Memorial Day Weekend

Hari and Da are away this weekend. Their first time traveling since the pandemic. From the checklist for travel to the drive to the airport, I felt a little out of touch. It has been a while. What do we typically need when we travel? What do we need in the light of Covid? Not having driven as far as the airport since the pandemic, the busyness of the airport road felt a little alien. After being together within the same space, day in and day out, Ram and I felt a little bit of vacuum the first evening that the rest of the Jing Bang Gang was away.

The first step is the hardest, the next step and the step after that feels like we are treading in familiar territory. In their absence, Ram and I are enjoying some exclusive time. Lots of TV watching, cuddling, reading, and what we call as ishi pishi. The work days are all consuming leaving little time for anything or anyone else at all. The long weekend has brought in the much needed slowdown to my routine. The weather is wet, so the temptation to be out is not there. Less truly feels like more this weekend.

I am thankful that Hari had a chance to play some cricket. Sports took a beating with the pandemic and as academics gets more rigorous in high school,

Gotcha moment

The smile on his face looks a little suspicious. Very Calvin-Hobbish. I glance at him and he tugs his notebook. I brush it off. This king of doodling and prince of surprises is always up to something. Eventually he will spill the beans, no time to investigate further. I get the breakfast ready and dash off for my 8:00 am team call.

Team call done, I take a mental stock of what’s on my plate for the rest of the day and head to warm my mug of kanji. I open the draw relying on my muscle memory to grab the spoon without even looking at the cabinet. My hands sense round plastic bowls not the long stainless steel handles. I bend down and see a disarray of bowls and plastic plates that we seldom use taking prime position in the shelf. I open the next drawer and see the silverware organizer on that shelf.

What? what’s going on? Who switched this around? Why would someone do this? I want to raise my voice and make my displeasure clearly known. How much work have you created for me? Whoever did this take responsibility to clean this out. But of course all this monologue is happening in my head because the rest of the household is either on work call or virtual classrooms. I grit my teeth. Then I pause and my eyes rest on this little fella squinting back at me and sticking his tongue out.

I burst out laughing. This was the best gotcha moment. Thank God for 10-year olds who still have reserves of silliness and pranks to remind me what an uptight fool I am rest of the year! This guy now takes the esteemed position right above my sink, taunting me to act silly, and indulge in whimsy every once in a while.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope all of you had a rested, relaxed, and meaningful Thanksgiving like I did. I spent the day in my most favorite place, in the company of my most favorite people , doing some of my favorite things. That is, at home soaking in the company of Da, Hari, and Ram doing ordinary everyday things. And for that I am immensely grateful from the bottom of my heart.

A friend had posted the following quote by Melody Beattie on her FB status update, which I wanted to share with you folks – “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

How very true, isn’t it? Tell me, how was your Thanksgiving? what are some of the things you are thankful for?

Halloween fun

Drafted on October 31st

Halloween celebrations were fairly muted this year due to an unexpected havoc wreaked by Mother nature. But the day did not go by without any celebrations. How could it, it was Halloween after all! Hari was dressed as Ninja and Ram as Winnie the Pooh. Da, who gets as excited as the kids about Halloween, took the kids around for soliciting candies. The pumpkins that Da and Hari carved over the earlier weekend were sitting in the front lawn accosting children dressed in costumes.

We have strict rules around candy consumption, so Hari came up with the idea of combining his candy loot to the candies we reserved for distribution. This year, I should say that he was very excited about distributing candies rather than going trick or treating.

I should also make a mention about this cool dentist in our town, who buys candies amassed during Halloween from kids for cash and ships them to troops. How very neat is that, wouldn’t you agree?