Temple Treat

So this has been a month of many firsts. And one of them included my heading to a Hindu Temple in London, which I heard about for the past 10 years, finally I headed to the Swaminarain Temple in Neasden, London. It is a famous Gujarati temple which is on the tourist trail in London. I had stood in the crowds, close to the temple to see a spectacular firework display on Diwali in 2000, a long time ago. And since then I had not been in.

I am a fairly religious person, though talking about my faith and belief is not something I like doing, therefore temple visiting is not a need/ habit, its one of those..lets go and see it type of situations. Once in a temple I am happy, I pray, look around, feel good and go home. I have somehow managed to travel and see quite a few of the important Indian temples - Tirupati, Kashi, Haridwar, Rishikesh....and I do have a deep desire to see Amarnath at some point of time..anyway, I deviate.

So we went to this temple as a family and so we went in to see the temple and pray.

First we got pushed around quite a lot by some very rude people.
For the first time I was told that I could not take the baby bag as it was a "bag' and bags are not allowed in the interest of security (Heathrow eat your heart out). Then we stood (a first in a Hindu Temple for me) in two seperate queues, one for men and one for women. This differentiation by the same people who point steady fingers at mosques and Islam for differentiating between the sexes.

So the little one who is all of 2 months old was wearing these cute shoes.


Two uniformed men within the worship areas made me take off the tiny shoes the little one was wearing, as they were 'shoes'. They did not mind the leather belts, the phone holsters and the shiny leather wallets, but in the interest of being pure they wanted all shoes. Needless to say my fast asleep son woke up and was not pleased. I dont think I need to tell you that they were indeed very rude, bearing in mind the level of 'offense' and the offender here being a baby.

According to most religions babies/ children are equated to God, Angels, and have a special status which they enjoy till they grow up.
The experience was nasty, depressing and one I shall not want to repeat in a rush.

I dont know if this is a Gujarati thing, a British Gujarati thing, a question of rules of just plain stupidity on part of the temple. It might also be me being jumpy about anything to do with the baby, but I did not like the sex discrimination in the queuing system either. I have a special place in my heart for shoes, now especially for tiny fabric made ones with dragons on the sole.
I dont know if it is all of the above in parts, but, I did not like it. At all.

Back with Baby

So I am back..
I am back with a permanent resident in my head and a presence in my life which has changed things by 360 degrees..
Had a baby boy a few weeks ago..and its been a whirlwind ride since then! and I am sure there is more to go.
Much as I LOVE my little boy I do think the whole pregnancy, labour and delivery business is a BIG con. The whole thing about 'you will forget the pain' etc etc does not happen. Being pregnant was kind of interesting and fun, given the amount of stuff you can read, absorb and think about..well..it was interesting till the last trimester, which was painful enough for me to look forward to labour pains!! Yes, that bad.
I am still a bit traumatized by the whole child birth business so will spare you the detail, shall just say a bit and then stop.
I had kidney stones, and the Dr then said if you have gone through this pain, child birth will be a breeze. Guess what...he was kidding..labour pains made kidney stones feel like mosquito bites in comparison!!Yes, that bad.

Came home with 20 staples on me and 28 inside me. ahhh!
And then they came out.
And then I was made to walk within 26 hours of being operated..walk, take a shower, eat something and then go pick the baby and feed him. Tough love has a whole new meaning in the NHS, UK.

Baby is damn cute and occupies most of my mind and body and time and energy. I hoped not to turn into baby mush filled mommie who cant think and talk beyond baby..but I have some fears right now about this.

Having a lot of time off as maternity leave, means I can enjoy the baby for a while before he goes to nursery...I hope he enjoys me though. I mean how much fun can someone who wipes your face and nose every 2 hours be?

So yes, life is a bit different now..well more than a bit. And this is not including the thinking I have been doing about my own mother, having people here in the house with me, my relationship with the daddy of the baby and how the world does not look ALL that different yet..but I guess I can take things as they come...

Hope to blog more..and not always about BABY.