Tag: Lucknow

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Pondering the predictability of life

That’s something I rarely do. Really, who has the time for introspection amidst the daily chaos? Along came an earthquake and shook me up not just physically, which it most certainly did, but also mentally. All I could think of was ushering everyone out as the kids babbled excitedly – marvelling at the swaying ceiling fan and shuddering knick knacks. 
It wasn’t strong enough to really scare me, specially since we were on the ground floor and the children were with me. It did, however, put things in perspective.
A while back I’d stumbled on a site called theburninghouse.com where people answer the question ‘If your house were burning what would you take with you’. It’s a thought-provoking question and has some interesting answers as people try to balance the ‘practical with the sentimental’. Some said they’d pick a much-loved teddy, a beautiful piece of jewellery, a bunch of family photographs, a cherished book of recipes. The practical ones picked wallets, house keys, car keys and passports. Others said they’d take along cameras and sunglasses. One of them even said he’d take along his ukulele.

Well, to each his own.
However, I do maintain that what you actually would pick up in a crisis situation might be very different from this carefully thought out list. The thing is, we never really know our reactions to unusual situations till we are actually there. If you’ve ever seen someone not being able to answer basic questions on quiz shows or making blunders in examinations or forgetting simple dance steps on the stage and have labelled them incredibly stupid, perhaps it’s time for a rethink. 
It’s been a few days now. I’ve been looking at the horrifying pictures of Nepal, where the epicentre was located, and can only be grateful for being safe. One takeaway from this whole thing has been the reinforcement of the idea to not ‘Postpone Joy’, to make the most of the present.
Have you ever thought about it? What would you take along if an earthquake hit? 

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter P.

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K is for kite flying

This is a completely wrong time to talk about kites and kite flying in India. But try telling that to the kids. Do they care? Not a whit. And so last weekend they decided they wanted to make kites. Here’s what they came up with:

We used kite paper, some sequins and sketch pens. Fed up of all the sticking and drawing they went on to make some simpler ones that were done in a jiffy. I seriously doubt these will get anywhere close to the skies but the kids had fun. 

While on kites I will not be true to my hometown Lucknow without telling a tiny bit about kite flying in my city. We call it ‘patang bazi’ or ‘kankauwe bazi’.

While all over India kites are flown on the festival of Makar Sankranti around 14 of January in Lucknow we do things differently, just like the twins! For us the kite flying day is the day after the festival of Diwali, sometime in October/November. The festival is known as Jamghat (literally translated it means ‘gathering’). The idea behind it is that all evil flies away along with the kites.

The entire city comes to a stand still that day. Shops are shut and so are offices. The entire population makes its way to terraces and fields brandishing their kite-flying gear for some serious action. The idea of a kite fight is to tangle the opponent’s kite in yours and then cut it off. The string plays a crucial role in this action packed drama in the skies. Known as manjha, it is coated with many layers of a paste of crushed glass mixed with a binding agent. It’s quite lethal and I well remember, for my cousins a good day at Jamghat invariably meant cut and bleeding fingers. Not that they cared one bit as they gloated about the kites they had cut and the victories they had scored. Of course the amateurs only got to hold the charkhi (or the spool) till they finally progressed to actually handling the kite.

Jamghat is said to have been initiated during the times of the Nawabs to bring together all communities of the city. The nawabs were known to be large hearted if degenerate rulers. A story goes that they used golden or silver strings so that anyone who got their kites could benefit from them. It was Nawab Wajid Ali Shah who brought in kites similar to the ones we have today.

One last word: Long long ago kites were also used to convey romantic messages. The only catch – you never could be sure who got your message! It must have resulted in plenty of intrigue I’m sure. 

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter K. Head on over for more K posts.

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10 things to remember on a journey without kids

I had often wondered if/when I could ever leave the children and travel on my own. Well, finally it happened. As it turns out the Husband was home and it was just four days (out of which two were over the weekend). 

Off I went.

It felt weird – to say the least – to be travelling without two small hands to hold on to. If you’re a mum too and have forgotten quite what it’s like to travel alone you might find these pointers useful.

1. It’s normal to carry just a single piece of baggage. Nah, you haven’t forgotten anything. And it’s not even important whether the bag is pink, blue or yellow.

2. On the flight, you are not allowed to cuddle people sitting on either side of you (to be on the safe side, keep your hands off the hand rests).

3. If your boarding pass says window seat, you actually get to sit at the window.

4. You can survive a two-hour flight without a visit to the loo. As a bonus – you also survive take offs and landings without admonishing your neighbours to ‘hold it in’ even while wondering anxiously if they will hold it in.

5. You can get through a flight without a single apology.

6. You don’t need to ask the airline staff for favours – no change of seats, no extra water, no extra tissues to mop off said water.

7. Airport shopping zones are a grossly misunderstood lot. Far from the disaster-waiting-to-happen-zones you thought them, they make for blissful browsing.

8. You get to decide what you want to do on the flight – reading, listening to music and sleeping being real options (over visiting loos, ensuring co-passengers don’t get kicked/ pushed, mopping messes and refereeing seats).

9. The baggage carousal is just that – a baggage carousal, not a forbidden slide you cannot allow your kid on.

10. A two hour flight is way too long. After a point you don’t quite know what to do with yourself.

A last bit of advice. Sit back, relax and try to enjoy yourself just as much as the kids are enjoying your absence back home.

