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What Are We Doing To Our Children!

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What Are We Doing To Our Children!

My experience and ideas regarding parenting suffer a jolt on a daily basis these days. I strongly believe that there is no perfect method of parenting, yet there are certain things that can never be compromised with. One such thing is availability of a parent especially mother at the vulnerable moments in a toddler’s life.  Earlier the school going age used to be five years but nowadays it has dramatically come down to six months. Yes, you read it right.  With the mushrooming of Day Care centres and Pre schools, the working couples have started sending their 6 month olds to day- care facilities. I don’t know about others but personally speaking, it is really heartbreaking.

Life Learnings

Few years back as incharge of a Pre-School and Day-Care, I experienced the worst frustration level attending an admission query for our day care facility from a new mom. The shock I got was hearing the age of her baby; two months. Seriously! How can someone think of leaving a two month old infant in a day care facility? When asked about the reason for making a day-care choice for the infant, pat came the reply,” Ma’am, I am getting an opportunity to go abroad and if I don’t take it up, I will never get it in the near future.” I banged the landline receiver back with just a “Sorry, no vacancy”, fearing that I might shower her with choicest abuses. Oh come on dear mommies! What do you think you are doing? I ask all such women, “Why the hell did you decide to bring a helpless life in this world, when you were not ready to give your all to nourish a life?”

My one year in that institution made me emotionally and physically broke. As a woman and mother I used to get affected watching the tiny sleeping beauties being handed over to the attendants in a hurry. Today, I am no more part of that ‘Tamasha’ but as I look back, the crying babies in the morning and their eyes gazing at the entrance in the evening, their disappointed faces seeing other mothers coming but their, still makes me get jittery.

My experiences with the young parents had been a roller-coaster ride. There was a parent who regularly walked inside the school with the little girl sleeping  in arms with milk stains on her mouth and dirty diaper. Before leaving the facility this parent would never forget to ‘order the attendant’ to feed an early breakfast to the little one. Reason, the parents overslept and didn’t get time to feed the baby at home. It was such an impossible task to make such parents understand that the kids are offered first meal of the school at a stipulated time and it was not possible for the nanny to feed all the kids at their parents’ convenience.

There was another mother staying in a joint family but didn’t want her child to be left at home with her inlaws since they couldn’t converse in English. Tell me about it!

I suffered parents not informing about the child’s previous night’s fever to us and later when called back to pick the baby to be taken to the doctor; would blame the facility for not looking after the kids. How could a mother leave an ailing one year old baby just like that!

It is the birth right of every new life to enjoy a wholehearted commitment from the parents. If the parents have their other priorities above the life they brought to this world; they better be doomed to a childless life. A child is much more than just a proof of your fertility.

Shaken with all these experiences that I announced to my children that if they can’t commit their hundred percent to parenthood, it would be sensible for them not to give birth to a helpless life.

I am a woman in fifties with two adult children of marriageable ages. Both of them wish to marry career oriented individuals. Although there is nothing coming up in the nearest future yet my above mentioned experiences have left me paranoid and I dread the day when they have kids and start looking for a good Day-Care facility for their 6 month old. To spare myself the horror of neglected grand kids, I have already offered my voluntary babysitting services for the (yet nowhere in sight) future babies and with a commitment that we the grand-parents will always converse in English.

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Yellow, My Colour Of Joy And Hope

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Yellow 

My Colour Of

Joy And Hope

Yellow, My Colour Of Joy And HopeEvery Basant Panchami brings in nostalgic moments of childhood with floating visuals rustling rolls of yellow nylon ribbons, lemon dresses with yellow lace detailing, yellow sweet rice loaded with coconut, raisins and Kadhi-Rice for lunch.

My secret love

I had always been in love with the vibrancy of yellow. My love affair with yellow was as surreptitious as any adolescent’s first one. I was crazy for it but scared to openly acknowledge. There were certain standard colours like pink, mauve, white, green, light blue and black or grey which were made to be our destiny.

