Mauritius - Oct 2016

October 2016
Gurgaon
School is out for 10 days for Pooja Holidays
Panic attack

I was busy coming up with plans to fill entire days with activities for kids. I did not want to hear "Mamma we are bored" " There's nothing to do" " Can we go to XYZ's house? " 'Can we call ABC home?"  "Colouring is so boring" " Puzzles are soooooo boring" " No Lego" " He did it" " No he did it" " I am hungry" " Chikki is so boring"" " TV? Please?" for 10 straight days!

Out of the blue, V calls from work - very unusual, because call while at work means something is going to get delegated to me - grudgingly I answered. He asked " Hey, do you think we can do Mauritius for the coming holidays? "
WHAAAAAA..... really? Of course we can. We SHOULD. DEFINITELY! Have I ever said no for a trip (except of course if its the hills, I have my reservations!)

Needless to say, I was super excited. Oh how I love impromptu trips.

Tickets done.
Hotels booked.
Bags packed.
An early morning flight.

Everything was going well. Or so I thought, until K started a cough the evening before we were to leave, out of the blue. Like, How? More importantly, why the hell? why now? Honestly, I was less worried about him and more worried about how MY trip is going to get dampened with his cough.

Warm water.
Soup.
Steam.
Meds.

Cough getting worse.
Cough through the night.
Early morning flight.
I give up.

At the airport. All of us are excited including the slightly wheezing K. In to the flight, we take off. (whew). So far okay, except for incessant coughing. K slurped down some cough syrup and fell asleep.

Landed. Mauritius. I wake K up.
Kiss on the forehead (not the loving doting mother kind of kiss, more of a peck on the forehead to check if cough has turned in to something else) and as I feared, he was running a temperature. He was still his happy chirpy self, with puffy eyes, leaky nose and a cough.

Customs, formalities all done. Out of the airport. Fresh air.

Mental note and gratitude: Taking care of a sick child in Mauritius is much better than taking care of a sick child in Gurgaon!

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3: We had reservations at a resort in the northern most trip of Mauritius. It was located between Grand Gaube and Grand Baie. The shore overlooked Coin de Mire. The resort was by group of hotels called Attitude.

We went on a boat to see the reef (frankly according to me it was not all that great, it was just a glass bottom boat and not much "reef" just few fishes swimming by).
There were lot of people offering day picnics to Coin De Mire, but we decided against it given that Karthik wasnt keeping well at all (although he seemed to be enjoying the beach and the sand).

Karthik's fever was coming back every four hours and his cough got worse. Day 3 we took him to a doctor. She put him on steroids and just like that he started getting better.

We drove around to Grand Baie and spent time on the beach there.

Day 4 - We shifted to another Attitude Hotel in Balaclava.

We drove to Port Louis, walked around the capital city.

Day 5 - Chamarel Rum Factory. V "tasted" so much rum that had I asked for diamonds he would've bought them for me. Me being me I stuck two amazing linen shirts from the memorabilia shop.

We even managed to catch the sun set at the Flic en Flac beach.

Day 6 - Moved to a hotel called Le Surcouf at Belle Mare beach.

Having a rental car was a boon, because it gave us lots of options to move around the island.  People were extremely friendly and helpful. What struck me the most was some of the landscapes, the sugar cane fields and the temples looked as if they were a replica of some small town in tamil nadu. The locals all looked like Indians... many a times I thought they would just start conversing in tamil, but all that I could hear was creole.

Mauritius would remain one of my most memorable trip, yes, despite the sick child. :)


PS: Post this trip we had two kids with dark bodies and two sets of very fair bums.

How long has it been?

My poor old neglected blog! If blogosphere turned minimalists my unused, dusty blog would've been long gone.

I have no excuses for not having written anything for so long. Sheer laziness!

August 2014, is where I left. Let me try to rewind...

Phuket Diaries (contd..) -

We were living a blissful life in Phuket. Looking back, the one year that we spent in Phuket was an unforgettable one. Those days will be etched in my memory forever.  Karthik had just turned 1. My cousins stayed about ten days with us in July. We visited Krabi and we explored Phuket. Ate a lot of street food, restaurant food and home cooked food. It was one of those trips that involved heavy eating.
August through November I got to experience the monsoons. My mood swings with the weather - if its gloomy outside I am miserable inside. Imagine how monsoons can affect my mood. However, the monsoon season in Phuket was very different. There would be patches of sunshine after a heavy bout of rain. There were not too many days that went without the typical clear blue sky.
In October, we did a quick trip to Bangkok, Nikhil's passport renewal was the major agenda. I absolutely loved Bangkok. We decided to skip Pattaya, well, because we were living in Phuket, (evil laugh).
I was also on a major weight loss regimen. I ringed in my 35th birthday in style (literally). I had lost all pregnancy weight and some more. I had never felt more accomplished in my life!

