With family and friends @ Chicago

30th August 2008, since morning I am at Rohini kaku's place and our house is absolutely empty (with just 9-10 bags kept in the hall)!! We had a nice lunch at kaku's place; both Anand and me played together for the last time and then around 12:30 we started our return journey via Chicago - just as we started our US trip, we decided to end our US trip with Kolpati's blessings.

So with around 9 bags and 1 car seat and 1 pram, we all arrived at Chicago 7:30 -8 pm local time. I was not sure where are we, because when we left ; aai-daddy told that we are going back to meet thatha and pati. But this place didn't look like that. Where am I? Where are my thatha-pati? As I was thinking all this, there came a bunch of people - all welcoming us warmly!! Yes, thanks to our luggage, 4 people came to recieve just 3 ( rather 2 and half) of us:)

Next 2 days were full of fun. In those 2 days, I met so many of thatha-patis. As soon as we came, we went to Anand thatha -Sharada pati's home. Well this house looked a little familiar to me - guess why? Simple, those nicely placed cars in the show-case reminded me that I have played with it some time back and I should do it again :) Anand thatha read my mind quickly and allowed me to play with all the car models . No wonder by 11 pm in the night, Anand thatha was my favorite person out there and one could see me climbing up and down from basement calling "thatha-thatha":) After spending some nice time playing with kolpati and Padma Pati -Srivstan Thatha, I went off to sleep.

Next day was a travel day, with moving from one thatha's place to other and then to uncle's house, I saw almost entire Chicago. Nicest thing was everywhere I was getting to eat my favourite food. The day started with nice idli's made by Sharada pati and followed by masala dosa and halwa prepared by Sheila pati.

Ranga thatha's house was a nice playground for me with a ghoda (horse), haathis (elephants), pakshi (birds), ball and a nice big stair case to play:). I enjoyed playing with all the patis around there and had a great time going up and down the staircase.

After that we went to Narayan thatha's house. This house also was a huge house like Ranga thatha's house. After spending last 5 months in Scottsdale's flat, this house looked like a big khajana of toys for me:). While I was enjoying all the various sizes of elephant and other idols, Narayan thatha called me to show a surprise in the backyard. - a rabbit!! Hey, I was really thrilled to see that very cute rabbit running around in the backyard.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-927631928887135986&hl=en

So after having eaten nicely and playing, I went off to sleep for sometime. When I got up I was somewhere on a crowded road in Chicago downtown. Daddy's friend had come to take us to a nearby Millennium Park. I met a new friend out there -"Aryaman". Next few hours were a complete 'play time' before I had my first train trip; that included playing in water and looking at own reflection in some egg shaped building.

That evening we (aai & me) joined Aryaman & his mother on train journey to Aryaman's house. Train journey was a real fun with we (Aryaman and me) both playing pee-ka-boo with two sisters and their mother, sitting just ahead of us. Aryaman's house was another huge house that I visited that day. The best part of it was the basement converted into a nice play room for Aryaman. Well though it was for Aryaman, As soon as I entered into it, I realised that I am elder between two of us and immediately did "dadagiri" to get more and more toys to play. Both, Aryaman and me, enjoyed (faught??) each others company. And after jointly troubling our mothers for dinner and few other things, we decided to call it a day and gave them a break:)

In the morning both of us played on swing, slide. I learnt a new game that day and it was one of my daddy's favorite game - basketball. Well not that my height increased because that game, but I enjoyed taking the ball up high and then leaving it down. A nice game which I think I will have back in India as well (I heard aai telling that to daddy;)).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3503429412396010602&hl=en

After playing with and troubling Aryaman for around 2-3 hours in the morning, we left for Sharada pati's house as we had to catch a flight for our final destination - India. Before leaving for India, last 1-2 hours I spent entirely with Kolpati. Though I could not talk much in the language that she understands, but soon we figured out that we have quite a lot of common interests (eating buscuits, drakshi, chips etc.). So remaining time just went in enjoying the same like this ....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7214360728606961216&hl=en

I spent some nice time with Anand thatha, Sharada Pati, Ajith and Sujith uncles, before we took our taxi to airport to move back to India. This too was a short visit to Chicago, but I could meet most of my grandparents this time. The weather this time was much warmer than the last time we had visited this place. Here is a small snapshot of those 2 days ...



1st September 2008, with warm blessings from my entire extended family and friends out here in Chicago, we stepped out of that "not so warm" weather to come back to our sweet home - to enjoy the comfort of swades!!