Day 1 in Phuket

One of my favorite things about any vacation is the scrumptuous buffet breakfast served in most resorts . Being a foodie of the first order I love good food and I love exlploring different cuisines as well. My dad used to say that whenever you are on a holiday you should have a very heavy breakfast . That way you will remain energetic throughout the day and you won't need a full fledged lunch . Some light snack would do . I am not sure what a dietician or nutritionist would opine on that one but practically it did work . In a breakfast buffet by the time you explore a little of all that they serve - salads , baked potato , bread , baked beans, cereal, fruits , juice etc you will be loaded for the day . After having a relaxed and heavy breakfast we set out for the day .
We took the help of the lady at the travel concierge at the hotel . She was a very sweet lady who offered us great assistance on all three days of our stay .
We booked a taxi for the whole day. First the driver took us to a souvenir shop as it was slightly raining. But who will be interested in souvenirs in the first leg of the journey ? But my son was ecstatic seeing all the elephant dolls for sale in all shapes and sizes .
You will find elephants in one form or the other everwhere in Thailand. Even the toilet in our resort room had a wall hanging bearing the picture of an elephant. So it was the perfect holiday spot for my elephant lover son!
Our next stop was at a place where they reared elephants and offered elephant treks . There was a baby elephant there and at a price of a 100 bhat u could feed him a basket of bananas . My son squealed with delight and thoroughly enjoyed himself . But as a supporter of animal rights I hated this concept of using a calf for such commercial reasons . He was getting deprived of the freedom he deserved.
Our next stop was at the Big Buddha . They have built a gigantic statue of the Buddha on a hilly terrain overlooking the ocean . The place has some magnificent views of the island .
From there we went to the wat talong one of the Thai temples in Phuket . It consisted of two temples next to each other . Beautiful architecture and a feast for the camera .

By then my little one was hungry . In our holiday excitement we had forgotten to pack any food. The driver said that he would take us to a wonderful restaurant and drove us to some seafood restaurant which was in the middle of nowhere . Being strict vegetarians that wAs the worst choice for us . We had explained that we were vegetarians but poor fellow got the wrong idea and his attempt to impress us with the wonderful seafood Thai cuisines kind of got totally goofed up . The place was pretty crowded though . Maybe the seafood is really good there but I can't comment . This place was also not like a shopping area or anything where you have a lot of options. So exploring if we got something else was also totally ruled out . Then we explained our predicament to the driver . He suddenly got reminded of an Indian restaurant that he knew and took us there .
Food is heaven especially if it's something like hot basmati rice and rotis and dal in some remote corner in Thailand and the fact about being extremely hungry adds extra effect .
After an awesome lunch we headed to another elephant trek area . By now the sun was out and the weather much better . We decided to go for an elephant .
It was really adventurous as the lady-mahout led the pachyderm through ups and downs in a kind of muddy wet mountainous terrain. My kiddo was squealing with delight though me and my husband were a bit anxious and tensed . After the trek we spent another 100 bhat to feed the elephant . This time pineapple chunks .
The final destination of our day tour was a place called karon view point . Really amazing views .
After returning to the hotel we freshened up and got ready to go to Fantasea at Phuket . A kind of fantasy park mainly promoting it's daily musical show .
There was a bus pick up from the resort and this park is situated on kamala beach . The show was very good and worth the ticket price. It actually combines a buffet dinner which you can choose to opt for or not . The buffet dinner is supposed to be served in grandeur and style . We did not opt for it . The show is a mix of music, dance , magic , tricks and above all close to 40 live elephants performing on stage . Definitely worth a visit one time and enjoyable by both kids and adults . No photography allowed though . In fact they ask you to deposit your cameras and mobile devices and the queue for collecting it after the show was a teeny weeny bit frustrating .
We got dropped back at around 12 and after such an eventful day it took us hardly a few seconds to fall into a deep slumber !

Avani Avittam - A retrospection!

It was Friday evening - Next day was Avani Avittam ; the South Indian brahmin festival mainly for men where they change their 'poonal' the white thread worn across their torso.
'Are you going to make idly and appam?' my husband quipped after we got back home!!

'Oops !! I had no idea! You should have reminded me' I shot back. Easiest thing to do as humans is blaming others for our shortcomings and it comes very naturally to most of us.Sigh!!