December through January we had visitors again. One batch was my cousin and his friend on a back packing trip through Thailand. We were so glad to have them camp on our couch for a week or so. Christmas through early 2015 V's parents were with us. We did all touristy things with them. Phi-Phi and James Bond island, visiting the night markets, hitting the naka weekend markets and the like. Now, with two kids and too much adventure comes infections. So I had a good share of cold and flu that I had to deal with. Mid January, saw Karthik hospitalized for couple of days. Poor Nikhil had his birthday celebrations in the hospital.

By end of February it was certain that we were to move back to Gurgaon. I was so not ready to give up my cozy lifestyle and move back to of all places - Gurgaon! (shudders). We were busy in February settling on school for Nikhil and finding a place to rent.

We moved back to Gurgaon in March 2015! And just like that Phuket became a wonderful memory.

Bitter Sweet

Bitter Sweet - describes what I am feeling right now.

6 years ago, I said good bye to my parents and began my journey to Richmond with lot of anticipation... to start a new life. I was excited and giddy with happiness but at the same time I was anxious and nervous about the future. I was leaving my comfort zone.

It makes me miserable to think that it won't be easy for me just wear my track pants and go out for a quick jog around the block, to think that there won't be any long weekend trips where we can get in to our car and hit the highway, to think that I won't be seeing beautiful colors of changing seasons, to think that I won't be able to go a grocery store and pick up variety of wine and cheese, to think that I won't be able to sip a beer during a "happy hour", to think that I won't be able to grab a quick bite by driving through a McDonalds, to think that I won't be able to see my favorite shows as soon as they are telecasted, to think that I won't be able to see and discuss all the super bowl ads (and yes the game itself), to think that I won't be ordering water "no ice" at restaurants (not that I mind the ice myself), to think that access to a juicy burger and unlimited re-fills of cola will be just a dream, to think that I won't be discussing weather with strangers in an elevator or for that matter I won't be smiling and exchanging pleasantries with strangers, to think that no one would ask me "were you in line?" at a counter, to think that I won't be driving in any specific "lane" on the road... and the list would just go on....

Six wonderful years and I take with me beautiful memories. I made wonderful new friends, grew closer to my old friends, had a lot of fun traveling, had a lot of fun living my life... and yes - even the H1 B/stamping crap brings a smile to my face.

As miserable as I am to leave such a beautiful life behind... I am looking forward to spending time with my little cousins (who are not that little any more), my grand mothers, uncles and aunts, eating street food, attending weddings, celebrating festivals, having dosa sambar in a kayyendi bhavan, going to a beach in the evening to just breathe some good air and not having to worry about how fat I look in swim wear, wearing cotton clothes through out the year and not having to feel depressed about days getting shorter, getting my eyebrows done and not paying a hefty price, having everything delivered at door step, to having a dhobi and neatly pressed clothes, to the mango season, drinking fresh coconut water, to drinking freshly squeezed juice at a juice stall around the corner, to watching some nail biting cricket matches, to jumping in to an auto and getting anywhere I want, to getting clothes stitched to my size... and yes - not having to use words like "out of status".

I am getting ready to leave just like did 6 years ago... Getting set for another journey... to start another new life with lot of anticipation. I feel the excitement, I feel the happiness... The same anxiety and nervousness about the future is at the back of my mind. Once again, I am leaving my comfort zone.

Time for some updates

I grant December the "Funnest Month of the Year" Award. I don't even know where to begin. I had my first ever baby shower which was simply superb! I had so much fun at the shower... I can't thank my friends (you all know who you are) enough for having thrown me the bestestest shower. Thanks to all my friends (again, you all know who you are) who came and shared your evening with us and gave us such wonderful and thoughtful gifts.

I had another surprise shower at work... my manager, also a good friend of mine organized everything. She managed to sneak V in to work as well. It is an amazing feeling to have such wonderful co-workers.

