Half a Year Down

Tuesday, August 11th, 2020 was a special day. It was Janmashtami, the festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna, the 8th Avatar of Vishnu. Avyaan turned 6 months old on the same day. Janmashtami is also special to us because it was on Janmashtami 2019 that a couple of Prajakta's friends disclosed to us that we were having a boy. Add to it the fact that it is one of the few celebrations I actually look forward to, and you quickly realize that it was going to be a big day.

The actual celebrations started a few days ago when Prajakta ordered traditional Indian dresses for Avyaan from Etsy. You see, dressing up babies as Krishna is one of the major highlights of Janmashtami and this being Avyaan's first, there was no way we were not going to dress him up. The next item on the agenda was to find a peacock feather for the crown. I'm not sure why, but Krishna's crown always has a peacock feather (Mor Pankh), so the look wouldn't have been complete without one. We had planned to check out craft stores like JoAnn and Michael's but they were already closed every time we ventured out in the evening. Then one evening we decided to have pizza for dinner, not from our regular Domino's but from the Pizza Hut across the street from us. Since this was an impulsive decision, it meant we had to wait 15-20 minutes for our order to get ready, during which time I decided to check out a Psychic Reading shop just out of curiosity. Turns out the psychic reading is only part of their business and they carry a whole lot of other stuff of spiritual and mystic importance to various people. Among the motley collection, in a corner in a large vase, were a bunch of peacock feathers. We quickly chose one, paid for it, grabbed our pizza, and headed home.

The last thing to complete the dress part was the actual crown. We tried several stores that stock party supplies but couldn't find any relevant selection. Apparently, crowns/tiaras are only a girl's thing, which means they mandatorily have to be pink, thanks to gender stereotypes. After scouting many, many stores till the evening before, we finally decided to make one ourselves with craft supplies at home and buying an additional roll of golden gift wrapping paper. Creating the crown was an exciting exercise in creativity and I will probably dedicate a full blog post on it soon, but I will share the end result for you to admire.

Since I fast till midnight on Janmashtami, where I can eat only fruits and milk, it meant we could not bake a regular cake as we do in other months. Prajakta decided to try and make a Milk Cake, which meant most of Monday night was spent in stirring the milk for hours on stovetop, reducing it, and separating out the milk solids that could then be sweetened and molded into a cake shape. Our end result wasn't textured like a traditional milk cake, but more like a peda/barfi. We probably took it off the heat a little too soon to get that classic brown color and we didn't put in enough acid for the separation to be as pronounced, but once set and decorated, it was a complete showstopper and tasted heavenly. Here's a photo of our end result along with what a more traditional Indian milk cake looks like.

Since it was an auspicious day, we also decided to do Avyaan's Annaprashana, a ceremony to formally introduce an infant to solid food. While we had been giving him a small sample of fruits for a few days and even fed him a spoonful of kheer on Rakshabandhan last week, this was when we gave him a more traditional dal-rice, which he immediately showed disdain for, by spitting it out, and went for the bowl of mango pulp instead! 

The actual day went pretty fast. Decorating our mandir (the in-home shrine), doing the pooja (rituals/worship), dressing up a fussy baby who doesn't care much for festivals or birthdays (yet), etc. meant that it was already evening when we decided to drive to ISKCON temple near Culver City, a place where we go every year on Janmashtami. As expected, the temple was closed to the public. While we could hear the bhajans (communal chanting of the lord's name) and other rituals being performed inside, the entry was severely limited and restricted to ISKCON members. The public could watch the proceedings on the temple's YouTube live stream, something I did on getting back home.

All in all, it was a fun day to celebrate and reflect on how quickly time is flying. Avyaan is now regularly turning from his back to his belly, what my parents fondly call bhujangasana (Serpent Pose in Yoga)

He is vocalizing more and more every day, with the sounds changing every couple of days. He has become super observant, carefully examining each and everything we do, curiously arcing his neck to track moving people/things like a cat does. He has learned to communicate his likes, with a brilliant smile, and dislikes, with a loud roar. His laughter is as infectious as ever and can light up the darkest of days.

For all the wrongs happening in 2020, one thing that happened right, and offsets pretty much everything else, is us being blessed with Avyaan! I can't wait for the coming months and years.