Have I ruined it for him? Probably.....

Rushil lost a tooth on Sunday in Hyderabad and it also got knocked out his hand never to be found again. Rushil followed the standard procedure that Sindhu came up with, write a letter to the tooth fairy explaining what happened and the tooth fairy will still reward you.  Monday morning, he wakes up and is not happy that there is no reward. He comforts himself by saying loudly that maybe she'll come when he's in school. Still no luck after school. Last night, he mentions again that he hopes that the tooth fairy will come in the morning. This morning, he gets out of bed and said I'm not going to school until you give me some money for my tooth.  I had a tennis class, which I had to get out of early to get the kids ready (prasad is out of town) so I was already running late. I promptly went to my wallet got out some money and put it under his pillow and he happily got ready for school. So there you have it,  his belief in the tooth fairy is over and I can thank myself for it.

Bommala Koluvu - Dassera festival

 Egyptian Collection

Kondapalli style dolls

My cousin is getting married next weekend so my mother, my sister, Keshini and Sachin are in Bangalore visiting us for a few days before the wedding!  The cousins are having so much fun together,  S & R are "bunking" school tomorrow and although they should be sleeping, the boys are giggling and trying to sneak their DS's under the covers. My sister wanted to buy a sari for the wedding so we headed to Jayangar for a so called quick trip to Kalineketan. We cut it so close, we only made it back 15 minutes before the time I invited people to our house. Prasad and my mother pitched in and held the fort. Fortunately  everyone showed up 1.5 hours later so we had time to get decked up and prepare the house for the Bommala Kolluvu function in the late afternoon. 

Mid-terms are finally over!

I don't know who is more elated, Sindhu or I, but I most certainly am glad her mid-terms are finally over.  The whole concept of studying for a test is new to Sindhu, I spent a lot of time sitting with her and explaining how to study and in the process, I was ready to write the mid-terms.  And it's not easy, I was actually brain tired every evening. Sindhu was a real trooper, she diligently sat and studied each subject and did not panic or stress out. They unexpectedly had 2 days off last week due to the Babri Masjid Verdict which was fortunate for us since we had 2 days of starting trouble and spent much too long studying one subject.  Last year, I complained that there were no tests and this  year, well... having tests in all subjects the same week seems too gruelling. Striking that right balance is never easy. We can now dust ourselves off and get ready for a fun Dassera weekend. My mother will be arriving on Saturday and we'll have our annual Bommalu Kolluvu get-together on Sunday. This will be a crazy month: Dassera, Halloween, Diwali program at our complex (I'm organizing a children's play) and a big big big wedding in Hyderabad!


Snippet of the email Sindhu sent out to her friends on Friday.

YAAAAAAAY!!!!!! My first exams are finally over i'm totally gonna sit back and enjoy the weekend. Peace out!!!!!!!!!!!



bye
--
I LOVE CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!


-Sindhura

A teensy weensy adventure

 For the record, I took this picture with my point and click camera and not my SLR.

Showroom



Somehow Dassera has crept up on me. This year,  I had visions of making a trip to Chennai to add Tamilian Gollu style dolls to my collection.. Chennai apparently has these large showrooms of dolls during the Dassera season. Since that didn't happen,  Hosur sounded like an option (in Tamilnadu, near the Karnataka border) but after googling, it turns out that Malleswaram is the best to go to in Bangalore since there is a large Tamilian population there and dolls are imported from Chennai.  So I dropped my volunteering session at the school and trekked out to Malleswaram. I was telling a friend and she asked if I knew where to go and I said nope but I was hoping that the vendors would be on the street waiting for me to buy their stuff from them. As we were approaching Malleswaram, which is a painfully long 1.5 hour trek, I panicked and asked my driver if he knew of any places. He grunted which I interpreted as, "I don't know but  I'm willing to drive around a few blocks until you figure out that I don't know and make me ask someone." Many a time,  I  have misinterpreted his grunt and assumed he knew where he was going, only to find out that he'd been driving around aimlessly waiting for me to figure out that he didn't know where he was going.   Anyway, Malleswaram rescued me, on the main street itself, I spotted a store and literally jumped out of the car.  I was overwhelmed, there were so many dolls, I didn't know where to start.  I asked another woman shopping in the store if there were many more stores like this one and she said YES and pointed me in the right direction.  After perusing two more stores, one shopkeeper told me about a small showroom around the corner, I had hit the jackpot.  I followed other women around the stores to see what they liked,  to get an idea of what people buy and what they look for, everyone was friendly and helpful.  The man in the showroom spoke English and was very patient in identifying  the sets for me and telling me the stories behind them. I felt like I got a lesson in mythology this afternoon, it's actually a great place for a children's field trip. The Andhra Kondapalli and the Rajasthani dolls I bought earlier  are far more beautiful but those are meant to be show pieces on a mantle or in a cabinet and the ones I bought today are meant to be displayed in a kolluvu once a year, two different purposes and therefore the quality is different.  I did discover that  there are different qualities in the dolls I saw today, some are painted with enamel and others acrylic, the acrylic ones are lovelier and the faces are more detailed.  It was a fun experience, one I wished I had experienced 2 years before so I could have had a more interesting collection but I'm glad I went today. Before I headed back home, I treated myself to a cold glass of sugar cane juice and lychee rabdi,  what a sugar rush!!