This is definitely one of the worst tragedies this world has seen on the past few decades. There are a lot people getting sick and dying because of one tiny virus. It’s so infectious!! And it’s spreading faster than a wildfire. Everyday thousands more are getting added to the list. And these are only the reported ones. God knows how many unreported cases.

At this time I think it’s a social responsibility of each and every citizen of this world to self quarantine if you have the slightest of exposure risk. People think that I won’t have it. It’s ok to move around. And even if I get it what’s the big deal. It’s only a viral fever and cough. For you it might be. But it might not be the case for the person you pass it on to. What if you pass it on to an elderly or someone who has respiratory disorders already. It will be fatal for them.

For us it’s a very difficult situation at home. Since we run a couple of factories we don’t even have the option to work from home. We have kept the kids home and not sending them to classes or anything. I avoid stepping out unless necessary and washing hands is compulsory if you enter from outside or just before you eat. But for the men…. it’s not possible to stay home. It’s spreading here for sure but not just enough yet for them to shut the factory.

In a sense this will be rich man’s disease in India. If the lower classes catch it , it’s going to be from us. Someone who has traveled will give it to their household staff or someone on the road and then it’s just disaster. If something like this happens it will become very difficult to control it. That’s why it’s so important to self quarantine if you have traveled internationally within the past month or so whether you have symptoms or not.

There were cases where the wife of an infected person fled a city and traveled to another city by air and then to her hometown by train. And then she tested positive. Things like this are very irresponsible behaviour. The number of people she could have infected on the way is unimaginable. She has no right to put so many people at risk. It should be made a punishable offence to do such a thing in times like this.

The social media and WhatsApp have created such a panic among people. Yes… it’s spreading fast. But it’s not dangerous if you’re young and healthy. You can recover even at home. But if you walk out of your house you might infect a person who can not handle it. It’s the spread we have to stop so we need the quarantine, whether at home or in a hospital.

Stay safe people and let’s not make mistakes like many countries did. We dont want numbers rising by thousands here. Let’s stick to single digits a day 🙂

Image courtesy : Artist Katie Berggren ( I stumbled upon her work on the internet and simply loved it)

This is a slightly emotional post. Emotional I say because it touches my heart every time my P saves something for me to eat coz it’s the last bit. I had made cake and was serving it to some guests and taking out a portion for her too. And she realised I hadn’t taken out a piece for myself. She was like “Why are you not eating?” Although there was enough cake , the ice cream to go with it was over. So I told her so and she said “so you ARE going to get more ice cream for yourself and eat it tomorrow right?” Like in an authoritative tone. I assured I would and she bounced off with her plate.

Once before she even saved some tamarind chutney for me because only a little was left 😃. Isn’t it adorable when your kids start thinking about you? When I’m sick or something she really doesn’t care that much. She’s not the kind who will come and ask me how I am doing. Or if I’m feeling ok. But she notices these things now and makes sure I don’t give up anything to eat just because it’s not enough. She will give me a little from her portion.

My little A is different. If I’m sick, she will ask me a million times in the day how I’m feeling. And every morning will be the same question. “Are you feeling better than yesterday?” Almost as soon as you fall sick she will make you a get well soon card. And they keep coming everyday till you’re not well. I’ve saved them all.

We spent the December holidays at home coz me and husband were both sick. But during that time even if P dint physically take care of us, she made sure A dint disturb us. She kept her busy and this was actually the first time I saw them bonding this way. 🤞🏼

Enjoying this till it lasts. I can only hope that teenage doesn’t hit my girls hard and take away their innocence and caring attitude.

So today there was a super duper high drama episode happening at home. By the end of it the kids were both shaken and happy. We had to rescue a kitten from a drain pipe!!

Here goes the story……..A few days ago a stray cat had given 4 babies on our neighbour’s terrace. Those cats keep roaming around our houses. Today morning the cat placed 2 of the kittens in our garage window.

God knows when she brought them up from the back staircase and the brown one crawled inside our first floor door and hid behind the curtain. It was mewing from there for some time until A discovered it behind the curtain. When we moved the curtain the poor thing was so scared. It tried to escape but there were glass windows and kept banging into that. My maid caught it and left it out in the balcony.

Now there is a rain water drain in the corner of that balcony and the cover of the drain has come off. The poor kitten thought it was an escape route and went inside the drain 😞. There is a little place there before the pipe drops down. It sat there and we could see it from outside. So we left it there and came out thinking it will slowly come out on its own once it’s all quiet around. The kitten called out to its mother and the cat came and saw the little thing in the mouth of the drain. The kitten tried its best but somehow got stuck in some angle. It only managed to get out its tail and the cat kept trying to pull it out but it remained stuck.

After an hour and a half I asked one of my house helps to hold her and pull her out. But by the time he went to see it, it had fallen down the pipe!! Exactly what I was afraid of. The pipe runs down the outside of the back of house. We went there and realised that the kitten was stuck in the middle of the pipe. Since it was a rain water pipe, there must have been some debris stuck in it and the kitten got stuck there. We could hear it mewing from inside and scraping the pipe trying to get out. The cat had heard it’s kitten and was standing outside and calling out to it.

