Random thoughts…

~ Both the OH and me have the day off work today, it being International Workers’ Day. And for the life of us, we cannot think of anything to do with the free time we have on hand today!! I mean, when we are so hard-pressed for time that even eating a meal is difficult, we have ideas of going to this park and that lake and that temple and this friend’s house, but when we are totally, absolutely free, no such idea enters our head!! Why?

~ The OH returned from a week-long work trip last Friday. The week that he wasn’t at home was the most horrible week of my life. I missed him like crazy, and just about everything that could go wrong at home and work went wrong. I was super exhausted and stressed out till he came back and sorted things out a bit. Why am I suddenly surrounded by problems just when the OH is not around? Is nature conspiring against me or something?

~ To rub salt to my wounds, the OH was working at Ahmedabad, of all places. A couple of days, he stayed over at my parents’ place there. My parents showered all their love and affection on their darling son-in-law, making him feel at home and cooking his favourite dishes for him, while I made a line of Maggi cups on my kitchen counter, adding one almost every night. The Maggi cups remind me of this song I used to be crazy about in my college days, from some album I don’t remember the name of, where the hero works in a cafe and collects all the cups that his lady love drinks coffee from.

~ My parents sent me one huge bag of goodies from Ahmedabad through the OH, with loads of my favourite Gujarati foodstuff – both home-cooked and store-bought. Aam ras, handwa, tomato sev, thepla, farali chevdo, gota, masala shing, khari shing, and packets of bhajiya and khaman batter. I didn’t have to cook at home for two days after that! I loved, loved, loved everything, and thanked air travel for being able to enjoy mom’s thepla and handwo and fresh aam ras from Ahmedabad in Bangalore. Everything was just awesomely droolicious, I tell you!

~ My mom, being the mom that she is, sent me a mango from the first lot of the season that they bought back home. The OH and I chomped down on it to the last bit. And, oh, I have got a couple of months’ supply of various chutneys and pickles and cooking powders.

~ I was immensely touched to see that mom remembered to send me the chutney that they get to eat with the store-bought gotas. She remembered that I love the chutney more than I love the gotas.

~ I had asked the OH to get me some of the toys that I used to play with in my childhood. I had packed them up in a bag and preserved them in the loft before marriage. The OH, being the OH, obliged his mad wife. I now have a cutesy little kitchen set before me, which never fails to make me smile every time I look at it.

~ There is something comforting about you cooking the very same dishes that your mom used to cook back home, and their turning out exactly the same way. I learnt the recipes for vepam-poo (neem flower) rasam and venn pongal from mom and made them at home. I loved the experience. Brought back fond memories of home.

~ There’s a wedding coming up in the family next Monday, and I am so looking forward to the festivities. I can’t wait to get mehendi on my hands!

~ Wanderlust has struck me hard of late, and I am desperate to get out of home. I don’t care where we are going, as long as we have fun, and it is out of Bangalore! There are a lot of things to be sorted out before we leave on a vacation, though. Sigh!

Well, that’s that for now, folks! How have you been?