Our funny Diwali

We are not your conventional family. Somehow I am lucky to be paired with a weird person like K who loves keeping to himself playing his computer games. We dont like socialising much. We are not part of expat groups and dont do stuff that are organised on a community scale. What we mostly tend to do is keep to ourselves and invite my Romanian friend over. Of course I start nearly 15 days prior to Diwali putting all the lights on cos I need Diwali. I need those lights around when the days are shorter. I need as much artificial brightness as possible :) 

 Since my friend is vegan and I want to make Indian stuff only, it is a brain storming session prior to her visit. Also I feel the urge to showcase the wonderful cuisines that are from our lovely country instead of presenting something run of the mill which she can probably have in a random restaurant. This time we went with the theme of street food. We made pani puris and stuffed kachodis with potato curry. It was quite a cool experience to make them since these are also not stuff we make on a daily basis. The day itself was jam packed with cooking. There was a ton of stuff to make and taste. We bought the puris for the pani puri from the shop. We had to taste to make the taste of the filling and water as close to the real deal as possible. During the process of ‘tasting’ we ended up finishing 2 lots of the puris. So much so that K had to make another trip to the shops to get the required amount. It was huge fun though having this rendition of street food. This is what Diwali brings, the letting loose, just the joy of doing something that is not routine.

Once my friend was over, we had a good time just chatting about everything under the sun. Her husband and her quite enjoyed the food. With this awesome company, the meaningful conversations and positive feeling of the festive season, we celebrated Diwali a week ahead of Diwali :)

Every holiday is different

I am back. From a holiday. When the alarm went off this morning, my first thought was “Is it Monday already!?”. And Monday it was. Luckily Chiyaa’s school starts tomorrow, which gives us a day to gently “transition” into full on working days.

When the holiday started, I had no plans. We had a few days away in a nearby sea side town. The week leading to the break had the coldest, murkiest weather. Felt like October rather than August. Sea-sides can be notoriously cold. And cold climates do not agree with the kids. I did not want weeks with kids suffering from cough and cold. We were supposed to travel on the Friday. Thursday it was raining cats and dogs all day long. I packed tights, sweaters, boots and light shoes (in case the weather was warm). I was fully prepared for the worst holiday weather. Friday morn as if by magic it was a hot hot hot 24 degrees. The coast was warmer in fact at a tempting 28 degrees!! The sun was shining and though google maps predicted lot of holiday traffic in the motorway, the roads were not a nightmare! I had a wonderful drive for the first half. As we started making progress to the the rural roads, we missed an important turning. But as if God was watching over us, there was a road blockage a few minutes on. Since the traffic was stalled, we were able to quickly turn around and take the right route. We felt blessed, as if the holiday was destined to go well.

It started well. We had a lovely meal once we reached, and watched a few shows that were being performed in the venue. When we got around to wrapping the kids for the night, I realized that in my enthusiasm to pack warm clothes, I had over looked inner wear for Chiyaa. I had not packed a single piece for her!! Disaster! Anyways we planned to go out to a nearby store the next morning (which was not so nearby since we were put up in quite a remote resort). It would take some meaningful time away, but then what needs to be done needs to be done. Pumpki was "the have" with a surplus supply of knickers and the moment she knew of her "have-not" sister, she did not leave a chance to rub it on :D . She pretended to choose which one she was going to wear, and even had a day, evening and night one segregated. The audacity! While she went on with this exercise, much to the chagrin of Chiyaa, I noticed that one of the knickers looked big enough to fit Chiyaa. (Yes! I buy bigger size for the kids, so that I don’t need to run to the stores every 3 months) I asked Chiyaa to try it and it fit! This was Pumpki’s chance to get harassed :D since her stuff was being worn by didi. Karma ;)

