Maithilee Day 5: Bath

Maithilee was tested for hearing ability, and her ears are fine. As the nurse said, that did not mean Maithilee was going to listen to us all the time :-)

She had her second tub bath. Although she hates getting ready for it, it's rather cold for her, she has enjoyed it in the water. On that front, she ranks right along her 'aai' (mother, who i suspect is a ex-mermaid.)









Mithu hates being dried, but when done, she is looks so adorable.



So, we have done her up with new top, and... The favorite maushi will notice something after a keen look at the pic, perhaps.



Maha is glowing as she did Mithu's hair...




Finally, time for a family picture !

Maithilee, Day 4

Maithilee's pictures on Day 4 (26 Nov):

Admittedly her mother does not appear here. I promise to rectify that mistake at the earliest.

मैथिली and baba !

On popular demand, oh wait -- i did not wait for one, here is Maithilee's pic with her baba. She still is fed with anti-allergic milk. Here, she is fed up with her baba's antiques to put her to sleep when she needs more feeding.

Maithilee

मैथिली आसगेकर

We are blessed. Maithilee came to us in our arms on Nov, 23, 2009. She was born naturally, and Maha is doing okay. First night (tonight) they will spend at the city hospital, where the delivery also took place. Here is Maithilee hugging her "aai" for the first time :tears:



Maithilee learnt and was breast-fed to her stomach's content, but the Dutch nurse insisted on feeding her with 'anti-allergic' milk separately.



Now, here is the thing: whenever I did shhhhh...shh.... during all her whining MiThu was pacified, and went to sleep peacefully. So, this is the girl who would respond to my voice distinctly when she was in her mother's belly. She is her father's girl; jeeze, I am so PROUD !!!

Happy Diwali, 2009, from Groningen !!

Shubh-Deepawali !

Here is our apartment all cleared up for a small party, an excuse to introduce Maha to some of my work colleagues, esp. those who travel with me daily.

Maha made this 'Rangoli' on our window-sil, we hung her lamp on top.





















The unsuspecting crowd that were exposed to hazardous amounts of idly's, chutney and sambharam ! they had masala chai, coffee and black tea to choose from as well.



It was Sofia who stole our attention, like only a toddler would.



Here are our pics before and after the party, which is which?





See the clean home, we have put 'unpacking' stage behind us.

Groningen, once again...

That is Maha's latest get-up. Check out the Patiala salwar, and zoom in to see the latest of fashion in shoes ;-)





We took a walk on the canal side on the weekend, you can see so many boats. Is Rad's boat anywhere to be seen, we wondered :p




Maha surveys the boat field...




So, we took a walk in the city park, a dense grove and golfing ground mixed up with a few lakes. Here is Maha posing in front of, what appears to be, the highest point in Groningen at 8 meters above local ground.




While taking walk, we saw a strange bird on the lake side, about 1 meter tall with dark cap-like feature on a white head.




Here is the closest I could get with my mobile camera, can you identify it, Shrirang, Radhika?



Unfortunately it did not take fancy of my attention (like some of my past flames) and took a flight across the water (again much like the above-mentioned flames.)

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My cycle path!

I cycle to work once in a while, although a week ago I was cycling daily. Here is the path I take from Beilen station to ASTRON, Dwingeloo. A nice 14.5 Km path, great for health and lovely during Summer season. I am yet to try really cold and damp days though.

Here is the outline of the map: Beilen station is on top right, ASTRON is close to Lhee village, in the national forest "Dwingeldelverd".






Point 1 looks like: fields on the left, road on the right.



point 2: tall tree groves on the left, motor road on the right.





point 3: A bridge to cross to other side of the high-way A28, see the map on the top. What is that damn van doing on the cycle path!




point 4: after crossing the bridge, we have to enter the forest here.






point 5 and point 6: tall trees in the forest





point 7 : open grass lands, this place is great for birds.



point 8 : Crossing over the motor road near Spier village (forest area continues)




point 9: lake closer to the ASTRON





in the evening Sun on my return trip (i made it back, 4 days in a row!)

Market at central square

Every day there is some market in the central square, see the large (2 foot-ball ground sized) area open with pavements. There is an equal area open adjacent to it, behind the camera. That forms the "down town", although there are hardly any ups/downs in the Netherlands.





This time we watched the market on a Thursday, it was my day off, Maha's second day in Groningen. So, we took a stroll, had some food, bought a couple of books and spoke to some artists selling their wares.

Here is Maha posing in front of a stall...





