Dearest Aindri,
I love you the most.
You are now a 5-year old child. When we began, 5 years seemed such a distant place, but here we are. 5 years ago we were a nervous lot, with apprehensions galore, and now, 5 years later, we are better.
This past year has been marked by quite the regular things I must say. You have been growing taller. You are a 3.1 feet tall girl now. You have been regularly going to school and I am sure enjoying it too. You have made a great friend in Sanvi and the ritual of hugging bye at the end of the school is adorable. In this year you have learnt all the letters, capital and small, numbers till twenty, many new rhymes, songs at school, dance for annual day, etc, etc.
We have continued our reading together habit this year too. Notably, we read the three part 'Mahabharata' of Amar Chitra Katha, which Sudhakar dadu was so kind to give us when we visited him once. So much so that we have now started re-reading book one.
Predictably, you took to watching TV a bit more than previous year and you have shifted from watching Doraemon to Ninja Hatori (ding ding). Your picking old Hindi songs like 'pyaar humen kis mod pe le aya', 'ek chatura naar' has been interesting. Your love for dance continues, with you sitting through our CCC programs, be it Mohiniattam, Bharatnatyam or even the play by Naya theater the other day. Also, definitely not inspired by your mother, you have grown a penchant for getting dolled up in this past year.
The world for a 5 year old is not very wide, but in the wide world we live in, 2019 has been one that of turmoil. The US, the most powerful nation int he world, has a buffoon for a President, called Donald Trump. There is something called Brexit, which is otherwise complex but then will suffice to understand that UK is to discontinue part of being the larger Europe. North Korea continued to play hide-and-seek with nuclear weapons. India elected a BJP government in this year, the policies of which is affecting both Indian economy and social fabric negatively. Yes, the happenings in India concerns me about your future, as it very much did when you were born; especially since the majority of the country does not respect women as it should. But preserve we shall and shine we shall. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
Back home, your Nanu had been battling with his cancer and you have become familiar with the terms chemotherapy, bilirubin, etc, which you hear us talking about. Only when you are a certain age, you will realize, there is so much to learn from the way he is battling it out. We could not go out anywhere much this year other than a few trips to Bangalore and one to Odisha. When we went to Odisha we had a fun trip to Puri when so many of our family went in a big bus. You of all things, wore a saree, to Jagannath temple, and had to be lifted for most part of it.
In the past few days your excitement for your birthday had grown to dizzying heights with you having decided quite sometime back that the theme of your birthday would be 'Frozen'. So, some Elsa stuff has been gotten for you. This year we are celebrating your birthday at Bangalore with your maternal side of the family with your aunt having come down from Sweden, and will be inviting few close friends there. You are excited that it will be in club house at Orchid Lake View Apartment. You have become a chatter box, and that has been a source of great joy for all of us.
We don't know what is in store in the year ahead, or philosophically, in the very next moment. I don't know when you would be ready to read these letters, or if I will be able to continue this tradition of writing these letters. Nothing is certain in life and thus we have to live to the fullest in the present. You see, new age liberal parenting, is a tricky thing, and we hope we are managing fine with it. I am liking this letter writing tradition and I hope one day you will get to read these, to understand how you were and to understand what your father is/was.
Happy birthday kichlu michlu.
Love
Papa
Letter to Aindri on her:
1st birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-letter-to-my-daughter.html
2nd birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2017/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-2nd-birthday.html
3rd birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2018/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-3rd-birthday.html
4th birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2019/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-4th-birthday_2.html
I love you the most.
You are now a 5-year old child. When we began, 5 years seemed such a distant place, but here we are. 5 years ago we were a nervous lot, with apprehensions galore, and now, 5 years later, we are better.
This past year has been marked by quite the regular things I must say. You have been growing taller. You are a 3.1 feet tall girl now. You have been regularly going to school and I am sure enjoying it too. You have made a great friend in Sanvi and the ritual of hugging bye at the end of the school is adorable. In this year you have learnt all the letters, capital and small, numbers till twenty, many new rhymes, songs at school, dance for annual day, etc, etc.
We have continued our reading together habit this year too. Notably, we read the three part 'Mahabharata' of Amar Chitra Katha, which Sudhakar dadu was so kind to give us when we visited him once. So much so that we have now started re-reading book one.
Predictably, you took to watching TV a bit more than previous year and you have shifted from watching Doraemon to Ninja Hatori (ding ding). Your picking old Hindi songs like 'pyaar humen kis mod pe le aya', 'ek chatura naar' has been interesting. Your love for dance continues, with you sitting through our CCC programs, be it Mohiniattam, Bharatnatyam or even the play by Naya theater the other day. Also, definitely not inspired by your mother, you have grown a penchant for getting dolled up in this past year.
The world for a 5 year old is not very wide, but in the wide world we live in, 2019 has been one that of turmoil. The US, the most powerful nation int he world, has a buffoon for a President, called Donald Trump. There is something called Brexit, which is otherwise complex but then will suffice to understand that UK is to discontinue part of being the larger Europe. North Korea continued to play hide-and-seek with nuclear weapons. India elected a BJP government in this year, the policies of which is affecting both Indian economy and social fabric negatively. Yes, the happenings in India concerns me about your future, as it very much did when you were born; especially since the majority of the country does not respect women as it should. But preserve we shall and shine we shall. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
Back home, your Nanu had been battling with his cancer and you have become familiar with the terms chemotherapy, bilirubin, etc, which you hear us talking about. Only when you are a certain age, you will realize, there is so much to learn from the way he is battling it out. We could not go out anywhere much this year other than a few trips to Bangalore and one to Odisha. When we went to Odisha we had a fun trip to Puri when so many of our family went in a big bus. You of all things, wore a saree, to Jagannath temple, and had to be lifted for most part of it.
In the past few days your excitement for your birthday had grown to dizzying heights with you having decided quite sometime back that the theme of your birthday would be 'Frozen'. So, some Elsa stuff has been gotten for you. This year we are celebrating your birthday at Bangalore with your maternal side of the family with your aunt having come down from Sweden, and will be inviting few close friends there. You are excited that it will be in club house at Orchid Lake View Apartment. You have become a chatter box, and that has been a source of great joy for all of us.
We don't know what is in store in the year ahead, or philosophically, in the very next moment. I don't know when you would be ready to read these letters, or if I will be able to continue this tradition of writing these letters. Nothing is certain in life and thus we have to live to the fullest in the present. You see, new age liberal parenting, is a tricky thing, and we hope we are managing fine with it. I am liking this letter writing tradition and I hope one day you will get to read these, to understand how you were and to understand what your father is/was.
Happy birthday kichlu michlu.
Love
Papa
Letter to Aindri on her:
1st birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-letter-to-my-daughter.html
2nd birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2017/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-2nd-birthday.html
3rd birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2018/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-3rd-birthday.html
4th birthday: https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2019/01/letter-to-aindri-on-her-4th-birthday_2.html
