A year to remember!

 2020 seems to be getting a lot of flak. But for me it has been the most amazing and unique year.  Starting with mummy and papa it seemed an innocuous start. Things were quite settled as we celebrated birthdays and anniversaries through January and February. With March loomed work from home. Initially  it was a novel thing. Colleagues were enthusiastic about the online meet ups, elders spoke about the unique situation. There was conspiracy and an undercurrent of excitement. Till reality bite. And things were not so hunky dory as the rigmarole of keeping everything normal in the face of abnormal came in.

Schools closed. And that added to the challenge of accomplishing work tasks. Personally for me there was the additional work of the kids entertained and fed at home. At school they have the lunch and playtime ensures adequate physical exercise. Also they have enough extra curricular to keep active.  But with all that being absent a lot fell on our shoulders. Dragging them for walks after a day of work needed will both for us and the kids. But somehow a routine set in in the respect too. We were very very lucky to have Papa Mummy with us who were a major help. My walks with the kids and Mummy, innumerable times through the same woods will be a remarkable memory of this year. 

As the world started opening up in the middle of the year, the return of my parents was to be planned. We had started with the cold winters with the garden being stark, merged on to the warming spring with daffodils and lillies and marched on to summer when in the words of Papa 'everything was full of flowers!' As the seasons progressed to the darker autumn, we bid goodbye to them.

So much had happened over 3/4ths of the year. We had transformed the spare bedroom into office room. There were one addition after another to the office space. Shopping for clothes, accessories and makeup went down to zero while that for fitness and cooking went up. Ah also plants! A lot of new ones got added. We had also managed to metamorphose the children from reluctant walkers to seasoned ones. 

As Papa Mummy reset life in India we reset life here. It was easier no doubt. Picking the kids from school without after school was much to their liking. We were definitely more tight knit as a family as we worked a lot with each other for our engagement and entertainment. We took on the traditions of Ganesh Puja, Diwali, Halloween and Christmas a bit more strongly since obviously I had more time :) We read more. The kids and K watched better shows. It was a really enriching experience. 

This year made me accept and appreciate how much I like spending time by myself and with my select few. I am fanatically unsocial and this year was as if carved out for me. Along with reading I could spend time on art work, home improvements, gardening and cooking. I am never buying peanut butter,nutella or paneer ever again since in the words of K I have mastered them :) . Neither am I going to shy away from exotic plants and homegrown vegetables. I will keep working on my fitness goals which at the moment is the one needing most motivation :) With a year in isolation I have also researched just so many many amazing places nearby. Nothing warrants an expensive holiday when all the kids want is to catch sight of a squirrel in the woods or a bird chirping like crazy on a branch.

As the year draws to a close I hope we all discover the wonderful that is within us. And devise ways and means to enrich ourselves. And if we are content then let's not be afraid to extend a helping hand to others. Some people need help,and might be shy to ask. So even we are the ones saying 'Hi! How are things?' more often than others are, let's  do it. And help one more willing person to be a bit more self reliant. 

As we have seen this year that there are professions which matter - the medics, the teachers, the law enforcement - let's realise that there are things more important than money, fame and success. There is light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines being bought and plans being afoot for mass immunisations. Let's bid 2020 a goodbye as the year that has been unprecented. Difficult yes. But what a lot it has taught  us. A year for reflection. A year to take a step back. A year for taking it a notch down - something  I think we wish for in other years. And let's hope this year gives us a lot of life enriching habits. We have life at the end of this year. Let's acknowledge  and celebrate it. Wishing everyone who passes by a very happy new year!

Mission accomplished

 Maine fir blog maata se mannat mangi thi, yeah kaam sahi salamat kar loon to ek post zaroor likhoongi.

So I had decided I would write a post if I was successful in a venture of mine like I was here. 

Now back to the story. I had a problem since the past 3 weeks. It all started when in a frenzy of being healthy I did a nice and big sumo squat. Something like that 

Now, that messed my left knee. It ached that evening, and I thought it was because of the exercise and would get better in a few days. There was the usual application of pain relief balms. Over the week, the pain got better and I started regular exercising again, though nothing that would impact the knee. All was well, though there was a slight lingering pain which needed regular application of pain relief. Then a week on, the pain was back. Really back. I started popping a few painkillers. But going up and down the stairs was proving really painful. I was not able to put any pressure on my left knee at all. I developed a deep empathy for older people. I have seen how Amma and Mummy climb up and down the stairs with baby steps. And I could finally, totally get their pain! 

Even sleeping and turning at night got painful. Apparently I was groaning in pain at nights. Finally I decided to visit the doctor. She saw the swell in the knee and recommended an MRI scan. I was fine for it. That night, the pain was just horrendous. Think that sent a shock wave to my brain which remembered to take an Ibuprofen which is a more powerful painkiller and also an anti-inflammatory. I popped a pill. And I was pain free the next morning! After 3 WEEKS! I felt absolutely no pain in my left knee. (OK a very teensy bit if I paid ultimate attention :D)

With this came the next question - should I now go for MRI? It would be a waste of time and precious medical resources. But there was a more important aspect. 

Part 2 of the story. I am scared of driving. I can drive confidently. But more of the itsy bitsy ones - school runs, swimming classes, nearby mall. But the heavy duty stuff - drive to the sea side, go for an appointment in another city etc etc, I start shi*ting bricks. Please excuse my French. Mostly I am accompanied by K. Dont get me wrong, I have driven to sea-side holidays and appointments to a different city. But I am scared. And in instances when I am super scared I just take the cab. In this instance too, I was keen to take a cab. But it would be quite a ride and for a now non-existent pain, it would be quite an expense. K was super confident that I would be able to manage, given my "experience" and his assessment of me. But I was super scared. This was the major reason, I was keen on backing out of the appointment.

But then I remembered an old advertisement dar ke aage jeet hai :D (There is victory beyond fear) In proper movie-style I replayed the numerous instances I had driven, the times K had commended my driving, the "ok" feeling once I was beyond the steering wheel. Yes I was still rubbish at reading maps and following directions on the navigator, but then, if not now then when. K assured me "Dont worry you wont crash and burn". 

I had a thought, what if  I did. Mere chote chote bacche! But if not now then when? Thats when I took the pledge to write a post. And that was my motivation to go for it! 

Since I am writing this post, reader might have guessed that I did not "crash and burn" :D It was a jolly good ride, though I was sh*ting bricks. But till next time, I feel awfully confident! 

The Diwali the year Covid hit

 2020 will be an unforgettable year for Covid-19. This year a lot of things ground to a halt and changed beyond recognition. A part of me definitely enjoyed the lack of social activities. I also liked the break from kids activities. Weekends were a bit more rested and so were weekday evenings. With the weather getting colder, no one minds the extra time at home.

