The Tea Sanctuary

I already told you about our Kerala trip this May.But as you can say that post was more about pics than anything else. So this is the post about everything else especially about the place we stayed at in Munnar. This was a trip that was being planned for a year. Kerala in May is HOT ...super HOT. The kids love it running around the house, the well, looking at cows and hens and all that makes a little quaint village.
2 days after the wedding we left for Munnar. It was a 7-hour journey to Munnar. After a couple of breaks and after an hour of winding roads we were really giddy and tired by the time we reached the place we had booked. When we stepped out of our Travera at about 3 pm we were ready to just dump ourselves on the bed and be done with for the day. But what greeted us was magnificent awesomeness. Seriously. Instead of getting inside to check our rooms we just walked around the lawn and immediately felt very very refreshed. The weather was fantastic. Cloudy but not rainy. Cold but not very. And the view was breathtaking.
When we finally got to the room, it was even better. We were 3 families and a driver and that was exactly how many rooms they had. So we had booked the whole bungalow. In addition to the rooms, we also had a recreation room, a TV room, a Tea room and a Dinning room. Plus they also had a kitchen where the caretaker could cook for us. All the 4 days we stayed there, we had dinner at the bungalow. The room came with free breakfast, which wasn't bad. Puris and Idlis, nothing there not to like.
We did a couple of points at an easy pace each day. The high point for the kids was the elephant ride. My boy totally loved it. We are still talking about it when we lie down at night.
This place we stayed at was called the Tea Sanctuary. I would totally recommend it to family with kids. Specially families who just want to lie back and take it all in rather than people who need one to only rest their heads.


One lies down, the other tries to fly, an another tries to steal off a pair of croc while the boy looks on - how can I help?




Playing hop-scotch




They just couldn't have enough of running around on the lawns




This is the beautiful entrance with these lovely creepers with the trailing flowers.
I would love to do this to our balcony someday




Daddy & son looking on and beyond in opposite directions ofcourse.





That's The Tea Sanctuary



God don't you just love to come back and do reruns of photos and keep telling stories and how you forget all the not so fun part of the holiday, the travelling, about kids throwing up and all other inconveniences. Also I love it when the kids are retelling some part of a holiday totally out of context around you on an unassuming day. Wants me to pack them up again and take them all over some other place again.

And yes, this is a paid post. ha ha ha ...I am kidding. I wish it was paid. I haven't made even a dus rupaiya from this blog.

Coorg and Goa in the rains - Awesome

Its been a very very long time, infact since the time I was pregnant with my son, we haven't had a leisure tour. So early this year I vowed I was going to start using my club mahindra membership which I have had for the past 2 years but hadn't used it yet. So early June when my sis had planned to come down to see the baby we decided to go to Coorg. With 2 toddlers who needed to be fed regularly we didn't plan to move around a lot but to just enjoy the resort and relax for 4 days and that is exactly what we did. Early June it was drizzling lightly and it was just right to be out there.

This is Jellybean's baby sis crawling and the peapod watching


The girls were busy with the rich flora and fauna around which were so pretty and in abundance







Here they are busy offering some prayers and chattambi looking on


Early August we took the bus to Goa. In hindsight that was a bad decision. Should have gone by train or flown. The only reason we took the bus was since it started right in front of our appartment. It was raining and again we didn't want to move around a lot in Goa from one beach to another. We just wanted to take it slow and enjoy the beach and the food. It drizzled at times and rained at other times but we did also have a sunny day thrown into it to make it a nice monsoon package. Most evenings we were at the beach and it was so so relaxing just sitting and watching the waves with the kids playing right beside us. It was the first proper beach vacation for both the kids. The last time in Goa was just us on our honeymoon. A lot of it is hazy memory but a few things very clear in the mind which is off blogging limits unfortunately :).



The peapod collected a lot of shells and we did get back a handful of good ones


We still have half a year to go and I hope we manage to pack in more trip towards the end of the year. The one thing about trips is kids need kids to play their own crazy games and there is only so much we can do to become kids and join them untill the parent in us starts taking over and we start killing the fun of having fun.

Hansi, she loves that funny face on her.