Two showers meant two delightful cakes! Needless to say, V managed to polish both off in a decent amount of time. The first one was one helluva strawberry shortcake from Pastries by Randolph... which was decorated with the cutest blue booties you'd ever find. It was so cute that V & I refused to touch it. So, before marking our territories with knives we carefully lifted the booties off the cake. The one from work was a double chocolate mousse cake, shaped as a baby in a blanket... which was another winner.

I must've been a very good girl this year, because I got a wonderful Christmas gift. Spending time with my friends from college. It was so much fun hanging out with my girlfriends. It was so sweet of them to have planned a trip to come visit me. It was just like good old times. We watched movies, we ate so much that our stomachs hurt, we laughed so much that my friends thought I'll go in to labor...

All in all such a perfect month!

Good times

I have narrated some of my fond memories on this blog here and here . And in both these posts I have talked about a "big family house"... I have been skimming through my collection of photos to see if I had any pictures to share.. but sadly found none. So you can imagine how happy I was, when I saw an email from my cousin with exactly what I wanted. :)

View of the front gate from inside the compound

A glimpse of the main house

The Main structure

The side annex and the main building

The Annex

The small building on the side is the storage room. Housed all grains and what nots. This room was always locked and as kids we were never allowed to go unless in the company of an adult.

Walking down that dirt path straight ahead in between the trees was the pond.

This is where everyone gathered post lunch to chit chat... eventually ending up in afternoon naps for many adults and everything would become strangely quiet... until someone realizes it's time for the afternoon "chaya and tiffin" (tea and snacks). Did anyone count calories at all back then?

Kitchen Well - Where we got our fresh supply of drinking and cooking water. See how the pulley juts out of a window... that's actually a window in the kitchen. We cousins would have fights on deciding who would pull water from the well.

My favorite festival

Onam, one of my favorite festivals just went by and this time I am guilty of doing nothing special. Vishu and Onam are the two most important festivals for malayalees. Yep, not Vinayaka Chaturti, Navratri, not even Diwali... in Kerala, Vishu and Onam take precedence over any other festival. I am especially fond of Onam because the festivities last for 10 days. Having lived in Kerala until I was about 9 years old, I was lucky that I got to spend quite a few Onams with extended family. I get so nostalgic when I think of all the Onam holidays that I've spent with my cousins at our family home. Usually the quarterly holidays at school coincided with the 10 days of Onam. I'd be so distracted during my last exam because all I'd be doing is counting down to when we leave. This habit hasn't changed much even now, if I am going somewhere my mental clock starts ticking a week before - "this time next week"... until it comes to "tomorrow this time... I'll be there".

My Onam holidays would begin with my dad picking me up at school... last day of exam I always got to ride home on my dad's bike. At home, I'd laze around enjoying the feeling that I don't have homework to do... or open my books for the next ten days. Invariably some friend from the neighborhood will knock on our door or I'll be at someone's door... my mom would warn me not to play outside and soil my clothes because "remember you'll be traveling in these clothes" she'd say. After few hours, I'll hear my mom call out my name... once, twice and third time I'd say bye to my friend and run home (On a complete tangent - Now I completely understand why my mom always felt edgy and irritated everytime we were going to my dad's house - She was going to her In-laws!) An auto would be waiting at the gate to drop us and our luggage at the bus stop. All the way to the bus stop I'd keep praying that I get a window seat. Sometimes we experienced the luxury of hiring a car (usually an ivory colored ambassador car) all the way to the village... I used to feel on top of the world if that happened. Anyway, after the bus journey and another auto ride, we'd get off on a dirt road and walk (I'd run) rest of the way to the house. The house is located in between acres of paddy fields. Usually thin strip of mud roads serve as walkways between the fields - people would have to fall in single file to walk comfortably without having to lose balance and falling in to a field. It's a nightmare if you have to maneuver these roads on a bicycle! Most of my cousins and second cousins would be there already and right from the gate I can hear the chatter.

How the next week or so passed by, I'd have no idea. Our mornings would start with picking flowers and making a pookalam (a rangoli equivalent in flowers). After the pookalam work will come a session of hide and seek, followed by running and catching, lock and key.... until some one tells us to stop making noise or one of us fall down and need adult supervision to tend to a cut. Then we'd spend time playing and soaking ourselves in the pond.

