2011- our 20th Valentines day

The ritual of celebrating valentines day started in the year 1992 with two young souls expressing their love for each other with cards and gifts.  They never had any clue how their life is going to be as a couple  and how they'll feel about each other in coming years. I knitted a woollen scarf  feverishly for three weeks as my first valentine's day gift for CB while attending graduate school in 1992. He still has the scarf though I was the one who used  it most of the time.

Life turned good in the relationship department with no extra work done to nurture it. With work and making a life for ourselves in a far away land, it took us long hours, absolute dedication and extra hard work to get to where we are now.  Nothing in life came easy for us including our baby. But with absolute faith in our partnership , mutual respect for each other's feelings, enormous patience and with god's blessing we got everything we wanted in our life.  We took that journey together and still continuing to tackle the challenges holding our hands and hearts together. For last three years another set of tiny hands and precious little heart joined our journey .  I thank god ,every day for this life and asking his guidance at every possible moment.

For this valentines day this is the scene which greeted me when I came downstairs to our kitchen.

This year's  valentines day card

With love to my wife

If you could look into my heart

you' see

All the lovely things

you are to me

All the thoughts

I somehow can't express

About our love, our home,

our happiness

If you could look into my heart,

you'd know

The many reason

Why I love you so

Happy Valentines day to my wife and my little hero.

 

Signed HUBBY

For all youngster who are taking the journey like we did twenty years ago, my only wish is give your best  before thinking about walking away or giving up. There is a special and valid reason you fell in love with each other and stick to that feeling. It's easy to walk away from situation we think are difficult, but it takes immense courage, dedication and patience to stand for the things you believe in, especially your love. You'll never regret it because you will always feel special as the years go by. I am wishing success for all those couples who are celebrating their first valentine's day this year.

Birthday

We celebrated my husband’s birthday this month. It was a low-key affair with just me and NR wishing CB .

Last year I planned a big surprise party with a 22 month old boy in tow.  I invited friends, booked the venue and got hand written birthday wishes from his friends, my friends and family few weeks before his big birthday.  I shopped for birthday decoration few hours before the party and decorated the venue with a help of a friend. I came back home and made entire birthday dinner from my neighbor’s house. I finished everything within four hours of time with  CB not having a clue about his surprise birthday party. I never thought I would be able to pull off  the surprise party without a glitch.  But I did.

This year I planned to make a cake for him. But baking and decorating a cake at  home meant he will see his birthday cake before his birthday. So I got a strawberry mousse cheese cake from store.

We would have missed the cake since it was raining that day and NR decided to sleep when we were about to go out. A friend went shopping for us . When I opened the door to receive my friend , CB pulled up in our driveway  and got a peek into his cake and birthday balloons. This is first year I decided to skip getting him gift . The gifts I got for Christmas is still in the wrapper: ( .  I will not buy “ books as gifts “.

I cooked a simple dinner for us. The day was over with just three of us having a good time. He had  two tiny hands and legs hugging him and giving the best gift for this birthday –Kisses and sweet laughter. And appa was so happy.

Special Education Week - Day 7

We got Reader's Digest delivered monthly along with Soviet Woman. I learnt about first female astronaut Valentina Tereshkova thru Soviet woman magazine  and aspired study space science. My recollection of collectibles was from Soviet Woman. I used to dream as little kid  to own all those lovely looking dolls with their ethnic russian costume.

RD was my "GOOGLE" in those days. I read real-life stories from world, western philosophy and lifestyles. I loved reading RD and I still do. I loved every column especially the inspiring life stories they featured regularly. When you are young you see parents around you setting expectations for their kids. Lot of them pushed their kids and some of them physically abused them. I never used to understand the anger and wrath they cause on their children. I used to hate seeing kids in my neighbourhood thrashed daily in the name of discipline claiming it is for the welfare of the children. I never understood why then and  even now.  Even at that young age I observed the shame in their eyes . They never wanted to look at you or talk to you even when they know you are their best friend. I am thankful for having a parents who never set any expectation for us .  They allowed us to make every choice in our life and never interfered in our academic choices. They neither celebrated our victories nor put us down for failing.  

When I was in high school I read an article about parenting in Readers Digest and  these lines stayed with me forever "As a parents I have no right to judge my kids or get angry at them.  When I think of the all experiences they brought to my life and realise how they enriched my life , I am thankful that I have them as my children in my life."  And every parent with special needs kids has the same view  like the author of the RD article.

When you are calm and quiet you can focus on things around you and observe.  And you will learn to respect people and their feeling well and never offend others with words or actions.  Though failure might come our way, we will be truly loved, cherished and respected by friends and family.  

Everybody is given a  choice to use kind words and inspire people with their goodness. Wecan make a decision to use that kindness more to special needs kids /adults.  The special needs community has only one request - DON'T JUDGE. .  Unkind words and  judgement  might prevent any kids from what they would be in their future.

Last in my special education week series, I present Nick Vujicic. If he is not going to inspire you , I don't think any body will

If you are blessed with kids who can talk to say I love you, run to you when you come home  and  hug you to make you feel their love,  go hug them and say "Thank you"  , thank you for all the  joys they bring to us.