Marriages and ulterior motives

Last year, early December we did been to Kerala. My granny was yearning to see the peapod. The jellybean had met all the grannies, grandpas and innumerable uncles and aunts even before she was 1.She was quite a traveler until she joined us. On every call my granny kept urging me to visit her with the peapod. Every time we want to visit Kerala, mom is always talking about who is getting married next. I did not understand this “waiting-for-a-marriage-to-go-to-kerala” concept very well. You want to meet Ammachy, just go I would say. You want to meet your Aunt, just go. To mom & my aunts, marriage is a very convenient way to meet all our relatives spanned over 3-4 generations and geographically all over Kerala. They can meet almost everybody and they need not sit, plan and execute plans for each day in each direction. That is “ek thir se do nishaan”. To me this sounded all cheap money-saving-plans.

For the last wedding in the family 2 years ago, we were specially asked what dates would suit us, Is November better or December and after managing to raise our cell phone bills to an all-time high by just calling each other, planning the travel & shopping, we had to let it go, thanks to last minutes changes in the project and team structures. One down, now for the next trip we are waiting for the next one to get married and he didn’t seem remotely interested. There were holidays and annual leave to be planned around it and someone didn’t give a damn. All he cared was about himself. As Christmas holidays started approaching, all frantic relatives, suddenly very curious and caring have been wanting to know what are the parents actually doing. The parents were given a good dose about how they aren’t really doing their job well. He is an intelligent, good looking, kind & a responsible guy. He has managed to creep into every one’s good list, including mine where he has no company yet. By December, I realized there was no marriage on the horizon before the year ends. We quickly, planned & booked odd day flights way before the holiday season started to the native land. We flew cheap but it turned out to be a very expensive trip. The only consolation is the sweet caring wrinkled happy face of my granny and the hubby’s granny when they saw us. We were there for a week, every night a new home. We even traveled in the KSRTC buses with the peapod. She was really no trouble with all the new faces or new places or the crowd and rush surprising us. Touchwood. The cows and hens and goats kept my little city baby mesmerized. She was seeing all of them from such close quarters for the first time. She also loved playing in the sand and pebbles in the front yard and walking through the rubber plantation. It was a little hectic with the kind of time we had and the number of places and people we thought we must meet.

Now we agree to the concept of planning leaves around marriages or such ceremony. A cousin is getting married in Kerala this month but we can not go since both hubby & myself can not afford any leaves. The consolation is, oh we can all go for B’s wedding.
And I really hope we can go for some family wedding in Kerala and meet all those we couldn’t meet in the 1-week marathon holiday. Its not considered cheep anymore, just practical. Other than the fact that this is cheaper since it saves you all that taxi fares, but it also saves you a lot of time, that you can spend simply sitting beside your granny and listening to the story of your four fathers……for the 15th time the same day.

Kolad - An overnight trip

Remember I wrote about a trip to Kolad a couple of days back, thought I did finally tell you about it. Kolad is a place in Raigad Dist in Maharashtra and there are a lot of farm houses or adventure resorts built around the river kundalika here. It was an overnight trip and we had made our bookings at Hans adventures. It is a beautiful place with greenery all around and with farm animals roaming the roads.

Since this was a team building exercise, there were a couple of activities planned like the bridge crossing and lake crossing for the day. Inspite of the hour-by-hour itinerary we planned, the gang decided to go to the waterfall first and get our selves drenched in the cold water after the long journey. By the time we(as in girls and the peapod) reached the waterfall the guys were already in. The peapod watched on and then shly, put a finger to her nose and announced "puppishame puppishame". We waited for the guys to get out of the waterfall, so that we could get it in. The peapod enjoyed the waterfall shower.

The cold gushing water from a waterfall is what you need on a scorching afternoon. We went straight from the waterfall into the swimming pool and played ball all afternoon untill 3. The boys in the team pampered her and each was trying to teach her swimming right then. She has started using the word "chalo chalo" and splashing water after that everytime she is in the bath tub. At 3pm, I had to literally drag her out of the pool and feed her something. She had the rice and dal and slept for the next 3 hours. Since she was sleeping I couldn't go for the bridge crossing and lake crossing activities. It was indeed fun like the team says and its my miss.

