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.

Years going by

Every time I write a post, I seem to be explaining why I have let months or years pass by without writing... Its such a shame! This blog is just like a million things I start in my life and never seem to finish or have the discipline to stick to. There have been times that I have almost deleted this blog... but then I read an old post and get all nostalgic and end up keeping it.

From the last time I posted to now -

1. We moved to Bangalore in 2017.

2. Kids adjusted to the new city in no time. And why would they not? Many uncles and aunts, cousins, frequent visits of grandparents, functions, hangout with friends, idly, dosa, sambar, vada, meals... whats not like about Bangalore.

3. I gained most of the weight I had lost and maintained, and why would I not? Uncles, aunts, cousins, frequent visits of parents, functions, friends, idly, dosa, sambar, vada, meals.... see?

4. Went on an amazing to trip to Amstredam and Paris and south of France. Saw our dear friends and their two lovely boys.

5. Ran the Chennai half marathon (personal best)

6. Ran the Kaveri Trail 21 K (personal worst) (note to self: write a post on this)

7. I became a Certified Yoga Teacher. (note to self: write a post on this)

8. Joined a fitness company as a yoga instructor.

9. Got an award for being "Trainer of the month"

9. Quit the fitness company (shortest stint ever)

10. Freelancing as a yoga teacher now.

11. Vicky took a break from work. 

12. An impromptu road trip to Gokarna and Goa. (note to self: write a post on this)

13. Moved houses - Yes! From a very happening neighborhood to a neighborhood thats synonymous to traffic nightmare. Like seriously, this part of Bangalore is by far the worst I have seen.

That brings us to July 2019.

Its wonderful how easy it is to sum it all up. I wish life as we live through it also had a summary option like this. Life abridged. One can only hope.

What can you say?!

Conversation at home

Me (for the 1000th time) : "guys! It's time to go to bed"
Kids: "........." (no sound)
Me: "GUYS"
N: " can we lie down and read a book?"
Me: "okay" (whatever just be in bed)
N: "kaaarthik, come! Mumma said we can read"
K: "ok"
Me: sigh of relief
K: (popping his head out of the room) "is it morning in America?"
Me: (irritated) "yes!"
K : (gleefully) "so we don't have to sleep, it's morning!"

I guess if Alan Jackson and jimmy buffet could drink because it was five O'clock somewhere... k got the meaning of "it's morning somewhere"

Adieu, 2016!

Another year comes to an end.

2016 in my personal documentation would go down as the year that

- We did our first road trip through the mountains of North India - Ok, honestly that was a hype. We just drove to Kasauli... nevertheless, there were mountains and it was North India (ha!)
- We tripped around the beautiful island of Mauritius
- I signed up for a course called Enhancing Early Education.
- N started Soccer training
- N started Keyboard lessons
- K started going for story telling sessions (I didn't want him to feel left out)
- K started his formal school at Shikshantar
- My running and yoga took a back seat
- We did lot of last minute planning and travel.
- We had a lovely summer holiday at Mysore, attended cousins wedding.
- We had floods in Gurgaon and V had to walk back from metro station to home in knee deep water!
- We enjoyed lot of little things that I have forgotten now

I have no goals or resolutions for the New Year, I am old enough to understand that resolutions don't really work for me.

Happy 2017! 

GrrrrGaon!

I was like one of those big huge stubborn dogs on leash who would plop their bums on the ground and refuse to move. Have you seen them? Their owners would literally pull them on their asses? That was what I wanted to do when we were moving back to Gurgaon! I hated the thought of having to live here. Anyway, here I was, back to where I never wanted to be. but this time around either because of my very low expectations or because of the place we chose to live, Gurgaon managed to surprise me. I love our apartment and the community and the neighborhood. Nikhil settled well in his school. I love his school too. Kids made new friends, I made new friends. Life wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We went on a wonderful vacation with our dear friends to Istanbul and Santorini in June. 

Rest of the year was spent attending weddings, stepping out with my girl friends time to time, keeping kids busy, dealing with infections and such. 

In December I ran my first ever half marathon! Yaaayyy! I can cross a big item from my list of things to do. 

Overall 2015 was a good year for us. Settling down and getting back to the grind. 

Karthik started Play Group this year. He goes to the same school as Nikhil. They seem to be well adjusted and happy there and that makes me even happier. 

So far, so good. I can say that life is still sabai sabai in Gurgaon too. 

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.

Just a thought

I am tired of reading about moms. Social media has been flooding with various points of views - Why stay at home moms are super moms, why working moms are super moms, a letter from a stay at home mom to the working mom saying she is super duper, a letter from the working mom who gives the stay at home mom a standing ovation. There was even a letter from a stay at home dad. Then one which was about the mom in the park with an iPhone. And the latest that has been shared over and over again is a question something along the lines of a man trying to convince his wife to be a stay at home mom and a great response to that question. There! This is the reason I am tired. I am tired of all this debate. Trying to read why one is better than the other, why both have its own challenges, why people shouldn't judge either and its the families decision, etc. 

Being a mom is tough. Whether you are working, whether you are staying at home, it doesn't matter. Motherhood is a challenging role. Working or not working doesn't make you a better mom. You decide what kind of mom you are.

Growing up my mom was a stay at home mom. Looking back, I realize that I loved that she was a stay at home mom. I loved the fact that she was there when I got back from school. I loved how I used to sit on the kitchen counter top discussing my school day while she prepared my evening snack. On the other hand, my neighbor was a working mom and they had a system for their household. We both grew up to be fine individuals. Here's the thing - I loved my mom being stay at home mom, because she loved being a stay at home mom. She felt what she was doing was right, it was her decision. It felt right to her and she did that. 

Anyway, I am not going to discuss whats better or what works. I want to understand why are we focusing so much on motherhood? Why all the pressure on moms?  Its like living in constant fear of being judged. From food you feed them to toys they play with everyone has an opinion and a judgement to go along with that. Whether our mothers worked or not, whether they gave us enough attention or suffocated us with too much attention, whether they sometimes lost their cool or may be even gave us a tight one here and there....I dont think they had to deal with so much pressure... they had their share of day to day pressures but not the added pressure of the society - Are you spending enough time with your child, are you giving them too much attention. Those days there was a positive spin on everything. Mom giving too much attention, people would say "she loves her kids" Mom having a little distant approach meant automatically "her kids will become so independent". These days its like the society is waiting to point fingers and say what you are doing wrong. 

We are all mothers first, whether we choose to stay at home or whether we choose to work. From one mom to another, we all rock! We are super women! When you've had a rough day and want to just chill, go ahead and switch on the TV and let your kid watch that goddamn cartoon. Chill out! At the end of the day if you are happy with yourself, you will be a better mom to your child.