My best discoveries for year 2010

Embar Kannan – I discovered this young talented artist when I attended Unni Krishnan’s carnatic concert last summer in Portland. I loved his rendition and enjoyed every minute of it.

 His violin guru is smt. Kanyakumari. Kanyamukari aunty played violin for  my periyammas Nagercoil sisters Leela and Saroja before she was well known.

Emila Yousuf: I found the Malaysian illustrator Emila Yusof’s blog last year. I love her illustration. It transports me to my childhood memories and the books I had in my collection as a kid. I ordered few of her prints from her original illustration and she was kind enough to send me few more free goodies. For the first time I entered for a giveaway on her site and won it too.  

I am still fond of my childhood story books mostly in Tamil . I remember a couple of titles like Pappu paravaikalai peedipathillai en?(why isn’t pappu catching the birds? Pappu name of the cat), Masha en uranga villai (why isn’t masha sleeping?). I vividly remember all the illustrations from those two books .Emila’s drawing takes me to that time.

My mom forced me to donate entire collection of my story books including all my Muthu comics to “Nehru Bal Bhavan” when I was in 5^th or 6^th grade.  I was sad, annoyed and bit angry with my mom. Our city's Bal Bhavan location was so remote. It was located on the top floor of the stadium in my town which was not accessible by bus in those days. Only government functions and inter state sports meet were held in that stadium.

On our  trip back home  in an auto, I  questioned my mother if kids would go there to read my books. My mother tried to convince me it will be really used by kids and they would be thankful to us. But till date I doubt if any kids really used/read my precious books. I bought around ten titles from my childhood book collection in 1999 for my niece.

Harpsichord: I discovered this music instrument Harpsichord .  My fav TV station OPB’s Art Beat program featured the local artist Byron Wil who makes Harpsichord here in Oregon. You can check out his website for more info on harpsichord. I envy such talented artists, who makes a living doing the things that they love.

I was familiar with few western classical composers like Beethoven and Mozart when I was in India.  My curiosity led to the discovery of lot of new composers (new for me) and my favorite one is  Johann Sebastian Bach.  And thanks to our local western classical radio station 89.9 KBPS , I was able to listen to many composition of Johann Sebastian Bach. Before the MP3 era, this was my constant source of music at work.  If you are western classical fan, they are available 7/24 on the internet. Check it out.

My interest in western classical led me to Andre Rieu , the best entertainer ever. Oh, I love his music. His orchestra, Johann Strauss Orchestra plays in Portland during holidays season .

I watched this video in 2005. This little maestro is a blessed soul to play along with Andre Rieu. Can you believe Akim Camara  is just a three-year old baby during this performance? . NR’s first  concert was Andre Rieu’s . I was 12 weeks pregnant with NR. I am secretly hoping , wishing and praying that NR will choose music as his profession.

God sends every kid with skills needed for their survival.  It's up to the parents to nurture it , admire it and respect it without worrying about other's POV. And when the kids put their mind to it they will shine and nothing can stop them. And this little guy is just an inspiration for my thoughts and beliefs. Check out his amazing performance of  Dances of the Fairies.

Andre Rieu’s orchestra presents classical music in more lively form. You will come back feeling rejuvenated after his concert. We were planning to attend his concert in Europe especially at Schönbrunn Palace.  Life changed, I got pregnant and with that came all the responsibilities, concerns and worries of motherhood. I hope god will grant my wish of attending his concert as a family with NR.

Lastly, I had a friendly office mate (we shared office) Johnny (tech writer)who shared the same interest in classical music like mine. He would play music in his computer,  so we both can hear it. Those are the good old days of working, enjoying and getting fat pay check by the end of the month. A part of me definitely misses the days of happy work life.

Happy New year 2011

Wishing my readers

" A very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New year 2011".

Listen to this beautiful  poem written by great tamil poet Bharathiyar that consolidates  my new year wish every year since childhood.  Especially this year where we need  extra strength  and patience to deal with all challenges ahead with peace and prayers.

Manathil uruthi vendum song sung by K.J.Yesudoss in the movie Sindhu Bhairavi.

Translation of the poem " Manathil uruthi Vendum"  in english ( Source: http://audiopoetry.wordpress.com/2006/01/18/manathil-urudhi-vendum)

Let the mind be firm
Let the speech be sweet
Let the thoughts be noble
Let one attain what’s dear
Let all dreams come true
And quickly, too
Let there be wealth and happiness
And fame in this world
Let the eyes be open
Let one be determined in achieving one’s goals
Let the women attain freedom
Let God protect us all
Let the land be fertile
Let us feel the heaven here
Let the Truth prevail
Om Om Om Om

And I am grateful to know the Tamil language to understand appreciate this great poet's words.

PS: I know that a few people from my family and handful of friends read this blog regularly .  If you are a reader of this blog who doesn't come under family and friends group , can you please delurk and say hello.  Getting a "hello" from new blog  friends would be a fantastic way to welcome 2011.