For what it has been....

2016 has zoomed by…. In a wink of an eye! And, if you disagree – you have just been a lazy bone, m sure!!!

With just 2 months for this year to complete, it kept me thinking of the many things that has just remained as ideas rusting in my mind while a lot of unwanted stuff has gone by.

Not a great year and not that bad either. There are days I have been extremely busy burning my bones to meet ends at work and days I have stared out of the car window cursing the never-ending traffic lanes. I have spent an average of 5 hours a day on road just shuttling between office and home. Those 5 hours have been a spot to action out frustration, get creative on things I CAN do (but don’t), of quilling to tatting, of cooking virtually with beautiful Italian ingredients, to memorizing how I can give back to fights with Vinay, to revisiting days that could have been better and to role play many characters I mostly admire! No, don’t conclude. I haven’t lost my mind yet… these are just figments of imagination- if only you can digest the sophistication in the statement!

Some challenging moments and some scary days- from crying, fighting to laughing our hearts out, to watching Anagha grow into a smarter kid, to digesting facts that we are all growing older, to act responsible at times that I thrived to stay dumb, to betraying the beauty of truth, to feel mistrust, to walking memories that sang melodies of promises and to the classics of being family!

Lost in between was being “US”. Vinay and me spent hours thinking and talking our minds aloud. To making our life more meaningful from where we all started. We made plans, re-plans and re-did them again! Dusting off ole school thoughts and building fresh hopes, we decided to take things our way. Living in days that bought untold freedom and comfort, a little naïve but m sure will nurture with time. We now spend more time doing things we love. He helps me in house old chores and I have started using the canvas and colors again. What a rejoice it is! We do some dusting, some bare minimum cooking, laughing at old photos and a lot of cuddling. Moments we missed amidst the chaos!

I am only hoping to do many more things I can relate myself to in the next two months! I hope to create a memory I can blush about in 2017. For now, I am looking forward to a great vacation with my childhood buddy. As amazing as it sounds. Gearing UP!!!

ANAGHA

“Puppu, puppu…. Let’s do a sister activity today… take a cardboard roll… stick a shiny paper…. 2 moving eyes and let’s colour it….. Good idea right??!!??” Couldn’t just get better right? I hardly can picture her imagination but m proud she thinks so deep in her thoughts. Its crazy fun and ‘m her crazy Aunt !!

I surely do have my hand in spoiling her, to pamper her and to annoy her.

I.Love.Her.
That’s the point - Bold and strong. I can play, fight and compete; when it’s time out - she runs to her mum!

Anagha is 4 years and a couple of months. She has currently believed she and I are sisters. Not to doubt her parents consider me her sibling too! This whole sister thing became our fancy when we wanted to tell her that she could and couldn’t do a few things…. So it’s always mommies’ vs sisters at home. We both sisters (m used to these terms now) have everything in common. From wearing similar dresses, to not touching the stove or operate the oven, not to take the stairs alone, can’t wear makeup ….so on…we even carried our sister bag to the last trip we went!

The day I first met Anagha is a very beautiful memory in my mind. Tiny paws and pink cheeks. Precious. She was born with a pair of jet black eyes. Contradicting her mom’s ravishing green eyes this one is equally a treat! We clicked her pictures every day. We tried a lot of our skills and creativity. We wrapped her warm once and did the nude baby one’s too. We once poured a box of strawberry’s on her and clicked pictures. She was a darling. Going on, we enjoyed every minute of her sound sleep to live those sisters time or spend happy moments with my mom n aunt! In the evening Arun danced to the tunes of “Chai Chai, coffee coffee” wrapping Anagha in his arms. Anagha started talking very early. Even before she started walking she managed to tell the stories of how the cooker whistled and the thirsty crow stories. She hummed to her own tunes of fantasy music and ran like a darling.

Sometimes am jealous. I feel she is extremely lucky to spend the entire day with my mom. Learn and play with her. I meet them every day but you know it’s different once you’re married. You truly know the value of staying at mom’s house from the very moment u get married! I will keep this topic to discuss another day. For now this space is about her. My Muddu bangara !!!

Her imagination is a soaring kite. Her ability to beautifully link many stories into her everyday life is a commanding act to adore. She was once asked to learn to speak about her favorite toy for a narration at school. Mom and I tried to teach her a few lines about her bunny. We told her about its tooth, its love for carrot and a few common lines which she could easily remember. In a matter of a few minutes she came up with this story herself – Trust me , her innocence won! : “One day there was a rabbit. He was very hungry. He looked for carrot everywhere. Then he found a tortoise. They began to race. The rabbit slept under a tree. A crow dropped a leaf on its head. The tortoise won the race!” By the way this story is the remake version of the thirsty crow, Hare & the tortoise and another story of a crow!!!

 Anagha Ma’am- that’s fondly how she calls herself – is an amazing teacher to all of us. Her obedient students are Sudha & Rajshekar(her ammama and thata). She narrates her entire day at school back at home here and it’s a treat to watch her do this. Sit, stand, colour and sing- you gotta do everything in her class. Kalli is my husband. He steals her chocolates and she knows them. Hence the name. She now remembers to buy extra ones just for him. Now that’s being clever! I am Puppu and that's the best someone has ever called me.

I have off late been telling Anagha about the existence of a fairy godmother! Like how this fairy is fond of obedient lil girls and would silently draw stars on their hands when they were sleeping. This has been working for some days now. She sleeps like a darling and when its time, I frantically search for coloured pens to tattoo her tiny paws with twinkling stars!!

I can write volumes and would never be done with this topic. For now, she is the most happening part of all our lives. I love the way she runs to open the door when we reach home, stretch her arms, hug us and crawl all over vinay and arun … Blessed!!!

The Kanive Homestay - Hearty uphill !

