The Annual Look-back

(1)
As I sit in my little balcony garden, sun-bathing with plants each a different shade of green, I feel happy. This has been my daily routine for the last 10 days. Mom massages me with oil, dad reads the newspaper and I play Sudoku or read Mrs. Funnybones' eponymous A-Z short stories.

This is not the first morning routine for the three of us together. The first is going for morning walk in the lake-garden some 50 meters from our society. Wearing not so woolen winter-wear with caps/scarves/hoodies while looking at the sun rise. Repeating this for evening stroll while the sun goes down. This makes me happy too.

Just like my Diwali break, these 10 days were also spent working from home. But today being Sunday, there's no reason for me to check my inbox. So my brain is flashing multiple memories from this year- the annual look-back.

(2)
The year started with a major event- my elder brother getting married. It was followed by my new work-role bringing me back to Mumbai. I got introduced to my new happy place- the Worli Seaface. The year progressed with another major event- my mother getting hospitalized. She's better now, but this really became a defining moment for this year. It showed me that my parents are super-strong. The year moved along and I turned 25. This should count as major and as an event, but this happened during my aforementioned work-from-home Diwali. So birthday was more like a much deserved break from, well, break!

(3)
I have never been a planner. I don't know how to plan, unlike my dad who is a thorough pro here. He is excellent at keeping records, filing documents, chalking out itineraries and having contingency plans too. But for this year, I planned to travel. Except one plan to visit my brother and sister-in-law in the States, other plans were actually very executable. The US plan would require my boss' nod to take some 13 working days off and even I knew all I would get is a resounding no.

Other plan was to go to Amritsar with my Delhi-wale uncle, aunt and first cousins. This was a year of long weekends and I had planned to go on one such weekend. Unfortunately my mom got sick and I obviously rushed to be by her side. But being daddy's girl, I had a Plan B- to use another long weekend coming up next month. I had booked the tickets and had already decided what clothes I will carry, which places I will visit and more importantly what food I would eat there. The Punjabi in me was already happy in anticipation.
A few days after my mom returned home, we got the news of my second-cousin getting married on the very same long weekend as that of my Plan B. The second cousin lives in the same city as my parents so everyone- my first cousins and even people from Amritsar ended up visiting my city for this wedding and I ended up canceling tickets of my trip one more time. I swear this year I have canceled more tickets than all the other years put together.
Another plan was of Rann of Kutch during Christmas extended weekend or the New Year's long weekend. That too kaput! Lesson learnt- I should stick to not planning anything.

(4)
Many friends remarked that I had lost weight, looking at my various Instagrams. Two colleagues said that my curls are beautiful- my hair have never been complimented 😊 And very recently, there was a department meeting with people from across the country in attendance. Although I made very conspicuous late entry and greeted the Exec VP with a  bold 'Hi!' instead of a sheepish 'Good Morning', the reason I was getting some stares was my never-seen-before avatar- I was wearing some chic clothes to work, with a funky neck-piece and my still wet-from-wash curls. So my vanity got many boosts this year 😉.

25

Had taken a week-long leave from work to celebrate Diwali and spend time with my parents. Every day of my leave was spent working from home, something my parents and I disapprove of. A leave is a leave, a leave from work. Working on leave from work is both oxy-moronic and moronic. Having said that, no one forced me to carry my work laptop home, nor did anyone ask me to log-on to office mail. When people mailed me, they got auto-replies of out of office. They also got replies from me, doing my job. Some asked that if I was working, why the auto-replies? Others would say sorry to bother you on your leave, but do this, and that, and also that. Most of them appreciated my prompt replies, but I absolutely loathed myself. Then I turned 25.

"How did you celebrate?", asked someone.

I did exactly what I have been doing for the past week. Woke up and went to the nearby lake-garden with my parents for a morning walk. It is the only time it's pleasant here, in my otherwise scorching hot city.

"So, what's the special today?", asked my aunt who had called to wish me.
"Learning to cook baingan ka bharta", my honest reply, met with amused laughter from all ends.

"Happy b'day madam, silver jubilee ho gaya! Itna kamaa rahi ho, what will you spend it on?", a  friend quizzed me.
"Pai pai jod ke bachaa rahi hu for my wedding :P", a dishonest reply, met with even more thunderous laughter.

"How's the party going on?", texted another friend ready to take an underwater swim with sea-turtles.
"Dad opened a little cabinet and I found mini bottles of Finlandia Vodka and Dry Gin in there. So the party's just getting started!" 😄

I instagrammed my picture wearing a kurti mommy had stitched for me, watched Shammi Kapoor's 'Teesri Manzil' with dad, visited a temple during our evening stroll, face-timed with everyone on my face-time list, gorged on home baked cake and did not touch my work laptop even for a second. I CELEBRATED! 🎉🎉

When walking to work takes you places..

