India Trip - Mehek and Mysha

My brother's daughter Mehek was so intrigued by the new small member visiting her house, that her naughtiness had reduced so much that it was visible! As expected both wanted the same toys, wanted to sit in the same place, so crying sessions were common. Mysha used her seniority to litterly push Mehak around. The center of all the quarrel was the Potato Head toy that Mysha was carrying with her. Mehek loved to run away with a small part and Mysha did all she could to get it back, pulling, pushing, pinching ... everything was ok....

Here is one of the tranquil moments...

India Trip - On Nana's scooter

In Pune, when I had some short work to do at the BSNL office, my father told me to hop onto his scooter. I resisted saying Mysha would need to come too. But on his insistence I finally gave in and Im glad I did! Mysha had a whale of a time hugging nana tight as she sat behind him.

India Trip - Flight to Pune

Idris bhaijaan and Ilyas dropped Mysha and me to the Indore airport. I was a little worried how I would manage Mysha all alone. But as it turned out Indore was a small airport and before I knew I was boarded on the flight with Mysha and then ... a moment of bliss... I was going homt to Pune after a year! Msyha behaved like a charm on the flight, no crying, no tantrums, quitely ate the food I gave her and smiled at all the air hostesses :).... I must mention that the plane was a little smaller that usual and had the most unusual propellers ... see them for yourself.

India Trip - Time to go to Pune

Mysha and I had a 10am flight to Pune from Indore so we were up early the next day. Incidently Idris' bhai family decided to come home to Ujjain after picking up Taha from the skating competition, so we got to meet them in the morning again. Since all members of Ilyas's family were there at this time, it was a perfect time to click some snaps. Ilyas quickly got his act together and caught some great (and complete!) family shots. Bravo!

But in all this we got a trifle late and we hurried to the car....

India Trip - EID

The next day was Eid :)

Everyone got up early for the morning prayers. All the men in the house got dressed up in pristine kurta, pajamas and itr (natural perfume) for the Eid prayers. We eagerly waited for them to come back not only to say Eid Mubarak (which we sure did!) but also to enjoy the delicious local breakfast of poha and samosa which Ilyas got home for all. Breakfast ended perfectly with the Eid savoury "Sherkurma".

In the evening, Ilyas and I took all the kids up on the terrace just to enjoy some moments.The kids went frenzy in the open space and ran all around, screaming and shrieking with fun. In one of the corners, we found a old bench and thought it was perfect for a picture moment. We somehow got the kids to sit and snap went our camera (it took many tires to get this one)

The day just flowed along with many friends and well wishers coming home for Eid ... before we knew it was 11 at night and we all were hungry like crazy. The kids were all playing in excitement but they just didnt know how tired they were. By the time we wrapped up, it was 12:30 and all mothers were trying to get kids to sleep ...then something happened ... in various corners of the house, each child was crying; Mysha, Alisha, Hyder, Arshi ... And all the elders had a good laugh at the situation and huried up to get all the activity down to sleep.... z.z.z..zzzzzzz.

India trip - Ujjain - The "Leap of Joy"

In Ujjain, Mysha was so glad to meet Dadi that she gave her such a deep hug and after that for the whole evening kept screaming for her attention. BUT... that was TILL Dada came in... and then there was no looking back. Mysha had happiness written all over the her face...

Nasreen Baji and Arshi gave Mysha such a warm welcome that Mysha felt connected to them in no time ...Nasreen Baji got loads of gifts for Mysha including dresses, pins, bands, night dresses and what not.... AND ... Asrhi could barely manage to hold Mysha, but she was so keen on carrying her around and gave her all her attention. After some time, Mysha warmed up to Nasreen baji and sat on her lap ... on later she was so excited that she starting jumping on her lap... Baji encouraged it and then coined it the phrase "Leap of Joy"... an activity that got repeated so many times in the later hours and days... Now whenever she talks to Baji she recalls the phrase and asks for those jumps, reliving those moments again!

At night Anis bhaijaan family came over too. It was great to see Daisy bhabhi, Alisha and Hyder. Alisha was such a chatter box .. it was fun to see her blabbering away.

Finally it was time to sleep ...

India Trip - Indore

Flight landed in Indore at around 7 pm and it was a pleasure to see Idris bhaijaan (Ilyas's brother) come to pick us up at the airport. Looking forward to meet the entire family, we were disappointed to know that Taha was not there at home, but were pleasantly surprised to know that he had gone to Bhopal for a state skating competition! At home, Mariam stayed as distance in her room and barely come out to greet us or meet Mysha. Anyway, all of us (Ilyas, Mysha and I) were so hungry around 9, that we devoured the yummy food that Taseeem bhabhi had prepared. Amen!

Had a peaceful sleep at night....

By morning, Mariam had already warmed up to us. Mysha also got to go into the kids room, were she freaked out with her size dressing table and house, Pooh's Tiger and other toys.... Mysha and she also played jigsaws for quite a while. Later Ilyas took both girls out into the play area for some time where he caught them on our snapper.

Afternoon it was time to go to Ujjain ... where the climax of the India trip was ...

India Trip - Mumbai

We were going to meet our relatives and friends after just over a year, some even more, so we all were looking forward to our India trip. But before that, our first stop was in Mumbai at Suzana and Gaurav's (Ilyas's friends) place. It was bliss to be with them, just the feeling of being at the comfort of home (It was so much easier to cook for Mysha) Suzana was warm and sweet as usual :) It was a pleasure to spend time with them till the evening flight to Indore.

In the afternoon, I could just grab Mysha for a few hours for Mexican lunch at "Sammy Sosa" with my Morgan colleagues. Mysha just stuck to me like glue (and why not amongst a bunch of strangers!). She enjoyed nachos starters for lunch and made sure that I dug into other plates for them and in the end landed up ordering a special extra serving just for her!

More on India in Indore ...

New Bath Robe

Well it was just one of those days where I felt Msyha needed a change from her old towel. I remembered one of my neighbors in India had given Mysha a bath robe that that I had stored away since it was too big for her then ... I dug out for it and WOW did it look perfect... I'd like to continue that ...

Lady In Pink

It was just one of those weekends that I took Mysha out around the condo ... and just as we were walking around, I spotted this little lady who was OH SO CUTE with everything PINK, including her pink glares. I requested her mommy for a quick photo. Mysha behaved well with a quick Hi, but she too could not get her eyes off this cutie.