Your Country My Country Your Culture My Culture

Images above have been randomly picked from an internet images source.


This post was originally scheduled for 26th January.

Jai Hind repeated Chinipie and Sugarbun after me. But what is a republic day mom. On being told that it's the day when the Constitution of India had come into effect. Like the american Constitution? On an affirmative, she gets excited and goes on to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. After being duly applauded, she goes on Does your country has a Pledge as well? 

Sounds shocking, isn't it? The first time I had heard it, I had taken quite a number of days to stand on my two wobbly feet again w/o any fear of fainting. I had thanked God for providing me with super-strong and healthy cardiovascular muscles to have been able to endure such blows to my very Indian Mom Heart. It was the summers of 2012 and the London Olympics had started. An exception had been made and the girls were allowed to stay up until late night to watch he beautiful opening ceremony. They had enjoyed every bit of the nurses dance, the Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, James Bond and the Queen. Later, when the parade had commenced, they had watched in awe as each country's sportspersons had held their flag, their cauldron and were in their traditional attire. After sometime, Chinipie had asked,
 "when's our country coming, mumma?"  
Without giving it much thought, the mom had said,
"we are on 'G' right now. Since it's alphateically, after H will come I and only then India's team will come." 
Without missing a snap, she had said,
"That's your country. When's my country coming? "
As mom was checking that her feet were still planted on earth and that her heart was still where it should have been, albeit a bit broken, she realized that Chinipie was still speaking,
"It should have been in the beginning as America starts with 'A'."
" yes momma. america starts with A." Sugarbun had chimed in.
After having gathered those little pieces of her heart, mom had gathered her wits too and replied,
"Actually the full name isUnited States of  America. So you will have to wait until the letter 'U' " and being a mom, she had made them recite theor alphabet.
Seemingly unaware of mom's plight, they had soon jumped up seeing the tricolor on the tv screen,
"Look mumma! That's your country's flag. I really like the yellow saree the girls are wearing. But what's that yellow thing on the boys' head? Yeah! Go India Go! Mommy that's your country! I am so excited"
Though, with a bleeding heart, momma took consolation in the fact that at least the apple of her eyes knew the tricolor flag and were actually cheering for her country, India.

It did take a while to sink in but now momma has learnt to take a pride when her wittle darlings come back from school and insist to know more about 'your country and your culture'. Mommy is proud that she is teaching her kids to keep an open and learning mind and appreciate each nation's culture, regard the differences and most importantly to salute the FLAG of each country. Seeing the US flag on their playroom floor once, she had asked them to pick it up and had gently told them, that we should make sure that we never trample the flag with our feet. Incidentally, there was a guest, who had quipped, "so what. It's not India's flag." Mom had tried to control her temper over such an insensitive remark and made sure her girls would not listen to any such nonsense and learn to be a part of this whole global community, we call the world with all the due respect. After all, there's some truth in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

What would you do? Not all of us are raising our kids in our beloved India. How do you think we should raise responsible, respectful and yet not confused children? 

I do need some help here coz I face scenarios when I have guests at home who quite insensibly remark on the number of Indian flags at my home vs the American. It takes me to muster all self-control not to remind them that I have never seen any Indian flag at their home and gently diverge the topic from there. I am really proud the way I am raising my kids. They speak, though not very fluently, and undstand Hindi. They know much about the Indian national symbols as well as the American ones. So when people remark that my kids have an American accent, I all but smile, rather than saying, "they don't. We are the ones with accent." Or " what wud u think ur kids are going to speak when they grow up." There are times, when i stop myself from asking such people, " really? and what do you think your culture is? or what culture you are raising your kid in?" Have you ever faced such  situations? How do you handle those?

The great summer vacations

So the summer vacations are on and though initially mommy was a little worried thinking about the super long three and a half months period at home, things have been going pretty busy so far.  With chinipie's karate and swimming and few other programs thrown in between, all of us get exhausted by the end of the day.

Oh and the major part of my day goes in coaxing them to go for it. I know I might sound like a cruel or a hard mom but it's them who wanted to go in the first place. Chini had been asking me why I don't take her to swimming any more and of course, what she would be doing the entire summer. I found out the best swimming classes and enrolled her. Sugarbun just assumed that she is in too. The morning of the very first swim lessons, both if them came downstairs with their swim costumes on. Looking at sugar's excited face, I had no heart to tell her that those lessons were only for four yr olds and up and decided to play uptil the last moment. Once there, she was just not ready to accept the fact that her big sister went but not her and kept asking me why she can't go. A look at her face and I could tell that shez about to cry. So, I just took the chance and asked the supervisor if she could start and was taken by surprise when he said yes. And before I knew she was gone with an instructor and I was at their office completing the sign-up formalities. The first day was fun as the focus wasî to get the kids used to the water. And the kids were more than eager the next day.

