I came upon this picture in the Bean’s birth post that the OA had written (!) on the old blog and it made me all teary. I don’t come from a family given to photography (so I overcompensate!) and this is one of the few pictures my mother is in, even partially. We have no family wedding pictures and the only reason they have one with my brother is because my SIL’s family got a photographer who hounded them!
Anyhow – this is the Bean, straight out of the OT and a very weak me, clutching at my daughter because I can’t believe she’s for real, that I’ve actually got the daughter I craved so badly. Even today I smile at her in an utterly foolish, besotted way because I can’t believe one of my dreams made it to reality.
Feisty, funny and utterly feminine, she reminds me of my mother in so many ways. And yet in so many ways she’s not my mother, but like my grandmother – the petite structure, the oval face with a stubborn, sharp chin, the big eyes, the soft wavy hair.
I particularly like it because although I am the bridge generation, I was really weak after the surgery and as I struggled to touch my dream, scared it would vanish into thin air, my mother’s warm, strong, comforting hand reached out and joined both our hands, not coming between us, but giving us the strength we needed. And from the other side two tiny little greedy hands grabbed hold of my finger and we were joined forever in a bond no one can take away from us. It is a moment that might have been lost in time and space if it weren’t for the OA clicking pictures (rather unusually) and now it’s a moment I’ll get to revisit over and over again… capturing three very determined, loving and strong willed women holding hands – bound by blood, fate and nature. A force to be reckoned with and never to be messed with!!
Also – a lot of people want to read my archives, but I’m too lazy to move them yet. So I’m going to be pulling out old posts once in a while and I hope all of you will de-lurk and say hi if you once read them!
PS: And I was most pissed that they chopped my nails and removed my nailpolish! Can’t believe how much it enraged me at that point – and yet, the way it was done, was rather dehumanising..
The Mad Momma 
Wow that’s a lovely snap, and a very poignant post!
Am so glad you’re going to be posting old posts again! Look forward to them since I’m relatively new to the blogosphere and have missed all your old posts. Could you post the one you had done on stay at home moms (had read about this post on Rohini’s blog Mama Says So)if possible?
And I thought your hand looked really pretty! Time to go for a manicure!
gosh no – the SAHM posts caused major controversy 😀 I got totally trolled out. someday when I have the patience to deal with them maybe…
Very cute pic.. and the description for it makes it so precious.. I love the way new borns hold our fingers & your hands are pretty..
Wiping away the tears. You bet there’s something about generations of women that the Y chromosome just can’t match! I have this pic of 4 generations from my grandma down and it’s so special.
beautiful, beautiful post. And love the way your mom’s hand is not between but supporting. This is something some grandmoms take a while to understand!
And such a heart-tugging picture. Thanks for sharing it.
😦 I lost my grandma just after the brat turned one. but she did see him and i take my comfort in that. i also think she came back as the bean because the bean is the spitting image of her and the world couldnt have handled two of them
WOW! Beautiful pic MM 🙂
I did! I did read the original post! And I think I wrote you my first mail soon after, with my almost newborn daughter’s pic 🙂
thats right 🙂 I remember that.
Quite a touching post…I love all your brat and beanie posts.
“capturing three very determined, loving and strong willed women holding hands – bound by blood, fate and nature. A force to be reckoned with and never to be messed with!!”
Tabahi MM!! this sounds like the teaser for a really DHANSU movie…Teen Devian. Have me down for tickets for the first day first show.
and may the picture run housefull each day every day.
LMAO. Tabaahi indeed. But then you know what the bean is like. tabaahi is right.
I clearly rem this post. Most of your older posts actually :D..Do paste them here!
will do 🙂 I should have known an old post would drag all of you out of hiding! hows it going?
Not hiding MM. Your blog is my morning cuppa tea. 🙂
Can’t wait!
Awww….lovely picture & the way you have captured the picture in words makes it so special
What a beautiful picture. And you do have lovely hands!
thank you 🙂 all of you
OMG! That’s such a beautiful picture MM! By the way, nailpolish or not, you’ve got the prettiest hands this side of the Atlantic… 🙂
aww.. thanks 🙂 its the only part of me not succumbing to gravity yet 😉
awwwwwesome.