Baba (bhobe) would have been lost the whole day watching the crockery and antique pieces :-)






There is music, books, artefacts, coins, games, everything...




And here is the fish cart where we ate our "lunch". Maha ate so much of fish, I am sure you have never seen her eating that much...

Mahalaxmi in Netherlands

The eagle has landed !! And Mahalaxmi looked lovely and healthy. She is growing, and glowing, see!

Our apartment in Groningen: 4 pics

When you enter our apartment, you see the bedroom from the door, right next to you.



There is small storage room on the right (not shown in pics). Then if you turn left, you get into a passage-way to the living room.



The passage contains entrances to toilet (first glowing light), then the bathroom (second glowing light, and mat outside the door). Then it opens into a huge living-cum-dining room.



This living room opens in a balcony. It has two large windows as shown above, and two others which you can not see (they are on the wall on the right).

As you view this pic, the passage way (that we came in from) is to the left behind. Right behind us is the kitchen, which looks like below:



As of today, the pic is old. we now have a garbage bin, cleaner kitchen dash board, and more accessories.

So, I hope get a good picture of the apartment. There is also luggage space + cycle parking below.

Next time I will share our pics inside the apartment, Inshallah!
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Learning Dutch

I attended my first Dutch lesson today. I had missed the first lesson of this semester, by someone called H. Every Monday we meet for an hour, speak a little Dutch, learn something and refresh the earlier lessons.

This is similar to French lessons I had with Alliance Francaise. In fact, Dutch are similar to French, in that they dislike English. Both would agree that English is not a "logical" language, and would show how English just has twisted rules from more logical 'main-land' languages.

Anyway, we had some numbers, beginner's words, such as "Who are you?" and "What is your name/ game?" etc. Later, I had some casual chat with H, who wanted to know a little bit about my background, and my details on some official papers.

She was impressed with my pronouncation and quick sentence-building activity. I told her that I had taken 8 months of French lessons, and Dutch was easy to learn. She said, "Of course. In 6 month I learn you Dutch, I promise".

I guess while she teaches me Dutch, I would have to fix her English.

"Plopp... kind of"

When I was handed over the keys to my apartment, I was asked if I wanted the dirty tiles of bathroom and toilet changed. I said, "Yes", after confirming that it was the owner paying for it.

The maintenance fellow did not know how to speak English. So, when I told him to select faint blue color for wall tiles, he had to call his boss to translate it.

Then I explained to him that I wanted him to fix American commode in the toilet. This is so, because the locally they use a strange, shallow commode bowl in toilet, a German custom perhaps. Naturally I wanted to change the toilet commode to how Indians have it.

I tried explaining the fellow about what I wanted: 1) that the flush hole should be in the rear (unlike in the foto in the link above); 2) bowl should be deep, unlike common ones found here (see the link again).

After two minutes his eyes shone, as he exclaimed: "Ah, you want the plopp kind of commode", thus providing the title (and material) of this post.

The latest is that they will finish the repairs in 5 days (WED-TUE), just in time for Maha!

WTF in Groningen

I am setting up our apartment in Groningen, in case you missed the declaration on tweeter and gmail. So, after a weekend of set-up and fixing, i walked around in Groningen to see three WTFs of this week.

1. Divine Disco : organised by Soc. Stud. Cath. (albertus.nl). I believe this is society of Catholic students. They appeared all young to fit this description.
2. Folkingstraat: a red-light street in Groningen. I wish they had dropped 'l' in that name.
3. Rottinghuis : house repairing agency, they repaired my bathroom shower, and will fix the toilet.
   

In the deepest waters...

Our telescope has been shown to be completely operational: the so-called 'first light'. This means there will be further rush to test equipment and keep observing. Already various people have submitted requests of their fav sources, and demand time.

However, most of the astronomy and support scientist staff is on leave due to vacation period. I am alone supposed to manage support activities. Given my poor prep, this is akeen to throwing a child in the deepest end to learn swimming. Oh well, I will drink a lot of water, but I will learn to swim the hardest way! :-)

Who am I ?

Just noticed, that the local town-hall registration letter lists me as "Burger van India". It does not mention if that came with 'Kabab sauce' or `Green Chutney' ;-)

Just to remind you, I was an `alien' in Canada.

Some more picckies !

The other day I took a short walk around to click some pics using Francisco's mobile phone camera. Just to give you an idea of the serene surroundings.

my guest house room


Evening chai table


wooded areas around




Passing through the woods are the cycle paths



Just around the jungle are flat pasture lands



And cyclists go just about everywhere!



Turning back to the dish, which is right in front of the above bike path (behind my back)

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