The second day was an eye-opener for them when they were left by themselves in the mid-water. Of course,  the teachers were there but not really holding them. And that's when it started. . I don't like swimming!  I don't want to go! Chini even asked "why don't they hv any noodles like the last summers?" Then she realized, "it's not the same place, is it? " ummmm... actually it isn't dear! Good that u realized. So then started the daily counseling, "that's how u learn" ."that's how u move ahead. " even tried the luring trick, "oh I thought u really wanted to go to disney cruise. It's essential to know swimming for it." The first thing that came was,"what's a cruise? " So it was explained and the extra specials of all disney characters were added. And guess what it worked for a day, after which she said I don't want to go to disney at all. Uh oh! So an ultimatum was given just swim from one end to the other and we will stop the lessons. You think it worked.  Of course not! Every morning, we leave the house whining. Twice, we even came back crying.


As for sugar, for the first week, she just re-iterated whatever her big sister said, though she seemed to enjoy it. Sugar was a little troubled by the chlorine water stinging in her eyes; she used to come back with watery, itchy, and red eyes each day. But that was fixed by swim goggles, and a talk with the teachers, who were not allowing the goggles at the beginners level. On the very first day of the second week, she threw up as soon as I had left her with her instructor. A friend of mine started helping her clean up while another fetched me(I usually go out of sight for a few minutes to avoid an outbreak). As soon as I reached the scene, the staff started yelling at me that I should have brought her on an empty stomach. Which was kinda true as what she had thrown up was pretty much solid, unchewed food. My little sugar actually just gulps all her food. Yeah still! So, my guess is something must have been stuck in her throat that would have made her uncomfortable and the crying would have brought it all out- on the poor instructor albeit!  Anyways the staff was rather rude and wad screaming unnecessarily in frint of the poor kid, going to an extent that this has happened again. Now wait a minute, that wasn't true and I told her that and it just changed the scene completely. Immediately, her tone softened,  her voice lowered and she offered to clean up if I just took my daughter to wash up in the shower room. So, off we went, amongst the sympathetic looks of the moms in the pavilions. Once cleaned up, sugar wanted to go back to the pool and the same staff member offerrd to take her ( parents are not allowed there). She asked me if she wasn't really sick as if I would hv pushed my teeny girl in the pool if she were. All said and done, she was just doing her job but with 942 kids being coached there every single day, they must be well equipped and trained to handle such situations; then why such a hulla-balloo? 


Even with all the associated drama each day, It's finally the last day of the first two-week session of the swim lessons. And I am proud to say that both the girls are floating on their back independently. Chinipie was doing well until her instructor told her that they would all go to the deep end. That's when the fear seeped in. Chini's skill level is at par with her age but it's jumping into the water that she fears the most, especially at the deep end.  Sugar still doesn't know what deep means, so she just classifies it as the dark blue water. 

For karate, sugar is content watching her big sister for now, who had resisted initially, her reasoning being, I am not allowed to do and say what and when I want. Later she started enjoying, even looking forward, only because her friend joined in. Good for all of us, coz this is the only thing I had decided for my kids, long before they were born. Yes, they have to, have to, have to master at least one form of martial arts. Rest anything, they are free to choose! Call me a cruel mom if you want to!

Happy Holi

The weather was perfect, the girls were active, and this is how we celebrated holi(the festival of colors welcoming the spring).

Twig 1 - decorated with flowers made out of tissues dipped in food color.

Twig 2

Twig 3

The end result :)

The left over tissues used for the special holi greeting cards along with blossoms/leaves(chini's idea)

Peacock Rangoli at the doorstep

The message

And the busy hands ;)

Though, at the end of the day, momma was seen dragging her feet, holding her back with one hand and her neck with the other :)

The holidays

We are here and all in good health (lemme do a touchwood real quick unless those much-scared infections make a comeback in my family)? Though, chinipie kept insisting the entire last half of december, much to mom's and dad's anxiety, I am sick. I am very very sick.. Poor parents couldn't figure out why their lovely dughter would feel so and tried, in vague, to erase any such thoughts from her mind. Only when chinipie declared, one fine morning, I am bored of being sick. I miss my school., that it dawned to them that the whole concept f uch a long holiday is new to her. The only time she skipped her schjol was when she was not well and mommy kept her home. Naturally, she put two and two together and concluded that she is sick. Amazing, how their mind works in such a simple fashion!