That pipe opens out into a drain. I got the cover removed from that so that if it falls out it can hop out of the drain. But it seemed like that was highly unlikely since it was stuck. Then my driver had an idea and said if we can cut the bend on top and open the pipe and pull it out, we can rescue it. So he and one of my house help climbed up on the roof and started cutting the pipe bend. Once that came off, they started to shake the pipe to bring it loose from the other end and open it. But it would not budge and the poor kitten must have been so scared in there! First the darkness of the pipe, then the loud scraping of cutting the pipe and the shaking. Poor thing. Both the girls and me were standing there and monitoring the whole thing. P was so worried, she kept telling them to be careful that nothing falls inside the pipe and to not make very loud noises otherwise the kitten will get scared. One more person joined them in the bid to open the pipe and the three of them managed to shake the pipe enough that the debris came loose and slipped down and the kitten slipped down with it. Now it was in the drain below and we could see its face. You can see the kitten in the drain in the picture below 👇🏼. And that’s the pipe it was stuck in.

Lastly one of the men put his hand inside and pulled out the kitten. The cat was standing on top the steps right there and waiting to take its baby. He left it on the steps and it slowly climbed up to its mother. Both were re united and they seemed to be looking back us gratefully. They hopped away and she took the kitten and it’s 3 other siblings to another place.

By the end of it all both girls were shaken. P recovered soon and but A had a tough time falling asleep. At the time of writing this post she is still awake. That’s more than an hour and a half past her bedtime. She keeps remembering the kitten and saying something or the other related to it. I tried reading to her (which we anyway do everyday) and tried singing to her. Finally she is in my bed and hopefully will fall asleep soon.

Whatever said and done at least both of them learnt a couple of things today. The value of another creature’s life and do whatever is in your power to help another. They saw how my entire staff got together and gave their own inputs and rescued the poor kitten. They saw how concerned we were and how we pushed them to help the little kitten. They saw how happy everyone was once the little baby was united with its mother.

Along with all the fun these kids had on their outbound trip, the kids learnt a lot of life skills. One very important being team work. They were divided into 4 groups and all through the trip they had to work in those groups. Fortunately (or unfortunately for them 😁) they were seperated from their own friends and were forced to work with others. So it was a completely mixed group with kids from the other divisions who they dint know at all.

Working with the team was obviously the most important lesson which came out from it but another thing which came out was standing up for your team mates. From the stories I had heard there were a couple of incidents where they fought with other teams because they tried to bully them or destroy their work. They learnt to stand up together as a team and defend themselves even though they were strangers to each other a few hours ago.

It brought around a sense of brotherhood, as one may call it, among the team members and all the other groups. A sense of belonging where they all came together as students of grade 4 from their school and involved in one of the most memorable trips of their lives.

Another VERY important lesson, which may I admit was of utmost importance to her, was that Hardwork pays off. This happened on the trek they went on and a handful of kids, including P, decided to trek till the hill top. Most kids decided to stay back halfway and did not go further.

She was amazed at the view and kept saying what a beautiful sight it was. She was completely in love with it and was very proud of the fact that she was among the very few kids who took the extra effort to climb till the top. She said they learnt an important lesson from that trek “Hard work pays off”.

It was important that she learns this lesson. In fact for the past couple of months I had been stressing on the same thing to her. In her last ptm, I got the same feedback from all her teachers that if she works a bit harder she can perform much better. She has the ability but needs the extra push to achieve better results.

These little things if taught from an early age can really help the child cope with the challenges they have to face as adults. I’m glad schools now a days understand this and try to incorporate these teachings in some way or the other. Eg their latest English publishing was about a literary essay. They had to read and reread a book and reflect and write an essay about what were their learnings from the book. It was awesome to see that each child was able to extract the essence of the book and present it with evidences in the form of an essay.

So P is back from her trip on Tuesday night. Here’s the rest of our parental ordeal till they were back

Day 4 :cursing the school and the stupid camping company for not letting us speak to the kids and taking them away for such a long time

Night 4: 8:30 pm at this time tomorrow we will be on our way to pick her…. 9:30 pm we will be waiting at this time tomorrow for the buses to arrive….. 10pm she will be here!!!

Day 5: oh god why is the time not passing? Have they left? Where are they? Have they finished lunch? How many hours?

And by the time the evening arrived there was super confusion on the parents WhatsApp group formed for this trip. The group had all parents plus the teachers on the trip, a school rep and the primary school principal. The teacher kept sending live location updates and the parents kept lagaoing their dimaag (using their brains) as to what the arrival time would be. Half of them were not considering the traffic or the fact that buses will travel slower than cars. There were 4 different ETAs till 6pm. And the school rep was not saying anything. Uff!!! Finally she messaged and said that we need to be in school by 8:30pm (we were earlier told that they will arrive by 10pm). So now we rushed and somehow managed to reach school in good time before the buses arrived.