“I wanna do sky touch!!!” that’s exactly what the lil brat kept mumbling as we soaked in the dusky sun at the view point…..

Her imagination knew no bounds. Her eyes were too little to capture the mammoth of the Kudremukh hills. She kept saying she would touch the sky if we took her there. She was building castles in the air- a fairy tale of messing those milky clouds, feeling the flaky blue sky and warming her tiny hands as she would give her warmest hugs to the gilded fading sun!

We reached the resort late in the noon. The sun was still bright and we fell in love with the place! It was spic and span. If the hills that snugged the place was not enough, the chirpy birds and the aromas of the tall trees created an ambiance of a perfect holiday.

The food always thrills me. It is the only purpose of visiting Malnad Homestays again and again. And this time it was special. I was with my sista who loves to experiment with cooking. I only enjoy eating!!! We had an amazing range of food from kadbu, neer dosa, manglore buns to shavige and so on… I can feel myself slurping in the air as I write. We also went down the hill 6 odd kms just to have breakfast an hour before they would serve at the resort. All thanks to my foodie husband! We tried the local hotel. It was early in the morning and were at this really tiny place. Hot food and we were all smiles!!!

The place was thoroughly booked for both the days. From toddlers to oldies- a blended mix of folks who were all enjoying the bliss of staying in the warmth of the hills.

How wrong are we at judging strangers? Raghavendra Rajkumar and family had also halted in the same place for his son’s movie shot. Div and I dint bother much, unlike the routine of approaching film stars with an autograph or a recent craze of selfie! Anagha was running around and she happened to bump into him. We were taken aback with his approach… he very sweetly told her not to run too fast and continued talking to her. Div and me stood at the doorway and overheard the conversation. Though he is recovering from his recent illness, he spoke with utmost poise and warmth. This was so different from my imagination of hard hearted wealthy stars! He even came by to bid Anagha a good bye before he left. We finally spoke to him. He happens to be extremely sweet and warmhearted. We did the routine now! We approached him to take a picture. He bent down with sophistication and asked Anagha if he could take a picture with her! She barely knew him. She just giggled a nod!

The next day, Arun went out on a trek and the rest of us just lazed around. We leisurely got ready and went out to the river close by for a dip. We put on our life jackets and splurged in to the blue waters. Heavenly! The river was in spate. We moved from one end to the other without much effort.  Adrift under the bright sun and drenching in the cool waters was just as merry as it sounds. Anagha and I collected a few pebbles on our way back and shivered as we trolled the muddy roads back to the resort

The evenings were a merry go round too. Dim lights, swaying LED’s and loud music. We danced like it dint matter… some boogie down and rock n roll! Mind leaped a joy of smiles and my hearth throbbed some new air! Mist filled the aura and added an essence of music to what the tunes of nature can do to our everyday life.

We tripped, sprained our ankles, lived those sisterly moments and were clowning around all the time. To add on we connected. We reached out to the healing of the everyday chaos and dusted some bad ole days. We laughed our hearts out and played to the inane tunes in our thoughts. We yearned to touch the sky! We promised to create these memories more often and fancied to glide the hills again!

I am a Woman

The Malnad style

A crazy Thursday night, soaked in the stress of Bangalore’s traffic and lying down half asleep on the couch- I declared – I need a break…. Vinay rightly agreed and we began to look for a place on google. 10 best holiday destinations around Bangalore, stayzilla, trip adviser and what not. We finally decided we would drive to Chikmanglur. The first homestay in the list is where I said I wanted to go and dozed off.

Stress had mooned us. We hardly had a glimpse of each other on weekdays and the weekends swiftly passed by. We needed some time. Sometime of just him and me… Next day morning Vinay called the homestay guys and confirmed our booking….. We started off by 10 and drove to the land of coffee… Chikmanglur. We headed to Thotadahalli homestay.

250 kms of velocious drive on the Bangalore Hassan road. Our first long drive in our new car(Beauty , I tell you!) A sudden venture, a spooky adventure, crawling in the steep roads of a 75 acre coffee estate - one could surely sense the enchanting vibration of the woods.

Nature teaches us the best ways… there were a hundred shades of green, some tall tress , some short and some that grew in the shade and some that provided the shade. It speaks beyond boundaries to stretch, to never give up, to stand out unique and then to be there for each other. The swishing of the leaves, the woodpeckers whacking at tall trees and drilling unique holes in them, series of chirpy calls that lasted a few seconds, the humming and buzzing of the queen bee and the awe-inspiring western ghats. The sun drenched hills kissing the breezy waves created a dense land of wondrous ecstasy!

Another thought that reflected my mind- food for thought for sure! The aromas of roasted grains, sounds of the coconut grating, the smell of the delicious onion being fried in a sizzling glob of desi ghee and the innocent faces of the malnad women chuckling their beauty and adding a handful of love to make some exquisite scrumptious meal.

We had the yummiest masala dosa and hot jamoon as early as 6 am in the Town Canteen. Vinay went all nostalgic remembering his grand dad visiting the same place way back then. This was the only other outing those two days. We decided to dedicate our entire two days just thriving to relax and forget the routine.

We spent hours soaking ourselves in the finesse of the handpicked interiors. The brass pots shining in the east end of the stay, the reflecting mirrors that told untold stories of visitors, the stone sculptures reminding of the strength within and not to forget the plentiful varieties of Bonsai that the lady of the house caressed with pure love and warmth. He and I shared long lost stories of our first days together – of days we laughed, we learnt and were immersed in the love that we believed would get us here today. I chuckled as we told each other of how we grew up together as I rested my head on his brawny arms. The swing moved back and forth and all I saw was his sparkling eyes radiating the warmth and fading the aura around us. This was what it was meant to be.

“We are all we need….”