So the school was off for entire two (holiday) weeks in december which when mommy counted actually came out to be ei-gh-t-een days!  18 dark, cold and wintry days, stuck in the house with two very active kids and with the dad absconding (read slogging@office ) for unreasonably looongg hours!  Mommy declared that unless the dad had some good plans, she is off to her Mom's place. The threat never even came close to being executed as when mom checked the flights, the prices (even after excluding the dad) were high enough for her to abandon any plans to travel for next two years at least!  Nevertheless, the dad, seeing the plight of his highly motrified wife, took a week off(he hadn't taken a single day off the entire year!). Mommy, very generously, ignored the fact that half the time he was still working from home, and did make two rushes to the office for some urgent meetings. Also, she pardoned the messy state of the home - owing to another fact that the two different set of guests, who were to visit us during the holidays, cancelled their plans. As mommy had been busy preparing the meals (as her plan ahead initiative) so that they could spend most of the time showing the guests around the city instead of the kitchen, the entire house had been turned topsy-turvy.
Hassled, momma asked chinipie, doesn't all this mess bother you?
Contemplating, for a while, which answer would please her mom, she decided to stick to her own self and said,no
Momma, then turned to sugar, her little one, who just turned her back and continued with her precious contribution in giving the house a look of a dumpyard.
With lots of expectations, she then, looked upon the dad and even hoped that he would volunteer to help her cleaning up; instead got an advice to ignore. So, mom made it her mantra, and as much as it bothered her, didn't even move a finger to clean. She, even, took it a step further and started dumping things, secretly hoping, that eventually she might get a Helping hand. Turned out that she had been entirely singled out here and shez the only one, in the family, who gets irritated by the uncleanliness. She had to give up after a few days of fretting and fuming!

The holidays were well spent, despite of such minor episodes, which have acquired a tendency to occur at a more frequent rate than expected in our household. We spent an entire day at a nearby amusement park, enjoying the fun rides (an unusual experience at this time of the year where we are) and signing the day off with a special holiday light and sound display. Another day was spent at the children's museum, yet another watching the disney princess stories on ice(after which both the girls put on their fluffy shoes and skate, twirl and whirl on the kitchen floor pretending the hardwood floor to be ice). We also revamped the kids room with their favourite princesses and fairies wall decor.

Santa had left some exciting gifts which included the nail paint(of course princess ones!). Mom was treated with an exclusive spa treatment with a perfectly finished manicure and pedicure. Thanks Santa! But as he came on christmas eve vs the actual christmas evening, it was declared that the missing gifts(From the list) will be delivered tonight. Uh oh! Mommy took all the efforts to convince that he comes only once and did indeed come on the correct day and time! And yes! That morning, first thing chinipie did was- came running downstairs to check if indeed he had come and on finding the gifts, she had come running to me- momma, santa did come! And he left lots Of gifts for me and Sugar. Then, she had one running to the dad and repeted the same excitedly! Again, a dash to her room to wake her sis up and share the exciting news. In case you are wondering why she was surprised, that's coz according to her this wasn't winter and most certainly not the christmas time! Why? Coz - in her words - It isn't snowing at all. How can it be winters? How can it even be christmas? We didn't even get to make a snowman! And the christmas has to be a white one! While mommy wondered at her daughter's logic ( and thanked the stars, silently, for not sending the winters this year), she assured her girl that, most certainly, it would snow and we would get to make a snowman. Only to find her crying, one morning, on her bed - it's not even snowing. How will we celebrate christmas? though, she played alng with her dad and mom, and involved her baby sister too. And, together, they decorated the christmas tree, decorated a gingerbreadhouse and made cookies, and left a bowl of "yummy halwa", a plate of cookies, a cup of hot cocoa for Santa and went outside to sprinkle oats and sarkled sugar for Santa's reindeers. On seeing the cup empty (and, of course, after opening all the gifts), she did, indeed go out to check if the oats were gone. Mommy's heart was pounding very fast, expecting, another loud bawl, but God is indeed, merciful! Voila! The oats were gone! Must have been mom's lucky day! Later, while playing with her newly received toys, and while thinking aloud what should be on next ear's list, chini declared, Christmas is my favourite holiday! And mine too, sugar chimed in.

