Taking up the Thursday Challenge after a long time.
This week’s theme..”LIQUID” (Splashes, Pouring, Dripping, Waves, Wet,…)
This week’s theme..”LIQUID” (Splashes, Pouring, Dripping, Waves, Wet,…)
Orange Seas
Lucknow’s Big Tuesday
“Click”.. the light went on. I squinted at the clock.. 4am. “Just papa,” mumbled I to myself and turned over to catch another 4 hours (at least) of sleep. Well it was Lucknow and I was on vacation.
While waking up at four is my father’s routine.. today was special. The noise level was half a decibel higher as he bathed and readied. Though not a very religious person (he leaves that for the mother), today he will make it to the Hanuman temple before the crowd kicks in. It is ‘Bada Mangal’.
Later in the day I stepped out for a mall-date with my SIL and I was in for a surprise. I had forgotten how Lucknow comes to life on this day. Bada Mangal in Lucknow is a bada deal. If Pune has Ganapati, Lucknow has Bada Mangal. Four Tuesdays of the Jyeshtha month are ‘special’ Lord Hanuman days… that much I knew but I had forgotten the festivities.
First, the food is to die for
The celebrations are something to watch out for. They spill out onto the roads. Bhajans drift on the air from temples big and small. Streets are dotted with pandals every few meters with people distributing the yummiest of foods. We stopped to click some pictures were promptly handed a dona of aloo puri.. hot off the kadhai. Had I been a food writer I would have done better justice to writing about that aloo puri.. all I can say is..eat it to believe it.
There was halwa for dessert and rose sherbet to wash it down with.
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| No one goes hungry on Bada Mangal |
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| Wish I had a better picture.. the puris are actually being made here |
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| If you’ve been anywhere near Lucknow during the summer you’ll know what a blessing a simple water stall is |
According to the Times some even served chowmein while some offered orange squash instead of the traditional rose or khus sherbet. Moving with the times.. eh? But seriously, no one goes hungry on Bada Mangal. Young boys take along carry bags and the organisers gladly filled those up to.
The mela
And there’s more. Roads leading to the main Aliganj temple for kilometers on each side are taken over by stalls selling everything from toys and trinkets to ceramic ware and cutlery. Banglesellers, mehendi wallahs, idol makers, tattoo men line the roads. The crowds are unbelievable. I wish I could have taken the kids but I don’t think I could have handled them with all those goodies on display. Maybe when they’re older..
The story
The Bada Mangal has an interesting story to go with it. Actually there are more than one stories but this one’s my favourite. Apparently the Nawab of Awadh, Shuja Ud Daulah’s wife, Aliya Begum had a dream. Lord Hanuman appeared to her and asked her to build him a temple. When she woke up she directed the Nawab to the site in her dream. The site was excavated and a Hanuman idol was found. The Nawab put in on an elephant to transport it back to his palace. However after a few steps the elephant refused to move and that’s where the temple was built.. that’s the Aliganj temple of Lucknow. Celebrations end today with the concluding Tuesday of the Jyeshtha month.
You know what the most interesting part of the story is? The Aliganj temple has a crescent right over its dome. How’s that for Hindu-Muslim unity?
What’s more, most abattoirs are shut on these Tuesdays and Mutton/Chicken sales hit an all time low. Many Muslims too take up the task of setting up water stalls on Bada Mangal. This really is what Lucknow is all about… what it is famous for — its Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb.
Didn’t I say Lucknow was the best.
No end in sight
Since the kids turned five I was kind of expecting some grown up behaviour from them. However, nothing seems to have changed. They are still refusing to sleep on their own, insisting I put them to sleep, taking hours over their food, nursing grudges like Kane and Able over who got the bigger piece of mango.. and on and on.
Hrit, specially, has been on a naughty trip…. not cute naughty.. naughty naughty.. worrisome naughty.
First, days before his birthday, he chopped off his hair.. here’s proof. See that bald patch??
Then it was worse. While at a dinner at the SIL’s he got his head stuck in that round hole in the table. So what can go in can come out too.. right? Wrong. It just wouldn’t. And he lay there his neck in the hole half in, half out of the table. What a hoo haa followed. Her in-laws fussed around while I tried to keep him distracted. Thankfully the table top was removable and then the ever resourceful SIL managed to hammer the sides off even as the BIL rushed to get a ‘cutter’ from the carpenter’s. We were pretty shaken up. For him however, it was back to business as soon as he was let out making me wonder if it would have been better to keep him there for sometime… at least till we finished dinner in peace.
Grow up Hrit, please…. soon.
By the way their masi is keeping track of the damage they’re inflicting. She has vowed to recover every bit of it from their first salary. I’m sure after this episode the Bua is considering a similar account.
In Lucknow
This is one post I should have done as soon as I got back from my vacation but what with the sister coming back with me and the kids’ birthday… it had to be put off.
After Lucknow’s dusty story I stepped out to the main shopping area, or maybe I should say the erstwhile main shopping area, Hazaratganj and Wow what a pleasant surprise. It is indeed new and oh so improved. Cleared of vehicles the roads look like a runway, shops have uniform sign boards, green patches, tiny fountains, awesome. There’s hope still. Lucknow will always be special.
Given that almost a month has passed since I got back I find it easier to let these pictures do the talking.
Bear with the longish captions please..