Lovely hands MM :)…please tell which is the ad that ur hands feature in
and the Beanie is such a cutie-pie!!!
loads at one point Prags. but that was a good 7 years ago. From washing powder to knitting yarn to whatnot… it took me through post grad!
im sure u must be knowing which of those ads still appear on TV..
GORGEOUS!!
Delurking to say I’ve been angling (silently, if you can angle silently) for an invite to your old blog. I wasn’t a to-be-mommy then and my life was consumed by so many other things I didn’t realize what I was missing out on – mommy blogs! :-).
Thank you, therefore, for posting these from your old blog.
LOL! yes – i did a double take on that one because I dont remember you ‘angling’ at all!
and oh – congratulations on being a mommy to be!
OMG, did the mad momma actually reply? 🙂 I’m fangirling BIG time now.
And of your vast network, I think I actually know a couple of mom-bloggers IRL as well. Didn’t realize all you/these smart, funny, accomplished women were not only getting yourselves knocked up all this while but also writing about it and creating a whole ecosystem.
Thanks for the congratulations…
gah. now she’s taking my trip :p
oh alright. i shall wait until you’re ready to quit the ragging 🙂
Very cute picture and so meaningful as well. I love all three generations come together.
I may sound a little silly but why did they take off your nail paint???? How does that come in the way of childbirth?
dont ask me. ask the badtempered nurse who almost chopped my fingers off 😦
Well, the nurses think that once the baby is out, the delicate skin may get brused with mommy’s nails..atleast thats what me and and a couple of mothers were told in the nursing room lol… 😀
Hey MM, Lovely pic. Gosh those are lovely fingers….long and shapely……iska raaz?
damn.. i wish i could take credit.. but sadly, just genetics 🙂
Wish you many more beautiful pictures! Wish you one with four generations too.
I thank God for letting me have one such rare picture – with my grandma, mom, me and Aditi. Somehow being an all-women picture makes it all the more special for me 🙂
🙂 I think thats awesome…
wow 3 gens ha? make sure you take more pictures of the three strong women. i dont have very many of my mom with me and my daughter and i regret not taking pics when i could have. the fact that they are gazillions miles away and dont get to hook up often is a bummer.
all of us go to india next year and i plan to click away.
you dont?! you must, woman. this trip for sure.
Raises her hand and waves wildly…
Me Me Me….I’ve read this before !!
heya!
Oh please do transfer your archives! Now that I’m a mom (of a 9m old) it’ll so awesome to read what you went through at that stage of motherhood with brat and bean…
i should na? i will – i’m just lazy… and not at all tech savvy. its taken me this long to figure out nested comments!
been reading all the posts, havent commented.. this one made me tear up… i am beginning to firm up on my decision to have 6 kids, after seeing this pic. its so precious, as is your Beanie. God bless.
yuo’re going to have them you know. and i’m going to be the maasi they love and you hate because i’m going to spoil them rotten 😀
Cant wait 🙂 and looks increasingly like i might just land up in Delhi..
absolutely beautiful picture MM. Treasure it as am sure you will 🙂
Hello MM,
Very beautiful picture and i love the title and the beautiful post :-).
Beautiful post….. Wish you’d put up your complete archives here.
bean’s looking adorable…..
you want me to get beaten up by the old trolls? 😉
Such a beautiful pic. And I love the way your mother’s hand is holding on to both of you.
Btw, why would they remove the nail polish? Long nails I can understand – fearing it may bruise or scratch the newborn’s skin par polish?
I too remember that post…although I read it much later..bean was already quite a lady by the time i read her birth story and saw pics…
nice!
harshika
HI MM,
It is a brilliant pic, thanks to OA for clicking it just in time and at the right angle. The description is so apt and wonderful. May God bless the three generations. I am waiting for my progeny as well, cant wait to touch him/her.
yes – I havent thanked him for a picture as much I have for this one. its not even one of those planned family pics. its just spontaneous and the focus is on the bean. THIS generation – with ma and me out of the frame.. because we’re sort of irrelevant.. and its her day… arent i rambling?
i just wish i have a daughter this time… and i will be one of the lucky fews to have four generations in one pic. bean looks like an angel really.
beti – MM ki dua se beti hi milegi. darshan karne aao. AND you better do it before you deliver, or then have me over. its been ages since you cooked for me. I dont care if you’re pregnant 😀
humarey gareeb khaney par aaney ka kasht kariye. hum to is liye aapko invite nahi kar rahey they ki aapke pas waqt ki quillat rehti hai… how about tomorrow, dinner?
i have houseguests on sat – how about midweek?
and the OA’s guest post was the first one I read on your blog :)… gosh beanie has grown up too fast!!
really? 🙂 you better have a guest post done for yours !
