A year to remember part 2

PS - I know i have been late by just couple (read 6 months) to write this blog ..but then better late then never so here it goes!!

Jubilant June :
We welcomed the youngest and most cutest member of our family right after jijoos birthday. I have nick named him gappodi for he loves talking (especially when his mom and dad want to sleep). I am sometimes amazed to see my lil laddu acting like a grownup elder sis and teaching him stuff, taking care of him. My guchi baby has now turned one so this occasion commands a separate blog dedicate to him and his antics.

Boring July & Viral August :

July was definitely the most boring month of the year. It passed away without any noteworthy episode. However August for me started with a sick note - had planned Jaipur trip so that I can spend some ‘quality’ time with Ma. Since I was going to meet her after almost 7 months I was quite excited and was completely going gaga about my upcoming trip. But as my luck or should I say bad luck would have been I suffered worst bout of cold and viral at the same time my trip was planned. Ma-papa being ma-papa asked me not to travel at all, which resulted in much to my dismay cancellation trip - never mind coming month definitely bought me some cheer to my already dampened spirits

Trip(py) September :

This month was full of exciting stuff. We started with a delightful trip to indore and met Buaji and naniji . Little did we know that this would be the last time we would meet Buaji in person and naniji in good health.  Looking back now I am soo glad that we were able to plan this trip.

Since the day I met naniji, I’d jsut adore her, she was the last grandparent me and hubby had so meeting her and spending time with her always has been very special.  I have always been mesmerized by the tales that their generation had to tell. Their lifestyle (So different from ours) , there struggle (so unlike ours) their expectations from life (poles apart from ours). When I hear her tell tales of her childhood and married life I kept thinking of the huge difference in approach they had towards life compared to ours. They had simple life with simple expectations – meaning life without much complication.

Following, this month also bought along with a roller coaster change in our lifestyles i.e. hubby moved back to his old company which meant that henceforth our schedules would be completely different - he would start late for office and come back late in evening which would leave only few hours every day that we could have with each other - leaving me with a lot of time for myself. 

In the last 6 years that we have been married it was for the first time I was happy to have some time for myself.

So I decided to utilize all this time by improving my health especially considering the few layers of fat that I had accumulated over time.  I was always active in sports till marriage so never really need to exercise. I started my vajan gatao programme by going for walks – this  I did for some months but was not able to loose few grams from my weight (good thing was that I had stopped pilling on also)  it was then I decided to start gyming and  hubby decided to help me out as I had never lifted weights and was not sure of which exercise to  do.  Initially it was very difficult to make myself go to gym but then I started enjoying it, even my family was amazed to see my commitment to gym (though I did not lose much weight but yes I started feeling fit and fresh) – so I concluded that its not just about losing the kilos – its about feeling good about yourself and your body – which I certainly did

The next highlight of the month was ma papa’s epic trip to Thailand. Why epic because it was for the first time that they had explicitly planned a trip which did not included their kids and it was masi’s first international trip.

Clean(ing) October :

October was the most hectic month of the year,  We were renovating our kitchen – which meant that entire house had to be in mess , My younger sis was getting engaged and just after that hubby was travelling to US.  We had also planned to celebrate Diwali in this house instead going back home to kota, which meant that our house needed to be rinsed inside out, which was a mammoth task considering that I was going to be all by myself.  

However I was able to survive the month without much problem J

Banglored - November:

I have always been fascinated with Bangalore – one city that I had never set my foot on, in fact hubby and me were thinking about moving to Bangalore sometime back.

Finally I got the opportunity to visit this city of gardens in the pretext of attending a conference. So me all excited lands in Bangalore straight from office and by the time we reached hotel it was almost 10, being the typical Mumbai vali I thought to venture out in the night to find some decent place to eat – but to my dismay most of the places get closed in Bangalore pretty early and the deserted roads did not look encouraging enough for me to venture all by myself - with heavy heart I decided to eat whatever hotel kitchen had to offer, not to dampen my spirits I decided that next day would be much better.

