My first stage performance

Technically, I am not somebody expected to have stage fright. My mothers grand parents were kathakali & drama artists and my father’s grand parents were actors too – they could smile & hide their day-long plight on the rock-hard Kamuthi soil (Kamudhi is a place in Tamil Nadu, with dry lands) while tilling their lands or grazing their cattle.

Coming from such a classy ‘performers’ family, I can assure you that I don’t have stage fright. What happened in Delhi Public School, Pre-Nursery in Gurgaon on August 10, 2010 is a totally different story.

See the video before reading further:

In the video you will notice that I am crying even as the whole of my pre-nursery class is singing a patriotic song. Let me assure you that I was as surprised as my teachers & my parents at my performance that day. And then I began to wonder – why did somebody who performed so well during practice sessions, why did somebody who would correct the rest of the kids when they went wrong….why did such a kid start crying the moment the singing began?

And then in struck me – I had wanted to sing this song onstage alone…but my teachers had included all the other students against my wishes. This was not what I wanted. And that’s why I had started crying the moment the song began.

Don’t believe me? Well, I am sticking to my story. My father has taught me…if it’s a lie, stick to it till it becomes the truth.

Chorunnu function: I eat solid food for first time

If you are a Malayali like my mother you probably know about the “Chorunnu Function”. Match ado about nothing.

So what if I was having solid food for the first time? Why would you want to call all your relatives and tell them: “Hey look! My daughter was stupid enough to be on breast milk till now and is starting on solid food today!”

It is embarrassing to say the least. I am already six months, and it is my parents fault that they haven’t been giving me solids. But that’s not how they put it when our relatives ask: “Still on breast milk?”

“Ohh yeah. She doesn’t eat solids yet.”

Anyway, the ceremony of Chorunnu was Malayali style. Anu Bhaiya, my Rema Valliamma and Sudhir valliachan, my grand parents and Anu bhaiya’s paternal grandparents had come down to Gurgaon for the function.

I was made to sit on my father’s lap and then they fed me rice. If you haven’t had rice before let me tell you that it has no taste. Maybe that’s why my parents mix it with a curry when they have it. My father also placed a pinch of salt on my tongue. Yikees! Talk of traditions turning into tortures.

And then everybody fed me rice, as if I was some small girl.

The only good part of the ceremony was when in the end, Rema Valliamma and Sudhir valliachan asked Anu Bhaiya to put a gold necklace around my neck.

For some reason I had an instant liking for Anu Bhaiya. The yellow metal glistened in the son. Is it a costly gift? I need to find out.

More pictures from Rhea’s Chorunnu function

I rolled over today

Watching the ceiling can be boring. Especially if all you have is a dirty fan that keeps going round and round. Gosh, the last four months have been agonizingly difficult – I mean, how do you expect me to lie down without knowing the color of my bed sheet?

Going by the lack of imagination of my parents, I was sure that the bed sheet I have been sleeping in will be pink…but I wanted to confirm anyway. And today, I did. It is indeed pink.

It was afternoon and my mother and I were sleeping. My father, as usual was in office trying to impress his CEO. Around 4 p.m., I burped due to all the milk in my food pipe and was wide awake and staring at the fan.

Anyway, I tried to wake up my mother but she was busy in her own world – probably dreaming of going back to the world of office, colleagues, projects, deadlines etc.

When one is four months old one gets bored easily and one can’t take things lying down. That’s when I decided to put in all my strength and roll over my side. It took me six minutes to roll over, but once done it was like heaven. I could look at the bed sheet, the flowers on it, I could even smell it….I could turn towards my left and look at the smoothly finished wall…and what not. Now, when I get bored with the ceiling fan, I can always roll over.

I am proud of my achievement. By when do other babies roll over? Takes them at last a few more months huh?

Gosh, smiling is easy

Did I tell you I first smiled on March 31, 2007? That’s two days after my birth. While my mother hugged me tight after seeing me smile, my father just stood there dumb struck. Isn’t a girl supposed to smile at a man? How old fashioned can one get?

It isn’t my fault that my father was wearing a yellow shirt with a gray trouser – I mean, anybody would smile (or laugh, depending on how old you were) at such a color combination.

I had once tried smiling inside the womb. I think it was when my mother came across this quote by Al Capone while reading his biography: “You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun”.

I remember being confused about what both ‘smile’ and ‘gun’ were. But then, in the evening my father came home and said something to my mother which made me understand ‘smile’. He had said: “Rekha, everything will be fine. Now, just relax and give me a smile…show me some teeth.”

It can be seriously stifling inside the womb, but I tried to relax. I then showed my teeth to the blood-red wall I had right in front of my face….I had smiled. Just that I might have allowed a few drops of the amniotic fluid inside…for I felt pukish the whole day.

I still don’t know what a ‘gun’ means. Someday I intend to find out.