As a kid, I wore whatever was provided by my father since he was the personal stylist for me, my sister and mom. There was no reason for disliking what we wore as daddy had great talent and aesthetics being an artistic person,  yet one thing often disturbed me was that he never made us wear yellow.

The stereotypes

I still can’t understand why he never stitched yellow dresses for his daughters or bought a yellow sari for his wife. Presumably the only reason could be that he liked to dress up his both daughters in coordinated clothes and he might be wishing to play safe with colours considering that we both had different complexion tones.

Somehow that was a lesson for me while growing up that one has to compromise for the sake of others in the family. Well, I might be a victim of over thinking here as it could just be his dislike for a bold colour like yellow. Who knows! Anyhow, there might or might not be any moral twist to that but the fact was that I was always dying to wear yellow. Why! Well, I think, I wanted to look different or stand out of the crowd.  Once when asked, I was told that yellow makes faces look sickly pale and young people must look nice and bright. Worst part of the story was that I was convinced as “daddy can never be wrong”. A daughter was quiet but a rebel was activated.

The ecstatic 

Basant Panchami

Every year, there was this only day of Basant Panchami that made me feel ecstatic as I could cover myself with Yellow all over and around me without any guilt or shame because everyone wore yellow on that day. I was happy following the general norms of the society and rituals till it worked in my favour.

The preparations began one week prior to the D day. Breaking the piggy bank, counting the change, buying yellow ribbon, yellow bangles and yellow bindis and ‘Bobby Pins’, oh! the cheer it brought along was ultimate. My savings could let me afford only that much of yellow and I was happy about it. It felt something like spending all your savings to gift something to your most loved one. This was more valuable as all that was for my joy. I think I was too much in love with myself. The pride in getting all dressed up in bright yellow was great.

Before the final day, I would try out different hair styles and braids (I had long hair then) using the yellow ribbon which was finally washed and ironed to make it look fresh on the day of Basant Panchami. OMG! such beautiful days.

Colour-shamed‘ for loving Yellow

In those days, colours were just colours with no psychology attached to them. Each colour was considered on a particular occasion. There were some traditions and societal rules attached to most of the basic colours. We were told by our elders that yellow was the colour that was worn either during religious rituals by preachers or sanyasins. It was linked to sacrifice and renunciation but I always saw yellow as the color of sunshine, hope, and happiness. For me it was a symbol of fresh new beginning, positivity, optimism, enlightenment and cheer.

I remember, how I once mentioned amidst a group of girls that my favourite colour was sunny yellow and became a laughing stock. I was bullied for liking a ‘shitty’ colour like that.  Nowadays with so many prefixes with the word shame, I can confidently claim that I was ‘Colour-Shamed’. Oh! by the way aren’t we still doing it even today when we laugh at kids shouting, “Yellow-Yellow, dirty fellow.” I wonder why but in those days yellow was considered a ‘cheap colour’, somewhere bordering on vulgar and bad taste.

Basant Panchami was such a pleasure to my eyes and soothing to mind and I loved being the part of an all girls’ school as I found myself floating in the sea of yellow ribbons all around. In the school, the female teachers wearing yellow saris or salwar suits, males flaunting yellow hankies or shirts; every tiffin smelling of yellow rice was enough for me to be in my desired haven.

Yellowjourney of  ‘self’

Unfortunately, like a teenage love story, my Yellow love also got compromised as my mother never wore a sari in yellow and my daughter rejected yellow as she refused to look like a bumblebee.

Then one fine day the rebel in me woke up to the fact that the taboo must break. I finally made my bold statement by choosing a bright yellow sari for my mother as my first salary gift.  Buying a yellow Rajasthani dress for myself was the next step. Frankly speaking it was nothing lesser than a shoutout and coming out bold with declaration, “Yes, I am a regular girl who is in love with the brightest, gaudiest and the ‘shittiest’ Yellow.” Gifting that yellow sari to my mother was like taking a deep breath in and then exhaling, spitting out all shame, guilt and inhibition in one go.