But like many well meaning people, I have also succumbed to the YouTube feeds of various chefs and cooking channels :) I have become a bit of a "cook from scratch" lady who makes her own paneer, Nutella and peanut butter. Laddoos and pies and tarts are always available in our fridge. But Diwali is extra special isnt it. So I had to up the ante. :) 

A week on Diwali, as the YouTube videos got more manic around the festival, so did my enthusiasm. So over the week K and I consumed 3 batches of laddoos - coconut, wheat flour and gram flour ones. Along with some sev and murukku. The day was reserved for chole puri. I had also prepared some organic colours for the kids to make rangoli. 

Come the D-day, K and I started up with some hearty conversations followed by phone calls to Chennai home. It was a Saturday and because of the second lockdown, we didnt have the usual swimming class in the morning. Which just made it all the more wonderful :) A light breakfast done, the kids were off to playing while I got on with cooking. The girls are EXTREMELY fussy eaters. I was sure the dish's reception could go either ways. But! Once it was ready, the girls loved it! Chiyaa who is the fussier one, said "Mummy this is awesome" I could faint! The kids had their food with all enthusiasm and were even more enthused to make the rangoli. Food done, they got on with it. They made planets are nebulas :D but who cares as long as they are having fun! 

I felt a tad guilty that the kids did not have any dessert. So I offered if we could bake a cake. Now I cannot bake to save my life. No matter which recipe I follow "easiest recipe to moist chocolate cake" or "the best cake recipe you need" - they all are an utter failure for me :( Some are a mild success. And we eat all of them however the outcome. So uttering my prayers to the almighty, I started on with the ingredients for a cake with the kids. The kids definitely need a ganache, else its "too plain". Now that was easy. For once I had the raw materials for that. The cake came out "biscuity", but chocolate ganache saved the day! The kids ate!! Hurray!!

Evening as K was munching on some more savoury snacks, Pumpki came towards him and tried one. She loved it. I nudged Chiyaa to give one a go as well. She said "Mummy can you make lots more of this?" OMG! Honestly I could not have asked for anything more on this auspicious day. This has really revved up the already revved up cook inside me :D 

Sunday I could definitely feel the blues of the most awesome festival being over. We felt loaded with all the food over the past week. But we did need some "simple food" :P because the body needs energy you see. Simple food of rice, sambar, cabbage curry and brinjal curry with yoghurt turned out to be most appetising. Chiyaa and Pumpki got busy with some school work and I had to steel myself to the coming Monday  :( 

A wonderful Diwali was definitely done!

I am my mother

 

There are just so many times I feel exactly like my mother.

When we were kids, we weren’t the best to listen to her. She used keep telling us the same thing a billion and one times. Keep the empty glass away, clean the table, turn off the fan in the other room, switch off the TV, go to study NOW!, come to eat NOW! – And so so so many more. We never EVER listened the first time. Then she would say again. Then again. Maybe on the fifth iteration which would definitely be at a very loud decibel level, we would finally heed. As we would drag our lazy selves to do what ever she had asked us to do, she would invariably say “How would you feel if I don’t do immediately what you ask me to do? Wait when you ask me to do something, I will also do after you have said a million times.”

Lately I see myself saying the same especially to Chiyaa so much! When Mummy used to say that to us, my sister and I would giggle quietly 😃 Now I am just the same and I think my daughters definitely giggle quietly 😃

Being a professor, Mummy had to study late at nights for classes or for research work. She had a 6 day working week too. So Sundays used to be her day to rest. She used to cook a lavish lunch and around 2pm would go to take a nap. We sisters were supposed to be quiet. But. Were we quiet? 😉 We moved around her, playing, giggling, trampling her. She would endure it for some time and then! Bam! Her dam would burst and she would give us a massive scolding.

And guess what? That’s my Saturdays. Saturday is the day I feel more relaxed cos Sunday involves more prep work for the coming week. After a lavish lunch, I feel like curling up in bed with a book. The kids are quiet ok, but they do about playing, giggling and trampling over me. Life has definitely turned a full circle.

As my kids grow, I see myself growing into my mother and my kids into me. The absolute enigma called life.

All so new

 It is all new. It has been the same since March, but still it feels all new.

There are days when Pumpki demands an omelette in the morning. And I make it! I had never imagined sending my kids to school with hot breakfast (unless I was on holiday). But that happens once in a while. When Chiyaa had started school, I was working from home. So I used to get her hair done in a different plait every day (as much as time permitted) Lately it had all watered down to 2 French plaits or a pony tail. Since we are working from home, I can invest some time in making Pumpki’s hair. Not that she is keen on getting anything done. Which is a far cry from her elder sister who loved her hair done in different styles. But if the girls are in the mood and I have creative juices flowing and time at hand, they go to school with a nice hairstyle. 

 But getting them ready and their hair styled, does take time. Upto 30 minutes. Which means I start work at 6 and take a “break” from 0730-0800 ish. It is an unearthly hour to start work. It was very hard initially. But gradually I have gotten used to it. In fact some days if I am unable to wake up (the weather is getting colder you see), I feel the same rush I used to feel running to get to the bus last year. I rush downstairs and heave a sigh of relief once logged in.

 The big changes are still with respect to the kids though. They do not go to after school care. Which means they have to be picked up as soon as the school closes. With after school we used to have a window to pick them up by since the care used to run till 6pm. But now, either of us has to make a dash at 3pm to pick them up. But once back, they are served any food that they might have asked for the previous day. It is fun discussing and deciding what they would want to have the next day.

 K and my weekend runs are a thing of the past. But work and weather depending, we are able to squeeze in 2 runs during the lunch hour. Beggars cant be choosers 😃

 In the midst of all this, I cannot help think about the lovely summer I had with Mummy and Papa. As I reach out for a bottle of spices labelled “Mummy masala” (it is a mix of coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chillies and some other spices, mixed in ‘mummy’ proportion), or make a cup of tea for myself (which Mummy used to make for me for so long) or clean the windows and panes (which Papa had totally taken over), I cannot help but think of my parents, who were so close and are so far away now. It is still a new feeling getting used to their absence.

 Well… this new is here to stay.  As a popular saying on social media goes “Remember the time when you wished for what you have now!”

What broke?

 I start work early. The house is dark when I clamber down the steps to our home-office. I put on a little light in the kitchen, get my glass of hot water and coffee and I am set for the next 1.5 hour-ish before the kids wake up. 