Well, luckily we did have the idly batter ready. And I had happily postponed the job of calling up my mom-in-law and inquiring about the usual menu and procedure to the last minute... Well thanks to the presence of idly batter I guess it was a not-so-bad avani avittam. I did manage to make idly and appam and both results were pretty satisfactory.

Coming to think of it, in today's fast world with our continental methods of having cereal for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner and having routine 5 day weeks and lazy weekends ,a lot of things handed down by culture are getting missed out.

Of course we do try to do the best we can, but the term itself; " best-we-can" is a gateway to excuses!!

'Its a weekday!!! Not much can be done!!'

'Its been such a busy week! Had no time to plan' etc etc.

Its definitely a good thing that there do exist some of us, who try to do something rather than proudly declaring 'I dont do all of that!! I have no belief' . There are also some folks who follow the ritualistic procedures by the book and do it with a staunch reverence and absolute discipline.

There was a time when any of the 'Things to be done' - be it the Appam for breakfast, the japam to be done, the vessels used, the mantras to be recited, the order of the chants,the postures you assume as you chant the scriptures, the menu for lunch - These were performed with strict discipline . They were hard and fast norms in the family that had to be adhered to , no matter what.

At the end of it , it did enhance the personal discipline. Made people more active and brisk probably!

Today if you are performing it with your parents, Yes! High chance of sticking to the methodology without any 'adjustments' . But if you are on your own or in some outside country - As long as you adorn a new thread, Avani Avittam done!! I cannot deny that there are definitely youths who have been brought up with utmost belief in these practices that they strictly follow them.

These would become unique specimens in their coteries and marked by elders as 'examples-to-be-followed'. Quite contrary to the state of things a century ago when there were a countable young fellows who disregarded these practices and were branded as 'examples-not-to-be-followed.'

Earlier the social set up was that people following similar cultural and traditional practices were physically located together as a group may be in a village. When done in a group anything does not need too much enforcement. Then migrations to greener pastures , at first from villages to cities and then to different parts of the world have caused some deterioration.

On the positive side, the development of information technology has provided a whole lot of benefits and is utilized by some to help follow the tradition. Take for instance, our household 'vadhyaar' (priest/pujari). He has made videos of the whole japam/ tharpanam to be followed for avani avittam and uploaded the same on You Tube and his own personal website. So many men outside of India would have to been able to complete the avani avittam proceedings to near perfection thanks to that. He also uploaded the same as pdf documents in Tamil as well as in English. This is what my husband used to complete the procedure.

Most rituals are meaningful practices handed down to us by our ancestors and practising the same should benefit us though we may not be able to gauge or measure the same.Passing it on to future generations is our responsibility and to do so we should start practising them.

Eephant- Lost N Found!!!

My kuttu;s eephant had an adventure last Sun
We had gone to the local library with Kuttu on the stroller...Kiddo insisted that we should take his elephant along...So we did!!
After browsing available books and checking out a couple we headed back home. While I was doing this, my hubby was showing our son some thing on the library net browsing desks to keep him occupied.
After we came back home we got into a Skype call with my mom. 'Kutta! Show Patti your elephant!' my mom remarked. Thats when my husband and I gave each other a 'Oh No' look. We had left the eephant at the library next to the computer terminal. Usually we leave it back in the stroller outside the library but Kuttu wanted to bring him along as well.
The library was closed for the day and there was no way of getting it back.
We abstained from using the E-word in English and Tamil lest our kuttu got reminded of it. Also tried to keep him engaged with something else!! I know!! TOO MUCH OF A FUSS about a soft toy!!! But kids can be really obsessed with a few toys and only if you have kids you'll be able to relate !!!
Luckily he did not seem to mind its absence and slept off.
The next day first thing in the morning I rushed to the library!! Luckily they had tucked our soft skinned pachyderm safely in a drawer!!
One end i was too happy for my son!! I had already started building up plan B in case it was not found!! About making a trip to the zoo to get a new one!! In all of Singapore, we found that elephant toy only there. Strange, yet true!! Thats closer to a real elephant unlike the cartoonish ones we get elsewhere.
On the other hand, I guess I have also kind of got sentimentally and stupidly attached to that soft toy!!! It has become like a family member now anyways!!!!

Kuttu - Yo Yo and Eephaants!

I posted a photo of kuttu after a long time on facebook and one of my friends commented

that he is missing my blogs on Kuttu.

Felt good to know that somebody is actually reading them.And So its been that long since I last blogged and thaaaaaaaaaaat long since I actually blogged about Kuttu.

