I discover my age...

Life has been roller-coaster-ish of late. I seem to have gone through the past two months with little to show for it. The brushteeth-tea-office-lunch-evening drive back home-dinner-bed routine was unbroken. I managed to actually spend more than a month in Mumbai, no, not even a quick trip to Pune. My last trip out was on Mar 15, to Delhi (I think). It was a definite decision, based on the theory that all the whizzing around the country-side was too tiring for all of us.

And then I had house guests. Thanks to mum being around, they were pretty well cared for without much done by me, but they were there. I had to watch out and clean up a tad after myself and monster. So I stuck on in Mumbai.

Finally, on May 1, we set off again (Wow! Entire month of April in Mumbai, that has not happened in a long while. I usually get so Arian impatient). To Bangalore. Sorry dear blog-friends whom I did not call or meet. I had my reasons as I will explain if you will read on.

May 1st. We were met by the very-pregnant sis-in-law and her husband. The car ride mitigated somewhat the misery I feel every time I breathe (or try to breathe) Bangalore air. It was their anniversary so we went out to dinner. The monster & I wore matching kurtis (seriously, I had this big bolt of cloth for a kameez. I am sick of these printed salwar-kameez sets that tailors ruin routinely. So I had it made into two kurtis. We both wore it with black pants. Despite her initial reluctance, she enjoyed it, and, of course, hers looked insanely cute and mine looked lumpy as usual). I ate a lot of Goan Mangalorean type stuff. Good fun.

May 2nd. We got into a car (Indigo) at 6:30 am and whizzed off to Mysore. We met many cows along the way. I managed to get us a bit lost in Mysore (I do suck big time at directions), but a 15 minute Mysore-Darshan later we were back on track. My uncle (whom we went to meet) did not look as sick as I expected him to. Thank heavens. He seemed to be recovering well, so with relief we hung out with my aunts and messed around in my mum's flat for a bit, laughing and admiring how she had cleaned up stuff and covered them up for her long Mumbai stay. On the way back, we again got lost, but this one was costly, Bangalore is no Mysore. The Bangalore-darshan was scary, wet, dark, and totally unfamiliar. But the husband proved that he actually has in-built GPS and somehow led us back to sis-in-law's flat.

May 3rd. I had jet lag. Seriously. The long Mysore trip, the slight eye irritation, my vague back pain all conspired to leave me sapped of energy. I slunk around the whole day doing minimal stuff and following the monster around on its rounds. I even took an afternoon nap to no avail. The monster woke up and demanded a visit to the park & club house. They were all very hep and happening but the mosquitoes were plundering so we soon head back. Oh yeah, I visited the very cool office of sis-in-law and drank some juice there. I peeped into the labs and all and was like, 'wow so this is what I am missing' (well, that and the pay-check I guess). The only marginally productive thing on May 3rd was the discovery that my little four year girl can eat a cone ice-cream with ease, even as I struggle and drip it everywhere.

May 4th. Retail therapy. The best kind. Baby stuff for the new one on the way. Tiny clothes and booties and tubs and nappies. Stuff that I dont have to worry about housing in my bursting-at-the-seams flat. Pink or blue? A very tough decision. Does not help that my parents-in-law see no colours but pink. And the father-to-be is shitting bricks at the thought of his son in chaste pink stuff. Anyhow the experienced hands, viz. the husband & I, gave detailed feedback on our experiences. In the car ride back, I gave more directed advice too. Poor things, hope they are talking to some non-crazy parents as well, cause whichever way you look at it, we are wacko. We travelled on the 21st day after the baby was born. Our six-day old baby would wake up if we switched a switch on. Her hair was in perfect ringlets when she was born but then turned needle-straight in a couple of days. She used to time her potty so that the second her father, all spruce in a clean t-shirt after a refreshing gym session and bath, carried her on his shoulder. She is in general so very over-stimulated... not to mention perfectly silly (she giggles insanely if you try to play catch with her). I did share all my findings with her but then wished she would talk to other people.

The Kingfisher flight back, the monster was so very excited, you know, because of the TV. She was wearing three pony tails and this really sweet skirt and top (in pink & brown) from Fab India. The KF girls were all ga-ga. But then she was sleepy and irritated that they did not have Tom & Jerry (!) or Pingu (!) but thankfully nodded off a few minutes in.

It was good to get away, although I lacked the energy to do many things and did not even visit my grandmom after having gone all the way there. I can feel myself aging, really. No energy even to pick up the phone. My bones ached (really). Bangalore traffic scares the living daylights out of me. I was supposed to meet so many people when I was there. But then we had to keep the trip short due to some commitments today at work, and given that, I gave up on it totally. And, of course, I was busy enough last week that I did not inform any of them I was going to be there, so they were totally clueless. Imagine his surprise when sloch walked in to meet his sister and we jumped at him! I had forgotten to tell him even!!