Yellow, the game changer

Time changed the tastes and my dad finally gifted my mother a yellow south silk sari on her birthday. Today yellow no more is a gender or complexion centric colour in India. It brings in such good vibes. What a pleasure it is to see young and old sporting yellow in different ways. In the past few years, the darkest complexioned fashion models have been looking vibrant wearing yellow with so much of grace and elan.Our houses have yellow exteriors and interiors. I have finally made everyone in my family accept yellow and have yellow interiors in our home too. Of course my pet baby too loves wearing his yellow jacket.For me, the colour Yellow, which once signified my curbed desires is now the symbol of an evolving humane society, which is free to make choices and accept individuality. It is coming of age and on this Basant Panchami, Yellow, my colour of joy and hope came back with lots of beautiful memories and a hope for brighter days ahead.

I would have really loved to wear a yellow kurta and tie my hair with a yellow ribbon, but alas! while I am travelling, I do not have a yellow kurta and my hair now are too short to be tied, so I decided to pull out my yellow socks and cook some yellow Jeera rice for lunch.

Did Yellow, my colour of joy and hope bring in cheer in your life?

Auroville, The Utopia In India

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One day in Auroville

Auroville,

A date with Utopia

One day in AurovilleFew months back trying to streamline my life, I made a bucket list. Among the first ten was “visit Auroville”. Who knew at that time that it won’t be anything lesser than a miracle that suddenly I and my husband decide to go down south and our itinerary would include Auroville. It was just a quick date with a Utopia known as Auroville while on the way back to Chennai from Puducherry.

I agree that one day is nothing to know about Auroville but it is surely enough to get a feel of the thought behind it. One more important thing I realised that Auroville is not only the golden dome of MatriMandir, it is much more deeper than that.

What is Auroville?

Auroville is a living Utopian dream to become a perfect global town, free of politics, religion and money. The main idea of Auroville is to have a place for humanity that can play the part of the bridge between the past and the future. It won’t be wrong to consider Auroville as the city of spiritual researchers in the field of human unity.

Auroville is a township for a population of up to 50,000 people from around the world. ‘Auroville’ meaning the ‘City of Dawn’ was conceived by Mirra Alfassa, better known as ‘The Mother’ as an experimental township in the state of Tamil Nadu. She was a close aide to Shri Aurobindo, who was based in Pondicherry. ‘The Mother’ developed ‘Auroville’ in 1965 with the vision of a city of universal oneness.

The city ‘Auroville’ was formally inaugurated on the 28th February, 1968. This event was attended by representatives of 124 nations and all the states of India.

The Aurovillians belong to almost 50 nations. According to the recent reports the population of Auroville township presently is around 2,500 people, out of whom one-third are Indians. These are from various age groups, social classes, international and national ethnicity and cultures. They can undoubtedly be proudly called ‘representatives of humanity’.

Auroville is endorsed by UNESCO and supported by the Government of India as an ‘International experiment of living in human unity’, while being internationally known as an experimental centre of applied research for practices in, human unity, environmental sustainability, new education system, social research and various cultural activities along with transformation of consciousness and spirituality.

Economic survival of Auroville

Auroville one day in Utopia
Few of the many aromatherapy products shopped from Auroville.

Various cottage industries related to aromatherapy incense, soap, handmade paper, recycled stuff, clothes and books etc are the backbone of Auroville’s economy. Not only that Auroville gets aid from Indian Government. The Aurovillians too are committed and bound by the rules of township to contribute on a monthly basis to keep the Utopian dream living.  It is common knowledge that in the summer months most of the foreign residents go back to their respective countries to earn money and later come back to live in Auroville. Most of the local economy depends upon the foreigners their local small industries and homes.

