Sweet cherry

This post is dedicated to my niece Mandavi who recently turned 5 months old and came visiting us in Pune all the way from her home in Bangalore. Her journey began on a good note. My sister told me that Mandavi gave lots of people smiles at the Bangalore airport and in the plane.

The first time that I saw my niece in Pune was in this restuarant near my work place where my sister and brother-in-law had dropped in to have coffee. My first reaction was "ki yeh kitni badi ho gayi hai!" (since my last trip to Bangalore which was in March). She was sleeping very sweetly when I reached the restuarant but soon woke up and she gave an equally sweet smile! My day was made instantly. But there was more to come. My sister asked me hold the baby something which I hadn't done earlier on account of her being too small. Mandavi happily came in my arms. This brief milaap (meeting) had to be broken because I had to return to work. But the same evening my sister and Mandavi dropped in at home for a few hours. This time Mandavi was propped in my lap as I sat on my bed and she enjoyed my company. My sister happily told everyone from then on that there is a special connection between Maushi and niece.

The next day was rather hectic for Mandavi as we had invited many of our relatives for lunch. Everyone wanted to take over the baby. Surprisingly our baby didn't cry even once and braved it all. But when her father left Pune for a conference and Mandavi and my sister moved into our home it was enough for her. Finding a change of place and being unable to find her father around had her unsettled so much so that even when my sister left her alone with us for a few seconds Mandavi would start crying very badly. It made me feel so terrible as Daddy and my efforts in pacifying her went in vain. What made it worse for me was that I had hardly ever seen her cry like this. Still worse was when finally my sister managed to get her to fall asleep and as I closed a door (which I was worried would bang because of the wind) it creaked and Mandavi got up because of the noise and started crying.

In the following 2-3 days Mandavi had started bonding with Daddy. During the day she would nicely go into his lap and fall asleep. But there had to be pin drop silence or else she would get up. In the evenings we started taking her for a walk. It turned out that Mandavi is an outdoor child because she would just become peaceful what with there being a cool breeze and lots to see around. Just when we thought things had improved we had another round of visitors. My friends, Daddy's friends and relatives who wanted some personal time with Mandavi came over. It was only when the weekend came and it was just us that my niece could breathe easily.

I learnt a lot during that weekend. For example. How to change the baby's diaper? How to put her clothes on? Both these jobs are difficult when you are a novice and the baby is in an excited mood constantly moving her arms and legs. Most importantly I learnt talking to a 5 month old baby. This is a different ball game from talking to a 1.5 month old baby. You have to find tricks to keep the baby engaged since now the baby is mostly awake. You have to find songs that the baby loves but not overuse it as Daddy did because it spoils the effects. Mandavi's favourites are lakdi ki kathi, phoolon ka taaron ka and kukubara sits on an old gum tree. This involves some trial and error. Like one day we were listening to FM. Whenever in the song "Chak de phatte" would come Mandavi would start laughing. We have reserved slow songs and music to put her off to sleep and fast numbers when she is active. She loved it when I did some actions with the songs. My sister had come up with sing-songs of her own which she sang on particular times like massaging the baby and when giving her a bath so that the baby would know what activity was going to take place.

One day I caught her attention by reading out to her two pages of Jeffery Archer and another time from A Woman of Substance. I read out good passages in a tone as if I was reading to her Cinderella! Ofcourse later on she got bored and was more interested in tearing those books apart. :p

Then I invented this game in which I'd hide behind a cushion and ask "Maushi kahan hai?" and then I'd pop out from different sides everytime which kept Mandavi guessing and had her in splits.

The crowning glory of the second week of this trip was when we discovered that Mandavi had got two teeth on the lower side. They looked so cute and we felt immensely proud of her. My sister showered kisses on her and I told the news to all my friends. The sad part was that as a result of teething she was in a lot of pain. There were times when she cried a lot because of it. But we managed to keep her distracted mostly and when we couldn't Daddy would play this Korean music cd which was sure shot way of making her drowsy.

I took three days off from Wednesday to Friday which combined with the weekend gave me full 5 days at home. In the absence of any more disturbances and with Mandavi getting used to us time went smoothly. I will never forget how surprised I was to find her fall asleep on her own like a grown up while lying besides me. I always felt I had achieved something big when on a few occassions I managed to put her to sleep while carrying her around. It felt incredible watching her in my arms. I will always remember how when in her element Mandavi would make a lot of sounds as if she was talking to us. Once she practically gave us a lecture through her vocabulary of aaa's, laaaa's and eeee's. When she would be upset she would use the same words but with anger to register what my sister called "her complaint report".

Thanks to Mandavi's antics time just flew and soon 1 July arrived, the day Mandavi and my sister were to leave for Bangalore. I was forced to say bye to them an hour or two earlier than Daddy because I had to go to work. It felt funny to return home that day and not find my Sweet Cheery there. I realized then that my sister had been right in saying how these days that we spent with Mandavi would never come again. The fact is that our Kukubara will not be like this 5 month old baby again. Soon she'll be turning 6 months and by the time I'll know she would have become a year old. The best part is that each of these stages will come with there own new experiences and I am looking forward to that happening.