The gingerbread house - captured before it collapsed!

Food for reindeer(in the packet)

Stay tuned. There's a lot more to tell you all.

Exchanging the gifts!

So, the box of goldfish has been long consumed and momma is being pestered to make the gingerbread man cookies. Meanwhile, mom was also notified last week that presents were being wrapped for her at school. The naive momma failed to take the hints and worried too much over her diarrhea(mom ruined the whole weekend as her fatso-body reacted to the anti-biotic). So, this afternoon, post-school, she was duly informed that the christmas present is in the bag and will be hidden under her bed (mom's bed) and that she cannot open it until the actual day. A frail Attempt was made to count, the number of days left, on the fingers And it was declared that christmas is still too far. By the time, the journey to the home was made, momma was being questioned what did she 'make' as gifts for her oh-so-nice kids and whether she made the wrapping paper herself too. To avoid bring caught, momma replied that she was still working on the gift and it should be done before Mr.Claus arrived. Meanwhile, the furtive momma was trying to churn up her gray cells fast to come up with some hand-made worthwhile work of love (multiplied by two) which could be finished At such a short notice! And that's when the bomb dropped. The wrapped present was thrust in her hands with
"Alright momma. You can open the gift now. And after that, show me what you are making for both of us"
So much for lying!!
But chini, We will open all our gifts on the xmas day. That's okay
No momma! I want you to open the gift now. I made it specially for you. I can't wait until christmas. I know you will love it!
Guiltily, momma unwrapped the gift to find a beautiful wall hanging with a hand-prints wreath on it.
Those are my hands! Can I touch those red berries?
And momma thought all's forgotten about seeing her gift.

And it was, only for a while!
Can I see what you made for me n sugar now?
Seriously, what kind of memories do these kids have?
To mom's rescue came two bracelets that she had made in summers(for her friends, albeit) and to her delight, they were loved and momma was showered with many hugs, kisses and thank you-s.

Isn't this the cutest age, when even a grass twig can make them happy??



As an afternoon activity, we had slotted the day for hanging the ornaments on the tree in our front-yard. My apple tree as sugar calls it. So, the day was well spent in cutting the ribbon and stringing the ornaments. We were having fun hanging them on the tree and watchinjg a couple of them catapulting themselves to a higher branch! That was magic!chini exclaimed. As we went on with our business, a neighbor came by and remarked how pretty the tree looked. Taking it as a compliment, she informed us that it is actually against the society's rules!! A couple more came( imagine! In this chilling cold! Guess they were all watching us from their windows!!) and affirmed. The mom was advised to check with the head, though, whose house was shown too, just couple of blocks from ours. You can do something fun on the deck, the girls were told. By the time, we reached his house, he was already informed and they didn't have to guess why we were there. Guess, in our neighborhood, the news travel faster
Than aajtak! Cheesy?i know! So, the head told us that he had fairly an idea why this mom with her two little girls was there and said he would stop by to check what (unspeakable crime!) we had done. He did come, with a printed copy of the do's and don'ts of the society, wondering if our house-owner had already gave us one. (yeah they did, and we burnt it! Really, what's up with this home-owners assn. guys?). Well, I told him that we didn't have one. I was shown the one, in which the christmas section was highlighted for our ease. Apparently, nothing, including coloured or blinking lights can be used. only white candles is the windows or small white string lights can be used At the doors. Form our reference, we were advised to take a walk in the neighborhood. And oh! As for our ornaments, nothing and nothing can be put in the yard!! The girls were a little disappointed but still maintained that they had a fun afternoon! As a bonus, they got to play with the HOA head's puppy. That left momma wondering,

Time to get a christmas tree??

Welcoming Santa

It has been unusually warm winter so far. We did have a snowy day, around halloween, when we were so not ready for it and a few cold autumn days afterwards, but it has been very pleasant ever since. We wouldn't have realized it's the month of December if the sunset didn't happen at 4:00 p.m. each day! Any chnces of having a hite chistamas this year? Probably something to worry about, but that we will do later. For now, we are enjoying. Most days, when it's not raining, we even manage to sneak out for a super-short evening walk!

