First leg

Dummy me forgot to mention I am back in UK. These posts are a retrospect of the wonderful vacation. 

After nearly 20 hours of travel we finally reached Chennai.

A must sleep deprived Chiyaa went in a trance to her granny, which pleased granny to no end. But then a moment spoiler - the loud honk of a lorry! And she was surprised out of her wits and shrieked out! K took her back and consoled her.

Once home, she was most amused by the - ceiling fan! She had never seen one just as she had never heard a horn. She was placed in the middle of the room as mil and sil fussed over her. After some rest we were raring to go. It was much anticipated that Chiyaa would have a lot of stranger anxiety since she spent much of her time with me or K. Being surrounded by relatives would be totally new to her, and there were lots of doubts as to how she might behave. Somehow, she was very receptive of everyone which was a pleasant surprise. She went over to anyone who beckoned.  She formed an instant bond with K's grandpa. She did cry once or twice when she went to other relatives and acquaintances, but then that's normal :) On day 2 sadly she got a stuffy runny nose due to the change in surroundings.She was very mellow and would go over to anyone and rest on their shoulder. It was heart wrenching to see her breathing with difficulty.

We met up with K's friends who were kind enough to come over home. One had got kid, one had gotten married, one had lost weight! Sometimes how much changes over 2 years and sometimes nothing at all (Hai! Philosophical me :D ) Anyways catch up with friends is always pleasant :) 

There was lots of eating, we even had a wedding reception to attend. We savoured the most fantastic fare there. Wedding menus are always delish aint they? Even though in Tam-land I have observed, the wedding feast is much similar to what served at home, but still, the taste varies! Again Chiyaa was at her best behaviour, going to everyone, enjoying a cuddle there, a kiss here. She was especially pally with K's paternal uncle who I felt had a natural knack for kids. 

There were quite a few chores to be handled at home as well - K got busy sorting his financial stuff and I was occupied arranging my cupboards and all. My niece was also around and it was good fun to see Chiyaa and her play along. There were quite a few tantrums from the elder cousin when she felt that the baby was the centre of attention. :) The funniest altercation though was when K caught her hitting Chiyaa with a stuffed bunny! He reprimanded her, she denied she did it (the bunny did it duh! ) and what ensued was a long drawn fight between mama and bhanji. It finally got sorted by a fight between mama's bunny and Neetu's bunny :) Who won? Well its like the toffee coffee dilemma :D 

The week thankfully neither passed too fast nor too slow (we dreaded that the vacation would come to an end too soon) But what I was eagerly waiting for, was soon there. The wonderful Saturday of the 20th day of October, when we took the flight to Bhubaneswar. We had an early morning Indigo flight. The check in formalities were a total utter mess! The staff were asking queues to be formed on a totally ad hoc basis much to the annoyance of people already standing in the 'original' queues. There was just one counter open where they were allowing passengers of flights that were due the next day and the next month to also check in :P ! Then suddenly they realised passengers departing today should check in first and announced the same. What followed was pandemonium. By the time we reached the end of the queue, they announced BBSR seats were over. K joked we may need to stand and go.Moved from one counter to another to yet another, we finally managed to get seats :) though not together. One saving grace through the agonizing wait was we happened to meet a colleague of K's who was also with us in the UK for some time. I had a good time seeing pics of his 3 month old baby girl while poor K stood in queue :P 

We were again having our reservations as to how kiddo would react to yet another travel. She was shrieking in delight for some time, which was followed by crying in distress which was followed by zzzzzzzz. We too took the opportunity to catch 40 winks ;) At 10:15 we landed! Bhubaneswar! Home! Maika!!