We ended up washing and using the 2 and Chiyaa survived! (Thank the shining sun and tower driers again.) Knicker-gate resolved without a longggg trip to the markets. Boo-yah. The good weather held up too. Saturday was warmer than Friday and we spent hours on the private beach. It was idyllic. Sunday was slated to be even higher in temp. We looked forward to a day in the pool, followed by a stroll around the amusement rides and then back to the beach. Till another disaster struck at 0930. The electricity went off. And took water with it. K went to inquire and was informed that it was a town wide issue! Well….this was an issue of massive proportions. Everyone but me needed their bathroom business done ;) and we Indians need water. So with 5 people with pending bathroom business, we were in critical need for water. We started opening taps full throttle like crazy. Every drop was precious. Yes the speed was slow, but then there is always water lurking in the pipes isnt it? We could manage to get 2 bottles filled. K as usual had a light bulb idea. The beach was nearby. (Not really, but for argument’s sake) He recommended we take all available bottles and go to the beach, fill water and come back! You can NEVER take India out of an INDIAN! Spoke like a true bred Hindustani. People across the resort were contemplating their next move. We were smug with a back up plan. Apart from the fetching-water-from-the-beach idea,  K recommended that we make a trip back home sooner if the water/electricity situation did not improve. It was a Sunday and the next day was a holiday, chances that anyone would be around the fix and issue in a remote touristy place was bleak. Well, that was a valid point, though it would be an unceremonious end to the holiday :( 

But then!! Bijli aa gai! And we shouted hurrrraaayyy!! We clapped, we cheered. I was totally reminded of the days of past when the current would go in crucial junctures of cricket matches. In the sweltering heat, tempers would flare. Papa would barely contain expletives. We would pace up and down, and keep a look out for any signs of electricity. The sound of television or the sight of light if it was after evening. If we saw some lucky goon with it, we would fish out if was the generator or the power supply. God forbid if it was power supply - Papa would make frantic calls to electricity department or drive off to the local one - depending on his state of mind. And when the power was restored, the rotating fan, the tube light, the flicker of the television – heaven was right there in the living room. That day in the resort, I felt the same. Wow! Vacations follow a trend but these nuances – they make it.

With electricity back, we were able to get on our “business”. Colon cleansed, the family marched to enjoy a glorious day in the sunshine.

Once back in Leeds, the days with the kids were pure bliss. We went around the city, visited some local farms, played, watched a load of television, coloured a lot of pictures, nursed sore throats and cold congested chests (there is no avoiding them :( ) and essentially had summer vacation.

Tuesday as Chiyaa goes back to school, I hope for the summers again soon J

August again!

Though I had a few thoughts brewing in my head, I kept putting them off. A bit of lethargy and a bit of procrastination. So before August draws to a close, let me put my post up.

August is guess what – yes holiday season! Summer holidays! Before they start I panic. I keep wondering how to keep Chiyaa gainfully engaged for 6 weeks. This is the last year it is only Chiyaa, from next Chumki joins her for her day care ends! (How time flies, that little one will be in school next year!!) So to keep Chiyaa engaged, I enrolled her in a couple of dance sessions and a week of sports.  That took care of 7 days :D There were many many more days.

K was on parental leave the first week of the hols. He did a stellar job of keeping the kids engaged. They would go on walks, collect rubbish from the neighbourhood, go and have lunches and be busy. And in the lean time, when Chiyaa would pick a book, K would engage in some online fighting J For me I did not have the rush of getting Chiyaa dressed and all in the morning, which meant I could have 15 additional minutes of sleep! So much so, even my showers are longer and more relaxing. Also once back, I did not have to scurry away in the car for the pickups. I could have a relaxing cup of coffee and pick Pumpki once it was time. Wow! I think I am getting used to this :D

The roads are scant since many people book holidays thus lessening the traffic. We have purchased many books so every room is littered with a pile. There are toys all over the place – some setups have a strict warning “DO NOT TOUCH” like this 

since the kids intend to resume play any moment. At the mid point of the hols, I can say, I am loving itJ

Zip Zap Zoom - went a wonderful Christmas

Just done with the most idyllic Christmas vacation and seriously loved every bit of it.