I walk to work daily. It’s a blessing in Bombay to have a place a few kilometres away from office. Walking on traffic congested, fungi-infested lanes is way better than commuting in Mumbai rains or the local trains. 

What I do with all the time, money and energy I save by going on foot is simple: I cook, I read and I sleep well. Very plain and mundane it may sound, but this is exactly what I cherish- having a peace of mind, that often gets lost when you work in corporate world.

I cook two-three meals a day, and have realized that more often than not, cooking is therapeutic in nature. The colours each food item has during different stages of cooking- from raw to semi-cooked to ready-to-eat- are many more than in a rainbow. The sounds like splattering of oil, the whistling of pressure cooker or sparkling of tea are the kinds of cacophony I can live with. The fragrance of piping hot food stimulate the taste buds, or so I read in a primary school textbook years ago. There are few things that affect all my senses in this way.  What started as just a way to fill my stomach without emptying my pocket on restaurants/delivery food, is now a chore I look forward to.  From the disappointment of making uncooked/burnt/not-a-circle-shape rotis to the excitement of baking banana soufflé, I take a journey everyday through the valleys and mountains of emotions.

I read as often as I can. What stops me most of the times is binge-watching videos. Guilty. What I am reading these days seems to be interesting. The first 15 pages were loaded with Spanish and French words and phrases and references to Tainos , fuku, de Leon, JFK etc. This led to an extensive use of Google Translate and Google Search, where each search led to a new search. As an example, googling about de Leon led me to searching about a former Roman empire of the Iberian Peninsula. This introduced me to Basque- a language indigenous to regions adjacent to Spain and France (that kind of explains Spanish and French words and phrases being used in this novel). A search about Iberian Peninsula led me to check out the modern day Europe’s map, which reminded me of Prof SSB who taught us International Business Strategy. That gem of a man- he gave us assignments on India’s trade relations with countries like Paraguay and Uruguay, which I would never think about otherwise. It is partly because of his way of teaching, that now when I see my friend Instagramming about her vacation in Nuwara Eliya, I know that Nuwara Eliya means “city on the plain”- a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka.

And with all this feast of food and knowledge, I happily fall asleep every night, always thinking of what to cook the next day and which new search thread might unravel tomorrow J

Heartbreak

No, this is not about a failed romance. This is about adult life. It's about your best friend getting married and you being unable to attend her marriage because, work. It's about going from "can't-wait-for-the-big-day" to "so sorry Pappu, I cannot reschedule this 😢". It's about spending sleepless nights remembering every moment you have spent with your crazy pal, then replaying the entire conversation they had with you about them getting married and then rehearsing how you are going to tell them that this work thing has propped up which is killing you!

It is breaking my heart into small pieces and then breaking those pieces into smaller ones. Stealing a few minutes from work to watch the live-stream of her wedding, I notice how pretty Amma looks, laughing throughout the ceremony while holding a rice cake or something.

Can't help but think about how for a happy life one works and sometimes misses out on like the happiest moments ever because, work. Woke up this morning, looking for a Harry Potter portkey to touch and be transported to Hyderabad for the Reddy wedding. Tried to divert my mind saying career is important, so you gotta work work work work (Rihanna style). Got fed up with the fact that stars and muhurat decided her wedding date and it's not on a weekend. Remembered that my brother got engaged on a Monday and married on a Tuesday, but worked (from home) till the previous Friday.

While my brain plasters the broken pieces of heart with all this contemplation (=jhootha dilasa), the wedding live-stream and live commentary of my gang-mates on WhatsApp acts as the true medicine. God bless technology! And God bless Mr. Reddy- who now has a lifetime of Mounika's PJs to live with 😃.

Highlights

Last year was full of great experiences for me.

1. Got my first job in the first week of the first month of 2016.
2. Completed my education of 21 years. Out of the Student Zone :D
3. 45 days of summer in the USA. Alag hi duniya hai!
4. Worked in Sales in slums in Mumbai rains. Mentored by some really good people at work. 
5. Made my parents proud and re-lived the two greatest years with Gang at convocation at NITIE.
6. Was part of a Facebook Page and responsible for a few real hilarious (& viral) posts.
7. Met my sister-in-law-to-be. 
8. Attended my roomie/bestie/suar niece/kinda-like-my-big-sis Ipshi's wedding.
9. Developed an interest in cooking and explored(ing) food joints in Pune.
10. Continued to be inspired by dad, who now embarks on a new phase of life post retirement.

2016 certainly had many milestones. But one of the fondest memories remains when my mother spent 10 days with me in Pune ☺