Onam is a harvest festival... which meant that the paddy outside was ripe and ready for harvest. Through out the day we'd have workers on the fields bent down with their sickles chopping the ready to be harvested paddy. They work through the morning, break for lunch and then get back to work again. Post lunch, a group us would follow them to the fields... I'd love to go watch them work so effortlessly with their tools. I'd plead with them to let me try... until they give in! Late afternoon, they'd bring in all the chopped long stalks with grains and dump it on the long verandah wrapping the front of the house. There'd be a separate set of people separating grains from the stalks by squishing it between their feet, another process that looked so darn easy.. until you try and fail miserably. Once the grains are out, the stalks are then taken and piled up in the yard to make hay... which will then be used to feed the cows. Our favorite pass time was to climb up this "vaykol" (hay) mountain... and slide down bringing most of it down with us... much to the agony of my poor grandmother. Dusk will see my cousins and I fresh out of shower and a whole bunch of us from the house will walk to a temple which is about a mile and half away... on the way stopping to talk to neighbors, relatives and million other people.

Another fun exercise is molding of Thrikkakarappan (a foot long tapering cubes of mud - they are almost conical in shape). I think tradition calls for having seven, however our house always had three. It was the men of the house who would sit bare chested and start working on the soil, they have to get the mixture of soil and water right to actually make it work. As kids, it used to be so cool to be officially allowed to play with mud and water. Although the real work includes a lot of beating this muddy mixture in to that long tapering shape. On Onam day these thrikkakaprappans will be arranged on a banana leaf surrounded by tulasi leaves with a bright red hibiscus inserted on top of it.

Onam is 10th and last day. Since pookalam is the highlight of the occasion in addition to the flowers we pick, we'll have more flowers from the market. It'll take us about two hours to finish the design (which would have been discussed and finalized the previous night). The older cousins get to guide and give instructions the younger ones have to hang in there and do the labor work. All the women folk will be busy in the kitchen making the 11 essential dishes to accompany the rice and ofcourse the payasam (kheer). The aroma from the kitchen which is a combination of many dishes being cooked at one time will make your mouth water... You'd see some of the men-folk walking by the kitchen volunteering to be payasam tasters... especially my grand father who was a chronic diabetic. He'll sneak it to the kitchen or send me to get him a glass of payasam before lunch was served... that way my grandma wouldn't know. Finally, it will be time for the grand finale - The big OnaSadhya (Sadhya = a grand lunch served on banana leaves). Once that's done... the house suddenly becomes calm. With a severe case of food coma and sugar overdose everyone will gather around in the verandah chewing beetle leaves to help us with digestion... That's when my mental clock would tick again, now it would say " tomorrow this time, i'll be back home".

After we moved to Coimbatore, I never had the luxury of spending the whole 10 days at Kerala ever again. We still managed an occasional trip to Kerala to spend the day before and the day of Onam... or sometimes when Onam fell over a weekend. No matter what, my mom made sure that we did the pookalam and the sadhya every year, wherever we were. I got to bunk school/college/work guilt free on Onam days. Over the years, I got to invite my friends from school/college/work for lunch and my mom would be more than thrilled to host all of them... But nothing beats the charm of being in Kerala and getting to spend a grand onam with a whole bunch of family, running around paddy fields, trying to mold shapeless tortoises and dinosaurs in the name of making thrikkakarappan and sliding down the hay mounds.... aahhh if only one could turn back time!

Of songs and memories

Last weekend I was listening to a song from Minnale called Ore Nyabagam and I felt this sudden urge to go hug V. Why, you ask? Well, this was “our song” during the four years of long distance (whole other story). The lyrics were as if someone had us in their mind… it was like this song was written just for us. So as I was listening to it, it took me back to those days when I used to spend many a weekend listening to this song and humming along wondering what it would’ve been like if I had my boyfriend right there with me and then I saw him sitting there on the couch reading the newspaper… and hence the urge to give him a hug!

That got me thinking… just by listening to a song, I was transported for a brief minute to our house in Hyderabad, my room, and even felt like I was missing V terribly… its true that some songs possess this magical quality of bringing back certain memories that I associate with them. Sometimes it’s the other way … when I think of some incident I always remember a song that was either playing in the background or that I was singing, etc. I wonder if there’s any one else out there who have similar connections with songs… Anyway I thought why not make a list with songs and the corresponding memories attached to it.

The earliest memory of mine is of a Malayalam lullaby called Omana thingal kidavo that my dad used to sing when I was about 3 years old. I still remember the tiny one bedroom house that we used to live in Trichur and me sitting on my dad’s lap, after dinner, my head resting on his chest and eyelids barely open.

