A weird Diwali

 What should follow a different Dussera, a weird Diwali of course :) 

Diwali is a private affair for us. Well, everything is a private affair for you :) K and I are supremely un-social individuals and it goes without saying that we both enjoy keeping stuff within the four walls of the house. 

This year coincidentally we planned a lunch with a family friend of ours. We were to have them over on the day preceding Diwali. She and her husband are vegans and we really had to rake our heads to come up with a decent menu. We finally zeroed in on courgette koftas, jeera rice, carrot halwa made with oat milk and vadas for starters. Coming up with the menu was the biggest task. They were to come over on Sunday and we started prepping on Saturday evening. I had the carrot halwa and the kofta curry ready. The carrot halwa tasted like a pure disaster which had us thinking about the alternatives. The only thing that could salvage it was condensed milk. I had seen cans of vegan condensed and evaporated milk in the supermarkets. K had to make a quick trip to get things. But as it turned out, there were none to be found - guess all Indians had hoarded them to get the 'alternative' desserts right :) Disappointed K came back with vegan custard, vegan Horlicks!! And 2 cans of 'normal' condensed milk. All of them would be of no use to me.

There was an even bigger problem. Pumpki was sick. She had vomitted nearly 4 times in the interim and complained of a bad tummy ache. We thought it would settle down and continued with the plans. But around 11 at night, she was still unsettled and I had to tell our friend that we wouldnt be able to go ahead with the next day's plans. She was very understanding and totally empathised that such things were part of daily life. 

We made some calls to the medical services and they gave us an appointment for the next day to have Pumpki checked out by a doctor. She was quite poorly through out the day. The doctor reassured us that it seemed like an acute gastroenteritis infection. We were asked to continue fluids and she would be better in a couple of days. The poor girl had a lot of stomach ache and was very restless. Her vomitting had lessened but she was still not fit enough. That night she was way better which was such a welcome relief from the previous two nights where would get up either to puke or complain of a bad stomach ache. She was in pure distress. 

On the morning of Diwali, she woke up way more cheerful. She was in no position to eat or drink much but had small quantities of milk. I quickly whipped some savouries and sweets for Diwali. When Pumpki was a bit better we decided to step out to the city centre so that she would get some fresh air. Also a trip to the Lego shop was a big incentive to cheer her up. We made our way to the city centre and spent much of the day strolling through the shops. Once back, she seemed much better though tired. She had her first meal of a bowl of pasta after two days which was really a big relief to us all. 

We had managed some fireworks and ended Diwali on a happy note.

 

A different Dussera

 We are not the conventional family. We don't do most festivals in the conventional way. We don't have a prayer room. For occasions the children make cards wishing the Gods a happy birthday and we cook some special food. Et voila!

Navratri /Durga puja is quite popular where my husband and I hail from. But we don't celebrate it with  much  furore. The local temple is too crowded and showy for our liking. But every year something special tends to happen around this time of the year.

This year K ended up eating some cakes meant for the kids. ( A grave offence indeed!)😃 As compensation he promised cakes from a bakery which makes the most amazing fresh cream cakes. The bakery boasts of some fabulous Indian sweets too. And K couldn't resist the temptation to buy some. It was  brilliant  to have the sweets along with some samosas which got devoured in a jiff. A wonderful, unexpected Durga puja.

Wishing you all the very best of festive times 🤗

Garden grown

 My mother is a keen gardener. When we used to live in rented houses in our childhood, she used to always have pots of plants adorning our balcony and veranda. 

Once we moved into a government quarters it gave her the opportunity and space to add some more greenlings to the house As my father got transferred and we moved houses, so did most of the plants.🪴

When we finally owned a house, my mother could officially go crazy. She had place all around the house, the balcony, the terrace - the world was her oyster. She would invest in kitchen scraps, maintain a steady deposit of water from washing grains and vegetables in the kitchen and trade in seeds, saplings and cuttings. 🍅🫑🥕

This disease to see things grow is quite infectious. My sister and I are both sufferers 🙈😁. The kitchen scraps we put in the garden give a good output of potatoes and tomatoes. It's very enjoyable to see the cycle of plants ❤️💚

I have enjoyed the fruits of, well I wouldnt say labour, but repotting many times. I have been too lazy or forgetful to ever take a click. But this time  I  managed one ! 

The Tours - IV

 The last day in Iceland was the most relaxed day. The start was at 1030 in the morning which gave us 2 additional hours to relax in the hotel. All our earlier days had started around the 0830 mark.On this day we had to visit quite popular and close by places. The first stop was the Thingvellier National Park which is a valley that lies in the middle of the Eurasian and American continental plates. It was amazing to walk in the midst of the valley. Our next stop was the Gulfoss water fall. It was beautiful, but nothing matched the beauty of Hraunfossar which we had viewed the previous day. After a few more waterfalls and scenic locations, we made our way to the creme de la creme. The geothermal pool called Secret Lagoon! Icelanders are avid swimmers. And all swimming pools in Iceland are open, open air and heated by the geothermal sources! Apparently it is quite easy to find little pools of perfectly heated water across the country and anyone can have a swim. But we are not the adventurous kind, so we had to book in a few hours at the pool. 

