Our India trip

20/11/06

We had a short and memorable vacation of three weeks in India. It was a lovely holiday and a very special one for hubby dear especially as it was his dad's sashtiabhdapoorthy. We also celebrated Deepavali in India for the first time since our wedding. It was lovely waking up to familiar sounds and smells of lakshmi vedi and saravedis. The aroma and the scents of yummy and delicious snacks wafting from the kitchen, the fragrance of agarbathis from the pooja room, the loudspeakers blaring nathaswaram music from the nearby pillaiyar temple definitely made our deepavali memorable. It was pouring cats and dogs during our entire stay in India, though on the plus side we escaped the wrath of Sooriya Bagawan.

The short vacation had to be carefully planned as our home towns are a good 300kms away and both the set of grandparents wanted to enjoy as much time as possible with their grandson. The end result, each of us got to spend only about a week with our respective parents. The shorter the stay, the precious it becomes. There is something magical about coming home isn’t there? Craning my neck to catch the first glimpse of amma and appa while waiting for my luggage, running as quickly as I could into their open arms, saying a quick hi to our faithful driver who still calls me 'Paapa', rushing to get into the house to be welcomed by three loudly barking and whining dogs, who lick me head to foot, taking a quick tour round the house just to check if anything has changed since my last visit- now this is heaven on earth.

Amma cramped all my (and hubby's too) food requests that I had made and forgotten about since my last visit in that one week. I felt guilty of having made complicated meal requests and made a mental note of not repeating that in future. I notice amma and appa have gone frailer since the last time I met them. It sort of becomes a race against time and I realise that no number of phone calls can come even remotely close to the actual physical presence.

Each and every city that I visited seemed to have changed as well. The traffic on the road has increased dramatically, new shops, houses and shopping malls have sprung up everywhere and most places seem to be less green than they used to be a year ago. There certainly seem to be a dramatic increase in the fast food chains like Dominoes, Pizza hut and the like.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to an orphanage in the outskirts of Coimbatore. There were about 75 physically/mentally challenged children and about a dozen of elderly women and destitute. We had a meal with them. It taught me to appreciate all the little things that I took for granted, that makes our everyday lives a lot easier than these children. After a soul stirring prayer, the children sat down for their evening meal. Most of the children were able to help themselves, but there were these special few, who required an additional hand.

There was this little boy, perhaps a year or two older than Kuttan, who was crying and absolutely refusing to eat anything. All pleads and cajoling from the staff did not help, the boy was absolutely adamant and refused to eat a morsel. As Kuttan and I approached him, he came close to me and hugged me close. I slowly asked him what the problem was; he answered me in a tongue that I could not follow. It was heart wrenching to hear later from his care takers that the boy came to know that he had lost his mother two days ago.

I was amazed to see the warmth and the affection shared by the children. Almost all the little ones there tried to comfort him in their own ways. Some offered him the sweet (a small jaangiri) that was given to them - The staff there told me that they don’t get this everyday but is reserved only for those rare occasions where there has been more than one meal sponsor for the same meal, one little girl tried to sing a song, some hugged him close and the others tried to feed him. I realised that you do not need words and a common language to understand other's grief, all it takes is a heart!
We did leave with a very heavy heart.

We also visited Tirupathi. It was a very well planned trip organised by the Andhra tourism board. We had a good darshan although as always the temple was very crowded. Kuttan named it the 'Squashing temple' and any mention of the word 'Kovil' petrified him and he made sure that we were not visiting the 'Squashing temple' before getting anywhere close to the car.

Hubby had a master health check up while in India. His cholesterol levels are high. He is one of the unlucky few who seem to have inherited the faulty genes and his diet contributes to only 10% to his woes. He has been quite a sensible eater all along. We were told regular exercise would help significantly. We are determined to do all we could to keep the monster under check.

I also had the pleasure of meeting almost all of my college lecturers. The fact that none of them work in the college any longer is the highlight here. It was very nostalgic and brought back a lot of memories.

There were a few things that I would have loved to do had time not been a pressing factor like spending more time with my parents, visiting my achi who lives in Bangalore, enjoying Sambhar vadai at Annapoorna(Coimbatore), visiting my school and catching up with some of my old friends. I also missed my brother a lot, because this is the first time, since my wedding that our holidays hadn’t coincided. I missed all those long chats around the dining table until the wee hours of the morning that was customary during each of our visits.

All in all, it was a lovely trip and the three weeks flew in a jiffy. Before we knew, it was time to pack our bags to come 'Home'. With a heavy heart, we left our home to get back to the normal grind of our so called routine. Until our next trip, it is these treasured memories that hopefully will keep us going.