THE HECTIC TRIP

Hi Everyone here I am to narrate one of the hectic trip I have ever made . Its our trip to India on Feb 7th , 2008 , for my SIL's baby shower . We faced all the obstacles that one should not face during the journey that too with a 8 month old baby ....Here it goes . * The very first incident is that we saw our itenary and informed our parents that we will be coming to MAA airport by Feb 9th , 5.30 a.m . They too booked car for us and made all the plans. But only on Feb 6th we found that we have informed wrong timings and we are reaching chennai only by 9.00 p.m . Immediately we called them and asked them to change all the arrangements . * Then we started our journey . We went to the ORD Airport and was waiting for our connecting flight to JFK Airport .Unfortunately the flight was delayed by 2 hrs . We are supposed to board the Flight to India via Kuwait at 8.00 p.m and we reached JFK airport at 7.45 p.m. We rushed to the boarding point . * While going to the boarding point , We took the wrong Airtrain and was very much tensed when we knew that. We again took the proper airtrain and reached the point . * When we showed our ticket , the person in the counter said " SORRY YOU CANNOT TRAVEL IN THIS FLIGHT . YOUR VISA HAS EXPIRED AND THE FLIGHT IS GOING THROUGH LONDON ". We broke into pieces . Having a small baby we were very much tensed to hear those words . We have already told the agent all these details and he booked via Kuwait just bcoz our visa has expired . Then we talked to the agent and fortunately agreed to rebook the ticket the next day . * We were waiting in the Airport for nearly 2-3 hrs with lalitha . The agent called and informed us that he had rebooked our tickets . Our schedule is now changed and are reaching India on 10th Feb and our way is " Newyork - Kuwait - Trivandrum " Also the ticket is not confirmed . * We then called our parents and informed them all these thamasha and asked them to send the car to Trivandrum Airport . By God's grace we stayed in a hotel the whole night and we got our tickets confirem and safely reached Trivandrum . My Dad came there to pick us up as he wanted to see lalitha ( He didnt see her until then ) . We drived to Trichy for nearly 10 hrs .We were totally exhausted by this long journey . We reached our house at 5.00 and the function starts at 6.00..huhhhhhhh..... Wait wait this is not yet over... * We attended the visa interview on Feb 14th and we are supposed to get our passports by person atleast with one week i.e by Feb 22nd . We have booked our tickets on feb 24th. Ufortunately we didnt get our passports within 23rd . So we rebooked our tickets and extended our stay by another one week and hubby was working all night . We got our passports on Feb 26th and we started on March 1st. * On March 1st my Mom had arranged for sumangali prarthana and so we packed everything 2 days b4 and I went to my Mom's house . I came to my house just 1 hr b4 starting and was very confident that have taken everything . We started from trichy thinking that all is over................. When we are half way yto Chennai , My SIL called and said that " Inga oru paper vittutael . Adhulla I94 nnu potrukku " Hmmmmm........We have left our I94 paper in our house itself. We waited in that place itself and my FIL took another car and brought that paper . * Finally we reached MAA at 2.00 a.m. Fun is that our passports were in our friend's house and we have planned to take it on the way to airport . As we were too late already Raj anna brought them to the Airport at 2.00 a.m , Hats off to him . Thinking all is over we boarded the flight to Newyork and the journey was peaceful . * When we reached JFK , we realised that the flight had reached Newyork 2 hrs late . And we missed our connecting flight . OMG..........................We again stayed in a hotel for the night and the worse part is I got my periods in the flight . So I was literally crying , thinking about the trip we had . We then boarded the flight on March 2nd early morning and reached Chicago ... When we entered our home we both simply laid down and said " Atlast we reached home " Any comments ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

A MEMORABLE MOMENT

Today Lalitha had pasta for her lunch . She was eating it by herself. I went near her chair and asked her ' Ammakku kudumma ' and opened my mouth . She took a piece with her little fingers , brought her hand slowly near my mouth and gave it to me . WOW what a nice experience . Tears were rolling down my cheeks with love. I felt the feeling of motherhood today when the little one fed me with her little fingers .

April 5

This is a very memorable day in my life . On April 5 , 2007 I had my baby shower . My mom and Dad came all the way from India to do this function . I was very happy to have them here . My Best Friend Mathangi and RK anna came from Boston , to attend this function . I was really very happy that they came here the day before itself . I felt as though I had all my relations here when mathangi and RK came here .
On the day of the function , I woke up early and cooked for the day . I prepared pongal ,chutney , sambar for BF . For lunch - rice, sambar, rasam , cauliflower kootu , potato curry , paayasam and vadai . By the time all others got up and amma & Mathagi came up to kitchen and took charge of cooking . My friend Sujatha and her MIL also came for the function . She is my school mate and I felt very happy when she came here with her MIL . Ramesh Iyer from Aurora temple came to our house to do the function . My daughter was very happy when she heard all the mantras uttered by him , for her .
The function went on very well and Mama came here to bless us . We were very happy when we had His blessings and he gave us Darshan in the form of a light . My brother Kaarthik, In-laws, Bhelpur mami , SIL , Prakash Mama were watching the function through skype and they too showered their blessings for me and my baby .
During lunch : When we were having our lunch , RK anna said - cabbage kootu is very nice. I got very tensed . Without saying a word I asked my hubby - can u tell what kootu is this ? He answered the same , My mom , Sujatha's MIL all said the same . Then I said that it is not cabbage and it is cauliflower. [ From that incident , I would never ask my hubby wat is the vege in kootu ] .
The day ended very happily and I still have these memories so fresh in my heart.