A few days back, I woke up and went into the kitchen. There were a few vessels which were next to the sink, left for drying. As the kettle boiled the water, I thought it would be a good idea to keep the dried vessels inside the cupboards. I went about doing it. I have a glass cutting board. As I was going to keep it away it fell down. With a big crash! I was devastated and my first thought was Gosh! Now all the cleaning of the glass! I put on the bigger light of the kitchen. I picked up the cutting board from the floor. It did not have a scratch. But I was sure I heard a big crash sound, the resouding sound of glass breaking. So what broke?

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I anyways picked up the cutting board. I managed a side ways glance. And I saw the door of the washing machine broken. Pic for proof. 

How did the cutting board manage to make a sideways kick to the washing machine (which is just under the kitchen work place) is beyond me. How did it manage to survive without a scratch is also beyond me.

I worried about the replacement and the response of K! But! Thankfully K was more intrigued by the quirk of the incident to be angry :D Some laws of physics are beyond us mere software professionals :D

Hai koi jawab?

 Pumpki had her graduation from nursery. It was quite a novel occasion and an excuse for her to make a trip to the nursery after 5 months of break. We were quite skeptical about how she would be, since she was not a very keen nursery goer to start with. But she got dressed. Once back she claimed she enjoyed the party, had a lot of pizza and cake and had fun playing some games with her friends. She was also very proud of her graduation picture. 

The next week she was to start school. The night before, we told her, that she would get ready with her didi and go to school. She asked us "But why do I have to go to school?" We said "To learn lots of things". To which she replied " But I already graduated from Little Buttons". 

To this, we had no answer!! Some argument that!

How it unfolded

 August was the summer holidays so luckily Papa, Mummy ended up spending a lot of time with us. They were to depart from the UK on a Monday, so we had a Covid test booked for them for the Saturday. We went to the city centre to get the test done. After that, we had some food stuff to get for K from one of his favourite shop. As we made the trek, we bought a hummus and falafel wrap and some cakes from the shop. We ventured through the farmer's market and got a few veggies in the kitty too. It was very pleasant to be walking around with Papa Mummy, unbothered by the kids or other worries. I really felt like a child going to the market with her parents. 

Once back home, we had the finishing touches on the packing and weighing to be done. The evening was spent chatting and calling up friends and saying final goodbyes over Whatsapp video. 

Sunday was the big day. Mummy was in full form. She kneaded some flour, made dosa batter. She also made a truckload of pakoras. It reminded me of the time when she was posted in a different city from Papa, my sis and I. She used to come to us over holidays and before going back, she would cook at break neck speed. She would stash the fridge with curries and snacks. Some would even go bad eventually. But that never deterred her from working just as hard in stocking the fridge the next time she came.

She was very keen on going for her evening walk one last time. And I was very keen on going for one last evening walk with her. So as soon as the kids had their "TV time", the mother-daughter duo scooted off. Every time we went for a walk, like a child Mummy would ask me if we can go this way or that. And I would agree and we would end up finding a new way. On that day too we took a new route, went through some dilapidated buildings. Mummy said "One last time, I wanted to see all this scenery and etch this in my mind" We love talking about plants and flowers, gardens and houses during our walks. Beside her that evening, I wasnt sure when I was going to have the pleasure of her company again. 

The evening was jam packed. We finally received our Covid negative results. But it was not a smooth sailing. We received Papa's results, but not Mummy. What ensued was frantic calls to the clinic. We had paid a lot of money for the private tests. We were informed that the test had gone "missing". We still had time, but it was harrowing. Finally, 90 minutes later, we received the results. After that we had to fill in 1001 forms. First there was something with British Airways, then a form with New Delhi Airport, then a record with Air Suvidha, and exemption report with Air Suvidha and a gazillion other things. Papa Mummy had a kilo of documentation to carry each. Thank God we have a printer at home :D What came forth with all that documentation was a good amount of fear too. We hoped that all the paper work was in order. 

The next day, they started off at 0830 leaving tears in their eyes and ours. They had a long journey. They reached London from Manchester. They had an over night stay in a hotel there. We were very nervous about this, since London is not familiar territory. Given their age, they were also a bit nervous. Luckily, they approached someone who showed them the way to the hotel. The hotel was very comfortable and they had a much needed rest and internet connection. This resulted in calls to us and to my sister. 

A special mention to that little girl of mine. My sister knew that I would be a bit upset and hence kept on calling me sporadically. We were feeling very distraught. To keep our minds off the matter, we got some lunch from outside. Then we went for a good long walk in the nearby woods. It was a holiday for us, and I would not be wrong in saying, that it was a an awful day. 

The next day, Papa Mummy had their onward flight to New Delhi. After 11.5 hours they finally reached Matribhoomi! The quarantine exemption approval had been accepted by Delhi government and thankfully Papa Mummy had received the email during their stay in London. They were able to come through immigration quite quickly. They had a further 7 hour long wait for their domestic flight to Bhubaneswar. Finally after 60 hours of leaving their home in UK, they reached their home in Bhubaneswar. 

My sister had ordered most grocery and food stuffs online which had been delivered to our tenant. The house had been cleaned by our help the previous day. What had seemed very very harrowing, was luckily a smooth and peaceful journey. 

Parents are so annoying

 They leave and we are left with all the emptiness.

It is so weird to turn the intruder alarm off when I wake up in the morning, because for the past 8 and a half months Papa who used to wake around 5 was in charge of it. 

It is disconcerting to walk downstairs and find every room dark. Mummy who used to wake up next used to ensure that all the curtains were drawn back and the rooms were awash with light. If it was one of the chill mornings,she would also turn the heater on to get the rooms to just the right temperature.

Mummy would not even let me make my morning glass of warm water and cup of coffee. She would ask me to log in straight away and bring the two things to my desk. 

Papa had a keen eye on the weather and used to advise us which day would be best to do the laundry and put the clothes out for drying. Being the economically wise one, he didn't want us to waste electricity in running the tumble drier. 

Papa would clean vaccum the house every alternate day, clean the windows and even the toilets and bath once a week.

Mummy of course had taken over the kitchen.

K and I had time to go on runs on a weekend morning. We used to go grocery shopping together leaving the kids at home. All this was taken for granted and normal. 

We had immense help, even for childcare. But the most important thing we had was the vibes. 

There was a genuine feeling of love and warmth. There was a flow of conversation. Out of the blue we would start discussing politics or economics or people and relatives. We would play wordscapes which a word game or word search. Mummy would whip up delicacies just like that. Her uber simple cabbage curry or her decadent carrot halwa or the awesome jhal muri which is a dry and spicy version of bhel puri with hot ginger tea on rainy mornings without anyone asking for it - it was nothing but love. 