The neighbourhood is lively with the holiday lights and decorations. Everybody has a green wreath hanging on their front door. We can see well-decorated christmas trees through some windows.
"when are we going to decorate our christmas tree?" chini asks. " are we going to celebrate chrismas with our friends like we did when I was three and sugar was 1?" (last xmas, we had a get-together with our friends where one of the dads had dressed up as santa and given gifts to all the kids. Gifts were, of course, brought by parents.)
i want to go see baby jesus being born
and various such inquisitiveness. We are still not ready for a tree, so momma got the ornaments to decorate the tree outside. Now, we r waiting for the sun to shine back (it has been raining non-stop for past 3 days now) so tt we can go out and hang those pretty things. Meanwhile, the xmas bells are on the door, santa and snowman clingies on the windows, large wreath bows in the mantel and the stockings are hanging already on the fireplace.
Why does Santa come through chimney, papa?
wHy don't we have stockings for you and momma? I want santa to get you both dome gifts too. You have behaved good this year.
Meanwhile, all thoughts are being invested in wht gifts to be asked from Santa. Check out what's on the top of her list!

Dear Santa
I have not been very good this year. But i have kept my promises. I told momma I will not bite my nails at school and I stopped! I promise that I will be a good girl. Please get me a bottle of pink sparkly nail polish.
Love, chini

And already, a box of goldfish has been left at the fireplace for Santa. Sugar meanwhile has been practicing her carols, " up on the rooftop" "away in the manger" "jingle bells" "rudolf-the red nosed reindeer" are all sung at her full vocal chords. Sometime, she gets a little out of track and starts " do re mi fa so la ti" which goes like this-
Doe a deer, female dear
Ray a floss of golden sun
Me a name Call myself
Fa momma go to run!?!?

Thanksgiving is for giving thanks

The month of november had started with a long wait for the thanksgiving day. The teachers did a good job at school educating the kids about the holiday. Starting the month with a field trip to a native Indian village, trying out the dresses, craft work, story, play and the chapel lessons, every day chinipie had a new story to share. Oft repeated was the thankfulness prayer. With thankyou Jesus, thank you for the sun, to thankyou for the family, Chinipie is full of gratitude. When she would get really bugged by her little sister, the poor girl would innocently ask, " momma, I am thankful for sugar but why does she trouble me so much?". She did seem to accept the justification when i told her that sugar missed her and that's how she is trying to be close to her and show her love. Once the question involved the dad too.."I love papa and am thankful for him but why does he get angry with me?"All I could come up with was that he loves you and is really thankful for you and wants you to do everything in a better way..


The star question was,"why do we light fire when we do prayers - at home, mandir or even my chapel?" Following her cue, I told her that's how we thank God for providing us with everything and as lighting a candle or a lamp diya removes darkness around us, we wish to light such lamp within us while offering prayers. "is it dark inside us?" Mommy wasn't ready for all the questions that would follow if she tried to explain the euphemism to her curious 4-yr old, who no doubt, is very much capable of throwing them at her when she doesn't see them coming. Like when she showed me a very beautiful picture of a sunset she painted, after reading the book, The legend of Indian paintbrush, she asked "why there was no green in the sunset?" Now, all I could think of was of the physics explanation of the wavelength, which definitely would have bored my eager girl and I asked her instead what color ws the sun? She said "orange in the morning, a little later yellow Nd white in the afternoon.. In evening it even looks reD sometimes." "There you go! You know the answer now!" I said. " but the sun is never purple! So why does the sunset hs purple in it?" HHHEELLPP!!
Why is the dad never around when I need him the most??


So, while sugar hs been thanking me each time when I hand her a cup of water or milk, or dress her up or put her shoes on; chini declared that she would write a thank you note for all her friends. The mailman would be the first to receive the honours, it was decided. It was only fateful that as we were about to finish it off that the mail van arrived and hurriedly the name was signed and the door wS opened and momma was informed "I will be right back! and without even looking back once, an errand had to be made. While the momma anxiously stood at the curb, barefoot, lest the mailman think that her cutie bundle wAs a mail too.. The note was duly delivered to him and he, in turn, raised the note-holding hand to the mom and the little girl jogged back, beaming, " I had to make a run!"
Of course, you had to, sweet heart!


And it was decided that we would thank all our friends for 'being our friends' this thanksgiving and when we were all set for the journey, chini said, "I am so excited, but where are we going NEXT thanksgiving?"

Feasts and festivities..

So october is over... And what a dynamic month it was! With almost all the holidays an Indian can wish for.. Except for the fact that none of them were holidays as such, if you get the pun, that is. Okay, so for all my readers, the festibols(as chini calls them) are called holidays here in the States; whereas for us Indians, who grew up in India, holiday would mean any declared/official off-day from work/school etc. Excluding karwachauth none of our major days coincided with a weekend this month.