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| STUNTMAN: If you haven’t guessed already.. that’s from the torturous train journey. Hrit provided edge-of-the-seat excitement with stunts such as this one and was the nightmare for all tea/snack-vendors |

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| TWO’S COMPANY: When Naisha refused juice he sorted it out for us by having both of them, simultaneously |

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| DRAWING CLASS: That’s one of Hrit’s ‘boy friends’.. only it turned out she was a she 🙂 Naisha found a friend in the neighbouring compartment which left Hrit alone in the ‘boys’ team’. And so he went around the entire coach looking out for boy-friends. Finally he found enough of them to make his team bigger (one of who happened to be a girl). So there I was almost running a drawing class in the train for lack of any other way to keep the bunch of them occupied. |

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| THE BOOTY: To say that the SIL loves Naturals ice cream would be an understatement. So passionate were her appeals to The Husband and so heart-rending her tales of deprivation (since Naturals doesn’t have an outlet in Lucknow) that he got about ten tubs packed in dry-ice so we could carry it through the 24-hour journey. And doesn’t she look thrilled? |

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| BREAKFAST AT LUCKNOW: Ever tried bread-jam and mangoes for breakfast? |

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| TRIAL ROOM: Chaniya Choli gifted by nanima being tried on |
 
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| HAND ART: Naisha’s first proper mehendi ever |

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| IPL ATTACK: The nephews, specially this younger one, is an aspiring Malinga. Here he is with Naisha’s fake hair for the perfect look. He has for long debated ‘Easy ways to get rich’. The two he shortlisted were to ‘star in a film’ or to ‘play the world cup’. The first option was discarded because it had too many people involved and any mess up by any one could be the end of his dream. And so that left the second option. If I may quote ‘sirf ball ki dhulayi karni hai’. What’s better, reasoned he, by the time he grew up Malinga would be too old to really trouble him.. so the Cup is ours. |
 
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| SARTORIAL WONDER: If Nanima got new clothes for Naisha she couldn’t leave out Shanti, could she? Here she is cornered by Naisha into stitching up new clothes for her doll. Of course Mowgli got new clothes too. |
 
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| CARD GAMES: Then it was Dadima’s turn to keep Naisha occupied with a card game. |

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| FURSAT KE RAAT DIN: Though the husband was there for just a few days he made the most of them. Here he is chopping up some watermelon while the older nephew bites in |

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| BONDING: Hrit, Naisha play the hoop with their cousin |
 
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| MORE BONDING: Apparently that’s how boys bond. |