It was 4 days of holiday and K thankfully did not have to go to work any of the days. That itself was bestest gift I could ask for. Friday evening he gave the surprise of surprises by coming home early. He also chose to skip his customary friday booze party. He has been really sweet lately by giving up time with the "guys" to spend time with me! I love him 10 times more when he does that :) though I keep telling him he could go and have some fun rather than being stuck in the house with a fat lady :) But stay he did and got on with cleaning some surfaces and painting bits of the house where some stains had come along. After grubbing on some frozen samosas, we called it a day.

The next day the sun shone bright, we chose to trek in search of some more Indian fare. Food does call the shots in our choice for outing. We decided to go for a new restaurant and had the most scrumptious Kachodi chat and dhokle. K was developing a mild eye infection, but not letting go of the holiday spirit. Once home, he made a trip to his favourite electronics shop for some window shopping. We ended up spending the evening watching The Inbetweeners and eating lots and lots of Indian snacks that we had purchased on our way back.

Christmas being the day when the city shuts down, we decided to take it slow. We still had to make a trip to the hospital, since K's eye infection was worsening as was his cold. Once back, I got on with the cooking while K attended to some serious enemy killing. All fattened up, we got on with back to back animated movies - Monsters Vs. Aliens, Happy Feet and Ratatoulie. I then chose to hit the bed with a book while K had to get back to saving the world. We saved up all the energy for the next day was Boxing Day - the day when the "SALE" gates open. I do not get the customary rush to shops on Boxing Day. I feel no difference in the options available on this day compared to any other time of the year. But somehow the frenzy is infectious. People do flock to the stores at 5 in the morn!! We too stepped out of the house at somewhere around 1230 to enjoy the sights. We chose to go to a mall far far away with a group of K's colleagues. Since it was a holiday, getting there got a bit painful since transport facilities were way limited. We took close to 2 hours while a normal day should have taken us there in 45 mins. But then it was totally worth the pain, since the decorations, the activity and the general festive fervour charged me with the same emotion. Did not splurge a lot, but it was amazing to catch the guys go crazy in the shops! Now that does not happen very often! Caught up on some reading in the evening along with catching up on 50 most annoying celebrities of 2011 :D (The stuffs people countdown and people watch :D )

Tuesday heralded the very last day of the Christmas holidays (boo hoo). We had a couple of friends invited for a small eatout and K helped me hugely inspite of his illness and eye infection. He was an outright darling from the outset.

As K started to work today morning, I could not help but treasure the wonderful time I had with him. It was a near perfect Christmas.

Enough adventure for a day - Hampi Day1 Episode 2

We started screaming and scooting towards the parked ferry. The ferry driver acknowledged our pleas and did say something in return. But still we were not sure if what he said was "Ok I am waiting for you guys. Thank God K is blessed with long legs :) He was able to cover a lot of ground quickly and make it to the ferry first. He was followed by Sam. Wearing a pair of slippers which were breathing their last, I was the last one to be scurrying towards the shores. A little before the ferry was parked, was 3 metres of sludge and mud. K was totally in touch with the elements and gleefully waded through it. In fact seeing him from a distance, I never gauged, the mud was so slippery and well .. so muddy :) I was also fine, just concerned about my track pants which were getting dirty ( We had shoe string supply of clothes :) ) But the funniest sight was poor Sam whose precious Lee Coopers were getting a savage treatment.

