Aadya Diaries - Part 4

December 25, 2017

It was vaccination time yesterday. this time 2 injections. It’s become my habit to keep her on my lap while she gets her shot. It’s tough always to see her go thru pain, this time even more so as it was twice in a few seconds. Placing of the sharp needle on her thighs, then the slow but firm push into her skin and then the squeeze.

I felt the pain before Aadya’s scream pierced the air... twice in 5 seconds. Her subsequent cries and the tears broke everyone’s hearts. but it lasted just a few minutes. She was ok very quickly and listened to the story of Jesus and Christmas… she started laughing and posing for pics.

She’s growing every day. She is learning every day, but the best part is she’s teaching us something valuable everyday too. “The sooner you move on the lesser the pain.” The real challenge would be to see how long she remembers her learning and we remember her teaching!

Maybe someday I’ll dig out this post and read it out to her (or myself) to remind ourselves “The sooner you move on the lesser the pain”

January 18, 2018

She has started crawling at pace now, so no more staying in Dad or mom's lap for more than 10 seconds. She starts in the living room, has no destination or target in mind. She jumps down and starts crawling... She dashes against the doors, glares at the ants, screams at the tables, shouts at the walls, laughs at her toys... She pops stuff into her mouth much to our horror but keeps going... Her pauses are brief & serve a simple purpose - to check if her parents are still close-by  💓💓
 
She scampers behind the ball and while at it peeps into the wardrobes, pulls down sarees and dhotis just because they are reachable. She is neither discouraged by her falls & crashes, nor is she bothered about hurdles her mom places along the way.

 

To Aadya only the journey matters. Her happiness is not dependent on the destination or the path or the hurdles. It’s just the journey itself that matters. How I wish I could live like that?!

How I wish she would live like this forever! Time will tell if I succeed in showing her what she is showing me every day - "It’s the journey that matters, not the destination"

Aadya Diaries - Part 3

December 3, 2017

This will remain in my heart for a long long time...

This was my first time at the District level contest and after the semis yesterday, Jayan told me I had to do better in my finals and I had to do it for my daughter..

This morning I faced the one challenge which scared me the most. Being the first contestant in the Eval contest. I had always been scared of being the first speaker (but had never drawn lot # 1 till today) and this morning the draw turned out to be #1. I was worried and scared but decided I was going to focus on the evaluation and the speaker and nothing else. As jayan had said, this was for Aadya and I couldn't afford to give anything less than the BEST.

And when I took to the stage I lived those 3 minutes in pure happiness. I felt liberated with every second. My mind and tongue were in perfect harmony and right now, even 12 hours after the performance is over, I still do not recall any moment where I feel I could have done better! And THAT, is why this day, this performance and this trophy will remain special forever.

I came home to Aadya and gave her the trophy... And when she gave back the same happy, wide, and excited smile she gives me always, I felt complete! It doesn't matter to her if her dad won the first or third or didn't win at all, she is just super happy that her dad has hugged her with ultimate inner peace 💓

December 9, 2017 

This picture means so much to me...

What Aadya wanted was a few feet away. Neither Mytri nor I were going to help. I waited anxiously to see what would happen next.

This was a defining moment. I was going to discover who aadu is going to take after... if she couched back lazily she’d be like me. If she crawled out n reached the ball, she’d take after Myts...

My darling surprised me by not just reaching the ball but chasing after it for a long distance. She might look like me, but she has her mom’s determination and more💓💓

December 17, 2017

Ever since she started crawling she has taken over the job of being the QA engineer at home... after cleaning the floor you’ve to just let her down and in 30 seconds she’ll scamper off and find the tiniest of particles be it dust, cloth, plastic.

She proves that quality is not about quantity it’s just about sincerity 😁. Also proves that to be a QA engineer you just need a sharp eye for detail and nothing else 😜

Aadya Diaries - Part 2

September 9, 2017:

Whenever Aadya wakes up from her sleep, she looks around to see if someone is around. When she spots me or Mytri around she immediately breaks into the most loving and happy smile ever. In that moment Mytri and I feel blessed, happy and almost as if we're reborn. And we feel born new multiple times a day😊. Having a daughter is turning out to be an unbelievable experience 💓

Be it Aadya or Anitha I'm sure dads will feel the same way. I hope I can teach Aadya to remain strong and steadfast no matter what life throws at her. Moving away from a challenge is never a solution.

I wish to see her smiling thru all phases of life, not just for her but also for me and Mytri. It is In her smile that our lives reside!

PS - Anitha was a student in Tamil Nadu, who committed suicide because of the introduction of NEET (Common medical entrance) exam. There has been a lot of pain and anguish among students who feel it is an unfair ask to ask them to clear that exam, since their education was on a different tangent to the expectations of NEET. This post was a 'hat tip' to the innocent child who lost her life!

September 15, 2017:

That phase of life when you reprimand your neighbor for using the drill machine after 6pm because your daughter needs to sleep 😀😀 Absolute joy this 😀😀

October 23, 2017:

And so it starts, the next phase of my life... I'm going to be playing with a lot of toys for the next few years😀😀

October 24, 2017:

Playfully I keep telling Aadya every day "Aniyayatha Kanda, Pongi ezhu" (If you see injustice anywhere, rise up and make your voice heard). Today I am only being playful and telling Aadya, injustice is mom eating before me or having 5 chappathis for her and only 4 for me etc. But I want her to always be intolerant towards injustice and rise up in anyway practically possible against anything that is wrong.

But when I see how brutally H.Raja and Tamilisai are getting trolled, I suppose I should be careful and tell my daughter to be extremely brilliant in communication. Because if we don't express in the correct way, this society will murder us!

Whatever Raja and Tamilisai are saying about GST and why they are making noise about it, doesn't seem wrong to me. If the stats are wrong and if its a superstar's movie which propagates it, yes you should slam it!

But the way they went about expressing it, was horrible and as a result social media has pounced on them and ripped apart not just them, but BJP in entirety.

It's scary to see how things can turn on you, but I suppose fear will help in one way. I will still tell aadya "Aniyayatha kanda pongi ezhu, aana paathu ezhu" (If you see injustice anywhere, rise up and make your voice heard, but be watchful on how you do it.😉