Auroville, a flourishing ecosystem

The most beautiful aspect of Auroville was the greenery and the commitment for preserving the ecosystem. Auroville is a complete forest created on a barren piece of land. As a visitor I have personally felt the lower temperature and cleaner air as compared to nearby areas. It surely was such a pleasure to walk amidst the green trees while going to MatriMandir.A day in AurovilleEach and every nook and corner of Auroville warmed my heart observing the way the township is taking steps to preserve the environment.

The walk towards Matri Mandir was something that I would cherish lifelong. A Day In Auroville

There are well kept sidewalks with nature intact and amazing peace. Auroville

Auroville has the solar power plant and after sunset helps the beam to light up the crystal in the inner chamber inside the Golden metallic sphere.

A day in AurovilleHow Aurovillians are taking care of nature is visible in that more than 100 years old huge Banyan tree which has many stone benches for the visitors to rest.A day in AurovilleFrom the small decorative Urli with fresh flowers next to the donation box near Matri Mandir……A day in Auroville

….. to the pretty, painted round rocks……

A day in Auroville

…..sand formation in the shape of fishes with fins of old CDs…..One day in Auroville

to the light reflectors made with coloured glass bottles and chimes hanging from the tree branches, each and every smallest thing displays the commitment of Aurovillians towards their chosen cause. One day in Auroville

What’s wrong with us?

A day in AurovilleDuring my one day visit to Auroville, I asked myself repeatedly, “What is wrong with us Indians?” It was Christmas and there were many Indian visitors in Auroville. On one side it was a beautifully proud sight to see all foreign nationals sitting quietly and meditating, while on the other hand my head was hanging in shame observing the native Indians causing havoc there. They were leaving no stone unturned to make this peaceful town look just like any other picnic spot.AurovilleDespite the instructions to ‘Be Quiet’ all were ensuring high decibels of noise all around. There were kids with parents throwing wrappers, paper cups and plates all around. The most irritating fact was that none of the parents were rebuking them for breaking the rules. That day I realised that more than spirituality or gaining knowledge, most of the people were just concerned about going live on Facebook and Instagram. Kids and young people were shouting, making noise around MatriMandir too. Then we talk about Indians not being respected by outsiders.

Why are we Indians so undisciplined? Why do we Indians lack the kind of commitment which the foreigners have for Auroville? My one day in Auroville ended with a peaceful mind but a sad heart.

I struck off ‘Visit Auroville’ from my bucket list but added a new one…. ‘Spend a month in Auroville.’

Pranic Diet For All Round Well Being

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Pranic Diet For

All Round Well Being

In my 52 years of life there has been one thing that I have experimented with a lot and that is my diet. I was born and brought up in a family where my dad used to cook amazing non veg curry while he himself was a vegetarian. My mom and I had always been fond of meats of all kinds till one fine day my mom too declared her conversion to vegetarianism. I tried my best to control my taste buds but couldn’t for long thus became the lone occasional meat eater in the family. Though now it feels so kiddish but as a teenager that feeling of cooking and eating a special meal all by and for yourself felt very empowering.

Struggling with my weight issues and love for eating (anything and everything) made me struggle with ways of eating too. From hardcore non-vegetarianism to veganism; from pescitarianism to Ovo-Lacto vegetarianism, I have done it all. I wish I could avoid mentioning the sub diets like Atkins, Whole30, Dash, Paleo, Mediterranean so on and so forth under the main ones here. All these different ways of eating affected my life (physical as well as emotional) in different ways.

Now what? Yes, that is the question I ask myself…. Now which diet change should I follow in order to just stay healthy and energetic! Answer to this is a Pranic diet. Yes, Now I want to try this diet which seems to be good for physical, intellectual as well as psychological health. Let me share what I have understood about Pranic diet. Here is Pranic Diet For All Round Well Being

What is a Pranic Diet?

In the Indian yogic culture, ten thousand years back, it was accepted that if human beings eat foods with a complex genetic code, their system will break down. That is why now researchers concluding that eating non vegetarian food is leading to cardiac issues and various cancers.