I made a trip to the supermarket yesterday and I had a blob in my throat when I saw a melon. Mummy and I would cut and much through an entire fruit in one afternoon with Pumpki joining in. As I went through the biscuits aisle I realised we wouldn't need rich tea biscuits for a long time. We don't eat them, but it was a regular when papa mummy were here. 

The house is cleaner now, since there is way less cooking and less people. The rooms are stark and empty. There is a coldness in everything. Everything reeks and smells of them. It is weird. We are going through the motions of living, but it feels weird. As if an important thread is missing. We are at a weird stage in life where our mental age is closer to our parents. So we understand them and I am sure they see themselves in us. It was a lovely stress free time that we had. We will take a while to recover and stop missing them. 

Best summer ever!

 It seems they take forever to come,but once a year the summer does grace us. And it is lovely every single time. 

This year there has been a lot of work from home thanks to the pandemic. But a work day is a work day whether from home or office. I had my first set of holidays booked for August. I had 2 days and 2 weeks off work. And I was eagerly waiting for it. 

As a run up I finished quite an important chunk of work. The day I started my holidays, Papa found out about the British Airways commencing service to India. We had made a lot of attempts to get on the Vande Bharat repatriation flights but with no luck. And we did not want to get on the wrong side of law by not taking any steps to get their return booked. So we went ahead and booked the flight for the 24th of August. But, the flights kept getting rescheduled. Thankfully I was on holiday to be on calls, waiting a good 30-40 mins to get the next available flight booked. 

That's the drab part of the holidays. Now for the fun part. I researched a load of outdoor places we could go to for free. It was not too difficult. There were lots of woodlands and walking paths nearby. Also there was no dearth of parks around either. I managed to round up the kids to some place or other every day. It was a bit of a struggle getting the kids ready and enthused for the walk outdoors. But once they got started, they loved it whey single time and asked for more. 

I also managed to catch up on some good ol reading! I finished two books! Holidays have a wonderful impact don't they! Even though I might have been physically more active, I wasn't tired. I felt well rested and could easily go till 1 in the morn reading a book and be up with no sign of tiredness. It is never the case with a work day where even if I hit the bed at 2200 I feel tired in the morning. And all I do all the day long is sit in front of a laptop! 

I did a load of cleaning and cleansing of toys. Cleaning doesn't mean disinfection. Means actual dumping of 'not so often used' toys in the bin. It was a very satisfying feeling and something I had been meaning to do. There were a few more decluttering operations undertaken around the house, but the toy box cleanse took the cherry on the cake. Getting the uniforms sorted for schools was another big yay! 

My holidays gets over this weekend. It's K 's turn for the next week. And I in a moment of emotion told Chiyaa of it. She exclaimed 'wow! The last days of bossiness and then it's fun, fun, fun!' I was aghast! When I told K, he chuckled and said ' I wouldn't choose me :D' 

Well I am not complaining even if Chiyaa thinks she had days of bossiness! Lots of check boxes ticked. The weather was perfect with not a single day of rain. It was a very wholesome holiday. Papa and mummy's unplanned stay was an added bonus. I could not have asked for a better summer!

The planets had aligned

Papa simply wished to celebrate the birthday of his grand daughters. That was his plan for his trip to UK 2 years ago. He also harbored a secret desire to make a trip to the London Natural History Museum. He had plans to return in March 2020 after Chiyaa's birthday celebration in February. The day her birthday party was held, he said the words "What a great celebration! Now time for return " But! Man proposes God disposes eh? Come March and we know what hit the world :D All plans cancelled, including the tickets for London. Everything in the back burner and Papa and Mummy were slated to be here for a long run.

My sister teased them on the day the tickets were cancelled that, "Ah! you are going to stay for your birthdays too" Papa and Mummy have their birthdays in July. Sitting in April, July seemed a faraway time. Mummy was confident they would travel by the end of May when her tickets were scheduled. Well, everything was up in the air wasnt it. Including sweepstakes happening at work where people were betting on when we might return to work place.

April went and with it May. Things were a bit better in June but the lockdown was not going anywhere. Till the PM of Britain gave the news of "non-essential businesses" opening from the 4th of July. On Mummy's birthday! Yay! Not that we were going to do much! But still yay! This was the fourth time Mummy was with me for her birthday, since I got married. (My life after marriage is like a watershed moment for me ;) Its like Before Marriage and After Marriage :D ) She was in the UK one time to take care of Chiyaa since she was keeping very unwell. After that, I managed to be with her one other time, since I was in India for my second maternity leave following the birth of  Pumpki. Mummy again managed to be with me when she landed in Ipswich for her birthday, again to support us through the difficult time of K's job hunt. And this! This might be the last time she is around for her birthday, since we do not anticipate our parents coming in that frequently. The kids are growing up, making their own independent worlds. And our parents are aging too. I did not desire to go out and go shopping for a birthday gift for her. But how could I not gift her anything? So, we made something. I made the kids make drawings with acrylic paint on cups. It was very exciting especially for the little one to be engaged in this secret activity. We closed the door to a bedroom and got busy with our work. There was a moment where she had to step outside and had to get some stationery. Mummy happened to come across her and asked her what she was doing. That four year old little one lied through her teeth "We are exercising". Mummy asked where. She said "In mummy and daddy's room" When Mummy asked what exercise she was doing, she convincingly replied " Just normal exercise, press ups".

God that little one is dangerous! I clarified to Mummy that they were making cards in secret. The real special gift was a secret. Since Mummy is an avid walker, I decided to get some walking shoes for her. Now I am an absolute dud when it comes to making cakes. And the kids would not let me live if i did not order a cake on a birthday. But where would I get a cake from given the situation. I scoured the internet and came across some bakers. Some were not offering their services yet, some were super busy, some did not respond. God! I was reaching a road block. I found some online sites. But which one to trust. Finally I took a leap of faith and ordered from a place which guaranteed to send it by the date. Fingers crossed now.

Come her birthday, the kids were super excited. They did not want to wait at all. They ran into her room as soon they woke up and gave her the gifts. The joy on Mummy's face was beyond expression. We had plans for lunch from a takeaway. Once that was on the way, I got the cake. The cake was all right though a bit sweet. I decided to go for the same place for Papa and K's birthday which was 3 days away. 

Mummy was very glad at the end of the day since this was first time in ages that her birthday had been celebrated! The last time was a decade ago when her students from college had come in and surprised her. I felt very glad to be able to have her around me. 