The best thing i love about all these festivities is the kids excitement about it. Chini loves to 'tilak' everybody and anybody(including her dollies), sugar loves to ring the bell, and both of them love to look into the 'arti' (prayer) books trying to identify as many idols they can. And of course, they absolutely absolutely love dressing up as indian princesses! Which as you might have guessed means the traditional attire. Chini is so much into it that, just to appease her, I had to put one on her the day I had done the Diwali story at her school. She was so cross with me that I, along with sugar, had come in our traditional dresses, whereas she was not!

The month of all holiness had started With the Nine days of navratras. For me, it was very special coz for the first time ever, I could keep my resolution of not yelling at my little 'Devi avatars'.. For whole of nine days.. And if i forget about one or two meltdowns, I succeeded doing so for entire auspicious month! Kudos to me! It was very important to me b'coz lately I had started getting irritated by a single act of disobedience from them; which at times resulted in such a bad temper that the poor girls used to wonder,"momma, why are you so mad?" That was unhealthy.. Very unhealthy .. For the entire family.. So this month I (tried to) excise control on my anger. (that the dad was at the recieving end instead of the girls, is an entirely different story altogether ;-)). The funniest episode was on the day of 'hoi ashtami'. In brief, hoi fast is observed for the children. And again, as supposedly I was fasting for them, to me, it made more sense that I do not shout at them. Now, my girls chose that very day to test me to the extremes! As soon as chini came back to school, she started picking up a fight on the most mundane matters. All my attempts to intervene, resolve, pacify, and much more yielded no results. Finally, I decided to extradite myself from the scenario. It so happened, that wherever I went, they followed me and after a couple of minutes one or the other would either start crying or cribbing. Everytime! With almost no energy left to try and talk sense to them, I kept hopping from one room to another, one activity to other. Like two little lambs, they followed me to the kitchen, to the laundry, to the computer room, to the balcony... Now wll these rooms are on two different floors. Finally, chini gave up, "why are you doing up down, up down, up down all the time?!" stiffling my amusement, i said, " coz you two are not giving me a moment of peace!" " we are not even doing anything" "yeah girl! And you are not letting me either!" sigh

Karwachauth and Hoi were very special, this year, as the dad fasted along with me. He had always wanted to but somehow or other he couldn't. The essence behind these fasts, for us, is the love and to cherish the bond of this small unit of 'family' that we have started together. Also, it is our way of thanking God for the wonderful partner and kids He gave us. Both days, the kids fell asleep before the actual puja, so they missed listening to the story. Hopefully, in the coming years, they will.

Dussehra was spent listening to the story and attempting to, at least, make them taste the 'dahi laddu'. Diwali saw the ladies of the house sick with cold and cough, still trying to light the diyas! And dressing up for the occassion. Laxmi pujan was fun(minus the grand dinner that we used to host every year) and for the goverdhan puja, we went to ISKCON temple(it took 2x time to reach owing to heavy traffic). The ambience in the prayer hall was just amazing! One, cannot escape albeit, get bathed in that devotion-filled air!!

And the month ended with the 'not so holy' Halloween. The gals had been witing for it for an entire year, so it had to get mentioned here. The school didn't allow the dress up, just a head-gear and we weren't going trick-or-treating owing to the snowfall a day before; so, we took the opportunity at the local library. The girls dressed up as fairy Rapunzels had fun at the story time, parading to the bank(the library and the bank share the building) and enjoying delicious treats. The highlight of the day was giving away candies to everybody they saw on the way and at the bank! Surprisingly, sugar( who has difficulty parting/sharing usually) gave away candies without a single moment of hesitation!! Chini did remember going trick- or-treating with her friends at the old house(her exact words) and said she missed them. We used to go trick-or-treating with our neighbors there. In fact, two haloweens back, we had made very good friends with one of our neighbours while trick-or-treating! This year, one of our new neighbours(an old lady and a grandma herself) came with two goody bags for the gals at our door! I think, we should have a special day to celebrate neighbours, too!

I leave you with a picture of chini and sugar performing puja.. This was clicked today. I guess the girls want to continue the rituals.. Oh! This reminds me, this morning sugar sneaked the sindur and 'tilak'ed the ganesha idol we have at our entrance. On seeing me, she proudly said,'mumma, i did binddi to bagvaanji!'