Somehow we reached the ferry (the ordeal of those 3 metres seemed NEVER ending to me honestly) Once there, I blissfully remarked "Phew! Enough adventure for a day I think"

Once we reached the banks of the river, we got an auto and asked him to take us to any of the guest houses there. We had heard of Rahul guest house being a decent one and decided to check that out first. It ended up being fully occupied. We checked out a couple more and the good ones were taken (always happens be it guest houses or men :D ). Guest houses in Hampi have a strange way of working. Mostly they are houses with some of the rooms being converted to guest rooms. Most of the common space might even be shared with the original inmates of the house. All of these guest houses are located within a close circumference of the river banks. Since the guest houses were not so palatable for us, we asked the auto rickshaw driver to take us to some hotel. He said the hotel there was a government recognised hotel. We travelled nearly 8 kms to reach hote Mayura Bhubaneswari which looked more like a ruin in itself. The front desk person was a typical goverment memsaab. When asked if there were any rooms free, she first vehemently denied. When we urged her if there is ANYthing at all, any sort of room, she showed us a 4 seater. I felt pretty suffocated in there. There was absolutely no ventilation and since there was no electricity as well, it seemed more like a dungeon. We went up to the lady and said, the room was not good enough. Then she said, the presidential suite was there - 5600 bucks!! K was so worn out with the whole affair of searching for a hotel room, that he was game for taking it up. Seeing his enthusiasm, Sam and I were also inching towards taking it up. Then we asked, if we could be shown that room. And that room was a wow!! It was toooo plush. It was very very tempting. But 2 things hit us back - it was exhorbitantly priced - the acco charge was not even what we had spent entirely on the trip till now - and, there would be power cuts in that room also. Come on if we were paying that kind of money, the least we could expect was electricity. So we left the whole idea and went up to the auto driver and asked him to take us to some other hotel.

And wonder of wonders, he said that was the only hotel!! Sam was getting ballistic by this time and was very edgy. She insisted to the auto driver to take us to a nice guest house, which would be having electricity supply. The auto driver promised he would take us to a good place. Driving the entire 8 kms back, we came to the same guest house zone. There the auto driver took us through the most dingy by lanes and brought us to a guest house. The owner here seemed very very snobbish. We had a hell of a lot of heckling to do to get a room with one extra mattress. It was already 1900 by then. He was insistent that we check out at 0900 the next morning. ( This is a standard norm in Hampi. All the hotels and guest houses insist on checking out at 9 in the morning) Paying 1k for a stay of hardly a night was not something we were not willing to buy. But beggars cannot be choosers so reluctantly we agreed. As we were settling in the room, suddenly he came up with the form. The form kinda had a declaration of what all we were possessing and that we would take responsibility of whatever was with us. Till then it was fine, the next thing the hotel owner stated that we had to get the declaration signed at the nearest police station. Now that made us loose it. We were simply not ready to go to the police station of all the places. We started yelling at the hotel owner( God only knows what all we yelled in which language :) ) Then we stomped out of the place and threateningly requested the auto rickshaw driver to take us to a 'decent' place. I don't know why we were venting it all on him, poor thing, he did not have the divine responsibility to take care of us. But then the poor man brought us out from the dingy lanes where he had initially placed us. Once out in broader roads, we happened to see yet another guest house. We decided might as well check this out.

The owner of this guest house happened to be a very courteous man. He was also insistent on the check out at 0900hours timing and getting the declaration stuff signed at the police station, but he said that with a smile, with humility and with hospitality which was endearing. We agreed to his conditions (strangely I think he completely missed getting the declaration signed from us.) and ended up paying for 2 days stay. But we were happy with the place. It was a strange place to be honest. Pity I do not have any pictures of the place. It was located some 50 meters from the river banks and had a pleasant wind wafting through it. The room we took was the very first room of the guest house, it was just 4 steps away from the street. As an afterthought Sam and I felt, how accessible it was to an outsider if the good for nothing grill gates were not closed. But since it was so close to the street the room had the lion's share of the wind. The room was very cornily painted in a strawberry pink color and had some clumsy stuffed toys and a broken clay parrot for decoration :D There were shops selling funky wares around it and there were quite a few coffee joints and eateries around.