I remembered that around the same time last year, I was hoping I could have my parents over for summer. Around the May-July time when it is really hot in India and quite pleasant here. But it needed some miracle of sorts to come true. There are no school holidays during that time and my parents would not like to be at home without the grandkids hovering around. They prefer even bearing the bone chilling winter, just because the children are around for Christmas holidays. So having them over for the English spring/summer was a far off dream. But you never know do you?! It was as if God just sat on my shoulder and heard my prayers. I will be eternally grateful to him for facilitating this for our family. Not only were my parents spared the Indian summer, they had the kids around too! Since March. It was a once in a lifetime event. The stars needed serious aligning for this to work. 

For this time and also for 7th July. The dual celebration of Papa and K's birthdays! I always bask in the fact that my two favourite men share the same birthday. I had them together for the first time ever. It was also the day when it was 10 years since I arrived in the UK. That morning I had bid a tearful bye to Papa after wishing him a very happy birthday. And in the evening I had landed in UK to wish him a happy birthday. Now in 2020, I was with both of them again, wishing them both a happy birthday. This seriously needed some supreme divine intervention. This was indeed again another once in a lifetime event. 

As the day wound to a close, the chapter of birthdays drawing to a finish, all I do was thank my lucky stars.

Coming out of it

The lockdown restrictions are going to be eased. It seems like yesterday now doesn't it when it all started. Shutting down. Some of things slowly, some of things suddenly. Our office for one, shut down with remarkable alacrity. We got a notice in the afternoon to pack up and go till further notice. The school and nursery were gentler, with a bit of prior notice.

Those were such uncertain initial days. I recall the "Christmassy" feeling. The schools were the last to close, allowing parents to work uninterrupted for as long as possible. I thought the schools would be the last to reopen - going by a last in last out policy. But it looks like schools will be the first to reopen, again allowing parents to resume work as quickly as possible. I am not very concerned about the health aspects of it. I think there are many much more qualified scientists, policy makers, doctors and educationists  who are way more well endowed for such decisions. For me, children are relatively low risk, so it might be fair to start schools first. The disease is here to stay, the idea was to avoid overwhelming the health care by the pandemic, which has been done more or less. Also we have to start somewhere. As I read in an article, "history will the judge of which country got it correct and how". So that is for a later date. 

On an aside, I never felt too worried about the disease per se. It's fatality and communication wasn't one to make me panic. I am more panicked by say a cholera or plague. Also people die of the flu as well. Being a pandemic, it could easily over whelm health care systems and result in preventable deaths. But that is the nature of anything related to diseases and a gamble we have every day. Anyways that is me. 

For now, June 1st is when things start kicking back to normal for our family. The nursery sent out a letter informing that they will be re-opening. That means Pumpki is definitely going back. It was a wonderful feeling having the kids at home. Though at times it was brain splitting-ly annoying, tiring, over whelming and a whole load of other negative emotions. But isn't parenting all about this superb roller coaster - the throes of joy and the chasms of despair? So though we found Pumpki tougher to manage, especially when Chiyaa had to do her school work, though we found it hard to manage two of them when they bickered and hoped for her to be a bit more "grown-up" and complaint, though we wished for it to all end - we actually did enjoy most of it. It was a different and special experience. 

Now when she will go back to nursery, we will miss her complains, her demands, her constant need for attention, her call for us to come and play with her. We will miss serving that extra bowl of food for her, having her set of demands, her clamouring for the very same toy or colouring pencil that Chiyaa has. We will rue waking her up, dropping her . But then she has to move on, go on with kids her age, play with kids her age and be back with her nursery teachers before she moves on to school in September.

Slowly we will have the emails trickling in about restart of schools and day cares. It seemed like forever, but it was a merely over a couple of months. I had moments when I was over whelmed. But I loved having the dining table full of papers, colouring sheets, pencils, crayons, dolls and of course the two work laptops. It was wonderful being all homed in. It was indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity. As an old advertisement went "Daag ache hain".

What's Normal

"This is the new normal" This term is being flung quite liberally. They say it takes 21 days for something to become a habit. It has been double the number of days. The locked down-ness is definitely more than the new normal. It is not even new any more.

There are a lot of people dealing with it in different ways. The home chefs with their Instagram worthy pictures of delicacies were a regular feed on my Facebook. It amazes me how people get the time to do all this?I for one started going proper crazy early. The home schooling was new. There was loads to do there. Pumpki - not yet in school - was a different challenge. She needed constant attention when Chiyaa was doing her tasks. It was quite difficult to manage that in the midst of work. I had no time to even read a book.

As a team member, I felt isolated. All the other team mates of mine got along fairly well. They were in similar personal circumstances which made it a bit easier for them to get along. They could get into impromptu calls as and when required, while it needed a bit more planning on my part. They were ever helpful, but their helpfulness made me feel over whelmed. There was a moment when I had a chat window and a teamie just asked "How's it going" and I had tears in my eyes. I was not doing very well emotionally.

There were personal challenges as well in terms of self control. There was the constant urge to snack upon something. This lead to an increase in mass of your truly. Which led to a decrease in morale and urge to eat just to feel better. It was a very vicious and unhealthy cycle.

But a good friend always says "this too shall pass". The work slowly dwindled to a steady pace or maybe I learnt to pace work. The kids got used to a new routine - the routine of the absence of a routine with still some method to all the madness. 

The children wake up later now, around 9 in the morning. As we blissfully work downstairs, they have matured within the span of these lock down days to finish their brushing and morning chores and come downstairs. It seems like yesterday that we used to be shrieking and shouting at them to use the washroom and brush their teeth after waking up. Chiyaa has been phenomenal in keeping Pumpki under control through the mornings. Breakfast is a hit or miss. Some days they are very plaint and go through it all without a hiccup. Other days, there is a lot of arm twisting - especially for Pumpki. They get busy with playing for some time, after which I take a break from work to do a couple of hours worth of school work with Chiyaa. This time is a bit tedious for Pumpki since she misses the company of her elder sister. Still mostly its under control. Post lunch, they have a few hours of play or television. On warmer days its a pure delight watching them go crazy in the garden. They play with flowers, leaves, mud, water - whatever comes their way. Luckily they are not at their wits end. Some evenings they do some home workouts with Joe Wicks who is the YouTube sensation with his workout videos. Again in remarkable maturity they have acquired over the past 7 weeks, they acquiesce to a bath and dinner mostly without a fuss most of the days. They play after dinner most days and Chiyaa does a bit more of her school work. Bed time has slowly moved from 2130 to 2230-2300. 

It is phenomenal the way the children have grown. They are increasingly self reliant. I feel for the parents who have younger children. It must be definitely very hard for them managing a million responsibilities of younger children along with work. Everyone is in a different boat of struggle and difficulty. Everyone's situation is unique and there is no comparative measure. A friend of mine has three children of school going age. On one hand things are easier for her since they are a bit grown up and can manage themselves with little adult supervision. On the other hand, she has three lots of school work to do which makes things very tedious. She does not have enough devices and has to use her work laptop to get some of the tasks done. Another friend has a 1 year old and a school going kid. It is very difficult to get any quiet time to get school work done. Yet another friend I know has two much younger children and there is the relentless cycle of feeding, changing, playing silly baby games for her.