We all stood in the school portico to welcome the buses. That moment for us was as if some celebrities are coming. We were excitedly waving out at the buses as they arrived…. all parents eager to see which bus their child is in…. spot my child!!! Then the kids started getting off the buses and everyone rushed to hug the kids. It was as if humare bachche koi jung jeet ke aa rahe the (as if our kids were back after winning a war). There was excitement and squeals and hugs. The teachers had to intervene and tell everyone please back off and meet the kids in the courtyard. You need to sign out your children with the respective teachers.

What an atmosphere and there was still so much energy. The kids were so happy and we were happier to see that the kids came back happy and with so many stories to tell us.

For me it truly felt as if my P has won a battle and come. Both girls still sleep in my room. P refuses to try sleeping in another room forget going to someone else’s house for a sleepover. The only thing I was truly worried about was whether she will sleep properly. It was 4 nights at a go and I just wasn’t sure she would survive it. But she managed just fine.

She was so happy about the trip and she enjoyed herself thoroughly. All along the car ride back home she gave us complete details of all the activities they did. Her favourite was the trek. They went uphill on the hill that their resort was located on. They went half way first and then only a few kids (including herself) and an instructor went till the peak.

I’m glad the school gives them such awesome experiences. It really brings them out of their shell and comfort zones. They do things which they are generally apprehensive in trying. In general P is not very adventurous and rope walking and other such activities are not preferred by her. (Not that we are all that adventurous either 😉)

My big little girl has gone for her first outbound trip from school. For 5 days!! Yes…. the school has taken them for 5 straight days on a 9 hour long bus journey away. They have a tie up with one of those camping companies. So the kids were to take a rucksack and sleeping bag and pack it all in that one bag.

Their trip consists of treks, obstacle courses, low rope courses et al. We don’t get to speak to them at all. We have to make do with 2 updates a day on their day’s activities and a sentence in the end which says ” all are in good health and high spirits”. The teachers with them send pictures through the day, when they can, and we have to play ‘spot your child’ with those pics 😂. Sometimes we see a glimpse, sometimes a good pic and other times we have to be satisfied with the though that she is somewhere around. First day pics I saw her enough. Next day I got to see her for the first time in the evening pics.

Me on

Day 1: aaahh what peace….. no being a referee…just handle one child…. perfect. And it’s going to last 5 days!!! The kids are well taken care of too 😀

Night 1: let’s sleep araam se…. no P to wake me up at 6 in the morning… A won’t be up until much later.

Day 2: wow… what a lovely sunny day… what peace and quiet prevails… A is busy playing and I’m at peace…. I wonder if P had a good breakfast 🤔 I assume she’s fine. The pics are so cool. I can see her!

Night 2: awww the room looks a bit empty without her…. I wonder if she slept…

Day 3: hmmm… did she sleep well these past 2 nights… look her eyes seem to have dark circles in that pic… I’m sure she’s not able to sleep…. I hope she eats properly the fussy eater that she is.

Night 3: what???? Still 2 more days to go??? Why couldn’t they make the trip 3 days instead of 5? It’s too long for first timers. They’re going to be so tired….. I want her back tomorrow!!!

So yes… we still have 2 more days to go. Their bus arrives around 10 pm on Tuesday. In the meanwhile A has been making sure P’s best pals are put to sleep every night and woken up in the morning. (She misses her terribly and starts crying at her thought)

P made this den for herself a few days before Diwali. It’s just so cute that I don’t feel like removing it from here. She has clearly taken over that spot and won’t let it go. I told her she can have it until she makes sure she cleans it properly every few days, which she does.

Isn’t it absolutely frustrating when you send your child to get something and they say “it’s not there”. I can’t even begin to express my irritation when she says this.

This is so so true. Many people say she has his eyes (she has greyish brown light eyes and he has brown eyes, not so light). The truth being she has my great grandmom’s eyes. But if you see it this way then yes,P gets this trait from her dad. I can just picture them looking for something right now.

Me: P please go and get those Duracell batteries from my table upstairs (she saw them a day back and asked me what they were for)

P: ok (runs up the stairs)

After about 2 minutes

P(shouting from above) mom they are not here

Me: They are right there P! You just saw them yesterday. They must have got hidden under something. Just see

P: no mom they are not here

Me: ok I’m coming up.

When I reach upstairs and pick up a paper the batteries magically appear

P (looking embarrassed) : oops!

I’m like seriously…… can’t you just search a bit. Everything can’t be lying there in plain sight. But no. I don’t know how many times we’ve been over this. But the situation remains the same. Just like her dad! Exactly the same way. Even he will just stand and look and say I can’t find it.

I have to make peace with 2 of them around like this. And don’t even ask how many times they loose stuff and need searching 🙄. Not counting the number of times I ask her to bring something for me and she can’t find it.

A seems to be following in their footsteps but I’m not sure yet. Another couple of years and I’ll know. God forbid she turns out the same way 😰