deponti

I left St.Louis, to come home and do some wildlife trips...but I did not realize that we were going to have our own wildlife there...





How rare would it be to have a Lion in St.Louis!

Hm, as a fond gramma I hope this was only accidental and not deliberate...






Isn't she the most beautiful baby in the whole of the universe? (Of course she is, that was a rhetorical question!)

I remember the baby that was the logo of

Murphy Radio

...I didn't know I'd be looking at a similar tyke one day....

Well, here are three generations of women:




(photo by KM)

....and here's Recycle, Re-Use, but DON'T Reduce! For a few minutes, The Biddles was the center of attention of several people at the airport and everyone had a hearty laugh!

We may be American, but that doesn't prevent us from growing a little Chinese pigtail....






Amazing, it's a physical ache, wanting to be with her...

I call her Biddly, with rhymes with idli...but she's more like a dosa, because (after turning herself on her stomach and not being able to move anywhere) she has to be turned at frequent intervals.

She is the first infant I know, who has decided to bypass evolutionary milestones, and achieve something remarkable. Instead of even trying to swim or crawl, she turns over on her stomach, and extends her hands....she wants to fly, not crawl or sit or walk.

She's learnt (at 5.5 months) that cereal paste in the mouth is great to blow raspberries through and spray the person feeding her....and then she knows to smile like an angel just after that.

She already knows that being put in her car seat means an outing, and the angelic smile and toothless grins abound.

She practices several vocalizations ..."nanna"..."pappa"..."mamma"..."thatttha..." on and on and on through the waking hours, punctuated by fairly animal-sounding growls and little throat-gurgles.

I am so torn apart, I want to go home, and yet, am finding it terribly hard to leave this little piece of my heart behind....it really does feel as if I am cutting out a piece of my heart.

Non-attachment...VERY difficult, indeed. I have got nowhere in my spiritual quest of release from the shackles of

Maya ....

I am beginning to pack.

I look around...I can walk many a mile,
I find I'm never bored;
Not in sunshine, not in rain,
I can find beauty in a drain.



I just felt I had to smile
A look at this switchboard...
I really liked that humorous touch,
That, without talking, says so much.



Even something that is for just a while,
Something I cannot hoard:
A happy touch by my daughter
Seems to make honey of plain water!

"Look at that moon,
Hanging from the cloud,
Like a cashewnut," my daughter said.
Her simile was apt, and soon
I photographed the scene... and, proud
Of her observation, posted it here... wanting it read!

The more I love someone, the more nicknames that person has...

Here's the "Fuzzy-Head Airlines" taking off or landing...



That quilt was made by one of DnA's friends from college.






The quilt in the photo above was made for her by murthys_r_us.... M is a super-expert quilter at this time, and she manages a baby, household and a very demanding, highly-skilled job as well!

Now we present a highly-skilled, intellectual conversation between dad and daughter, while Mother is shovelling in more calories to run off later:





I hope everyone noticed the serious tenor of the discussion.

Though I couldn't quite summon up the energy to put up any kind of Golu for A, we did visit the home of A and M, who are expecting their first child shortly...the golu was really cute!





And here we are...there are TWO "A's mother"s in that pic! (A's parents live very close to her place, and I think it's great to have your family close by on a permanent basis!)





We are supposed to visit someone else today, but they don't seem to be at home...and here, it isn't really Navaratri, it's Weekendratri! :)

Would you think something that looks like this would be useful for a small baby?





Here's the whole product:





But it IS most useful. We are using cloth diapers for GD, and here's how

the "Snappi"

keeps the nappy together:





and of course, if the lingerie fits, it means a Biddles who ...er...reflects upon her nappiness happiness:




Sometimes, good design is counter-intuitive!

Her eyes tight shut,
She sleeps, her mouth in a beautiful bow;
Is she dreaming?
What do babies dream about?
I don't know...

All I know is, my heart goes out to her.
I caress her downy cheek.
I must live half a world away from her...
I must get used to not having her in my life
After having seen her, every hour,every day, every week...

Sometimes, toes can be as beautiful as lotuses....




No need to tell anyone to whom those toes belong!

Through the day, I am generally alone with The Biddles, as we call GD. Conversation is, of course, of a high intellectual standard. She and I discuss disestablishmentarianism, and go from aardvarks to zygotes...she was one of the latter recently, so she has a lot to say about it.

But this leaves me weary and rather over-stimulated, and I look forward to DnA's return home. Ah, I think to myself, how nice it will be to have everyday, simple conversation...what did you do at work? What's happening in the outside world?

