It is Monday, and that means it is time for a ridiculously-delayed (the last one I posted was last fall, I believe) edition of your favorite way to commence the day– The Caption Game. Since the vast majority of us are hungover, bleary-eyed, exhausted pensively contemplating our sure-to-be productive work week, captioning a funny (or in this case excruciatingly cute) picture is a gentle way to ease in to Monday.

This is little Avni and she is consuming an idli. Avni, idli, idli, Avni. Adorable, no? Avni’s mom was kind enough to allow us to imagine funny things baby might be thinking, as baby noms on one of my favorite South Indian foods. Blogger Neha Viswanathan of Global Voices Online inspired all of this when Avni showed up on her flickr stream. I thank her for securing permission from Mother, baby and idli, for this post.

Perplexed? Bemused? Hung-over? Consider previous editions of the Caption Game, awailable for your edification here: onnu, rendu, muunu, naalu, anji, aarru, erzhu , ettu, onpatu , pathu…

p.s. Backstory re: picture, after the jump. 🙂

…Avni insisted on dancing to all the Tam songs which we played for her at home. Through an astute system of elimination, we have figured out that she’s a big Ilayaraja fan. Any number from the 70s and 80s with the hint of 16 beats and synth has her jumping up and down. (She doesn’t quite stand yet, so you have to hold her upright while she does the jumping.)

But here was the BEST part of the day. While Prema attempted force feeding Avni Cow and Gate blandness, Avni promptly spat it out or cheated. Or just pursed her lips so tight, that the spoon could barely graze her lips. We then tried to give Avni idlis, vadais and dosai. Which she promptly gobbled up. Her tiny hands were just aching to get to all the plates. Anything with salt in it. She loved it! At one point Prema asked -Avni do you want your mum or idli. We don’t know if Avni understood anything, but she promptly reached out for the plate with the idlis on it. Aha! She opened her mouth WIDE everytime an idli was nearby.

This little one – she loves Ilayaraja, likes her idlis. If that is not Tree-Tamil, what is? [cho kyute!]

Avni, you have fantastic taste. The rest of you? Caption away!