana Thailam.

The “Lavana thailam” craze lasted for approximately 2 months. By then I had joined back for work and I tried to ‘convince’ myself that I no longer had time to try out such oils any longer

Then, came crash diets of varying durations – none lasting more than a week. One of my dieting formula was Water Therapy. The diet was very simple – wake up in the morning and fill my belly with plain water before breakfast. The result – I would be too full of water to eat breakfast. The consequence – I would be ravenous by 10 am and ready to eat an elephant then. Needless to say, the diet sank in water before very long.

Those were my efforts at reducing weight – and it was my dearest wish to appear ‘nymph-like’ for my baby’s 1st birthday party. Well, I still have 3 whole months left. Maybe, Google will help me find some course which does not involve exercise of any form (did I mention that I am allergic to exercise?) and will magically lift all the bulges  from my figure

The last time I mentioned my weight, Hubby completely agreed with my comments and said, “You are right. You look very fat in that dress.” That put up my dander. I immediately said – ” See, I need some clothes. I don’t have a single one that fits me decently.” And I managed to spend around Rs. 2000 on clothes the same day

Now, every time I mention my weight, my husband raises his eyebrows in wonderment and says -” Who said that you are fat? You look slimmer than ever before.” Or he pretends to be engrossed in something else. Hmmmm, guess I need a new ploy to get Hubby to buy me dresses

*Uzhichil and Pizhichil – the Malayalam terms for Ayurvedic massage.

Marriage and Babies

Spicy Saturday

Selected Spicy Saturday Pick in BlogAdda for 13-11-2010

In India, everyone (well, a lot anyway) seems to think that having a girl baby is a huge burden. There is the trouble of making sure that no one ogled her during her growing years, worries about whether she’ll get a ‘proper’ husband, then finding a proper husband for her and negotiating with the ‘proper’ husband’s family for her dowry.

You’d think that the family’s troubles are over once she is married and settled at her husband’s home. But that’s a far cry from the actual situation.

Almost from the very next day after a girl is married, all the older relatives think……no, let me correct that…they believe that it is their prerogative to enquire whether the girl is pregnant. And if she is not pregnant within the first year of marriage, then may God help her. She’d be bombarded with questions from every ‘well-meaning’ relative about the inappropriateness of being childless after one solid year of marriage. Add a few more months to that, and relatives will now be changing their tune, and giving subtle and some not-so-subtle hints about the various treatments available nowadays All this hullabaloo even after the couple vehemently say that they do not want any kids for a few years. And if the couple turn a deaf ear to these relatives, then they head straight to the girl’s parents with their ‘anxiety’ over a 1-year old couple living childless.

Time passes by, and the girl becomes pregnant. Once again the tribe descends over her and pass remarks about the shape of her belly, how it is supposed to be shaped in case it is a baby girl, and how not for a baby boy. Every single female relative has a sure-fire way of predicting the gender of the unborn baby. And the grandmothers usually bless the couple with – ‘May you have a baby boy (always and forever, Amen!)’.

When I was pregnant, my mother took a look at my pregnant belly along with her sisters, and passed a comment like this – “I think it is a girl. In my days, it was customary that a pregnancy carried high and shaped like a ball was supposed to be a boy, while a low one without much protrusion was a girl. However, nowadays, it is the other way around.” And my mother was seconded and thirded by her sisters. Mine was low and rather shapeless and my mom voiced the thought of her generation (that is was a girl), but had all bases covered by saying that the new generation had it differently. So, in the same statement, she managed to convey that she was clueless about the gender of the child .

Choosing names for a baby-in-the-belly is a non-fun activity. First off, there’s the uncertainty whether the kid is a boy or a girl.  Unlike in the West,  India has banned foetal gender determination due to the high incidence of female infanticide. Add a dash of well-meant predictions from every Tom, Dick and Harry about the baby’s gender, and you are ready to tear your hair out.

For some reason, every couple I have met seems to have loads of names lined up for a daughter. However, when asked about a baby boy, they are stumped for names. Names for babies are usually determined by the currently popular movies in theatres – when ‘Taare Zameen par‘ was released, ‘Ishaan’ was a hot favourite. ‘Auro’ became a runaway hit with its debut in the movie ‘Paa‘. The Twilight saga saw names like Edward, Victoria, Bella and Isabella soar in popularity.

Now the mom-to-be is at the hospital as per schedule for her delivery. But the predictions don’t stop even at this juncture. Some say that girls prefer to come out early, and others think boys would love to stay behind for some more time and needs to be kicked out of their cozy nest. Finally, after all the predictions and waiting, the little one pops out, and smiles that wonderful smile. Who cares if it is a boy or a girl now? She is HERE!