As the name suggests Pranic has been derived from Prana that means ‘the vital energy’. So Pranic food is the one that helps us imbibe prana in ourselves. Prana is present in almost all the fresh vegetables and fruits. If we opt to eat a Pranic Diet then that means we need to choose foods that are high in Prana. There are three kinds of Pranic Food which can make or mar one’s well being.

Positive Pranic Foods

This group includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, sprouts and honey as these enhance alertness, better nervous systems and intellect in our body. Among all these Ash Gourd and Honey are considered to be best positive Pranic food types.

My Take….

Well, I think I can do this way of eating as I love all fruits and vegetables in all forms. Though Ash Gourd (Petha) I have never tried as a vegetable because for me Petha is perceived as the traditional Indian sweet famous from Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Honey is an issue since sometimes I get allergic to it… Hmm! Can’t really say.

Negative Pranic Foods

are those which are addictive stimulants. Foods like garlic, tea, coffee provide a kick/ energy boost for a little while but cause energy withdrawal later. Among the many other foods the most common Negative Pranic Foods are garlic, onion, asafoetida, chilli, egg plant (brinjal).

My Take….

Now this list is very disturbing for me as I can never imagine my meals without these. Most interesting is Egg Plant which according to Ayurveda, destroys Hypothalamus – part of the brain that helps in decision making. Now I understand why we call it ‘Baingan’ in Hindi; one that is without any quality, Be-Gun.

Garlic tops in the biggest negative Pranic food list. It is considered good to be taken only as a medicine to control cholesterol, not as a daily food item.

Zero Pranic Foods

These are just two and that is the basis of all Indian meals…. Potato and Tomato.Pranic Diet

My Take….

That means my salads and soups will have to be without Tomato now! Hmm! Potato in any case I don’t take fancy to.

5 Rules of Pranic Diet for Well Being

There are many rules for following a Pranic Diet but the top 5 are a must to be followed.

  1. Do not use pre-cut vegetables. Cut the vegetables fresh at the time of cooking for each meal. Pre-cut vegetables means losing some of the Prana already. So buy whole uncut vegetables and fruits for best results.
  2. Eat organic (Very costly) or at least locally grown foods as much as possible. Organic foods have more Prana than those grown with using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. I understand that consuming toxins from vegetables and fruits would never help you with good results from Pranic Diet.
  3. Do not eat dead foods like frozen, canned, packaged, processed, bottled, fermented or leftover foods. These are mostly too old to be healthy or pranic.
  4. Ayurveda recommends eating all flavors in a Pranic meal. That would also help not getting bored with foods and crave for junk.
  5.  Do not over cook the food and just sauté fresh vegetables in light oils or ghee.

I am already trying to follow a Pranic Diet for my well being. Though it’s going to be a little difficult for a foodie like me but I am sure if done consciously, it is going to be a great new journey. After all what is life if not an experiment at every step.

Few shreds of my life are spread here too:

Mamallapuram’s Mystery Of Krishna’s Butter Ball

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Mystery of Krishna's Butter ball

Mamallapuram’s Mystery Of Krishna’s Butter Ball

My recent amazingly short trip to Puduchery was like a dream. By the time I realised what was happening, the trip got over. It was a perfect example of living in the moments. Who wants a life long journey to be happy if just one moment filled with joy can keep one joyful throughout life.

When I checked places of tourist interest around Chennai, I read a name ‘Mahabalipuram’ which made me think of it as the place where there was that huge statue of Bahubali. I know that was pretty dumb on my part but as I didn’t care about any place in particular,so didn’t matter much but for the embarrassment of being stupid. Yes, memory sucks at times but whatever happens is always for good. (My belief system)

Anyways, I visited this place Mahabalipuram aka Mamallapuram on way to Pondichery aka Puduchery from Chennai. It is a coastal town on the Coromandel sea coast of Bay of Bengal, about 60 km south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Mahabalipuram belongs to the era of Pandavas and Mahabharatha. Now, that was enough to arouse my curiosity, since I had always been a Krishna lover.