Once we had our luggage nicely parked, we went went ahead in search of dinner. We placed ourselves at the dinner lounge at 1930hours and trust me we came out at 2230hours. Yep, thats true, 3 solid hours. Thats the pace at which things proceed in Hampi. The problem what I felt was the cuisine is too exotic for any preparations to be made ahead of time. One may have absolutely no idea what the customer might order when the menu hosts things from pasta to pancakes to parathas to puddings to pizza and plethora of things. It ranges from continental to oriental to mexican and american. All of the items are available at all the times and the restaurants are grossly understaffed at times. Hence things are bound to take a verrrry slow pace. But while we had 3 hours, we chatted a lot. It was nice to see Sam and K bonding. They are both a number 7 (born on the 7th day of a month) and somehow I had felt, their innate similarity had repelled them from each other initially. Never had they been able to establish a rapport with each other. During this trip somehow, the time they had, gave them a chance to see beyond the initial judgmental attitude to delve into how alike they were from a point. Neither of them is a person who can make another comfortable in their company easily. So with time, they grew comfortable with each other. I was a mere listener to their conversations and thoroughly enjoyed their increasing friendship.

As soon as we reached our rooms, we retired, since we had opted for an early morning tour in the same auto rickshaw driver who had droven us around.

The kickoff - Project Hampi

I am alive and kicking :) And Renu, it was immensely sweet of you to come up to my blog and ask how come I had gone invisible. Thank you so very much :) That was a very warm gesture.

Now that I am back, I am going to mow down my readers with some very very long posts (*evil laugh*). Yep, and this is going to be a part by part post - the current one being part1 :)

September is a real sweet month this year. It comes with 2 extended weekends back to back. First a holiday on 21st for Eid, the next on 28th for Dussera and then October joins forces to give 2nd October as a holiday. K and I were looking forward to a vacation during one of these extended weekends. But for some reason or the other, the plans always used to go kaput. Then one afternoon during a casual call my friend Sam said she was going to Hampi on a 3 day trip. She was generally cribbing about one of her friends having ditched her, which would compel her to travel alone from Bangalore to Hospet - and Hospet not being a very bright place, she was a bit jittery about making the trip alone. At Hospet she would have been joined by another friend of hers from Hyderabad.

When I heard the plan itself, something kicked in me to ask K to join in as well. We had been making and breaking vacation plans, cancelling and redoing train tickets and were in a whole lot of mess when it was coming to travelling. I was having my reservations when I went ahead and asked K if we could plan on a trip to Hampi. But I was amazed to get a whole hearted thumbs up from him! Now first hurdle crossed, we had to check tickets! Cos the due date was just 2 weeks away and that being a holiday time, people would be flocking like crazy to the place. And we had a big set of tickets to be made yet again - Chennai->Bangalore, Bangalore->Hospet(closest station to Hampi), Hospet->Bangalore, Bangalore->Chennai. Now if God unwilling any thing went awry, it would need 8 tickets to be cancelled. Still, we thought, lets give it a shot.

As I had said in one of my previous posts, 2 weeks is a long enough time for many things to change. And in this case too they did. The other friend of Sam's who was supposed to come had to cancel her tickets since she had some emergency and Sam decided to return with us rather than staying an extra day as was her initial intention. For her it would have been a trip that would nt have happened if K and I had nt booked our tickets. Its strange the way providence ties people up :)

Strangely the day before the trip both Sam and I were pretty restless. Sam has been my oldest friend- one since school. She and I connect very easily. And we both having the same feeling on a day prior to the travel was pretty uncanny. We tried to reason as to why we were feeling that way. Maybe it was because, it was a very impromptu trip for which neither of us was 100% prepared, or maybe it was because we were a bit bothered by the fact that we would be away from work for 4 days, or it was because she had a different perception of how the trip was going to be and with K and I coming into the picture, it might be a paradigm change or maybe it was because I who always loves to plan out every bit of a vacation was not able to gather much info before the travel was feeling a bit less prepared. We were not sure if it was a bit of all these feelings or any thing else which we were not able to figure out at all. None the less, we tried to keep the pace of normal work and some how tide over that one day before 4 days of vacation began.