Beautiful!
I have not read the post entirely or the other comments, but when I saw the picture I had to comment about 2 things before it slipped my mind (or before someone walks into my cube at work):
1) OMG you have beautiful hands!! I can see why you were successfulas a hand model. I have small fat hands (the rest of me is not fat), so I am totally jealous.
2) The bean is adorable! how come she looks so cute? I mean, I have seen neew born babies, they are wet and red and look angry. This one looks happy and peaceful (not to mention clean and comfy).
Now, I will go back and read the post 🙂
and I am fat with thin hands 😉 such is the unfair nature of err.. nature!
and I think the bean more than made up for the cuteness by getting burnt within three days and being the ugliest baby i’d ever had the misfortune of setting eyes on. it was months before she cleaned up and looked cute again 😦
Awesome picture, awesome post
*touchwood* that’s a super cute baby
couldn’t take my eyes off her 🙂
I let out a big sob and had to hold back tears when I saw that picture. It’s priceless…
Hello 🙂 I am an obedient child and so I’m delurking. You with the pretty hands,pretty eyes, pretty cheek bones et al,surely you can only make a beautiful daughter and thats what Beanie is.Period
First time here. What a lovely pic. made my eyes misty. i have one with my grandma, mom, me and my first son. but, this one is just beautiful. i have similar beliefs too that my second son is my grandpa and people usually laugh at me. glad to see someone who thinks on the same line 🙂
Thats a great post MM and simply love the pic..the way you 3 were holding hands…wow. And Beanie looks so cute….kala tikka!!
Yes, I remember the bean sprout post 😉
What a beautiful post MM! Beanie is truly a dream come true for you. And she does look like your grandmother. So, you are a proud mother of two lovely children, who are going to grow up and find many admirers!
The three generations look beautiful in the pic. I think I would like to see the pic with yours and aunty’s face in it 🙂
hey MM,delurking after a really long time.
Had sent you a mail long back asking for some info on Beanie’s treatment for eczema(for Ki- Jaana).I was carrying then and am now a mother of a 16 months old son.Dont know if you remember that mail.
Just love this picture.I also wanted a baby girl,but hey no complains about having my little boy Brat:-).Took 5 long years to convince the husband to have a baby.And I dont quite have the strength to start convincing him again for a second one now.So will have to make do with your pictures and your descriptions of the joy of the seeing your little baby girl for the first time;-)
of course I remember… did the medication work then?
The medication was for Ki-Jaana’s son.I think it worked.
beautiful post…there is so much warmth in ur writing…
Cute pic …lovely post!
totally touched by both – the pic and your words 🙂
Such a precious pic MM !! and I held up my hands to see if they compare to yours..but sacchi, beanie’s little tenny hands are what I loved the most !! greedy grabbing hands :P. How are such tiny ones so perfect ??
Now I want one !! 😦
you want this one? its giving me too much attitude already!
posts/photos i remember from wayyyyy back =
1. brat sitting on a bike that had gone (or was going) half way around the world
2. the post about why the brat was packed off to nana and nanis… –> you were pregnant with the bean. yay!
3. how your garden grew from nothing to loveliness *oh. i loved the pix*
4. and your shoe collection (this wasnt so long ago, i think). was totally horror-struck at your imelda marcosity.
* jaw had to be wiped off the floor*
you were reading me when I was expecting the bean?????????
*dies*
these nested comments are fantastic, i tell ya. all hail poppy
all hail poppy indeed. do you think we’ve given her hiccups?
super picture. though this comment might tire you for making it to this space for the nth time, i have to say it: you have beautiful hands:-) even without the polished nails!
🙂 thank you.
what do you mean you are too lazy to move the archives? HUH??!!
till then this is one helluva beautiful post!
cheers!
i mean my arse is glued to the seat, but it always seems like theres something better I could be doing.. like reading other blogs 😀
What an absolutely beautiful pic.The description of the moment is lovely too.May the 3 of you continue to have these moments in time…
Since we are talking about posts from the past.. Can we pull over your post on beauty products 😛 ? I remember all the details about you and your lovely kids, but for the life of me I can’t remember the Vichy blah blah details of the cream that gave you back your smile 🙂
lots of love!
you wanna do a new one? we can pull the old one out and ask people to contribute with their favourite products again, huh?
