Child’s Play – Akshara Rajaram

Last year, it was the season of the swine flu in Pune and we had Akshara’s first birthday party in Chennai instead of Pune. This year, the media had more interesting things than swine flu to concentrate on and thus we could have a party in Pune.

On her birthday, we were in Chennai and we did a small family get-together and cut a cake. Vidhya wanted a cake with a 3d model of the characters in “In the night garden”, but finding cake shops (within few days) capable of making one based on a photo was tough. Cakes n’Bakes in Nungambakkam were ready to do it, but they wanted a colour printout A3 size! There was a shop close to our house (Cake point) and the guy said that they can put any photo on a cake and it would be an edile layout. Usually, there is a thin strip of plastic paper kept on the cake which is removed before the cake is cut. We didn’t want this, we wanted the photo to be edible and blend in with the cake. We chose the teletubbies photo and the guy did a good job.

We had filled the room with balloons overnight so that Akshara would see them as soon as she woke up on her birthday. She liked the balloons a lot and the entire day was spent in the company of one balloon or the other!

Our families (vidhya’s and our’s) also went to a dinner “party” on the occassion to GRT Grand (the same place where we had Akshara’s first birthday). Akshara and Laya had lot of fun at the dinner, which meant that more time was spent on controlling them rather than on enjoying the food. Before someone asks, yes, Askshara had a cast on for around 10 days last month, because she had hurt her elbow while playing.

Vidhya had been training Akshara for few days before her birthday on how to blow the candle. She was able to replicate the action perfectly albeit the flow of air! Sriram had also invited members of his apartment gang. Akshara was only too glad at the photo requests.

I dont know whether Akshara has been seeing too much of Jayalalitha or Mayawati on TV, but she suddenly decided to act “holy” after the crown went on her and went on a blessing spree!

Back in Pune, we had the birthday party in one of the community halls in Magarpatta. Vidhya wanted to “theme” the party on something which Akshara would recognise. Farm animals, it was then. So, we had ordered a farm theme cake at Copper Chocs and also had animal shaped cookies done at the same place. The cookies had come out better than our expectation. The decorations at the hall also included cutouts of farm animals and a small barn (with hay) at one corner. There was also a tattoo guy who gave all the kids tattoos of their choice.

We wanted to personalize the return gifts. So, Vidhya made the bags with chart paper and ribbons and got Akshara to imprint her hand on all the bags. It was a bit messy, but fun I had also made some thank you cards with Akshara’s photo and these were stuck on each of the bags. The teddy bears were cut out from a wrapping paper we had.

Akshara’s candle blowing skills didn’t improve much, but she was atleast consistent enough for the photos to give an impressions that she is blowing out the candles. Akshara enjoyed the attention she got from her friends and had fun during the party.

And, of course, she loved all the gifts she got!

written by Rajaram S

Last year, it was Krishna. This year, the plan was for Radha. Also, her playschool had asked all girls to be dressed up as Radha and the guys as Krishna for their Janmashtami celebrations. Akshara wore a demo-version to school as it would have been too much to expect her to keep everything on during the 2 hours at school.

So, in the evening, before the official puja/snack time, Radha was up and ready! Akshara is now very comfortable before the camera and very accommodating with her poses, but she is on a world of her own when it comes to her expressions! The matka, which was given to each student in her playschool, was her favourite prop for the day.

Akshara wanted to take part in the Puja. My uncle was also here and he was the one doing the pooja. if you see the photo below, you will notice the change in times. The sloka was being read out from a downloaded text file on the laptop

With lot of snacks like Murukku, Cheedai, Mysore Pak etc being prepared and kept right in front of our eyes, it turned out to be too tempting for Akshara. But, mom said that kids are exempted from the naivedhyam-ritual for god and are allowed to bite-in anytime and this is particularly applicable for naivedhyams to Krishna! I will never grasp the complexity of the rules of all the rituals.

With mama, mami and my mom also in Pune, the traditional as well as the culinary aspects of Krishna Jayanti were experienced to the fullest.

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

It was time for Akshara’s ayush-homam function, the one that is done on the first star-birthday and sometimes accompanied by the ear-piercing ceremony (pictures of this in a separate post). The “english-birthday” party in Chennai didnt require invitations to be sent as it was only for close family members. But, this one was an important function and required the presence of a much bigger group of relatives. The usual traditional invite was sent to the relatives by snail mail.

With so many people having an online presence nowadays, including cctogenarians, it was imperative to send out an email invite. I didn’t want to just scan the traditional invite and send it across. How many of us can understand the hardcore tamil stuff written on such invites? So, we wanted to prepare a collage to be sent along with email invite

We had bought the below photo-frame-clock in Lepus store in Cyprus (a great store for all kinds of trinkets!) with the idea that one day we would put in photos of Akshara taken on different months. Currently, the clock hangs in our hall, but with no photos. This concept seemed to fit a first birthday party.

I then got the image of a circular clock face to be super-imposed on top of the existing clock, so that i would be easily able to play around with the colours.

Then came the toughest part – choosing photos to put for every month of the first year. The first one was easy. That was the first photo of Akshara taken in the hospital in Cyprus. For every photo after this one, there was lot of debate between Vidhya and me. I would short-list the photos based on the time they were taken (1st month, 2nd month etc) and then we would choose the one to put on the invite. Also, i moved the minute hand of the clock a little to the right, as the function was actually 2 weeks after her actual birthday!

So, here it is, the collage showing the first 12 months of Akshara.

written by Rajaram S

Kholu time is the time to dress up well (at least for the girls of the house) every day. But, this doesnt mean that the guy in the house could have a field day. It meant that i had to maintain decorum in the house and also be in a presentable manner ! My mom was here and she had done her usual thing, the big Rangoli, which never fails to impress

Akshara seemed to relish the fact that friends came over every day. Of course, the best part she liked was getting dressed up in traditional clothes and being photographed!

written by Rajaram S