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter ‘J’ for Journey. Joyful thanks to Mrs Nesbitt who thought up this wonderful meme.

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Happiness Update – Week 15

In January this year, prompted by this site here http://100happydays.com/, I took on the 100 happy days challenge. The idea was to find one happy thing everyday and upload a picture, 100 days in a row. Apprehensive about the commitment I opted for a weekly update in my blog. Today I am in week 15. The 100 days are up and what a fun ride this has been! I found myself looking at the many many tiny things that make me happy – A hug from the kids, a coffee with friends, a hard workout at the gym, a long forgotten song on the radio… so so many things that bring on a smile.

Oh I’ve faltered.. many times. There cannot be good days without the bad ones, can there? However I do sense a change, in me – an attitude to dig out the good from the bad. And that’s a real gain.

I will not say this is my last Happiness post for this is something I intend to stick with.

We are in the middle of summer vacations. This is the one time of the year when I get to enjoy living in a joint family.. well sort of, since we have four or five close relatives living close by. It’s fun hopping around from one house to the other – a lunch here, a dinner there and a sleepover somewhere else. The kids are of course thrilled being with cousins and aunts and being spoilt silly by the numerous grandparents with the authority to overrule big bad mama! Life’s good.

So here is my this week’s list of happy things…

 

The morning nature walk

Over the last few years some wonderful gardens and parks have come up in Lucknow. The sister and I packed off with the kids one morning and such fun it was. The kids went a bit crazy picking up jungle jalebis, exclaiming at the flowers, running on the walkways. The weather gods have been exceptionally kind and it was such a treat.

Playing old favourite board games

Snakes and ladders and Ludo.. such eternal favourites.

..and discovering some new ones

The kids discovered pictionary this year. We had a riot of a match drawing and guessing. A lot of rules were our own but then who cared?

Finding a teacher in a cousin

To my immense relief I found one of my older nephews teaching the tables to N. She proudly came to me asking me to quiz her and maxed the ‘dodging’. Happiness!

Washing the car

Anything to do with water is fun, right? So one morning spent washing the car was such thrill. N scrubbed and polished and then made everyone exclaim at how the car had never looked as wonderful.

Mama’s day out..

.. with my sister and the SIL. We caught a film and then some amazing lunch. Such a wonderful luxury to know the kids are safe and happy at home with the grandparents!

A choice of sleepovers

We’re spoilt for choice here with a bunch of relatives’ homes to choose from. H and N have different choices and each morning we spend some happy hours figuring out who will go where for the day. 

That’s it from me folks. See you tomorrow in a new week with a new author for the April Challenge.

Keep the smiles coming.

Linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

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Happiness update week 14 – At Home!

This Sunday I intend to redeem myself and post my happiness post bang on time. I’ve plenty to be happy about. 
I’m home.
No matter where you go, no matter how many years go by, the city of your birth and childhood always remains special. It holds the dearest memories of a million seemingly inconsequential things that gave you immeasurable happiness. That’s what Lucknow is to me. Each year I return during the summer and try to recreat and reach out to all of those things. There’s a special warmth in the smiles, a special welcome in the greetings.

Since the twins came along I love bringing them to this city of my birth to share a bit of my childhood no matter how different it is from there’s. The food I loved, the friends I had, the places I enjoyed going to… All of it.
The happiness list is not easy to make, though, because it’s the scores of intangible things that make me happy here. Nonetheless I’m trying….
Even as we landed the kids were welcomed with that hug from dadu at the airport..

Mercifully my parents’ home and The Husband’s home are just a couple of minutes walk from each other and so the family converged the evening of our arrival. A few hours later we were off to our favourite roadsde pani-puri stall to kick off the home coming.

That kind of set the tone for the coming days. The two sets of parents here believe in the old traditional way of expressing love… Food! The FIL spoils the kids silly with laddoos ensuring there’s always a ready supply at home. Ostensibly they are for the kids but who’s checking to see how many the mum gets away with? Hah!
That’s not to say there’s nothing specially for me. Since the FIL discovered my favourites I don’t have to ask him or remind him either. Nowhere in the world do you get jalebis and khastas like in Lucknow. If you’ve been here earlier you’ll know my Lucknow holiday starts with these pictures, always. Here they are again.

The kids like the jalebis well enough but turn up their noses at the super spicy khasta filling.
The MIL meanwhile is not to be left behind. There are hugs aplenty which H has begun to resist, just a tiny bit. N, though revels in the attention and is often found perched on someone’s lap no matter that she’s a tall 8-year-old!

Despite a sever knee problem, she makes sure the dinner table is laden with all our old favourites. Palak-paneer tops the list. I can never get it perfect like her despite having her go over the recipe a hundred times. It’s the kids favourite too. That’s a bonus because the plates are polished clean even without my constant ‘Eat fast, keep chewing, talk less’.
What the twins like best, however, is goofing around with cousins. It’s a bit of a madhouse in this tiny place with kids getting underfoot no matter which way you turn. They spend the day showing off varied interesting talents like who can do the most summersaults or who can burp the loudest.

That’s it for now. Today evening we’re off for a movie with the kids – The Bhootnath sequel. They’ve watched the first one countless times so this promises to be a treat. And then it’s a PIZZA PARTY.

Okay, since I said that.. To appease my own conscience, I need to add that I’m off to the gym from Monday!! See you folks tomorrow at the A to Z Challenge with another one of my favourite authors. 
Meanwhile be happy.
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