Rice eating ceremony

Sonali's Annaprasan (Rice Eating Ceremony) was a huge success!

Last Friday, amid much excitement, Sonali ate her first bites of solid food.

Sonali attentively paid attention to the prayers in the beginning.



Then, she participated in the part of the ceremony that custom says will give us some insight into her future profession. She has the chance to select a meaningful object from an assortment of items with special significance, including a knife (surgeon), pen (scholar), holy text (spiritual scholar), dollar bill (business woman), etc. Sonali sort of reached for the pen, with a good amount of encouragement from the punditji.



Finally, the moment to eat arrived. Her first taste of food was of sweet rice pudding, prepared by Sonali's Didima and served from her wedding ring. Sonali's mom was the first to offer the foreign substance, and we all took turns (her Uncle, Dad, and Didima). Eventually, she decided she liked it and started to eat heartily, even from the punditji whom she didn't know.



Then we took a little bit of a breather, and here is Sonali relaxing with her RichaMamima.



After a nap, we resumed the festivities by inaugurating the tastes of many more foods - fish curry, rice, chicken, etc. This feeding was performed by Sonali's maternal uncle, JishuMama.



Thank you to everyone who joined us in this celebration and big step in Sonali's life. Thank you also to those who wanted to be there with us and who are participating on-line!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!