So with hope in my heart I slept blissfully for next 8 hrs . Since we had to register for the conference we decided to leave early so that we could avoid traffic. However our bad luck continued and we were stuck in the worst traffic so much so that we were late for our conference.

Hence I decided to abandon all my plans about moving with lock stock barrel to this city. Amchi Mumbai sabse aacha hai!!

Epic December:

Two of my husband’s friends were getting married in Varanasi & Lucknow and attending these weddings would give me opportunity to visit these two historically significant cities – so me was all excited about the upcoming trips

I must admit I was quite surprised with lucknow – the wide and clean roads were far cry from the typical UP city I thought it to be (no bias here guys I am half UP wali myself thanks to the genes inherited from ma) .

Our trip started with a bang – moment we reached hotel – I realized that I could not find my phone, frantic search started in my purse a.k.a black hole in hubby’s language, not finding it there I started calling my no. hoping some good soul would see my phone lying somewhere and will have the courtesy to answer it and get me out of my misery (expecting too much of goodness!!!) but to my surprise someone did answer and told me I had left my phone in airport loo and some kind lady had passed it to the airport authority office. We started again for airport and I was happy to have my tuta-phuta micromax back !!

We spent one complete day looking at the monuments in old Lucknow enjoying UP ki chat and off course shopping famous lucknowi kurta’s for everyone.

Next we started off for Varanasi – the most epic (sarcastic undertone) trip of the year!!

Varanasi holds a special place in hubby’s heart and why would it not – its the city of his alma mater; the famous IIT BHU.

Since we had got married he always wanted to come back to the ghats of Varanasi with his beloved biwi  i.e. yours truly me. So post attending the wedding we kept one complete day to visit ghats , vishwnath temple and his college.

 Varanasi turned out to be the exactly like the UP city of my imagination!!! Dirty roads or should I say no roads at all. People without civic and traffic sense. Despite being the oldest cities not just in India but across world and considering its lineage and heritage it is so poorly kept.

However I was able to overcome my disappointment when I sat on the ghats with hubby and watched the soothing water of ganges!! Yes there is something tranquil about that city in spite of all its misgivings.

But this is not what made this trip epic! Our adventure started on our journey back - right from the moment when we had to reach airport to catch our flights. It so happened that we got stuck in the famous Chakka jam of Varanasi so much so that auto wala took us from god knows which route but helped us to reach hotel in time to pack.  So we packed our bags and started for airport. As soon as we were out of city the visibility on road was almost nil.

Kudos to our auto wala who drove in that fog and ensured that we reached airport safe and sound.

However our misery was just about to start!!

As soon as we entered, announcement was made that all flights to Varanasi were cancelled due to excessive fog and the airline guys were not ready to commit when where the next flights will be available. We then realized that among our co-passengers there were many who had rescheduled the flight previous day also due to fog and were desperate to travel. Non-response and non-corporation from airline official was making them very impatient. Looking at them made me worried since we had to be back in Mumbai in time.

Now usually in such situations my flaring temper catches wings and is ready to burst but somehow I decided to keep out of the whole conversation and let hubby his friends and other co-passengers deal with airline official.

Hours passed and we came to a situation where there was almost a mini riot on verge happening inside airport with most of our co-passengers deciding that villain of whole situation was not the weather but the airline staff (they had almost decided to beat the airline guys) .

So after hours of patiently siting outside the whole conversation something snapped inside me and there I was on the top of my voice shouting rather blabbering at the airline officials.  I don’t even remember what I was shouting about but faintly it was about them not being courteous enough of offer us water and food while we were starving at midnight because of their inaction on the whole situation.

My shouting did bore some fruits and we were promptly served juice and some biscuits. Finally airline officials relented and gave us tickets for the next flight scheduled in afternoon.

Anyways after some mis-adventure we landed safe back at home – bringing end to the epic trip.

SO that was about it ciao - Happy weekend