I am sure everyone has their own set of struggles. We have greatly reduced venturing outside, which has brought an end to walks with kids and our runs. It is not too bad to be honest. Its safer to be inside. At least I have the weekly trip to the super market which gives me an excuse to step out of the house. My parents are with me which gives me the solace that they are well cared for without depending on others for their grocery and other stuff which would have been the case if they were back home. They pass through moments of boredom, but they make the best of what they have. 

These are definitely unprecedented times. We are living through, as the cliche goes, history. There will be definitive changes once we emerge from all of this. Here is hoping, each one gets the strength to go through their struggles. See you on the other side!

Barely sane

Ever since I took up my current role,I missed my working from home days of my previous job for a very long time. Acclimatization eventually kicked in and I grew used to going to work. Every. Single. Day. 

If the kids were ill the odd days,I used to take emergency family leaves at work.( We have 5 per year). I fell in love with the routine. Going to work clearly demarcated home and work. I could not imagine any other way.

Till three weeks ago, we were asked to start working from home in response to the corona virus pandemic. The first day was a Friday. Friday has a different feel to it! I love Fridays :) I loved being at home, being served tea by mom and generally doing work sitting on the dining table.

The next week was a bit different. I was in a dilemma. Since there was no office commute, sleeping a bit late was tempting. But then I had my internal routine which wanted me to log into work at 0800. Schools thankfully forced me to still rouse at a certain time and get going. The kids went to school and nursery, K to work and it was a bit of a relaxed sprint for me. I thought I would have time in the middle of the day to do my workouts and other such, but nothing of the sort happened. I was quite jealous of my other team mates (all of whom are single without kids!) who were able to carve out time for video games and Netflix!  There were informal meets where team mates hung around, solved online murder mysteries, crossword puzzles and the like. But I just had work :(

Things were escalating fast. The world was winding down to a halt and it was a matter of time before the schools would be closed and all who could work from home would work from home. There were no activities for kids over the weekend, no training over weekday evening. There was a sudden lull. The first weekend, we had spare time. But no idea how to use it. When we used to have the crazy whirlwind weekends, we used to savour the time when there was a holiday or off from regular classes. Now when we had unlimited off till the end of time, we found it weird. The weather was too bad to step out (the rigid measures were yet to be implemented). There is only so much TV time that was permissible to kids in the house. But there was only so much reading, colouring, playing with toys that children could do as well. It was new for everyone of us. Everyone was feeling funny at the new set up.

We were made aware that children would be "home schooled" going forward. This was not equivalent to virtual classes. They were to be sent tasks and parents had to be the teachers. Guiding them, teaching them. In our house, both parents had to do their day job as well! To make matters worse, the schools had not streamlined their way of giving tasks (they did not have time! They were given maybe 2-3 days to prepare.) There were different sources through which work came. The worksheets were ill formed. Some didnt print fine, some tasks didnt get submitted ok. There were enormous technical glitches since some of the sites had a 500% increase in traffic! We had to be IT support along with supporting our IT tasks. With work, schooling issues, and Pumpki being younger and needing entertainment we were mega stressed. 

We enlisted the services of Chiyaa to keep Pumpki entertained. Since she had her elder sis at home, she constantly wanted to play with her. Chiyaa also was tempted to play with her (Which kid wants to study when her sibling is having fun!)  But Chiyaa also had her school work to complete. If she had a normal school day of 5 hours or so, it would have been ok and well spaced. But since she did not have that and we had no way of enforcing that, even Chiyaa had to stay up after Pumpki went to bed to finish her school work. It was not ideal, but there was no other way. Luckily, being someone who wants to put her best foot forward, she always gave her 100% when it came to doing her tasks. Touchwood.

I was not able to give my fullest at work and even said the same to my manager. Luckily (inspite of not having kids of her own) she was very understanding. She assured me that I needed to give the situation more time to settle down. A week, even two wasnt enough for a semblance of routine to come through in these times. And she reiterated that she had full trust in me. The definitely relieved me. One day at a time. Not someone who likes pending tasks, I started staying up late and working over the weekend to get the pending chunks of work done. I did not like it. But I did not have any other way. 

Friday, end of week 1 of school closures, I checked with a few other moms on how they were faring. Most were in the same boat and barely sane. They had not been more stressed ever. One of the moms shared that one of her colleagues woke at 5 to finish the work before kids were up! This made perfect sense to me. Kids' sleep time can be flaky, but they dont tend to wake up before a certain time. In my case its 0730 at the minimum. Waking up early is not my forte since I am not a morning person at all. But then desperate times call for desperate measures. So I moved my wake up time to the 5-0530 am zone. By the time the kids arose which was around 0830-0900, I ended up having 2.5 to 3 hours to nice peaceful work.Once kids were around, there was the usual scurrying with them. Their studies, activities and the lot. As soon as I finished work, I made time for the mandatory walk to get some fresh air, even if it was for 30 minutes only. After their evening chores were over, there was still a bit of pending work to catch up on. Factoring in reading and a bit of stretches and its midnight most of the days by the time I called it a day.

I feel stressed on many days and over worked too. But I am sure I will get used to it eventually. All this will seem like the new normal. The challenge after that would be getting back to going to work!!! 

Silver Linings

I always look forward to and love the stay of my parents at home. The current stint has been extra special. We of course had all the birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate. My parents love seeing their grand daughters in action. They come over to watch their swim lessons. They accompany them to karate tournaments. They come over for school functions and events. The girls love showing off to their tubi and aja. (Tubi  is a customized name given by Chiyaa to my mom and aja is the Odia for maternal grandfather)

The blissful months in their merry companionship was going at break neck speed for me. I feel sad when I think that Papa will be returning in a month. When I say the same to anyone else they are “they have been here since ages!” Well relativity. I cannot have enough of their company. I love seeing how they just bask in the company of the kids. Chiyaa comes and just plop lands on Papa’s lap. Pumpki keeps chatting incessantly J My work is quite packed and I have reserved my holidays for the breaks from school. I was ruing not being able to spend enough time with my parents.

