Mommy’s weekend out – day 1

I always love traveling and now mainly for my lil one, love traveling with him to explore new places and people.. luckily I made a group of friends in my society with similar mindset… 5 of us with kids of similar age groups -2 to 3 years …so we generally chat when we take the kids out for play in the evening.

We came up with this crazy idea of going on a 3 days trip without the daddies. One reason was finalizing the trip including the schedules of daddies was a tough task . Another one was we wanted to try it out. Since the kids spend most of the time with us mommies, we felt it could be fine to manage them on our own.

We zeroed in to go to pondicherry as it has beaches and nice cafes, would be more a relaxed weekend with the kids. Ofcourse there were concerns of safety and convenience. I myself was not 100% if I can manage. But with some backup (like a friends uncle at pondy) and hiring a car with driver instead of us driving, we took the leap of faith and made the bookings.

I must say the husbands have been really supportive and encouraging inspite of their concern. Thus we were all set for the first ever mommy and kid trip.

We started early in the morning at 6, packing some snacks for the 7 hours drive. Surprisingly all the kids were awake by the time we got into the car. The kids were soo well behaved throughout the drive, much to our astonishment. They nicely watched the passing vehicles, slept for a while, ate nicely when we stopped for breakfast, played for a while. It was super good start. We reached resort around lunch time, we quickly checkedin and after freshening up proceeded for lunch.

All of us were super hungry. We went to Dilliwale, and am sure they wont forget us. As soon as we entered, the kids took over. They were running all around the place. darshu sat on the chair and puts his legs on the table almost making the crockery fall. Meanwhile Aaru was throwing the spoons and forks down..it was chaos. That’s when we weilded our powerful weapons – the mobile phones. As soon as YouTube was switched on, all the kids were sitting silent in their seats. And thus this became our strategy for the rest of the days to make the kids sit and eat in peace ( and also for us mom’s to eat at peace).

After filling out tummies, we had a yummy chocolate cake for dessert which the kids loved a lot. Then we set out for a boat ride in the mangrove forest. There was a bit of a walk and once we got into the boat, the kids enjoyed a lot the water and the views. It was sunny, but still we managed to have a good time. Except for the part where they stopped the boat near a small place where we had to walk a bit only to see some ruins of a French school as they claim. I felt that part was unnecessary given the scorching heat and cranky kids wanting to be carried.

By the time we were out, we were all tired due to the heat and decided we need some rest. So we headed to hotel room and decided to take some rest until dinner. Happily switched on the AC, put the kids to much needed nap and we also rested a while. Around dinner time we woke up refreshed, spent some time glamming up for the dinner and found a really beautiful place for dinner – Cafe velout. Had yummy food and beautiful ambience. Darshu happily ate pasta for the first time.

After a satisfying dinner and some nice group pics at the restaurant, we decided to visit the rock beach. Seeing the beach at night was sooo beautiful and peaceful. We sat there for a while immersing ourselves in the sound of the waves and nice beach air. The kids got their share of fun buying bubbles and squishy light balls..

After having ice cream and GNC we called it a day happily exhausted. Tucked the kids in bed and ended the successful first day of our trip.

Break time

Hi peeps… Am back again after a long long time.. things have been pretty hectic with ofis work, darsh joining play school and all the domestic chores.

So, the news is I quit my job and decided to take a break. Decided that it’s time to focus on darsh before he gets busy with his regular school. I had always wanted to take a break so that I can spend more time with him but being habituated to going to office everyday, having some tasks to complete each day – it was not an easy decision to make.. since my graduation, I have been working/earning and without that I was worried how things would be. Not having my own circle of friends, not having something to accomplish each day, not getting salary end of each month all seemed a bit overwhelming.

But I figured, if not now there is no point taking a break after darsh grows up… Now is the time I can spend more time with him…I should not miss this timeframe … I should make the most of it. So, just like that took a leap of faith and here I am.