The journey to Bangalore was good but once I hit the bed at Sam's place, I realised how exhausted I was - cos I slept 3 hours straight. I could have slept more if Sam and K had not kicked me out of the bed. Though we had planned to shop and eat out and God knows what not, we ended up spending most of the day inside the house, generally talking, finishing some chores, last minute packings and arrangements. Pronto at 2000hrs we ventured towards the station. The entire crowd in the train seemed to be going to Hampi. There were so many people with RAC tickets who were travelling. All the while Sam was praying that we should get a proper place to stay( Yep inspite of Sam and I both being finicky about planning and being meticulous to the core, neither of us had been able to get any reservations done!!) The optimistic me kept reassuring her that things would be fine and the ultra pessimistic her kept wondering what if things were not fine :) K being K chose to doze off and let the ladies do the thinking :D. As happens whenever old friends meet, Sam and I were talking till 0100 at night and hit the bed pretty reluctantly.

The train was supposed to reach Hospet at 0745 hours. At 0645 K woke me and asked if we had arrived, but I said there was still an hour to go. We decided to snatch some more winks. All of a sudden a lady came and said "You going to Hampi na?" We jolted YESSSS. She said "Its Hospet station get down get down, just take your luggage and get down". Maa kasam, aisa mere saath pehle kabhi nehi hua!! I freaked out, took one of the backpacks and scrammed. K and Sam were in deeper sleep I suppose, cos they took some more time. I was like hurry hurry come fast all the while. We jostled out of the train and stepped into the glaring sun of Hospet.

We were giggling silly at our stupidness. And we thought, wow quite an adventurous start!!

Scarce did we know - the adventure had just began!

DareDevil

Hmm one thing I hate is crossing the railway tracks. But it is what I do every day.
I take the local train to commute from home to office.
Evenings we have a drop from the office to the station.
Now there are two ways to get to the platform to board the train: -
1. Go over the foot over bridge
2. Jump over the tracks

The entry points for taking either of the routes subsequently are different.
The employees of my firm literally coax the driver of the cab which takes us to the station to park it so that they can go over the tracks rather than take the foot over bridge. ( much to my annoyance)

Jumping over the tracks freaks me out.
A relative of mine once had a pretty bad experience when her shoe got stuck in between the tracks with a train being pretty close.
I always get terrorized by that thought.
And many a times I can hear the whistle of the train, or the light cast by it, and still I huff and pant and struggle over the tracks mustering all my courage. ( now don't ask me why do I do it, if I dislike it so much. Maybe the thought of being all alone on the platform while all my colleagues would be chugging their way home, is not very palatable for me)

So many a times I have ended up scrapping my precious shoes over the pebbles on the track, hurt my foot innumerable times, stumbled, dropped my laptop, and been through a literal rough patch while crossing the tracks.

But yest I just crossed all the limits.
There was not just our train which are coming, there was another train from the opposite direction as well. So basically there were two monsters heading on towards me.
People were scrambling to make it to the other side.
One of my colleagues who is a close friend, reached the safety of the plat form quite soon.
She stood there calling " Come on Make it Fast,Come on"
And here I was scared, petrified, in dilemma and very tensed- Looking at the two sets of tracks to be crossed.

Then I just decided to go for it.
I literally covered one of the tracks in one leap(Boy! did nt it feel amazing! ).
I hope my mom never gets to read this blog, cos she was hell worried when I had mentioned the 'track jumping' act.
If she hears of me making it with the train being so close, and more over with two trains heading towards me, I think she will make me leave my job :D

PS: My friend told me, my train crossing reminded of her of the famous Aamir Khan train run from the movie Ghulam :D :D :D