Mottai number two, not one dannaff

On Monday, my lovely hair was shaved off again. This time it was at Nallur. I cried even more than I did last year during my first mottai, simply because I'm much bigger now and can express myself, scream, jump and kick when I feel like there is trouble for me. Appa held me again and this time around, I had less cuts on the head than the previous time. If I have another mottai, I will probably bite the barber since I now have three more teeth!


This is how I look now and Appa and Amma keep telling me "mottai mandai romba azhaga irukku" (your mottai head is very beautiful) just to ensure that I don't suddenly remember what happened and start crying, like I did for a couple of days. As you can see, in the first photo below, I'm really angry and my eyes are red from crying. This was soon after my mottai and the bath. I hate head baths. I obviously hated it even more after a forcible mottai. In the second photo, I'm with Abarna akka, who is actually my chitti, but like Aravind anna, gets special treatment by me calling her akka. This was soon after we came back to Trichy from Nallur. I was very happy when we got back since it was a place I knew well!


I got two new clothes from both thathas & paatis. In those two photos after the mottai, I was wearing the dress bought by Natarajan thatha and Indira paati. I haven't yet worn the dress Santhanam thatha, Janu paati and Satish chitappa presented me. I'll wear it when they come to Bangalore next week! Appa and Amma bought me so many new clothes - night dresses, frocks, tops and pants. Most of it was because I am afraid of wearing clothes through my head. I'm afraid of my head getting stuck. So they bought me tops with buttons so that I can just put my hand in and wear them.


I extend my refusal to wear clothes through my head to other things as well. I refuse to eat food I don't like and say "Yenakku vendaam" (I don't want) or "Podhuma?" (Enough?) rather than "Jaagruthikku vendaam" (Jaagruthi doesn't want) which I used to say when I was smaller (Appa says: i.e. two months ago!) Sometimes I'm helpful by taking my plate/cup or Appa/Amma's plate/cup to the kitchen sink for washing. Sometimes I just don't have the mood to do it and say "Appa/Amma podatuma?" (Will Appa/Amma put these in the sink?). Similarly when Appa or Amma take me to the nearby shop to buy something and give me the bag to carry, when I'm in the mood, I carry it. Otherwise I just give it back to them saying "Appa/Amma yeduthundu varalama?" (Will Appa/Amma carry it back?)


The two things I love doing at night before going to sleep are to give Amma her tablets by putting them into her mouth and then put the milk coupons inside the milk bag. I'm still not tired of doing those! How many coupons? One Dannaff! One dannaff is one and a half - that is the number of litres of milk for which I put the milk coupons. After that, whenever I hear the word "yevvalavu" (how much?), I immediately pipe up and say "One dannaff", whether it is milk or water or bread or vegetables!


I don't really ride my new cycle often nowadays, but sometimes I like to just sit on it and watch TV. I ask Appa/Amma "Cycle hall-ku kondu varalama?" (Shall we bring the cycle to the hall?) even though the cycle is actually in the hall. That is because to me, the hall only starts from where the oonjal (jhoola/swing) ends. Apart from watching songs on TV, I also watch new CDs which Appa, Amma & Santhanam Thatha bought for me. Appa & Amma bought two CDs with rhymes, numbers, ABCD etc. in it. The rhymes were very interesting especially because it was the first time I was seeing rhymes as cartoons.

I am deeply affected by Humpty Dumpty and keep saying "Humpty Dumpty-a otta vekka mudiyala" (No one was able to stick Humpty Dumpty back). Miss Muffet being scared of the spider also was scary to me and I try to calm her down by telling her what Amma told me "Muffet muffet, bayapadadha. Spider dhaane. Adichudalam" (Muffet muffet, don't get scared. It is just a spider. We'll hit it). The story of piggy being hit by the train made me tell piggy what the engine driver told him "Train varache naduvla vara koodadhu? Engine varadha paathu na poganum" (You shouldn't be on the track when the train is coming. You should see if the engine is coming).

The ABCD, 123, parts of the body CD isn't too interesting yet. I actually felt sleepy after watching it. I suspect Appa and Amma will use it to make me sleep earlier than midnight! I guess I better start liking it! Thatha bought me a CD with Tamil rhymes in it, like "Nila nila odi vaa", "Amma inge vaa vaa" etc. I'm beginning to like it as well.

Before going to sleep at night, I obviously have my dose of stories. Amma has been telling me two new stories - one of them is about the tortoise who won the race against the rabbit and the second is about the mouse which helped the lion. I've made my own change to the kaaka-nari-vadai kadhai (crow, fox & vadai story) and in that story, Indira paati is the paati who makes the vadai. In the kozhukattai kadhai where I make a hop and forget the name of the sweet (kozhukattai) and say atthiripaacha (Santhanam thatha told me this story), Janu paati is the one who makes me the kozhukattai.


Kaushik chitappa was home last month. He is one of the few who prefers to do watch me from far away rather than try to carry him. Since I don't like people carrying me as soon as they see me (with some exceptions), I guess we will get along well! Appa, Amma and he had pizza but I wasn't allowed to eat. Karthik mama celebrated his birthday. We went to a restuarant and Mahesh mama was also there. I loved Appa's orange juice and Mahesh mama's lime juice. But most of all, I loved the cool air coming out of the gaps near the floor there and I kept running around the place to enjoy the cool air from every single gap.

Ok, that is all for now. Talk to you all next month, when I have a lot more hair!