Kuttu has two current obsessions.

One is the song 'Ennamo Aedho' from Kho.He is a huge fan of that song.

Thanks to my set top box with a recording option, I have a copy of it which I play whenever I want my sonny to sit in one place without moving much.This comes extremely handy while giving him his dinner.

He has started immitating the songs on TV as well. As soon as this song starts playing

he would rush to the wall with his back to us and would try dancing like Jeeva with his legs crossed.One more song follows in the recording where the singers dance on huge drums in Chandralekha style. Immediately he will

clammer up onto our coffee table and go dum-dum-dum in rhythm to the beat while I'll keep shouting 'You are going to fall...Get down!'

Even if his upset about something or decides to throw a tantrum his crying would be musical. With tears streaming down his cheeks he would start the sad version of that song which even the music director of Kho is unaware of. 'Yo-Yo-puyiya iya' he would start off.

He also loves the 'Yaathe Yaathe' song from Aadukalam. Whenever he sees a picture of Dhanush in a magazine

or his interview on TV he would start off 'Yaathe Yaathe Yaathennaaaachooooo'.No matter what costume or get up Dhanush is in

.This also applies to cycles. Whenever he sees anyone on a cycle he will start this rendition.

His second obsession is the largest mammal on land - the elephant.Kids normally love kittens and puppies.My baby boy is mad after elephants. At my parents house in Chennai there were some miniature elephant statues in wood and porcelain. Those were his favorite toys. He loves watching Animal Planet.

In fact he gets pretty

excited about every animal he sees on screen and screams the name out with absolute mirth. He is able to pronounce those words perfectly - zebra, cheetah,lion, tigawee(Tiger), deer, bear, snake, chameleon(Yes, I am not joking!), hippo, rhino, dinosaur- he loves all of them and gets them all right. But his favorite is undoubtedly the pachyderm.

We sometimes show him elephant videos from You Tube. As a result, the moment I sit at the comp to check my email he would come rushing, get on to my lap and start requesting for Elphaant Elphaant...If we dont oblige he will keep repeating that simultaneously trying to operate the mouse and the keys to get the elephant on screen. Motivated by his keen interest we took him to the zoo.

He was kind of not very enthusiastic about the actual elephants. The ones on digital frames and miniature ones seem to attract him more.

We got an Elephant Soft Toy for him. That has become his companion.He carries it around every where sometimes even to the bathroom.

At night sometimes when he is deep asleep he would suddenly wake up, say eephant and then fall asleep again.

His first words in the morning when he wakes up is 'elephant'.

One day he kept pointing at the Window and saying 'Eephant Eephant' .When I peeped out he had thrown his favorite toy out of the window.

The cuddly one had undergone a fall from the tenth to the second floor and it lay on the sun shade of the apartment on the second floor.

I went down to that flat and a small dog that they owned growled at me displaying all possible animosity.

Like all other dog-owners they said that he was being friendly and just wanted to play. I love dogs,no offence against them but when you have one growling at you , this is something you cannot agree. I have noticed this statement from quite a few dog-owners though and possibly I'd be saying the same thing if I had one.

Finally I explained that I had come to fetch my son's toy.

They could not reach the sun shade and so they pushed it out with the handle of a mop which I neatly caught from the ground floor

without allowing it to fall.

That elephant sometimes accompanies us when we go out as well. He places it in a comfortable position on the stroller.

One another soft toy animal - may be a tiger or kitten or dog would come along as well, but the elephant is a definite companion.

He will also quickly notice elephants no matter in what size it is in. Right from the print on diapers to the design in jewellery.

He gets very excited about Lord Ganapathy's statues and pictures and also refers to him as 'Eephant'

He gets very excited about the other elephant statues when we go to the temple.

If he sees a person wearing a tourism TShirt from Thailand with an elephant on it

he will get pretty excited and repeat 'Eephant' a million times.

If it were a puppy or a kitten that he liked I may have actually considered buying one for him.

But with elephant, the feasibility is not there and its high-maintenance. So for now he has to be

content seeing them on TV and with his soft toy companion.

If this obsession continues, I am sure my kiddo is going to end up doing Wildlife photography or research.

Into My Next Decade

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/jaishvats/into-my-next-decade-5833/

Garbage Out Good Things In!

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/jaishvats/garbage-out-good-things-in-4431/

Birthday Party!

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/jaishvats/birthday-party-4427/