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| MASI GYAN: This is something I could never do and so the masi took up the task of imparting this crucial skill to Naisha. Take a guess.. |
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| … that’s right.. she’s teaching Naisha to whistle. Now you know why masi is such a hit with the kids |
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| POTTED: And finally these two pics are of a roadside shop that completely fascinates me. I guess it’s all about the colors. Love it |
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So which one’s your favourite?
Next up.. Nainital pics.
They taught me..
So much to blog about such little time… Among a host of other updates was this tag passed on to me by momofrs. The tag was kicked off by two other mommy bloggers Kiran and Monica…
Says Kiran
it’s been a while since us Mommybloggers came up with something to celebrate, well, mommyhood, so the lovely Monika and I came up with this. A tag that has us list out five lessons of life that Mommyhood has taught us, these could be sweet, bitter, funny, touching, whatever. These could be survival tips or cooking tips, or something as simple as the best thing to get puke smell out of hair.
So, the rules are simple. Put the badge up. Write out five lessons that Mommyhood taught you. And tag five mommybloggers.
Here goes
Old dupattas, earthen pots, dried leaves, bits of ribbon, driftwood, pine cones, pebbles and stones… these are a few of their favourite things. Not the most expensive Barbies, nor those slick Hotwheels toys hold their interest for long. While Naisha can play for hours draping and redraping dupattas, painting pots, collecting leaves, Hrit runs around brandishing the skeleton of a dried up Tulsi plant or his trustee gada. And so here’s the first lesson motherhood taught me.. Happiness comes cheap
I am a SAHM mom. I enjoy spending a lot of time with my kids.. talking, doing craft projects, dropping them, picking them.. all of it (Oh well not ALL of it.. most of it!). Many of my friends have however chosen to keep working, my SILs for instance and their kids are doing fine too. I like the kids in bed by 9 and I know of mothers who like them awake for some ‘dad-bonding’. I am a ‘schedule’ person who has timings for everything and I know of mothers who function best when they go with the flow. If the basic lessons of life are in place… other things really do not matter.
So lesson number two then …
When it comes to mothering — different things work for different moms
Before the kids came along I’d watch moms staying up nights, waking up at ungodly hours to get them ready for school, calmly cleaning puke and poop and I was impressed. Never, thought I, would I be capable of all that. But along came Hrit Niasha and everything just fell into place. When Hrit coughed I’d wake up every few hours to nebulise him without an alarm, when a colicky Naisha threw up on me at a mall I just wiped myself and headed home. I’ve been known to faint at the sight of blood yet when Hrit needed a blood test I was there holding him and the queasiness just didn’t show up. Of course it’s another matter that Hrit felt completely betrayed (because I was there and didn’t stop the evil doctor) and didn’t come to me for two days.
And so here’s my lesson number 3
You are capable of much more than you think
Naisha’s weight was always on the lower side of the scale. “She’s so thin,” is the general refrain even now. I used to get worried and would try to push her to eat more, she would oblige only to throw up all of it. Finally I gave up. As long as she’s in the ‘normal’ range I let her be.
Then there was the time when Hrit went through an aggressive phase. “It’s a boy thing, he’ll outgrow it”, said everyone. I was, however, at a total loss on how to handle him and consulted a counsellor. The change was almost miraculous.
Each day brings with it decisions.. small and big.. should I give them this medicine or that one? Is this school better or is the other one more suitable? Should they go for Taekwando or elocution? Should they watch television or not? Is a gun the right toy for my child?
Listen to everyone but make the decision on your own, specially if you are handling the kids by yourself. Remember the story of the man, the boy and the donkey ? Don’t do that to yourself. You know your child best. So go with what you think is best for them.
And there’s my lesson number 4
You are the best decision maker for your child
I have had two left feet since the day I was born. Add to that a terrible self consciousness and you have a person who won’t shake a leg in public even in a ‘do or be shot dead’ situation. Then along came Naisha. Not only does she love to dance but also ‘dance with mama’. On my first dandiya night with them I handed her the dandiyas and took up my normal position at the periphery. But hey she dragged me in. I tried to hand her over to my dancer friends.. oh I’ve got plenty of those and they’ve always been grateful for my presence for who else would click pictures if all of us danced? But getting back to Naisha, she did a couple of rounds and came back to get me. Not only was I supposed to dance but also I had to be right there in the centre circle.
That was a nightmare. But her happiness was priceless. And so I made a complete fool of myself, injured a couple of women (who immediately widened the circle) to hoots of laughter from my friends. But I did stick it out there. This might seem like lesson number 3 but after a while I found myself laughing too along with my friends…
and my kids taught me lesson number 5…
Sometimes it’s fun to let go
Here’s my list of five mommy bloggers.. take up the tag guys. I know you’re busy but I’d love to hear your take so write even if it’s just 5 lines each.