Spoiled Silly in Dubai (Diary of a Six Month Old)

If you remember, last week I was telling you about how I landed up in Dubai, right into the arms of my cuddly grandparents. When I had decided to go meet them, I had looked forward to getting to know these people I heard about all the time, and who were my ancestors. What I hadn’t anticipated was how they would utterly spoil me.

It all began with Gramma and Grampa asking Mum if they could take me in their arms. This was like, ten seconds after we’d met. Now, I usually cry when some random stranger comes and picks me up, but hey, this was family. So off I went, swinging like a chimp, into Gramma’s arms and before I knew it, I’d been swung further on into Grampa’s lap. The rest of the week, I kept swinging between the two laps and unlike my parents, my grandparents would never complain about how heavy/clingy/slippery I was.

One of the first things my Mum’s parents wanted to do with me was something called ‘Annpraashan’, a ceremony to celebrate me starting a solid diet. A day or so after I’d arrived, they bathed me and dressed me up in these funny clothes (which they were calling dhoti-kurta), lit up a small fire (diya or diva?) on a plate and did some weird incantations. I didn’t mind as such, because I got some yummy yogurt and honey to eat in the ceremony.

Gramma then took me shopping to get me some toys as gifts. But wait, on that note, I have to tell you about shopping and Dubai. So apparently, in Dubai, everything you do has to be punctuated with shopping. We did not go see any touristy things in the place, but we did go to this mall that has the Burj Khalifa. Now, instead of taking me up the mighty tower so I could look around, these three adults with me ended up shopping! Every time we’d head out to eat, we’d go to a food court in a mall and then end up shopping! In fact, on one occasion my grandparents left my Mum back in the hotel to rest and took me out for a long walk in my pram. Guess where we ended up? Shopping!

Well, I can’t really complain. I ended up benefiting plenty from these escapades. From toys I’ll play with two years later to clothes I’ll wear five years later, they bought it all! I was inundated!

Anyway, apart from that there was this interesting aspect of my Nanoo’s cap. So my Grampa, to give you context, is a pilot and he would go off every alternate day to fly around and come back. Every time he went away, he came back running the next day, swearing that he’d landed the aircraft as quickly as he could and rushed back to the hotel. The funny thing is that he always came back with this intriguing cap on his head, a pilot’s cap, and I just couldn’t get enough of it until he put it on my head!

Honestly, all together, my week in Dubai was utterly fascinating. Saying goodbye to my grandparents was extremely difficult. Well, actually I didn’t even know when it happened. One moment I was sleeping in my Nanoo’s arms and the next, I woke up in Daddy’s lap! But I do miss them and I’ve been pestering my parents to take me to India so I can meet all four grandparents together this time.

If two spoiled me as much as they did, I can’t wait to see what will happen when I have all four together!!