A guide! Nope, not for me….

The cab driver dropped us nearby a point in ‘Mamallapuram’s Mystery Of Krishna’s Butter Ball’ and asked us to keep walking along the road to enjoy the various monuments. I decided not to hire any guide as I wanted to know about the places on my own. As it is, with a smart phone, working internet connection and Google Baba with you, who requires a guide. Believe me it was so much of fun roaming around the monuments and quickly cross checking the historical spots with google images. I just loved it. Much learning… Wow!

Mahabalipuram site has about 400 ancient Hindu monuments. I was really keen on seeing the ‘Descent of the Ganges’ or ‘Arjuna’s Penance’ as those are one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world. Indeed those were really majestic with such intricate carvings that I felt so humbled watching the beauty and details.

Once the monoliths part was done, I googled for what else interesting was there to see and suggestion was,’Krishna’s Butter Ball’. Wow! this Mamallapuram’s Mystery Of Krishna’s Butter Ball sounded like a magical experience and an unsolved mystery since ages.

Krishna’s Butter Ball in Mamallapuram

Mystery of Krishna's Butter BallCan you imagine a massive 250 ton, 20 feet high, 5 meter wide boulder standing on a slippery sloppy hill on less than 4 feet base! That is ‘Krishna’s Butter Ball’ for you. This rock’s position is such that it looks like it will roll down the slope anytime but none seems to be afraid of the positioning of this boulder. When I reached there, I saw school children who had come on a picnic, resting and playing under it. According to some, this rock is heavier than the monolithic stones of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu in Peru.

In Tamil, Mamallapuram’s mysterious Krishna’s Butter Ball is called Vaanirai Kal’ which means ‘Stone of the Sky God’. Local story declares it as either put in that place by the Gods to prove their power and existence; or lord Krishna dropped a dollop of his favorite butter from sky.

Among many other myths woven around this boulder is one about the Pallava King Narasimhavarman. He was the ruler of South India from 630 to 668 A.D and the first one to make an attempt to remove this rock, since everyone believed that the ‘heavenly rock’ must not be touched by any sculptors. To everyone’s dismay, it did not move at all.

Later, in 1908 Governor of Madras Arthur Lawley also tried to move it using seven elephants, without any luck.

This Butterball boulder became an inspiration behind the famous traditional art of ‘Tanjavur Bommai’, mud dolls which never fall down. These dolls are made on a half-spherical bottom which allows tilting without falling down.

Mystery of Krishna's butter ball

Refuting all the myths around the Butter ball are the experts who consider it as a natural formation created due to wind erosion. Okay, point taken, but, isn’t it strange that while everything got destroyed by Tsunami, earthquakes or cyclones repeatedly over the years, here is a boulder called ‘Krishna’s Butter Ball’ still standing firm, unmoved for almost 1300 years?

Mystery of Krishna's Butter ballMahabalipuram / Mamallapuram belonging to 7th and 8th century is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and if you are into ancient Indian architecture and rock / monolith carvings then Mamallapuram is a must visit for you.

Some shreds of my life are here too…

Why You Must Plan An Unplanned Trip

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Plan a trip

Why You Must Plan An Unplanned Trip!

Plan an unplanned tripYou think, I am going crazy, talking about planning something that is supposed to be unplanned… No, Instead of judging, why not think of possibilities in the most impossible things?

Have you ever felt like a butterfly? A free, happy one, bright and colourful? My recent foray into the my inner positive world and kids finding their own path of life has made me feel so. I am sure every mother, whose life always revolved around her children, feels so. There is a slight yet major shift from being ‘over indulgent with kids’ stupidities’ to ‘over excited about self stupidities’. Thus to celebrate the feeling, I emotionally blackmailed my husband to plan an unplanned trip.

When life plays games….

