India Trip 2011

Dear Vedant,

This was your first trip to India. It was great to see you interact and be pampered by Tata, Avva, Dada, Dadi, Bua and most importantly Anika. She was so interested in looking after you, she was my assistant during diaper changes to feeding you! She just could not have enough of you.

We began our journey by flying to Delhi. We met Kapil chachu and Vimmi chachi there. It was very nice of them to come to the hotel we were staying at to see us. It was really nice to see them and Kavu. She is become a cute little girl. She is your big sister.

From there we went to Madras. Tata came to pick us up. Dad stayed only one night. You were good but found it hard to sleep with all the noise. We were in Madras for just two days.

Next up was bangalore. This is where all hell broke loose. My dear baby, you have never been as chipkoo or unhappy as you were on this leg. I wish I had been more patient than I was with you. I am sorry, but I was dealing with my own jet lag too. It was hard on both of us. I was not sure how we were going to get out of this one, but we did eventually. Meenu didi (peddamma) was very helpful. She was such a great host. We also met Dad's friends - Pawan, Priti, Mayank, Ratna and their kids. During the function, Bharathi avva and Divakaran Peddanaina's 80th birthday celebration, Sahana pinnamma and Prashant mama, Karthik mama, all of them pampered you. I also had fun hanging out with my cousins.

We got back to Madras after that. You fell sick almost immediately. It was raining heavily in Madras, monsoon times. All that made it harder. I know that one does not believe it, however, it was actually cold and windy, especially in the night. I had to take you to the hospital for nebulizer treatment. It was hard to watch you cry and also hard to hold you down. Man, you can kick! You kicked me, tata, the nurse. You pulled the mask off, pulled the whole equipment off the wall. It was crazy! It took you 10 days to get well, it was hard to see you that way. You hardly ate solids and mostly had amma's milk.

I did a lot of shopping, you used to stay with avva at home. I did not want to take you around in the pollution and smoke. Also, you were too small to appreciate India. Next time we go, when you are able to speak, I'd love to take you around. I am sure that you will be fascinated by the auto. You were pampered by so many people, Ramana Tata, Lakshmi Avva. It was really fun.

Dad came to pick us up and take us to see Dada-Dadi. You recognized dad in your own way. When he got off the auto, you didn't go to him, on the other hand you did not cry either. You had cried when you saw Chinna Venkat mama. You were just looking at him and then he picked you up. And then you rested your head on his shoulder and slept :) Daddy's boy through and through.

We also went to see my friends from college. You cried and then hung out with my friends. Yusuf especially pampered you. It was really cute.

From there we were in Gwalior. You were pampered by so many people, from the neighbours to dada-dadi, extended family and Anika. It was amazing. It was very cold though. That was the hard part. Both me and dad were trying our best to keep you warm and comfortable. Next time we go, we will try and go when it is not that cold. We did a small mundan like ceremony for you at a temple near by. You had so much fun hanging out in the temple, crawling everywhere, running away from me. We also had a small party with mom's colleagues and dad's friends. It was nice. I wish we had better pictures from the trip.

From there, we got back home via Delhi again. We hung out with Khemka uncle's family. From there we came via Paris. It was a great halt, you were quite well behaved.

What else to cover sweetie, I am tired now of documenting every detail but I hope one day when we talk about it, I am able to explain all this and more to you.

It was a great trip overall, for us, for you, for parents.

lots of love,
Amma