A weird twist of fate came in the shape of the Corona virus pandemic. Our company declared “mandatory work from home till further notice”. For me the first thought was “I can be around Papa mummy!”Working from home after 1.5 years was a novel experience in itself. Remember Ipswich days? I used to love working from home and dreaded going back to office. It was kind of the other way around here. I missed getting dressed and the rush of stepping out of home at 0730. The demands of family changed in a day. K wanted me to cook his oats or give the egg omlette. Chiyaa wanted me to brush her teeth (on second thoughts I offered because I love babying her J ) Pumpki had her hair done by me which I oh so enjoyed! I had done it so infrequently for her. Pumpki returned home around 1. Though I was in another room, I could hear her pitter patter. It was real funny and cute!  I generally start work by 0815 but now the time moved to 0830 after the kids started. It did annoy the side of me which is a stickler to time – but small price. Once the house was quiet, I had mummy bringing me a cup of ginger tea! Once my calls were done, she would step in and discuss something, some family politics, international politics, benefits of yoga, work life balance or just anything under the sun. Papa would also similarly come over and discuss something. It is a blissful feeling to be able to work and also be with touch with them.

We are to be in this work from home state for a month. I am getting habituated to this new “work life balance” J

Ready, Steady, Run

K and I have picked up running. It started with me wanting to run with Chiyaa. I tried a few times. But my God! She is one hellova reluctant runner. Giving up on her, I tried K. As daughter he started on the journey reluctantly. He used puff and pant and give up quite easily. But gradually he started enjoying it. He started doing runs on his own. He started running 10Km on his own and many a days 12-15km! He started running to work. He joined a local running club where they would go for runs once a week. He enrolled for a running coaching session run by the local club where they would give tips and tricks and then run some more. For someone who was a foodie and a proper couch potato sure this was no mean feat. He was transforming into a “runner”.

My running took a backstage (someone has to look after the kids *rolls eyes*) But K still “enjoyed running with me the most”. His words entirely :P So we kept looking for chances to run together. Which was only possible when our parents were around. We did our runs kids permitting over the weekends. But there was a lingering desire to take part in a running event. I wasn’t very keen on it. I did not understand taking part in such races, especially us being amateur runners. We would definitely not be competing with the others. And if we were aiming for a personal best, then we do it by ourselves in our personal runs. There was only one element which was the “force factor”. If one registers for an event, then it is mandatory to go for it and hopefully to complete it. I am not a stickler to the completing bit, since, if the body gives up, it is ok to return. What are we trying to prove by going on at the cost of physical trauma. And one could have that determination during personal runs too.

But K wanted to take part in one, and I too wanted to see what the deal was. K had registered for a few events, but we found one which we could both undertake given our limitations of someone needing to be there to take care of the kids. With my parents around, there was one to be held in the end of January which fit our bill. The only issue was – it was 10miles not kms! That equates to 16kms. We had never run that sort of distance. But well, we had time, hopefully get there.

We never got the chance to run 16kms during our weekends. I estimated that running 16kms would take 2 hours approx. We have a somewhat functional exercise machine at home, it is neither a proper cycle nor an elliptical trainer. It is a bit of a mix. It does not emulate actual running or a treadmill, but something is better than nothing. I started doing 60 minutes on it and tried to build up the time. I failed miserably since who has heard of a mother having 60mins of exercise time! Yes, I would have to generally jump off to mediate a war between the siblings. One day I managed 75 minutes. I was generally fine, but towards the evening felt extremely groggy.

One weekend K convinced me to take the “long” run that he had done once. I agreed. We went through territories I was familiar with to start with. But eventually I had no clue where we were headed. It was around 1700, none of us had a phone or any money. And we were running and running and running. I started getting worried for the kids back home. What if there was an emergency? You guys know I have a creative imagination! As if that was not enough, I needed a wee! K was in a toss. He couldn’t believe that I needed a wee! He asked me to enter a pub and use the facilities. But come on, the pub wasn’t a public toilet. If we had some money, I would have got a bottle of water and been a paying customer to use their facilities. But going inside just for the toilet seemed preposterous for me. K then recommended that I knock on one of the houses and use the toilet! My God! The man was creative but not practical! No way was I going to do that! So we carried on. Trust me on one thing – running on a full bladder is very painful L So I started slowing down. Which exasperated K. I was loosing my endurance too. And on one secluded stretch said, I am going to go behind the bushes. K was reluctant, but when you need to go, you need to go! Ah sweet relief!!!!

Bodily fluids eliminated, we restarted our run with renewed vigour (I am not going to talk about my thirst K) After what seemed like forever we reached home. We had done ….. a mere 11km L L L And spent 2hours!!!! Gosh how long were we going to take for 16? K after some reflection suggested that we skip the run. It would be a mere monetary loss. But he felt “ we were not ready for it” I was fine with it. For he was the real runner now J But then his sessions at the running club enthused him, and he reverted his earlier decision. “We should give it a shot”. “Whats the worse that could happen” – I chimed in J We bought new shoes. We geared up J

D day. I was all right, but K the serious one, had nerves. We reached the venue for registration. As we were making our way to the starting point of the race, we had to cross a few roads. The jittery participant K jumped a few pedestrian signals and made his way, while I waited for the green sign to flash like a law abiding citizen. This caused an altercation. Some start! As usual  there was a few melodramatic words thrown in by yours truly “this is our first and last run together” which were fairly rebutted by K “Why are you making a big deal? You should have some trust and cross with me!” Who was more right? Votes in comments please :D (Seriously if you are one of the 10 readers of this blog, you have to comment) (And don’t I sound like a social media influencer with 0 followers :D :P )

Anyways that was some start. Before we commenced running, we patched up. The initial stretch was beautiful and there was a throng of runners. Slowly we started being over taken. We were sandwiched between 2 ladies who seemed middle aged (guessing by their backsides ;) Don’t judge me, I am guessing :P) and a lady who was middle aged (I could see her face, so I categorized her :D ) We were chugging along. K commented that I was running like a champ! Which was high praise indeed. He has one of the fitness monitor watches and I asked how far had we come. Honestly I expected the answer to be 9-10 kms and he shattered my wishes by saying, “5”. Five??!!! Did you say 5???!!! Are you kidding me? It seemed like I had been running forever! But of course it must be 5 since there was a drinks and refreshments station at  the mid way mark and we had not come upon it. We carried on. We had a game of sorts, where the lady behind us overtook us and we overtook her. J Healthy sportsmanship ;)

We passed through some real picturesque views beside a river. While others were busy running, we took some pics :P At one point as if by divine justice, K needed a wee! *lol in head* And that made the lady behind us really really overtake us. Well… physical comfort first, race results later.