The pool was a unique experience. People take a shower before they step into the pool. They do not want to chlorinate the water too much and make it loose its natural goodness, so rather they make clean people get into the pool. It is imperative for people to shower properly with soap in their birthday suits and not the swim suits. It was something I felt might be a bit too weird for me, but didn't turn out to be so because everyone just went about their business quite mechanically and methodically. Showers done, we had to just put one foot in the water to feel the luxurious warmth of it! It was an amazing experience to soak in the warm, tending towards hot water. The hot springs that heated this water bubbled nearby. The sun was shining and nearly roasting us. It was amazing letting out bodies soak away the tiredness of the previous 3 days.

It was difficult to relinquish the warm hug of the swimming pool. But all good things come to an end don't they.  We had to give it up to an evening of packing. We bid adieu to Iceland through a very scenic drive to the airport in Keflavik. 

It was an amazing 4 days and 5 nights. An amazing time that left me very tired. I had enjoyed to the fullest. And I am definitely going back for more. Some day! 

The Tours - III

Our third day in Iceland was some more parts of the South Iceland. We saw a splendid waterfall called Hraunfoss. This waterfall has no river. It is an underground stream of water which suddenly comes up to a. gorge and falls down creating the most spectacular view. Nature is the best artist. And the creations of nature are just mind boggling and so awe inspiring. The water that tumbles down through the layers of lava is pristine and blue. Our guide informed us that the water is pure enough to be had straight off. We saw a few more water falls before heading off to a lava cave. 

The guide took us through a lot of details. It was marvellous to learn about the formation of the cave. It was also amazing to learn how one day, the cave might not remain any more because of natural erosion! Again the glory of nature, the creator and destroyer was humbling. At the end of the tour, the guide asked us hold the hand of a person next to us. Then he requested us to switch off the lights on our helmets. Following this he turned off the lights within the cave. He then asked us to listen to the cave. We heard the dripping of water from the ceiling, we felt the chill in the air a bit more and I of course felt the proximity of my family a bit more. It was such a deep meditative state. It was my first encounter with total darkness. I felt as if I could touch, hear and feel a bit more with one sensation removed. 

After that amazing experience it was time to head back to the hotel. That night we felt mild tremors in our hotel room. At first when K said he felt the tremors, I dismissed them to be the wind. But I felt the rattle again! It was as if a train went over a really bumpy track. It was an experience we had not signed up for. Iceland was making everything well worth it!

The Tours - II

 The second day of the tour was that of the South Coast of Iceland. Now this was entirely an ode to SRK and Kajol and their famous Gerua song which brought Iceland to the tourism fore front for many Indians. The views were amazing from the word go. We saw many locations that the song was shot in. It is a very popular site for Hollywood films as well.

 There was a small waterfall our tour guide stopped by. This waterfall was entirely supplied by rain water, since in the area it rained 360 days of a year. The water fall was quite big in the morning but since it was a dry day, we noticed that when we passed it in the evening, it was much smaller. We went to numerous other falls which were simply breath taking. The most pleasant one was the Seljalandsfoss which had a natural walk way behind it on which we could walk. Walking behind a water fall was an other worldly experience, one that I have never experienced before and am not sure if I ever will. 

We visited the famous black sand and black pebble beaches in the village of Vik. Our guide was a teacher so a 'guide' in the literal sense of the word as well :). And I must say he was a very knowledgable person who made our trip a lot of fun and very informative. 

The most inspiring moment on day 2 was a visit to a glacier. I had thought we would just see a glacier and come back. But we actually went near the glacier, in fact on top of it. It was covered with ash since it was sitting in between two active volcanoes which spew ash, one of them being the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano which brought air travel to its knees with the ash in 2010. Under the black blanket of ash was the pristine bluish white glacier. It was massive. Seeing and standing on top of it was the most magnificent and humbling experience for me. It made me realise the power and the supremacy of nature. How big yet how benevolent mother nature is! Watching the water drip, feeding nearby rivers and water falls and sustaining an entire eco system, an entire nation was something awe inspiring. 

The Tours - I

 The first tour was to a the Snaefellsness Peninsula. It was a very long drive. Since Pumpki and K suffer from travel sickness, they both took some pills to reduce it. The pills made Pumpki extremely groggy. She kept drifting in and out of sleep. She felt annoyed to get down from the car when the tourist spots came up. The driver revelled us with stories about the Northern Lights. He show cased how unpredictable nature can be. He had been on a 7 day long tour chasing Northern Lights. And his entourage has not managed to get any. But then one evening when he was going to drop a group of tourists at the airport, the lights were flashing like disco lights. 

The tour included food. The food I must say was simply amazing! It was wonderfully seasoned with the right amount of spices. My sis and I gorged on the food. K and the kids suffered a bit since they are not so attuned to eating fish. That is why I keep chanting the mantra, eat everything, you never know when you might need to eat what. A dialogue that always reminds me of the book "The life of Pi" where Pi Patel, a lifelong vegeterian had to eat fish. Not that I insist if it is ones religious practice. But if it is not, it is good to have an open palette. I had managed to sneak in some food from the breakfast buffet. The sandwiches really helped. Ah and another thing that helped was my carrying over food from the UK. I had read how famously expensive Iceland was. Also I was not sure of what foods would be available. Especially for the kids. So I had packed a ton of snacks. There was a bag loaded with all sorts of knick knacks which made the day bearable and sustained the kids :) 

 The most endearing factor of day 1 was Pumpki being held closely by Chiyaa as she kept drifting off. Chiyaa was supremely caring as usual of her little sis :) They both are such a joy to behold.