The 10th of January, was a big day for us.
It was Niki's ear piercing ceremony .. long been an Indian tradition we thought it would be meaningful for us to observe it, we want Niki to grow up richly immersed in both our Indian and Chinese culture, everything today is just so modernized, too if I may say. We stay in contact with our FBs, PDAs, Blackberries and whatnot. If anything, I feel that we've just grown too modern too disattached from who we are, we've actually begin to feel very generic. Ear piercing in the Indian community marks a baby's milestone, well we are a tad late there since Niki is officially turning "five" this year.
And rather a small cosy ceremony, we've decided to up the ante a bit and make it celebration that both our friends and families can come together. There was fireworks right before the ceremony where Niki is ushered in by her cousins and family, the piercing is done by a "pather" of goldsmith and we opted for the traditional way whereby her ears are pierced with a golden needle and she was accompanied by her immediate uncle and aunty. Of course this part was too painful for me and I cried a bucket. I hid away of course so that I won't upset Niki, and Niki..I'm so proud of her, she's a trooper and though she did cry, she allowed the "pather" pierce her other ear without struggling. Actually for the past month we've been mentally preparing her for this, I've always felt that it's important to be honest to the child, and so when she asked me whether it was painful to have her ears pierced we didn't lie, and we told her that it would of course hurt, and that she's definitely cry, but we also told her the pain would be bearable and Yanu & Lei her cousins went through the same thing when they were her age .. Lei much younger.
At 8.15pm the piercing was done and dinner was served :) and Niki paraded her new earrings and bangle (which was gifts from her beloved Ammu) with much pride. She shook quite a few hands and her mummy & daddy were happily collecting angpows and gifts from our guests :)
Today, it's exactly 9 days and Niki & her earrings are doing fine.
Though it was painful for me when my baby cried, I truly am happy that she went through this timeless ceremony..it is truly a milestone and made me feel really, really proud of my little girl.
lanterns in the garden 
@ sweet and cosy, niki took e chee cheong fan photo, artsy, eh ..
reunion dinner