For the previous one year we had been planning to avail leave travel concession before my husband’s retirement. We planned a trip to Leh but due to unforeseen circumstances had to cancel a ‘very well planned trip’ at the last minute. Sigh! Plans, it seems never work for me or may be the universe wants me to enjoy moment as it comes. Decided…this time it had to be an unplanned one.

Coming back to the trip; I and my husband had just 3 days to go on a trip as our daughter could manage only that many days off from her hostel to take care of our pet baby. Thus the trip was planned in a way that we knew the departure and arrival dates from Delhi to Chennai and vice versa. In between those two days where were we going, we had no idea. Kids asked, “What are the plans?” My standard answer was, “No idea.” Well, frankly speaking this ‘No idea’ proved to be the best thing of those two days trip.

A random look at the availability of flight tickets and accommodation helped us decide the venue…. Chennai. “Yes, we can do some shopping and sightseeing, relax at the beach, local sight seeing and be back.” Done.

Plan a tripSecond random look at google maps…. “Ummm… may be we can go to some nearby tourist places like….. forget it, let us reach there then we will see. Aah! by the way there are a few nice places around…” I was behaving like a true Gemini, confused, wanting this and that too, all in one go.

“Leave it, let me find out about cabs for sightseeing,” said my equally confused husband who likes to play very safe while travelling. So he managed the contact number of a person who could help in hiring outstation cabs at the last minute, if required. (We didn’t have any idea about Ola/Uber outstation cabs) For me that much planning was more than enough. I was excited for so many things…

  • …..first time in the last 28 years of marriage, ‘I’ was going to decide where to go and what to do;
  • …..traveling light without bags full of diapers, bottles filled with milk formulas and healthy homemade snacks for kids; (I had been terribly obsessed with home made food for kids especially while traveling.)
  • …..living my dream of traveling without any plans. (Though I would have done better but with my over cautious husband, this was the best I could manage without making him cancel the trip because of my crazy ideas.)

Plan an unplanned tripThe flight was a dream with a temptation to touch the moon. We reached Chennai at midnight to realize that it was too hot and sultry to spend a day at the beach and roam around in the market. Next morning we booked a cab for Pondicherry aka Puducherry, which seemed to be a better place seeing the weather and my urge to feel like a tourist. The deal with the cab driver was to show us all the tourist spots on our way to Pondicherry and back.

Our first stop was Mallapuram, a small historical town in Tamil Nadu with a rich mythological history related to Pandavas, Krishna and Mahabharat. (A separate post coming up about that)Unplanned trip to Mallapuram

When we reached Puducherry we realized, it was Christmas eve and that night’s festive experience at the Sacred Heart Basilica Church there took the trip to next level.

Next morning I realized that we could visit Auroville on our way back to Chennai. Voila! who knew this trip would be the first check off my bucket list since Auroville was one dream destination listed in it. Universe surely had begun to listen… Cheers to that.Plan a trip

By the end of the second day we were back to Chennai after visiting Mallapuram, Pondicherry and Auroville. (Wow!) We had a whole day to check out Chennai as our flight back home was late night and we surely didn’t miss any chance of doing so.

A quick visit to Marina beach in the morning along with the Light house, some light shopping and a great Tamil special lunch Thali made us end the three day trip. Fun part of this last day was that we roamed around the city in an auto-rikshaw, which actually helped us in visiting the lanes easily. Trip to Chennai

What did this unplanned trip teach us?

Everyday brings in new learning and this three days trip filled our lives with so much of practical knowledge. This was not only about visiting a new place but also lessons about booking Ola, Uber and Oyo online. This unplanned trip that we planned was all about finding a refurbished and rejuvenated physical, spiritual and emotional self that every 50+ requires one day. It was not only about walking whole day with painful bone spurs, but also about quietly sitting and exploring inner self. Whatever else it was, but surely it was the beginning of a new life as a light traveler.

Few shreds of life experiences can be found here too…

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