Since I have some time now, I might be writing more often. But trust me, staying at home is even more hectic and busy. At office atleast I had my coffee breaks, chats with colleagues, walks during lunch, appreciation and felt valued. So, though I had to do double shift taking care of house chores, it felt satisfying and there was gratification. As a SAHM, you are constantly doing one chore or the other and minimal social interaction and no moral boost interms of appreciation or acknowledgement. Its not easy. But I guess the key is to keep yourself occupied and find joy in little things…

Signing off for now, bye bye.

Little moments

Sometimes they say even worse situations can bring out some good from them. Probably that’s true.

Before marriage, i never realised the value of spending time with my parents at home. Even for festivals, i used to be eager to go back to Bangalore and get back to job

May be after becoming a mother i actually realised the value of my parents. Also when we no longer have the freedom to decide how much time we can spend at home, whatever time we have becomes even more valuable.

Now i cherish every moment spent at home with amma, nanna. I feel like mentally framing every scene everyday of the few days i stay here. Particularly love every moment my kid enjoys playing with his grand parents, the fun he has running around the house. The familiar sofa to relax on, the balcony to sit and watch nature and sip coffee made specially by dad.. leaning against the kitchen door while mom cooks and gup-shup with her..the tasty food cooked my amma which no one could ever match, the afternoon naps, the yummy evening snacks, the soft bed to peacefully sleep on at the end of day…

it’s good that i understood the value now..in future i hope I can give same warmth and love to my kid too

independence day special – amma nanna stories

https://www.pngitem.com/middle/bRiwih_indian-independence-child-vector-india-independence-day-cartoon/

Tomorrow is Independence day and the festive atmosphere is already here. We have a school close to the my parent’s house and we can see the kids practicing songs, march past and thanks to Modiji, “har ghar mein tiranga” is seen on every house in my street..

When we were kids, few days before the independence day itself we used to start learning and practicing patriotic songs either for singing competition or for stage performances. Mom was our all time teacher. I remember one such song amma taught me which I sang on the independence day.

It is a private song not found anywhere on internet. I dont remember few phrases of the song and dont have a hold on the tune also. I got reminded of it and asked mom if she remembers the song. As expected, she remembers every word of it. So , I asked her to sing and recorded it for my reference in future too. Its a lovely telugu song with lovely meaning – nadu janma bhumi . Will post the recording and lyrics of the song soon. (Not able to upload the recording here as of now)

Then mom starts telling how she learnt the song. Her akkayya (elder sister) learnt this song from her music teacher in her college and taught it to amma so that she can sing in her school. Amma was in her 6th class when she learnt this. how amazing her memory is while I forgot the song which I learnt in my 9th std. Then she goes on about how after her akkayya got married and moved to hyderabad, she would wait for her sister to visit her. Once when her sister visited her, she brought a set of “bobby ribbons” (apparently its some high quality very broad ribbons used to tie hair). Her sister would braid her hair and make nice bows with the ribbons and she would go to school and brag to her friends about how her sister got it from HHYDDERABAAD 🙂

Then she went on to describe the dance she was part of for the independence day celebrations in their school. She studied in a missionary school. So every independence day “foreigners” (americans) used to come and the students were taught dances to welcome the foreigners and impress them with their hospitality. Amma and her friends were always in awe of the foreigners. They were so tall (even the ladies), extremely white, the ladies wearing frocks and high heels and sun glasses holding umbrellas to hide from the sun. The song went something like this – “swagatam dora, suswagatam dora” (some movie song may be). and mom remembers the dance steps also still as she dances and shows us the steps 😀

Mom was always active in any competitions like kabaddi/shot put/running race or dances or songs. Itseems she was the first choice to play “Telugu talli” or “Bharat mata” because of her long long hair. Now I know how me and my sisters were always active in school competitions and stage performances. Its in the genes 🙂

thus ends our conversation as we run inside to hide from the mosquitoes attempting to eat us alive !!(we were sitting out in the balcony so as to not disturb the sleeping baby with our voices)

Happy independence day everyone!!!

This is one of my most favourite songs about the country…pasting the YouTube link here