HRIDYAA - Cute and little she maybe, but the impact she creates is massive!

Blogging doesn't come automatically for someone as lazy as me. It normally is stimulated by someone's request and the request came from my Sister-in-law this time. A few days before she started to India in Feb, she told me on a call - "Your niece has grown so playful these days and you are certain to enjoy every movement of hers. I would be happy if you can write a blog on her to narrate the experience"

I owe this to you, Anni - Though I have done it 3 months too late, I certainly have had it in my mind all the time.


My Niece named Hridyaa - Born in India, but has lived more than half her three years in Calgary, Canada.

Born on the 1st of Feb 2007, in these initial years she has spent on Mother Earth, she has already created enough positive impact on the happiness of everyone around. The girl with the widest of winks, freakiest of hair cuts, and owner of the craziest of expressions came on at precisely the right time to stamp her influence. She is naughty, she is mischievous, she is noisy, but still, she is extremely adorable and always smile-provoking. They say, all these memorable moments should be captured in whatever mechanism available - My brother being as lazy as I am, isn't the keenest of photographers. That throws the responsibility of capturing moments on me (and to a large extent my SIL) and that's exactly what I have initiated this blog for...!

Before I get into the subject, a note about my SIL and the photographer in her.

They have bought a SLR Camera recently and due to that my SIL is trying to groom herself into an accomplished photographer. She has a great company in Hridyaa who is ready to pose right through the day - Additionally, she is ready to invest all the efforts required too, in her intention to become one. She has been reasonably successful - But still there is enough scope to learn and grow and I'm certain her visualization skills will be thrown into display in the future!

I haven't been with Hridyaa for as much time as I would have liked to, but with the help of the information I have got from her dad-mom, I have composed this little write-up - categorizing her activities trait-wise.


The Naughty One:

Quite often she impersonates herself as Katherine, her buddy in Canada. Everyone around gets their characters changed accordingly - My brother becomes Gopi Uncle, my Sister-In-Law becomes Abhi Aunty and "Where is Hridyaa?" will be answered "Hridyaa has gone to India" and "where are we now?" gets the answer, "We are in Canada" though we were very much in India when all these happened.

She being my niece, I should be called as "Chittappa" in Tamil, according to the rules. But rules are there to be broken, especially when it comes to kids. She calls me "BABU" with decibel-perfect clarity, even my DAD wouldn't feel so rightful to call me so. My Mom, at her customary-best, is so focused on people being treated with respect and she insists her not to call me by name. Guess what she does, all out of the blue when nothing at all is happening, she goes to her and right on her face tells "Babu". My Mom says, "No, Chittappa", she replies, "No, Babu" and this goes on persistently until you know who would give up. My Mom of course.

My brother woke up one fine day with a crazy frame of mind and decided to call her as "H-R-I-D-Y-A-A". She isn't too fond of the idea of 2 A's maybe and in an effort to express her displeasure, whenever she is asked to spell her name - She says "H R I D Y A A A A A A" (I'v stopped midway, she goes on further). I believe, this effectively would have conveyed the message to her mad-dad.

Pretty notorious...


The sports freak:

My brother is an ultimate Roger Federer worshipper - to such an extent that not even Mirka (Fed's wife) would know where Roger is playing next but my brother knows. He has an ATP calendar sheet in his laptop, which categories how many points are to be won and how many are to be lost by each player and all my brother ensures is to know exactly what should happen for Federer to stay number one. His daughter knows this as well and nicely provoked by my brother's friends (Nadal fans of course), gets on his face and says "Federer, down down". My brother should react to this by all means by showing her that he is agitated, otherwise she gets down angry on him and has to be consoled.
She plays the computer game Mario in such accomplished fashion, that someone (like me) who is around 27 years elder, looks so puny in front of her. She has remarkable control and precision and hardly panics - I presume, she is yet to realize what panicking is all about.
She knows very well on how crazy I am about Manchester United, show her the smallest of the club's logos, she will tell my name - I have no clue on how she tells that - Possibly she was trained hard by a few of my brother's friends in Canada, who live and breathe Manchester United and Old Trafford.

The affectionate kid:

She was here in India for all of 2 months and during this time she became so attached to my dad (her grandpa). The affection carried on to a great extent that every time she had to go to my SIL's place, we had to struggle to make her realize there are a few others in their house who are as important as her Grandpa, and may be more. Young Kid, will take time to understand.


This was during my Sister-in-law's younger brother's wedding reception. By any chance, if you thought this little girl's love towards me is overflowing, you have been foxed by her smartness. The actual story goes like this - one of my brothers was trying to photograph both of us together and I was asking her to look at the camera. She said, "Sorry, I'm in no mood to look at it, neither am I allowing you to"

Hridyaa, you are missed in abundance by everyone of us, we clearly are being deprived of staying close to your most infantile period in life - But that's what make you special - Being missed by that many, in spite of having spent just over half of half a dozen years in the planet.

I appreciate your intelligence and learning ability, I am in awe looking at the way you adapt to different conditions, I haven't seen you complain about the changes in surroundings and most important of all, I love you for the value and delight you have added to our family.
You are blessed with a wonderful set of parents, rejoice and keep creating the smiles in all of us.

All the very best to you, Dear!
I know I haven't written enough, I'll write a part-2 some time soon and "SOON" is an extremely subjective term to use - that's why I'm not worried about how quick it has to be!!!!