And he crawls!

It is amazing to see a newly mobile baby. Look at the energy he puts into it.


In the bathtub:



And one more:

Anantagiri Waterfall

Anantagiri waterfall is a pretty good local tourism thingie. It doesn't seem to be pushed very actively by the tourism folks-that-be and guidebooks, but is a hidden gem. The waterfall itself is quite high and good viewing, one of the higher I've seen. The route to get there is quite an interesting mishmash. The last part of the drive is by a pretty bad mud road of a few kilometers and if you're energetic, its perfect to do it by walk instead, it makes the overall hike a good effort. At the end of the road, there's a steep flight of stairs in order to cross a rail track. Then down on the other side, and about a kilometer through brush to reach the base of the waterfall. Finally a badly maintained final stretch of steep climb alongside the waterfall to get to as high as you dare. Good fun !

Of course the bigger tourist attraction in the area is Borra caves, a really nice limestone formation. Its heavily promoted and a must do on the Araku circuit but well worth it. We didn't take any photos, but there are probably lots on the net if you're interested.

On the way back there were local markets with fresh produce. We bought a huge mound of seethaphal and spring onions. The spring onions was a funny thing, in most places in India it would be considered a bit exotic and used for curiosity value more than anything else, but here it seems a mainstream vegetable because it grows well, and the 'common man' was buying and carrying around spring onions.

Trip to Araku area while at Vizag

Priya, I and kid went to the Araku valley area for a two-day trip. Pretty good.

We stayed at a 'eco-resort' called Tyda Jungle Bells. Not particularly 'eco', but it was built within the jungle sort-of, and generally rustic and pretty nice.











The local Dhimsa dance

Funny

I saw this at an aquarium (ie. a zoo-type aquarium, where they have displays of different types of fishes). I found the unintentional humor hilarious,

And in Vizag

On board a submarine ! With cousin Ramana and daughter Mohita. Can you see the propellor in the background of one of the snaps.







And everybody gets their turn..

Cross-dressing ..Grandmommy loves to dress him up



Who's got more hair ?



The 'V' sign behind the head is all the rage at a particular age...



And now in Vizag, with grandfather at a beach park.

Finally updates start again. Will do the excuses later, hopefully start getting a few photos up every day. These are from a couple of months back.





In his pram (which currently has a wheel off). Chinese product by the way. Another example of China getting into Indian markets in a big way



And in his "Bjorn". Came as a gift from namesake/godfather. Not a sign of Swedish companies invading Indian markets in a big way :-)




The bathed baby. Photos are a significant distortion of the actual state of affairs in terms of my invovlement in giving him a bath or cleaning him.

For those who care ..

Parle Poppins is alive (though perhaps not well).
I found it being sold in Tirupati, have not seen it anywhere else till now.
However I must say that the taste didn't quite live up to the childhood memories. Lacked a certain refinement.

Mary (of Timbaktu) with Vibhat. As you can see, she is great with children



Most of the photos are at my cousin's place in Tirupati, with my cousin Ramana, wife Sarala and children Mohita and Lalit Sai.

I tried a whole bunch of restaurants during my 'free period' when Priya and the baby were away. One other major find was the Kyra theater in Indiranagar, www.kyra.in which has all kinds of interesting events, though pretty inconsistent. Below video from a heavy metal concert speaks for itself. Quite a learning evening :-)

And finally

A couple of videos. Not so great, I had a problem editing so its raw video and too long. But a beginning.

These were taken a few weeks back. Since then he's progressing nicely, has started turning over from lying on his back to lying on his tummy (major milestone!), vocalizing and laughing and responding to stimuli a lot more. He's currently at Priya's parents place with Priya and I am (ahem!) missing him.

A movie I did at work about how borewells are drilled. I'm quite happy at how it came out :

New movies

Vihbat Krishna:


and this one is a visit to Mushtikovela near Timbaktu as part of the Asha fellowship work:

Vibhat Krishna

Vibhat Krishna
Originally uploaded by !**sid-art**!

Vibhat Krishna is famous ; his photo made the EXPLORE list on Flickr (top 500 photos uploaded each day).

Videos

Was looking for children's videos on YouTube and got diverted into other things like Pink Floyd :-)

An arabic children's song with Anne Geddes visuals:



Someone's Pink Floyd Top 40:

Its more than a month now since the baby came in, so lots of changes obviously..

He's putting on weight well, but according to the official nos far too well! He went from 3.41 at birth to 4.54 after a month -- according to the doctor that's really high. 20 gms. per day gain after an initial 10% loss is normal, which would be around 3.70. Huge difference. I asked the doc whether that's cause for alarm or satisfaction :-) and he said neither. We'll wait and see.
Visually he's plumped out nicely and we're happy to see him this way.

There were some colicky type things for some time and he cried a lot but the doc told us we weren't burping and 'gassing' him enough, and that problem seems to have gone away. But he doesn't sleep easily and wakes up very easily so its been somewhat rough going lately. The books say that some babies are sensitive and easily disturbed and he seems to be fitting into the category.

He feeds really well from Priya. He was completely without problems on that front, he latched on like a pro on day 1 and pretty much never let go after that. His poop looks really healthy. I marvel at the coolness of the human system, where a 2-3 day old baby has his system working normally enough to get pretty standard-looking yellow poop!


Like all eager parents we're seeing him progress far faster than ordinary :-). He began sticking his head up quite early in the 3rd week or so. He's also kicking and rolling his arms around very actively, squirming like crazy. Its quite a change from the tiny, vulnerable kiddo at launch! He can't move forward yet, but manages to rotate himself quite a bit when put on his back.

Mostly I've not been getting too involved :-), and I haven't done a real serious diaper change yet, though did some simpler versions :-). My parents are at our place as is her mother and so I don't really need to get involved with the yucky stuff.

The house is cramped and a mess, but so it goes.

We went to the corporation office to name him on Saturday. "G. Vibhat Krishna" it is. We didn't get a real consensus and I got irritated with the process of trying to find a name after a while which was a pity. The final naming happened without too much consultation or feedback, so keeping my fingers crossed that we didn't make some boo-boo.

I was (and am) completely entranced by him, unexpectedly. So of course are most else in the house.

My dad had an unfortunate accident, we were driving on scooter and a car bumped us from the side. Apparently there is a hairline kind of fracture and he's been asked not to walk at all, in order not to strain the area. This was quite a shock, and unfortunate. It may need my parents to postpone their departure and go right back to Vizag without visiting anyone else.

Haven't been taking much photo/video unfortunately, although there are lots and lots of kodak moments.

Priya's been having a pretty rough time of it along with all the fun moments. Because he's breastfeeding and doesn't sleep easily, she can't get much of a break away from him. She had severe aches in her finger joints (which might be from iron supplements that she's now stopped) and currently a stiff neck from sleeping in a awkward position.

Have included photo/video of a lot of people without asking permission -- please let me know if you'd prefer I dropped the bits with you in it

Up next: videos :-)
PS: Oops didn't mention. Boy.
PPS: Thanks all for the good wishes.

A first look at the kid

Well ... what to say.
(BTW -- The lady in the photo was one of the nurses who helped with the delivery).
Photos with family can be expected soon)