There was one of the organisers running behind us. He was collecting the flags that marked the course. He was close behind us with shallow words of encouragement(I am sure he meant them :P) “you have done the hard bit, its all downhill now”, “just round the corner and you have reached”. Yours truly *Says expletives in head* All those were LIES. It wasn’t all downhill. It wasn’t round the corner. It was God knows how far!! We reached a familiar territory and I knew that it was where I had last checked the distance covered to be 5k. Means we had 5K more! My back and hip was cramping and K’s legs were giving up. K wanted to let the organizer coming behind us, that we were ready to quit. I was reluctant, cos we had to get to the start point, since our car was parked there. Might as well finish the race. When we reached the next marshal K was ready to say that we surrender. But the volunteer luckily said, “you are only 2 miles away”. We paid attention to 2 and ignore the unit of distance J 2 is a small number isn’t it? :D  After a point, we could not physically run any more. We walked. K tried to summon some dying power and run a bit, but I made up my mind to walk the rest of the distance. To hell with running.

When we finally reached the finishing point, I just sat on my haunches. I had never felt more tired.  We had a drink of cranberry juice in the pub. Walking to the car seemed torture! We somehow made it and came back home.

I felt I would be dead beat at home. But more than anything else I was ravenous. I had some home made nuts bar in the car. But the fish curry and rice mummy had made was the stuff I wanted! Mummy asked me to lie down and put my feet up to let the blood flow down. Contrary to what I thought of needing the bed straight away, I was faring fine. I had a luxurious boiling hot water bath, which was immensely good for my aching muscles. I had a bit of an ache in my hips the next few days, but nothing I cannot cope. The icing on the cake was the results. We were sure we were last (didn’t we see one of the organisers collecting flags right behind us? ) But no!

Since mummy and papa are here, we have signed up for our next 10K race in March :P :D

Alarming stuff!

Last Thursday in the middle of the night our intruder alarm started blaring. Well.. we have no possessions an intruder would be remotely interested in. In fact K has a joke that if ever there was an off chance of an intruder, the said person might deposit some cash in our cupboard and write a note for us to get better jobs :P But then we have had 3 instances of the alarm going off in our house. Once we had left a window open, which caused the curtain to blow and trigger the alarm (the sensors thought someone was entering through the window ;) ) .  The second and third times we have no idea. But so far it has been nothing serious. (We sleep with a hammer and a rod just in case ;) )

Side note: The intruder alarm system has two motion detectors for the two entrances of the house. There is remote to arm or disarm it. Once armed if any movement is detected or the doors are opened/closed, the alarm sounds a siren which is mounted on top of our house, 15 feet above ground. 

As an aside, don’t worry, we don’t live in a rough area. But you never know ;) We hear stories. The most bizarre one was  from a friend of ours who is a chef. Now one morning, their baker did not turn up. The baker was one with an inclination to get into trouble, so they assumed he must have gotten into a bar fight and knocked himself out. The story was revealed when the baker came back about a week later. He had gone home late that night and on opening his house sensed a stranger in his house. His wife and kids were sleeping upstairs. He snuck upon the intruder who put up a fight. Not one to give up, the baker thrashed the living day lights out of the ruffian but himself ended up being in police custody on assault charges !  God forbid such a scenario to anyone else. Back to my story.

So when the alarm started off on Thursday, we went ahead and did our customary checks downstairs. As expected we found nothing amiss. We guessed that one of the toys must have fallen from the toy box. Now a bit of elaboration on the toy box. We have not one but two toy boxes. The aim was to put all the toys inside the box and close the box at the end of play every day. But!!!!! Expectations are always far from reality aren’t they? So every night, most of the toys are either sprawled across the floor. Or they are dumped on top of one another in the toy box (if either parents have been particular about enforcing some discipline in the house. That fateful night the toys had been dumped on the toy box. Dumped toys tend to fall (gravity you see) and falling objects can have the semblance of movement which can trigger the motion detectors attached to the alarm. That was our theory. So after the check, we went for our beauty sleeps. The same event repeated the next day (also around the same time – 2am!) which made us suspicious that something was wrong with the system.

We tried reaching out the original guy who had done the installation, but to no avail. Guess new installations pay way more than repair works and his decision to avoid us obviously made sense. So we tried reaching out to other people who might remediate our issue, but responses were few and far between. We also had the weekend fast approaching when it would be even more difficult to get hold of a repair man. As our efforts went on to get someone to fix the alarm, we reached Saturday night. The alarm kept going off intermittently and we had to scurry to switch it off. We tried all sorts of tricks to keep it quiet. 

We put a dark cloth over the motion detectors. No motion detection, no alarm activation. That did not work. K had a theory that the “arm” button of the remote seemed pressed, which might be making the connection and arming the alarm. So we took the batteries off the remote so that even if the “arm” button got pressed, it did not end up actually arming it. That seemed to work! Till 2am! When the alarm started blaring. It is a 110 decibels noise – so imagine a shrill  jet taking off in a quiet English suburb! To make matter worse our neighbours are of two types – old retirees, who need their sleep and little kids under 10, who too need their sleep. We are not blessed with neighbours of the glorious 21-31 age group who would be out partying on a Saturday night. So, 2 am and we have a blazing intruder alarm. And remember we have take the battery from the remote which has the powers to shut it off. Now this remote is half the size of a standard female (I am assuming females have smaller palms) human palm in length and width with a teeny battery. K shoved the battery in, the remote did nt work! Damn!! It was about 2 minutes that we had the thing on, but trust me it felt like 20. We kept trying and there was a knock at the door. That’s it! Some one’s kid was awake and he/she had come personally to deliver the death threat. I opened the door and it was a couple of community police officers. Said police officer 1.  “We heard your alarm going off during our patrols, is every thing ok?” I was embarrassed but glad it was just them “ Yeah everything is ok, there is some problem with the remote” Police officer 1. “Oh fine, if you are handling it.” It was very comforting to have them over. But I hope they don’t dismiss us as people who cry wolf!! 

So, at last we somehow managed to shut that banshee down. 

It was quite through Sunday when we continued to find a person to fix in vain. Then as if it has a personal vendetta it started blaring at 2130! K shut it off. Then it went again. Every. 2. Minutes. God! What were we going to do ?!! I had a backup plan if everything failed. We had 4 adults in the house and all of us could have a shift to stay awake and turn the alarm off. Huh. Well…. Not a brilliant plan, but beggars cant be choosers right? While I was thinking all this, luckily K managed to get hold of a guy who was willing to come and do the work. But for the moment, he started sending v-e-r-y d-e-t-a-i-l-e-d messages to K to resolve the issue at hand. His text messages would have filled A4 sheets of paper. K went ahead to disable the alarm with a flimsy ladder and papa for additional human support. They braved the 4 degrees temp to get it all sorted. And we managed to have a very peaceful Sunday night’s sleep. 

Come Monday, the guy turned up in person and the thing is all sorted :) Phew!