This place had ducks and swans quacking all around. What else did my little one need. She was following them around little bushes and gardens and chairs and tables. If they quacked, she quacked twice over and louder. After a little while I got tired following her and gave up. She kept everyone entertained over lunch and breakfast with her quacks and whacks. When the ducks went into their shed, she followed them and refused to come.

After the peapod was up, had milk and fed it was late evening. When we reached the lake the bonfire was lit and chairs had been arranged around it. A beautiful evening.
The lake, the dark sky, a full moon (almost), twinkling stars, the reflection in the lake, the bon fire, the peapod running around chairs. Everything was so picture perfect. So peaceful. Lots of good hot food. They had arranged for music as well. The peapod danced initially but she looked a lot confused with the kind of dancing happening around her. She just knows to do a little step here and turn there and rolling hands and she hasn't seen any of this on TV either. Latter she crawled into my lap and stayed there while I kept talking about the sky and stars and moon untill she drifted off to sleep. We started back next morning around 9 and this wasn't a pleasant journey since it was getting hotter by the hour. She was getting slightly cranky but still manageable inspite of the heat and the roads. A peekaboo and some distraction on the road was working for short durations as well. I myself was dead tired and if she would have cried, I probably would only have just cried along making quite a scene.

Overall, a pleasant outing but I did make sure of a AC bus next time I am travelling with the peapod.

Caught at Silly Point

Its been a while after I last re-appeared after a disappearance. It wasn't planned, it just happened. Works kept be busy and there have been days when I return to see the kids sleeping. Work has not got better or I haven't learnt how to turn it around yet but the dial-up is now working after almost what seems like a decade.

Today I feel like a silly school girl who can not stop smiling amidst nervousness & curiosity of all the fun that is anticipated. I am feeling the excitement of an outing, of an overnight trip. Back in school, it was so difficult going to sleep the day before and I used to wake up even before the alarm could ring. After years I feel that excitement today. We, as in our team from office, are going to a place called Kolad, which is about 2 hrs drive from Pune. When we started discussing trips I was very reluctant for a overnight trip. Leaving back the peapod on a weekend for fun was just something that I couldn't make peace with. So after much thought & debate I decided to take her along. Once I made up my mind to take the peapod along, I felt more excited about the trip. I am more excited about her seeing a new place, the greenary, her reactions to different people in my team, the bus ride, staying in a bamboo cabin, playing in the pool, I am waiting to see her reaction to the river and lakes and the games we plan to play & the dance floor.

To the peapod's credit, touchwood, she is a easy going child. She is not a fussy eater nor is she wary of strangers, infact she enjoys people and the attention she gets and she loves open space, mud, stones and water. She loves being in new places and she enjoys herself. I am excited for her and very very excited and I am feeling silly about the excitement too :).

I started packing this morning. She has seen me pack her stuff and she has realized we are going somewhere and she has been running in and out of the room just prepared to jump out the moment I yell something to the effect of "get your shoes, lets go". 'Shoes' is synonymous to "Outdoors" in the peapod dictionary.

So Mumma and daughter are both packed and ready to go. Will keep you posted on how did the trip finally turn out. I better get some sleep now, else I will be acting like a silly school girl lost with a kid on the trip.

A trip to Lonavala

Last long weekend we decided to do a one-day trip to Lonavala. Lonavala is just 60-65kms from Pune so we decided to come back the same day and anyway the rates of rooms in lonavala is sky rocketing during this season. We just wanted a break and so weren't planning to do serious sight seeing just plain enjoy the weather and I think we just did that. ok...maybe we just spend too much time in the car deciding where to go and where not to get down but still ;).

Our first stop in lonavala was supposed to be Karla caves and then work our way to the other points in lonavala but unfortunately we completely forgot about karla caves and reached lonavala. So our first stop was walwhan dam. Now except for this banner you see here, everywhere else (books, notices about places to see) you will find it spelled as Valvan dam. Photography was restricted in here. It has a good 1 km walk to the dam. A very beautiful garden (again restricted to aam janta) is maintained on the other side of the dam. Peapod was wide awake in the car all through the drive and slept just before we reached this place. Inspite of our efforts to wake her up she didn't budge.


