Annaprasanna

Megha's Annaprasann, Friday 01June2012

According to our Hindu tradition, there are a few 'samskaras' (duties, if you may) which we need to (rather, try to) do for our children. I was told that the first one starts with seemantham (Godh Bharayi) where a priest will do some prayers for the well being of the fetus and its healthy delivery. Post delivery, the first ceremony which we do to our child is Punyajanam (naming ceremony). The second one after delivery is Annaprasanna, first introduction to solids. Anna-rice, prasanna-starting.

Its either done on 6th month 6th day or the day which is good according to the birth star of the baby,

After checking with elders in our family and according to Megha's birth star, 1st June was the best date we could find and so we decided its the date we will do her annaprasanna. Her Aunt, uncle and cousin flew over from Calgary for this occasion. 

After much discussion and persuasion (by Anand), we decided to cook for all our guests. It was so overwhelming in the beginning but once we started the process there was no looking back. Of course the menu can consist of anything, there is no hard and fast rule as to how many verities we should cook. Below is our menu (Apart from beans and Channa masala, it was all Anand's cooking while I was caring for Megu)...hey, before you tell me off, I did help him in chopping veggies :) that must count, isnt it? 

Beans

Channa Masala

Gobi mattar

(We chose the above 3 because they freeze well)

Drumsticks & brinjal fry

Sambar

Rasam

Curd Rice

White Rice

Appalam (papad)

Paruppu Payasam (Moong dal ki Kheer)

We got so many compliments from everyone for homemade food!! Our SIL and BIL helped us a LOT the next day in arranging for the Puja. I was so busy with Megha and they (along with Anand and two other close friends) pretty much took over which helped me in attending to the guests. 

If you ever plan of cooking yourselves for the party, make sure you have enough time to defrost (if you are freezing food). 

I dressed up Megha in Pattu pavadi and she was looking like an (Indian) angel! She managed to wipe off her pottu (bindi) not once but twice :) her cousin Karthy was also wearing traditional cloths and he was looking so handsome. 

My SIL started off the puja. I made chekkara pongal (sweetrice with jaggery) and parripu sadam (dal rice) as suggested by my mother in law and my SIL made kesari to start off Megha's solids.

Megha sat in my BIL's lap as is our custom and Anand fed her, her first ever grain of rice followed by me and SIL. Everyone blessed us.

Like I said, lunch was a huge success. We packed up most of the leftovers for our guests and everyone were so happy to be there. When the last of the guests have gone, we did a quick clean up...well I couldnt do much as Megha kept waking from her afternoon nap. Anand, SIL and BIL did the cleaning up.

Megha received so many gifts but the highlight was the gifts she received from her aunt. She was showered with soooo many cute outfits and a lot of jewellery. As the day came to an end, my SIL and BIL did another quick puja to get ri of any evil eye (dishti/nazar).

Thus ended a beautiful day and thus began Megha's journey to solids.

I couldnt have asked for a better way to get this done. I am sooo happy that my SIL, BIL and my nephew came all the way for this. A big thanks to them. A big thanks to Anand as well for pulling this off so well on short notice. A HUGE thanks to Megha for being such a sweetheart that she is! Cant wait to share with her all her milestones.