Coming of Age

Laykha turned 12 weeks this week. Supposedly, 3 months is the end of the "4th trimester", when a lot of the newborn quirks are supposed to go away. Unfortunately, it's also the end of my maternity leave.

Yes, today was my first official day back in the career world. I have a few things to say about being back, but it will have to wait until after tonite's episode of American Idol. Once again, I've gotten sucked into the show.

Just a quick note - I've posted some recent pics on Yahoo! Photos of Laykha as she hits this age milestone: Laykha at 3 Months Enjoy!

The Measure of a Man

Seems the measure of a man in Bangalore is not how many lives you've impacted for the better but rather how many buses are burned in your honor. At least, if you are in the film industry, that is.

This past Wednesday, Aakash, Laykha and I made a trip to the Eva Mall - the new mommies group was once again meeting up at Fun World. With only two weeks of maternity leave left, my opportunities to socialize and swap advice with other mommies is dwindling - better take every chance I can get.

We were settled into the big pool of balls, discussing breastfeeding when one of the mommies got a call from a friend advising us all to head home right away. Apparently, some famous Kannada actor had just passed away, and people were rioting in the streets. Mere moments later, the Fun World employee informed us we'd have to leave as they were closing the place. In the blink of an eye, the entire mall turned into a ghost town.

Rajkumar, the actor who passed, is quite a legend in the Kannada film industry. If you are familiar with Bollywood, he is the Kannada equivalent of Amitabh Bachchan. That's pretty big. He'd been having heart troubles recently, and on Wednesday, at the age of 77, he succumbed to cardiac arrest.

Not only Wednesday afternoon, but yesterday as well all shops and service providers closed their doors in anticipation of rioting. Even the high tech companies, my office included, were to be closed. Sure enough, just as anticipated, throngs of Rajkumar's supposed fans took to the streets, throwing rocks, burning buses and attacking the police. The footage shown on the news was pretty bad - buses completely ablaze, officers being savagely beaten by crowds of mostly younger men. Apparently, 5 people were killed in the madness.

I am quite dumbfounded by the chaos and violence that took place as a result of Rajkumar's passing. Rather than gathering to remember their beloved hero, bringing flowers and lighting candles, Rajkumar's "fans" turned to senseless violence. If Rajkumar's death had been under suspicious circumstances, maybe I could understand a little unrest. Maybe. But the mayhem that resulted from an unfortunate, but natural death was completely unnecessary. I was really hoping to hear Rajkumar's family berate his Bangalore fans for disrespecting Rajkumar with their asinine behavior. At this point, though, all I've heard has been fellow actors criticizing the police for not being better prepared. Go figure.

Rajkumar laid to rest (from The Hindu)

Update from the Chopras

Laykha is at the tail end of a nap right now - thought I'd take the few moments I have left to do a little writing. First things first - I uploaded some new pics to Yahoo! photos - put them in the Laykha at 8 Weeks album.

We had our latest pediatrician appointment last week. Laykha weighed in at 5.2 kg (11.5 pounds) and 57 cm (22.5 inches). Didn't realize how much she's grown until I looked back at the pics from her first few weeks - amazing!

We had our first outing to a family friends' home the other day. We were invited for lunch, which typically ends up being about a 4-hour affair. Little miss fusster did really, really well - it wasn't until the last half hour that she started getting a wee bit cranky. Up until that point, she was either sleeping or all smiles. And yes, it was a 4-hour affair.

In a couple of weeks, we'll really be testing Laykha's tolerance for outings. We are taking a little trip to Chennai to get little Laykha registered with the U.S. Consulate. It used to be that only a parent was required to come, and the baby could stay home. Now, the baby must also make an appearance. I am told this has something to do with trying to control illegal adoptions.

The flight from Bangalore to Chennai is only 45 minutes - a good first step for our little Bebu. If she handles that well, we'll think more seriously about a trip back to the States this summer.