The climate was very plesant with rain showers every once in a while with the cool breeze blowing softly.


The maize was available at every nook and corner of lonavala. Roasted ripe maize served with salt and chilli powder spread with lemon over was just too good. I was having roasted ripe maize for the first time and the soft juicy corn was just the thing to be had with the drizzling rain.


Did not go to bushi dam as the place was full of people and there was filth all around. We parked our car and spend some time off the road near Bushi Dam feasting ourselves to the greens and rocks.

We saw a couple of points. Rajmachi was the best. The depth of it was scary. Since there was no heavy rainfalls, the waterfalls weren't as expected but the weather more than compensated for it.





Karla Caves was THE BEST. Above are a few pics I clicked. We had to climb 100 stairs to reach the caves. There is a temple on the top and there were pregnant ladies and very old ladies climbing these stairs.


To see something that was carved in the 4th century takes you to a period in history when we believe men weren't as advanced but they had the tools and brains to convert rocks in the wilderness into caves and montessories and the talent to create such sculptures. I am sure you will find better snaps on the net of these.

And here is my peapod in her first raincoat. We bought it thinking she can get a little mobile without we having to worry about she catching a cold but she was sleeping when we reached most places and the places she was awake we couldn't let her go so for peapod I am not how great a trip this was but a good break from the usual.


If it weren't for stories & snaps carried back home to show-off, travel wouldn't have been so much fun.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth.

This is a lovely poem, I had a chance to recollect when we visited Grasmere over the long weekend, in Lake district which is William Wordsworth's home town. It was an

Enchanting Odyssey

. If ever you get a chance to visit England or Scotland and you have even 1% of nature love in you, you should go to lake district and see the place. You will appreciate the natural beauty of the place. The ones with the least interest in our group said "No more lakes anymore" but that was after they clicked approx 1000+ photographs and we made them walk for 2 good full days there. Its no wonder William Wordsworth was a poet. If I were to hang around there for more than the 2 days we spent, I guess I would have written atleast 2 lines, wouldnt have rhymed, wouldnt have made sense but I wouldnt have cared.

http://www.visitcumbria.com/daffodil.htm

GMT

It was a normal Saturday. seemed like but it wasnt. 9/11/2004. India was playing Kenya here in Southall. I so much wanted to go for the match but by the time I realized some so-called Good friends were going for the match, it was all sold out. So, I set out with my young friends(whom I call kids out of affection for their enthu and zeal that die exactly at 11pm.., nah, 12..., nah, maybe 1:30am, nah they were awake till 3 downloading photos from their camera) set out to see London. Though their initial plan was to see the wax meuseum, the kids chose to 'get the feel of London' first. since the weather seemed to be pretty kind and hence the advice was to see the tower bridge. The view of the tower bridge was really nice. I like to stroll around it everytime I get there. I hope they enjoyed it too. They did finally land in a meuseum but that was with the sole purpose of seeing the "Koh-i-noor". (Can you imagine, they themselves were very thankful that they werent allowed to click in the meuseum....u c what i mean). while they were looking at Kohinoor & the many many jewels that belonged to the Royal family, I was strolling outside in the sun walking along with a friend along river Thames. After the meuseum, and the photo sessions(these are pretty lengthy ones, will let u know why when we meet. mentioning it here might prove injurous to my health) and some sovenior collections we headed for our next stop - Greenwich.

Greenwich is a small town in London. Does it ring a bell??? YES!!! indeed, it is the Town where the Greenwich Meridian Time originates. We visited the Royal Obsevatory in Greenwich. we walked proabably 2-3 miles and climbed a slope of almost a mile or more. But it was worth it. We saw the 00 00'.The point where the world starts, or probably ends. While walking towards the obsevatory, we saw a shop called "First Shop of the world 00 00'" and thatz when it struck us what is it that we were walking towards. The London skyline was beautiful from that height. Infact we could see the tower bridge from there. If we were a little early probably we could have walked on the 00 00', which has been marked thoroughly in STEEL and colored in Red. But we didnt regret coming late when we saw a green laser light passing though mid-air into the dark night marking the 00 00'. It was an amazing feeling. We were standing just below it which means we were standing at the start of the world. Of-course my young friends were trying to capture the entire experince in a camera, but not knowing exactly what & how to click. The little one was so confused, she even requested an another photographer to show her what he was clicking & how it looked through his camera :).