TOTALLY! In my old age, I need all the help I can get 🙂
Awwww she is gorgeous
I remember the OA’s post.. I do! I do! I remember other things too, but I’m not going to mention it, because then you’ll think I’m crazy. 🙂
psstt.. send me an email so that I can have my shitfit in private 😀
Lovely picture! I never did read this post before,I think I started following the old blog rather late!
never too late 😉
this is a priceless picture. (commenting after a long time) 🙂
i know – but you send me such interesting links that I never feel as though you’re missing!
beautiful!!! and Priceless!!
And I remember reading how angry you were about them taking off the nailpolish and cutting ur nails when u painstakingly did them before going in 🙂
Hey nice hands even without nailpolish and all that 🙂
You know MM, I can say a lot of things about this post, all sincere and heartfelt, like beautiful hands, poignant moment, lovely writing, but instead, I’m going to say something else…
Each time I read a post of yours about how badly you wanted a daughter and how God granted your wish…I can’t help but feel many things. I so, sooooooo wonder…did I not wish hard enough? Was praying, fantasising and dreaming dreams about the daughter-that-ultimately-never-was from the age of four, not enough?
This post touched something primal in me and I’m trying to ignore the sting of tears I can feel.
God bless your lovely little Bean…so funny, warm and beautiful. I pray many years down the line, you’ll be in another version of this snap…supporting your Bean’s hand as she grasps her Bean’s hand… (nazar naa lag jaaye)
🙂 thanks babe. i know what you mean. and I often wonder how my wish got granted when others wanted as badly as me. eventually it boils down to something as simple as my kismat. she was just written for me and it no credit goes to me, the time of the month or the OA’s contribution or anything else remotely humorous I might want to say to turn this comment’s mood around.
i’m glad i have her because i cant handle anymore testosterone in this house – and i am pretty junglee myself. and i think your boys got their lovely gentle ma so that they will grow up to be the kind of men we want for our daughters. more honest than this, i cannot be.
Sniff, sniff…you’ve made this ma very happy.
And thanks to the ‘happy in my heart feeling’, I’m changing the mood..Twenty years down the line, I’ll be ringing your door-bell. I’ll let Bean choose and you can have a say in the matter too. My boys can’t.
😀 ahem. lets save this conversation until they’re old enough and then revisit it ….!
Such a lovely and poignant post 🙂
Pingback: Nominations for the Avant Grade Awards… «
Hi Again,
AWWWW!! My baby’s just 5 months old, and Im already looking at his newborn pics and wondering WHY I didnt kiss him more then…btw,in case you’re wondering about the barrage of comments from a serial lurker, this is a rare sleepless night for me post baby, AND I love reading well written blogs like yours.
Pingback: AajPruned « Avant Garde Bloggies Awards
Pingback: Final Nominations in Avant Garde Bloggies Awards – 2009 « Visceral Observations
Pingback: Avant Garde Bloggies Awards 2009: Finalists « Visceral Observations
Pingback: Most Evocative Post on Parenting « Avant Garde Bloggies Awards
Superb pic and lovely post!
What a photograph!!!!! 😀
Good luck with the nomination 🙂
Very thoughtful n meaningful post..n brings to mind …several precious memories…so voted for it at http://avantgardebloggies.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/most-evocative-post-on-parenting/
Awwwwww i know that feeling! I give my daughter that goofy grin too 😀
Good luck for the nomination momma 🙂
Pingback: Avant Garde Bloggies Awards’ 09: Winners « Visceral Observations
Congratulations 🙂
Beautiful post, it made me cry…
thank you so much 🙂
well deserving of the award. what a perfect kodak moment n such beautiful lines. u actually did ur nails before u went in… :)i was hoping to have a girl n was so happy when i did. i can understand how u mustve felt to have ur dream come true. 🙂
my nails are the only part of me I take any trouble over 😦 So you can imagine how annoyed I was! I am so glad you had a little girl too!
Wow – just reading this brought tears to my eyes! Very well written MM and knock on wood for all the 3 generations 🙂