My summer holidays were always divided equally a month at Chennai and a month at Kerala. Two completely different atmospheres –

Chennai was time for me to get pampered rotten as I was the only grandchild (then) and niece on my mom’s side of the family. My mom’s youngest sister was probably in her 12th standard at that time… and she listened to all “cool English songs” and then some Hindi. I remember one evening my aunt had rented a videotape of the movie Aradhna. I didn’t really understand too much of what was going on, however I was hooked on to the song “mere sapno ki rani”… I butchered the song royally and bugged the cr*p out of everyone… I sang it as “mere sappunon kee raanni kabbuu aayyee geetu” I always thought it was geetu - as in a name geetu and not ayegi and tu as separate words.

Kerala was the other end of the spectrum; it was my dad’s family house. A big house, lot of extended family, no shortage for kids, very little adult supervision, lot of pranks and mischief, plenty of land for us to run around and play, a massive pond where we used to spend most of the humid days lazing like water buffalos. One of the most interesting times used to be when some of dad’s cousins or nieces/nephews would get married. The actual wedding always happened at the temple in Guruvayoor, no matter what. But the fun stuff like the pre wedding party for all bride's relatives and the post wedding party for the groom’s side happened at the house. And for one such event, it was while we were getting ready, that a cousin of mine played the tape of Aashiqui… and songs like Nazar ke samne, Dheere dheere se always take me back to that very tiny room full of my cousins and second cousins with grand dresses, some trying to comb hair, some trying to apply lipstick, smells of all kinds of perfumes and all of us sharing just one mirror. I associate lot of Malayalam songs with those carefree times, but the list is just too long!

Roja was the talk of the town when it came out, Mani Ratnam movies were always my mom’s weakness… added to that Roja offered a refreshingly new type of music. So off we went, my mom and I for watching Roja one afternoon. When we got out of the theater after the show, it was pouring cats and dogs… and as I was waiting in that crammed bus stop, I was humming in my head... “chinna chinna aasai..” To this day when I hum that song I remember standing soaking to my skin in that bus stop.

Then came my glorious college days… three years of full of fun... there are just way too many songs for me to pick. The one incident that makes smile always is… a night after an event at the college, all of us camped at a friend’s house, we were all lying on the floor half of us asleep… my friend A & I we sang in total rhythm in hushed tones all the songs of Dil to Pagal Hai.

Dil Se was another movie that we had all waited eagerly for and we were so disappointed angry and totally pissed when we heard that they played only the tamil version (Uyire) in Tamil Nadu. We had planned a class “field trip” to the theatre to watch Dil Se. I pity the others who had to watch the movie that day through all the noise we made. The best part was that every single song of the movie, there was a group of us singing Hindi version out loud, really loud.

All songs however don’t bring back wonderful memories… a song that I really dread is “akhiya milaoon kabhi akhiyan churaoon”, this was the song I was asked to prepare and sing for trying out for the music group at college… I have never sung a song so bad and out of tune and my voice never sounded that horrible ever before. To this day, this remains one memory that I want to wipe off my head.

Aaye ho mere zindagi mein, was a song I used to love, until I sang it so many times that I completely detest it. But if I dig deep within, I remember fondly the first time I sang this song for a group of friends… We bunked our afternoon session of classes and a group of us piled up in two cars and drove to Kotagiri, a place famous for tea plantations… a friend of ours knew someone there taking care of an estate. It was one of the best bunking college memory I have. God knows how long we sat on a rock overlooking the beautiful lush green estate that stretched as far as the eye could see and that was when I sang the song…It was a wonderful feeling; being with friends, no one talking, all of us engrossed in our own thoughts…

Faza bhi hai from Nikkah always reminds of my room mate, Sanjivita.... Every evening when she got back from work, she would switch on her favorite collection of old songs... and that was the first time I heard the different but beautiful voice of Salma Agha... As much as I wanted to hear more of her voice, I was sort of disappointed that faza bhi hai was really the only one I liked.

There are many many more songs, like when I first listened to Carpenters or Cliff Richards, or how my aunt made me watch the video of Thriller, a class mate of mine rendering Hotel California with his amazingly awesome voice and his super skills with his guitar... so was the time he sang pyar ke pal by KK... anyway, I'll leave you with this last one - Kuch to hua hai, from Kal ho na ho… this song always brings back memories of my wedding… It takes me back to the last few months of hanging around at my parent’s home, reading books, watching TV, chatting with mom endlessly and day dreaming about my life ahead with V…