Konningendag: Queen's Day !

Konningendag is that rare day of the year that is also a tax holiday, when all Dutch go crazy and start selling their attic junk on the footpath, and that day the taxman takes break (for shopping for her/himself, presumably). Formally, it is Princess Beatrix's birthday, and celebrated as such. Note: most Dutch don't care two hoots who the queen is, even if that's a man. They are happy with the tax-break on that day and all the fun. That compares well with Ganapati festival in Maharashtra, for example.

For us, it was a good opportunity to walk, show aai-baba some Dutch people in their own setting, get Maithilee out in the open, and finally buy some silly stuff for our apartment. Here are some pics from that day:


1) Newspaper announcement:






2) Reason for this drama on lower left, other two are urging people to show up and enjoy.






3) Program of festivities, includes concerts, open-air music, dramas, sex-shows... well, i made up the last one there.





4) Program stages and artists put on a daily calendar and a map. Each star indicates activity area. This is ONLY for Groningen, each town, village has its own set of events.




5) Here are crowds:


listening to band music (patriotic and otherwise)



selling silly things, dolls, magazines, music, children's stuff,














young boys trying their hand at selling their musical talent








even meeting friends and having coffee in the middle of the din:




selling wood, furniture, tools...




and even used underwear !!!

The fact that the spring is here

jumps out in the form of this flower-laden tree...







camera is lousy, but captures the essence well. This is on my biking path to ASTRON, I am back to my health routine...

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Growing Maithilee: learning to sing

Maithilee is growing and is now more than 2 ft long and 5.5 kilos. It is hard to hold her and play while I am standing. Gosh, even my age is apparent to me now :-(

Here are the latest pics (March/ April). The usually good girl...






Oh My My ! I am having a bad hair day!!!





Hey, don't disturb... I am reading (aloud)





See I am teething, so I chew on my toy!




once again, closer look at my bangles, my new, new bangles...






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About parenthood

Dear friends (a couple) from Goa wrote to us thus [added italics are mine]:

How is maithilee? Yes, we saw her pictures in the blog as well as the write ups. It's really a challenging job. And usually talked about so much, one tries to think of it casually (Importance of motherhood and fatherhood, how they struggled to bring you up etc., you hear it all through your adulthood) . But when we have our own then we realise what it all meant!. It's not the heavy work of shifting a big pile of wood from one place to another, but a sleepless night 'cause of the child's fever, or the angst of a giving an injection, or getting hurt while jumping on the sofa, a non-stop cry which at times is difficult to interpret. And, the relief you feel when they stop crying and fall asleep.

Indeed, how true. Our strength will be measured in not carrying her around, but to watch her learning to walk wobbly-wobble, let her fall even when we know she would, wait for her to fall and cry, then let her learn to walk. This same story will repeat with cycling, swimming, diving, driving, being a teenager with angst, and, finally making boy friends and being on her own. All this we have to go through and love it all (only then it would be worth having her in the first place.)

So wish you both happy times ahead and let there be always a shiny mushkann on mithilees face.

Thank you, once again. Being parents of 3 kids, my friends are at a vantage position to lend us a better view of parenthood to come.

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Lessons for my child

Now that Maithilee is here, I would revisit a few postings from my other blog :


Lessons for my child: Curiosity

Lessons for my child: Discovery and Spirit of Observation

Lessons for my child: Logic and Rationality

I have one more post to go in this series, perhaps over next week it will be written down...

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Maithilee's Birth: some afterthoughts (Ashish)

Here is an excerpt from my recent email to a dear friend:

Maha did well, it took 9 hours of labor, after strong contractions started till birth. i was, of course there. It was quite scary to watch, frankly. ... she was shouting, breathing, humming, generally everything very well, so birthing was smoother. wish we could use hot water tub for 'water birthing', because hot water showers during labor made it much easier for Maha. We had one set up ready in our house, ultimately we just used it for a hot bath later on.
there was total bliss n exhaustion on Maha's face when Maithilee was finally kept at her chest. and, later on I held Maithilee too, she was the smallest bundle of warmth ever. It is such a surprise to hold a baby with its shallower-than-spoon-full breaths and louder-than-room-full of cries. And, she makes you run, jump, do things that you would not do otherwise. Man, i thought i had enough of poop with all kittens/ puppies in my life, but nope ! :-)


Maithilee would get Indian citizenship, the European laws do not grant citizenships by birth. if we stay for more than 5 years continuously, she can apply for citizenship, and she would get it...

we had lots of snow over week-end and it will continue over X'mas. so, Maha got to play with it, a little bit. tons of pics, of course. Maha even managed to fall on her bum once! Maithilee slept through two long rides during snow so far, damn...

On a related note: I always very much admired my women professors: having kids, taking care of them, then teach, have a PhD student, post-doc, then 2/3 grad students, and manage thrilling research. Now that I have a first-hand experience, my admiration has only grown. Ultimately, it is the 'fire in the belly' that pushes one, i have to ignite/ preserve it...

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