Month 2 - April 17, 2011

Chachu is an expert at
putting Tara to sleep

This month Tara got quality time with her Chachu Parit. Well, Parit was not as uncomfortable as i thought he might be with infants. Both brothers seem to have a knack of getting babies to sleep. Tara also spent time with Shadow and got it used to her cry so Shadow is in less of a frenzy now, and has begun to lick her feet.

Jui in her last week of pregnancy
with Tara in hand

It was a significant month with Tara formally being named in the presence of friends and family and then of course ... winning the Cricket World Cup for India - we believe she brought the Country luck as she was born on the day of the inaugural ceremony and nothing went wrong after that. Well, it takes two to tango so on closing day i.e. on World Cup final day we needed further luck reinforcements to ensure the Cup was ours to keep - so was born Tara's first buddy the lucky charm, Asmi - daughter of our friends, Arjun and Jui. 


Tara gives us a hint of a smirk now - not quite a smile yet! 

The smirk!

She still sleeps peacefully and continues to be a delight.  She had a grand time this month being pampered by Amma and Ammamma...hardly a moment when she's been on the bed, it's always someone's comforting lap. 

So Tara turns two months and as usual we celebrate our happiness with the ritual of cutting (and eating) a cake....this month we have two stars on it!!

Delicious Cake at Caramel - (Vivanta)

Flagging off Monthly Bdays - and here's Month 1 - March 17, 2011

Friends at Tara's 1st Month Bday,
and Tara nestled in her Dada's arms

Blessings from
great grandmother, Amma ...
and grandma, Ammamma

Pallavi - skyped in for the party!

Every month of having Tara with us is special and we celebrate it with family and friends! Her first month birthday was special with friends who saw me through the pregnancy months and through the long labour and delivery. They've played such a special role in Tara's making it to the world. The gang here came over to wish her and was part of the cake cutting, and we got Peej in from Spain on Skype, which was awesome. 

Tara's been an angel giving us absolutely nothing to worry about this month. We were warned of sleepless nights by other bleary eyed parents, but our baby took to us completely and not a squeak at night. She's been punctual like a cuckoo clock for her feeds and her sleep time. So no stress there. For everything else there's baby centre - which we've been following religiously and Tara has been meeting every weekly development (in fact has been even prenatally!)

Cake no.1

So there, yes, she's been a delight and of course something to celebrate at every excuse...Tara has no idea that these monthly milestone parties are in her honour while we unabashedly just add to the weighing machine's trauma with her creamy cake. 

Summer Hols!

First Flight!

Tara took her first flight on May 11, 2011 to get to what we are guessing is going to be her most frequented Summer Holiday destination, Hyderabad! 


Her much beloved cousins - Disha and Adit were waiting anxiously for Tara and what a ball the three of them had! The duo couldnt take their eyes and hands off Tara - from sharing their favourite toys with her, to helping change her diapers, to singing to her, bathing her, walking her in the park and showing her off to all their colony friends. 


Tara had so many firsts on this trip - including her first step into the cinema hall, the first time she was at a mango orchard...in short the first complete ball of a summer holiday! 

Loving big sis shares her toy Misha!

Disha was characteristically an absolute angel with Tara, and shared her toys, offered to help around the room, applied lotion for Tara, turned the ac on and off as and when she perceived that Tara was hot or cold, and promised to be a loving helping hand around the Pooh room where we spent a considerable amount of time. 


Our trip to Pragati to pluck and collect the mangoes was what all summer holidays were about decades ago ... gay abandon (pardon the phrase and its new interpretations) ... for adults and kids alike!
We got baskets and baskets of mangoes to take back that lasted the rest of the Summer am guessing...banganapalli, langda, rasalu...yumm! 

Oh the delight of being in a mango orchard...the mango seems larger than Tara's face... 

Maternal instincts at the grand old age of 5!!

The trio have a ball!

Adit sings her a lullaby...
Ninna coming  for Tara

Doting Atha and Mama

Yes another first...a Pajama Party at
Rasna Pedama's!

Dishakka and Arunatha entertain
Tara at the Lahari Homes park

Everyone wants to know the story behind their name!

