Child’s Play – Akshara Rajaram

It was Akshara’s first birthday and we wanted it to be a special occasion. But, the flying pigs (swine flu) in Pune meant that organising a party and inviting friends was out of the question. We didn’t want to have a quiet in-the-house cake cutting ceremony for the first birthday. So, off we flew to Chennai for the weekend to have a party there.

It was a small party intended for close relatives. We booked a hall at GRT Convention centre, next to the GRT Grand Days hotel on G.N.Chetty Road. the folks back in Chennai visited dozens of hotels/Halls for this purpose and finally decided on GRT convention centre because the hall was impressive and the price was quire reasonable at 500 rupees a head including dinner. Choosing the menu turned out to be an ordeal in itself as the hotel had given a huge list of items in various categories and we had to choose some from each category.

A birthday party has to have a birthday cake. Vidhya, after spending hours online, narrowed down on four designs which were promptly sent across to the chennai folks with the various priorities and intricacies explained. Yet another tour of Chennai happened, this time of the many bakeries. Few said that only the head chef/baker could do this and would require time (we gave only 2 days notice!) whereas few said that such a design could be managed only on a fruit cake (yuk!). Finally, Cakes ‘n Bakes agreed to whatever conditions we imposed (including the tight deadline) and produced a masterpiece, one that was indistinguishable from the sample printout we had given. Hats off to Cakes ‘n Bakes.

The cake was huge, weighing in at almost 5 kilos. This was because everything other than the doll was actually made of “cake” or icing. A closer look at the cake below shows that even the dress of the doll was made of icing. Cool!

Vidhya had a nice idea. She had actually seen Surya wear a tshirt with a photo of his kid. So, she wanted me to wear something similar during the party. So, after some photoshop work, i took an image to Big Bazaar and they got it neatly printed on a white tshirt. I originally thought that they would just do a rubber print (which is messy), but they printed directly on a custom-made tshirt and the print blended very well on the tshirt.

Akshara, at the beginning, was a little terrified of the cake, which she probably perceived as an adversary. But, once she realised that it was an inanimate adversary, she was up to her usual stuff and started pulling the hair of the doll on the cake

The thathas and Paatis wanted to pose with the star of the evening. So, it was like a marriage reception where Akshara was passed on to the next group waiting to have their photo taken with her

Akshara became so fond of the balloons that it began to be used as a prop to make Akshara smile when being photographed!

In the midst of all the photography sessions, someone reminded us that the cake has to be cut for this to be a birthday party. So, with the cacophony of “Happy Birthday to you” in the background, Akshara calmly cut her first birthday cake!

written by Rajaram S

One year ago (Not according to the English Calendar), on the day of Gokulashtami (or Krishna Jayanti or Janmashtami, basically the day we have murukku/Cheedai at home!), Akshara was born. Last year, before we went to the hospital, i had the task of drawing the little feet on the ground. I am not known for my drawing/sketching skills, definitely not with the hands using a flowing yet sticky liquid. So, what emerged were unique shapes (each foot was different from the other) which were, according to me, classic examples of modern art, those that lent different interpretations to different people based on the what that they had for lunch that day.

Even this year, the drawings looked strange, but i was not the artist. It was Akshara herself! We had an interesting time trying to get her feet dipped in the liquid and make her stand in one place (she cannot yet walk), long enough for the impression to be made. She didn’t co-operate at first, but once we showed her that things could easily get messy, she started enjoying the mess!

After that it was show-time, with the Vidhya and her mom working together to get all the stuff on Akshara. This was easier said than done.

Akshara usually enjoys being photographed and poses well, but this time she realised that it was more fun to take out all the ornaments and start playing with them.

So, we had to move her closer to the latest love of her life (the dining table – a post on that later!) so that she would be distracted just long enough to get a photo with all the ornaments on her and not in her hands

written by Rajaram S

Let the photos do the talking (or is it writing!)…

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

Laya was here sometime back to visit Akshara. Laya is Akshara’s cousin (Vidhya’s bro’s daughter!) and she is 2 months younger to Akshara. We wanted to take a picture of all the girls, Vidhya, Srividya (Laya’s mom), Laya and Akshara. 4 girls in one perfect photograph, that would have been quite an achievement!
After Vidhya and Srividya settled down to a comfortable pose, we had to get the kids looking in the right direction, into the camera. It was easier said than done. Since i was behind the camera, i needed help in getting the attention of Akshara and also someone else to make laya look towards the camera.
Below is the photographic story of the attempt. I am writing “attempt” here, because it remained an attempt until the end!

First, both the kids decided to look left.

Then, they decided to turn right. Can’t blame the kids. There was something so distracting there, that one of the moms also decided to turn in that direction!

Then, their gaze slowly moved down. Maybe, they were sizing up some guy from top to bottom.

By then, Akshara wanted to get things moving on and gave a menacing stare at Laya as if saying “Cmon, look at the camera”, but without realising that Laya was indeed looking in the right direction.

Laya somehow sensed the stare and not wanting to be left behind, decided to stare back, right when Akshara had finished her stare and started looking at the camera!

Now, both realised that they were fooling around and decided to pose properly. Alas, they missed their target by a few degrees, each in a different direction.

Enough was Enough. Each one was getting frustrated at the inability of the other to concentrate and pose. A face-off was unavoidable at this stage. It reflected in a mean stare at each other.

To prevent things from getting worse, the moms had to intervene and act on a peace-making deal between Laya and Akshara. Finally, as every known fable goes, they became friends, for ever.

written by Rajaram S