A picture could say a thousand words but no picture or any written litreture can actually describe what u see or feel at a moment even in a zillion words.

The Enigma called as “India” and “Indians”

Ever since I started traveling abroad, I have become a lot conscious of our Country “India” which seems like an alien land to all the people I meet abroad.

After the initial enthusiasm of representing my country and trying to correct people’s perception about India, I realized it’s a futile job. The discovery channels are running tons & tons of programs, covering a whole larger audience than I can imagine of, at timings when I wont even accept my existence and to people who I cant even dream of. I wish I could meet up with one of these discovery guys and give them a piece of my mind.
OK, now let me tell you why I hate the over-rated discovery channels & its kinds.

An American Colleague, with a lot of curiosity and a twinkle in his eyes once asked me, hey so do you have a elephant at your place?? Ofcourse I said “No”, he was surprised and his next question surprised me “then how do you commute”, wanted to tell him, yes boss, have a flying elephant and thatz how I flew to the US, and he went on to explain how he saw in discovery, people ridding elephants through the roads. What can I say to that??

There was this British guy who wanted to know if snake was a favourite pet in India. It seems discovery screened a program on Nagpanchmi and they saw people offering milk to the snakes. I didn’t want to hear anything after that. I knew never in a hundred words could I make him see an Indians perspective of it.

Arranged Marriages, This is a topic the west loves to ridicule about. Its so much beyond their imagination. I am so tired discussing the Indian marriages with westners on lunch & dinner tables. The westners are generally shocked for words after we describe the procedure ………. He/She might just swear at you with “Holy Crap” & its equivalents. If you are experiencing this for the first time, you might try harder to convince them why it works and it isn’t so bad after all but after listening to their questions for a while you might start wondering about it yourself.

The Korean I once met wanted to know why do Indian women wear a big dot on their forehead. Why do they cover their head always? Are they very shy?? How do you ever explain the red and the black bindis and their significance or the covering of heads? Even if I try, I am sure the Indian accompanying me is going to have a completely different perspective of it. I didn’t want to get into a situation where we 2 Indians are debating the significance of it in the 22 states that we have and have the poor Korean go on his knees for asking.

The most interesting observation was from a colleague in our Japan office was I can understand, people can be Vegetarians and Non-Vegetarians, but Indians can be vegetarians on Monday and non vegetarians on Tuesday and have egg & fish but not meat on Thursday
The guy who accompanied me tried explaining somwar, mangalwar but our Japanese friend remained as puzzled as ever.

After all these, I usually try to avoid discussions on any program screened in India by Discovery or similar channels. What makes it all the more difficult is, what they are describing are facts but not the whole truth. People in India, living in different states will have their own opinions and views about anything ever shown by discovery. You will find most Indians explaining, “In our part of the country ….” Or “In north India ….” Or “the Brahmins in south India …..” and so on.

On a recent visit abroad, one of my colleague’s spouse had an emergency while we were at work. When the ambulance arrived, almost all the Indians who lived in that colony gathered. There were 4-5 families. Until full recovery, these families visited them regularly, got them flowers, cooked and got them food for all 3 times. It was really touching. A French in our office commented, that is really nice, I cant imagine, in the US if I had an another French family staying nearby to get a similar treatment & attention. This happens only with Indians. The Diversity in our land and the willingness to open to different people without loosing our own culture and heritage has made it more charismatic & enigmatic (and more confusing to explain sometimes to people even within India).
India is a subcontinent in its own. When the whole world is listening to English music, watching Hollywood movies, eating burgers and pizzas, India offers the world a set of different variety of music, different set of movies which any Indian will try to watch wherever he is and of course a variety of cuisines. Wish discovery could cover this aspect of the people & country here and leave poverty, elephants & the snakes alone.

India, ofcourse is an Enigma and the people in it are even more so. What you see is not what it is and what it is, u might never see but can experience it.