Spent the last 2 days in West Hartford, Connecticut with my cousin Vijay and his wife Ketki, and their 6 month baby son, Rahul. His parents (that is, my uncle and aunt) are also there, visiting him from India. Vijay and his wife live in a neat Cape Cod style house which I found out later is very popular in the east Coast, especially Ct area. It was a very leisurely time, spent chatting with them and playing with the baby, who is, hands down, the CUTEST, HAPPIEST, CHUBBIEST baby I have ever seen (sorry Gautam....i thought you used to be the CHC baby, but lil' Rahul takes the cake...and I suspect eats it too:-))He took a great liking to Raga....all kids do, I think his beard fascinates them.
We watched an Indian movie last night on his big screen (90 inches wide) called "Rang de Basanti" which we enjoyed a lot. Not the usual Bollywood song and dance ritual, but a serious movie on the efforts of an Englishwoman, who comes to India to shoot a documentary on freedom fighters, based on a diary written by her grandfather, an officer in the English army. If any of you gets a chance to see it, do so. For the non Indian speaking, it has sub titles and a lot of dialogue in English too.
This morning we all walked to the petting farm in front of the house and it was more of a thrill to me than to Rahul....cute little baby goats with little stubs for horns, pink piglets, soft furry donkeys and llamas,I got to pet them all. Unfortunately i didn't take my camera :-(
I have to mention that I saw a very different side of my uncle while in Hartford. This is my uncle who worked for the Indian Army and retired as Colonel, and I always remembered him as a pretty stern man, barking orders at everyone. My memories of him as a child were of someone who everytime I saw him was in the Indian Army uniform, all starched and ironed with medals glistening on his lapels and he carried this sort of stick in his hand....and everytime he spoke it was this stern deep commanding voice...we all quavered with fear...Ok, not exactly, but you get the picture!!!
Now here he is, a totally besotted grandpa to his grandson, bouncing him on his knee, sitting on the floor with him and cootchy cooing with him, giving him a bath, singing baby songs, and horror of horrors....changing his diaper!!! It was so cute....the same Colonel who aroused terror in the hearts of his subordinates, is mush in the hands of his 7 month old grandson.
We got back to Princeton about an hour ago after getting totally lost on the way home....took us an extra hour. Not sure what our plans are for the next few days...i still have to sort out my baggage situation..Hmmmm.
Video of Rahul
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