Tara, simply means star! And at that we would have picked the name for our baby, as we were looking for secular non distort-able two syllable names, and this worked. And for a mother whose favourite  painting is Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, and one of the favourite songs too being on the same painting  and artist - Vincent, by Don McLean - there was adequate romanticism for this name to be the natural choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_(song) 


So while this has always been a popular name with me, what really made it work was brief exposure to this stunning avatar of Buddha that i had seen on a trip to Dharamsala with Gunuakka.

So this background gave the name a little more depth ...

Tara (Sanskrit: तारा, tārā) or Ārya Tārā, also known as Jetsun Dolma (Tibetan language:rje btsun sgrol ma) in Tibetan Buddhism, is a female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism who appears as a female Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism. She is known as the "mother of liberation", and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements. ^]

Tara is a tantric meditation deity whose practice is used by practitioners of the Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism to develop certain inner qualities and understand outer, inner and secret teachings about compassion and emptiness. Tara is actually the generic name for a set of Buddhas or bodhisattvas of similar aspect. These may more properly be understood as different aspects of the same quality, as bodhisattvas are often considered metaphoric for Buddhist virtues. [And Tara is so beautiful and serene - and all the art on the thangkas made me fall in love with her]

The most widely known forms of Tārā are:

• Green Tārā, known as the Buddha of enlightened activity
• White Tārā, also known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity; also known as The Wish-fulfilling Wheel, or Cintachakra.  Tara is believed to protect human beings from suffering. The White Tara is often represented with many eyes and known as the Seven Eyes Tara – with extra eyes on her forehead, hands and feet. These extra eyes help her sense and understand the suffering of beings.[nice, i thought...]
• Red Tārā, of fierce aspect associated with magnetizing all good things
• Black Tārā, associated with power [like Kali]
• Yellow Tārā, associated with wealth and prosperity
• Blue Tārā, associated with transmutation of anger
• Cittamani Tārā, a form of Tārā widely practiced at the level of Highest Yoga Tantra in the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism, portrayed as green and often conflated with Green Tārā
• Khadiravani Tārā (Tārā of the teak forest), who appeared to Nagarjuna in the Khadiravani forest of South India and who is sometimes referred to as the "22nd Tārā."

The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike: oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. It is pronounced by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow the Tibetan traditions as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. [So this is the mantra i keep singing to Tara especially during her bath, where the bathroom echoes the sound of the mantra well :)]


Note: Ref. Jetsun Dolma...so while i was thinking up names i sent out this link to a few friends and family to get their response, and PJ picked up this name Jetsun Dolma and kept referring to the baby in the womb as Jetsun, and for a long while Tara was called Jetsun by all of us. Even when my water broke, Peej was around and did a little jig on the street outside Chang's singing Jetsun Dolma Jetsun Dolma :) - was cute and is a picture so vivid in my head.  


Note: Stretching it, but good to know ...
Multiple references in Hindu mythology which is why it is not an uncommon name in the previous generation...wife of Brihaspati, wife of Bali and Sugreeva, one of the panchakanya etc... And then Irish connections as well... http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/tara/...like i said this is stretching it :) .......................
So for now we only wish that she grows up to like her name, more importantly has the good attributes that we wished for her to have, and for her name to signify.

Zindagi to Zindagi...

Tara outside the hall waiting for
the doors to open

Have been absent from this blog for three months now ... but today i simply could not resist... having managed to watch a movie after five long months, thanks to Ganesh and Uma - a first for Tara and what an angel she was through the 17 reels. We had adequately blocked out the dolby sound by stuffing her ears with cotton, and she kept looking at the screen and beaming smiles. We enjoyed most of the movie...probably missed a brief 20 mts when she needed attention, after which she slept peacefully. We are proud parents today. And as Uma rightly observed Tara has got a taste of Bollywood even before her first morsel of food other than mother's milk. Urrr now what does that say about our parenting - am not thinking! 

The last flick we had watched was Yeh Saali Zindagi, and we resumed our movie watching mania with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Both movies with 'Zindagi' in it ... just minor trivia which will also help us remember the movie names better i guess. A big occasion for us Bollywood buffs! ... (well, the movie was average ...lots of eye candy ...but very average. Yes does make us want to do a Spain holiday sometime soon and do exotic things in life. And of course meeting someone with the wit and charm of Farhan Akhthar on such a trip would be nice :))