Dussehra Holidays 2014

A quick weekend get away to Sakleshpur brought the much needed respite from the monotony of work, school, cook, eat, sleep... repeat... routine of Bangalore life.

Headed out around 6 am on a Saturday morning hoping for a quick drive out of the city with plans to  met our friends at the Nelamangala toll booth. UN-expected traffic on Ring road made us appreciate the serene and peaceful life of the western Ghats even more. I must say the National Highway system in India is on par with any in the developed world. It made the drive towards towards Hassan and beyond enjoyable.

Most of the time was spent hiking and chit chat. Kids found a small waterfall on the drive up there and we ended up going to that fall every day. Quite a few leaches were caught feasting on everyone except Vivek and myself. I guess we are just too sweet for their taste...!

We had quite a few helpers around the house. Everything from cooking, cleaning, doing the beds and escorts on our hiking trips. We could hear peacocks and peahens in the distance, our hopes of encountering one did not happen. We did see a few wild boars however.

Nishanth as usual managed to keep himself busy finding insects, caterpillars, snails, slugs, beetles and frogs.

 

Thanks Vivek and Nitasha, that was a perfect getaway.

Today's lunch is on me Acha!

When do you let go and accept that your child is not a kid any more?

 He has quite a bit saved from the occasional grants from his grand parents and some from the monthly pocket money he receives. Over time we have observed his behavior in managing and using it for various purposes. He is never shy to spend it on his Chechi, buying gifts on her birthday. One occasion he was caught using the money to dine at some of the food stalls during one of the school events.

The biggest event yet was when he invited us to lunch at BBQ Nation at his expense to celebrate my birthday. He loves the place, and figured that my birthday celebration was the appropriate time to satisfy his palate and a good use for his savings. So along with the purse in his pocket we went and and had a gala feast. Then very adamantly he picked up the bill, dug into his purse, exclaimed.. that  much...! and paid without a blink. Later I snuck the money back into his wallet.


Here he is ready with his payment.

There are certain stages in life you wish you had a pause button! This was surely one of them.

Month of Birthdays - 2014 edition

First in line was Nishu ji as always.. Celebrated on a Thursday on the day of his birthday. It fit right in between his school closed and our trip to Sri Lanka.
Celebrated with our Bangalore friends and neighbors we welcomed the completion of a decade.

Some pictures to remember the moments.

 

The weekend following the celebration we left to Kannur. After spending a week over there I returned while Veena and the kids stayed back for the month. Veena celebrated her birthday with her parents and a visit to the temple. It was was a significant number and marked 4 decades of memorable existence.

 The second lovely lady's entered her tween years and her birthday happens to be right before school opens for the new academic year and the kids winding down from their summer holidays. We were back in Bangalore by then. It so happens that there are quite a few kids in the neighborhood that have birthdays during the month. Some pictures from the party celebrated at home.

 And so another year passes by, I reminded Neetu as per Indian tradition we don't celebrate birthdays after this year and she retorted that we'll follow the American tradition and according to her it is very much celebrated :)