So then, A comes back and indulges in the following very meaningful monologue:





You can hear me complaining that even poor GD is not getting a chance to get a word in edgeways!

So...conversational IQ levels go down sharply, along with the sun, these days...

Have you seen people praying with their feet?




She IS more than two feet tall, but she likes to remind us of the fact!

Presenting Big Chief Half-Indian...complete with "Head....Dress"!





And when we've had our fun, she goes peacefully to sleep:





What a JOY a child is...I think EVERY child should be called purely_narcotic! (ha, ha, ha.)

inspirethoughts sent me


this song


about grandmothers, and it's just great! (This one's in Hindi...A, if you can get the Tamizh version, I'd be very grateful!


She posted the Telugu version in a comment on


this post .

I think every grandmother wants to be like that! We do like to enjoy life. My GD is certainly the light of my life, and I am consciously trying to remember that I will be living far away from her, and sternly telling myself NOT to be too attached to her.

But, if you look closely at her pudgy, dimpled little finger...you will find me wrapped around it!



We are trying to see if we can take Kavya/Biddles to Florida to see her great-grandparents!

And while looking at that, I chanced upon this video of one of my favourite songs:



The visuals are less than wonderful, but the song is really lovely...thought I must say I prefer the Hindi lyrics; to me, the Tamizh words are a little awkward. "oru pOrvaikkuL iru thookkam" doesn't scan well!

Where does her appeal lie?
In her cheek, or in her eye?
Can someone tell me why
I feel so strong a tie
As she listens (wide awake) to my lullaby?

OK, this is a Baby Post so those not interested can move on. Yes, there is the Aw Factor too.

Here's the local domestic leopard with its cub:





You can tell that the leopard is quite disgusted with the frequency of nappy-changing, and has decided to put in a lot of extra stuff to prevent that:






I burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggling first when I saw this, and second when she had to change the whole thing, and found that it only meant ALL those diapers to wash, not just one!

I suppose she thought she could go for a long time without changing Eli if she stuffed the diapers in by the dozen like that....that reminds me of the Sardarji who brought his bawling baby in to the paediatrician, and said she just would NOT stop crying. The paediatrician picked her up, grimaced in disgust, and said, "Mr Singh! How long is it since you changed the diapers on the baby?"

"But..." said the dad, "On the diaper package, it said, 18 to 25 pounds...."


On a more serious note, this broken doll lying on the pavement sidewalk reminded me of so many babies, who are NOT welcome, cherished, or treated well....some of them end up in orphanages, and some of them end up dead and found in trash heaps....one can only speculate at the desperation of the mothers that leave babies like that.





(What happened to the pregnant, mentally-retarded beggar that anushsh saw, I wonder? What happened to her baby?)


Oh, well, back to more pleasant things...we occasionally put Eli on her tummy to prevent tummy-ache, and I could not resist this photograph:




OK, that's it, no more baby photos, I promise...for a few more days. Eli (mouse) for some unknown reason also become Biddly (no meaning at all) or Biddles....


Update: I loved the message on

this baby tee


Thank you, anushsh!

Yesterday evening, there was a thunderstorm and guess what happened...the power was switched off, and stayed that way for a few hours! I felt that I was right back in Bangalore....

The weather was cool, so the lack of air-conditioning made no difference, but the TV, the internet, the fridge, the freezer, the microwave.....the household does NOT work without electricity. It was a "homely" feeling to light the gas with a match and make chai!

What's worse is that without power, the basement sump does not work and water starts flooding there...this morning it looked as if Eli had been hard at work in the basement...the floor needed quite a few diapers!


That's the local update over. Now to what I wanted to post about...I do love flowers, and have made friends with the people who have the contract to maintain the local parks, and when they are planting or pruning the plants, they often let me have quite a few flowers...and here they are, surrounding me at home, and making me feel really happy....I don't know all the names, so could asakiyume or suzan_s help me....?


Of course the ROSES are easy to id, and these, unlike the Dutch roses at the florists', have a lovely scent, too:




( want to see more flora? )

Here's another view of the purple irises, and those round flowers; alas, the irises leave terrible stains on whatever they touch!




And the most beautiful flower in this home, which is one month old tomorrow (the 29th):




I do like being surrounded by flowers..... and am missing another supply from another source! I am afraid a lot of my foreign exchange is being spent rather frivolously!



The season for these flowers seems to be over in a short three weeks, let's see what I get next time!