Swimming and Photos

Today we did two things that we’re been meaning to do for some time—take a dip in the Le Royal Meridien hotel and have a formal family portrait taken at Studio K. The first activity has been predicted on our next door neighbor being the President/Chairman of the hotel and—to put it in crass terms—have yet to take him up on his hospitality. In terms of our regular luxury hotel haunts in the city, the Meridien is not high on the list, mostly due to the fact that it is further away than most others. We actually went there for an odd, if disappointing Christmas Eve dinner, but had not been back since. Today, along with Auntie Brynne, we escaped from the mounting Chennai humidity into their nice outdoor pool. Unlike some pools in the city (like the Park Sheraton) where the depth goes to like 12 feet!?!, the Meridien pool is fully “walkable” which makes it nice for carrying Kaia around. It did bring back fond memories of our old Club and Kaia even asked, “Papa, where’s the statue?” in reference to the statues that we used to splash there. After about an hour of lounging and frequently
freaking out by Kaia’s all-too-close forays with dropping into the pool, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the hotel’s coffee shop, Cappuccino.

At 4:00pm we had an appointment at Studio K, the first and only “modern”, professional portrait studio in the city. For some time we had the idea that we wanted to recognize our time here with a formal family portrait, dressed in full Indian garb. That Kaia’s Auntie was in town made for a perfect time to motivate and make it happen. I was pretty worried, since the appointment was scheduled during Kaia’s nap time, but was hoping that we could manipulate the timing of things—not to mention the power of chlorine in the eyes to initiate sleep!—so that he’d actually wake up before 4:00. It was looking a bit shaky when we left the hotel at 2:00pm, but after some comforting Bharatayanatyam music (his favorite) on the iPod, he was
fast asleep. We did, in fact, wake up just before 4:00pm…it is so funny how you life becomes ruled by nap time and devising ways to get around it so that you can still have a life. As further evidence of his musical interest, here he is with his new toy—a wooden flute.

Anyway, the photo shoot was really fun and memorable. For about $120 (including 10 8x12 photos and a CD with the images) you have a 2-3 hour session with a really great photographer and amazing professional hair and makeup people. I wasn’t expecting that it would be so formal, but they really did a great job with Auntie Brynne and indiamama’s makeup and hair, even helping them to get into the saris just perfectly. There were certainly times when I felt like we were preparing for a wedding! Kaia had on his new kurta (although we all had a change of clothes for the different shots) and we enjoyed watching the ladies get ready.

Inside the studio, everything looked the same, except for one big difference—mounted on the ceiling was a huge plasma screen television that allows you to see the photos immediately after the shot is taken. It was quite helpful to see. Kaia did a pretty good job for a 3 hours photo session, although the lollipop that I gave him in-between shots made the second one a bit sugar fueled. In the end, you sit in another room with a large plasma screen and select the 8-10 shots that you want. It is a really nice, and quick, process that towers over any other formal sittings that I have done in the past. The shots will be ready on Friday, and they came out really nice, everyone looks great and there are some with Kaia that are truly him. It was a great experience and, afterwards, when we all went out to dinner at a local hotel, there were so many heads turning at who these people were dressed so formally like Indians!?! It was a very memorable night on the town.

Why I Love this Time: How with each day you can hold more complicated conversations together. It never ceases to amaze me about how quickly these little people develop.