Friday, December 31, 2010

My Vacation Dec 2010 - Part 2

Continued from Part 1...

Well!! It was one of the best Christmas I have ever enjoyed, whole family together, i.e not just my sisters, but all cousins too. Was absolute damaal!!! Cakes, Crackers, jokes, pulling each others legs, it was amazing, really enjoyed. However on Christmas day it was again shown how dangerous Kerala roads are, There was a accident just outside our house between a bike and a auto-rickshaw. The bike riders were knocked to the ground and the Rickshaw drove off without a backward glance. Luckily none of the riders were hurt, just scared, we gave them water and they sat at our house for some time before leaving.

The next day was Agustos Baptism, again damaal, the Function at Church and the reception went off fine, nothing much to write apart from the fact that  I enjoyed the day again, it was fun.

on 27th we had to go to leave Agusto at his dad's place a 1.5 hour drive away, well the drive was pretty fine, Agusto was sleeping almost the whole trip. Left him at his dad's place and came back, the house felt so empty without him. (I know I am getting a bit emotional here, sorry!!)

Then the 3 days in Kerala was pretty fun, I cut down coconuts from the tree, Real hard work. I cheated a bit as I had not really climbed the coconut tree but up a ladder poped up against the tree. But again if anyone has ever tried to get a coconut down will tell you cutting the coconuts lose from the tree is not as easy as it looks from the ground. It was my first time so am sure I took more time and energy than professional coconut tree climbers. In all we got 21 coconuts from a tree. Pretty cool! The sweet coconut water made the whole work rewarding.

Getting coconuts down from the tree is only 1 part of the work, removing the husk from the coconut is the other part. Thankfully this was not as difficult as getting the coconuts down. But it took considerable time and effort.

What else, cut down papaya and Bananas from the garden too. Well I don't know if I can call the backyard of the house a garden, all these Banana, coconut and Papaya trees are growing there, but as no one really was looking after it, the whole place is grown up with weeds and plants. Moms got plenty of plans to convert the whole thing into a proper vegetable plantation when she goes down there.

Now back in Mumbai, I got to say that usually when I am in Kerala down for a vacation a week is enough to bore me and I keep waiting when I will be back in Mumbai, But this time I was sorry that I had to fly back, I really enjoyed my trip.

Anyway 3 more days before I join back to office, In Mumbai I guess am just going to be lazying my days away. So concluding my Vacation blog.

Happy New year to all.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

My Vacation Dec 2010 - Part 1

Am Writing for the first time from Kerala (Gods own Country), Got a chance at a computer with Net connection at my uncles place and thought of putting in a few words online.


My vacation is going pretty well, apart from a sour point of a bus hitting my car (Which I will get to soon) vacations going pretty fine. Started off with a bang - Dad's 60th birthday celebration at Mumbai, With my both sisters coming down there at Mumbai, a few uncles and cousins also coming it was a pretty good celebration. Dad also was pretty taken aback with the 60th gifts which we had got for his 60th birthday. But organising the party, the food, decorations and also going to pick the various guests from various points were a bit tiring, but enjoyed the day a lot.

Then the next 2 days also were pretty busy for me, Going for shopping with sisters, packing, loading various items to be sent to Kerala on the car, going and loading the car on to the truck to send it to Kerala. ( :( No more drives for me in mumbai, until I buy my own car, which I don't see in the near-future :( ). Then on Sunday,  it was a bad time for me to get sick, Fever and cold. Good that it subsided by Monday morning so was fine on the trip to Kerala, What surprised me most was that there was 86 Kg of luggage between the four of us and a Infant (Agusto, my Nephew). Wondering why so much luggage for just 4 people? Even I am left wondering what my sister wanted to carry so much for Agusto.

Reached Kerala on Monday afternoon, flight was uneventful, and the trip from air-port to home was also not very noteworthy apart from fact that Agusto was sleeping full time so had no trouble from him. First thing after reaching home was to set up the room for him, (House has been locked up for quite a few years with no one living there) Plenty of work to get the house ready to a livable state, though I must say most of the work was already done by Uncles over here.

Well next two days was busy in that only, house cleaning, setting up stuff etc. One of the main reasons of the trip is Agusto's Christianising, Have to go around inviting relatives for the function, Well its mostly Dad-Mom doing the inviting, I am mostly just tagging around being the driver. The thing worth mentioning is that, the Car so lovingly sent from Mumbai, arrived in Kerala without a scratch, was got down from the truck also without a mark, But in the short drive from where it was got down from the truck to home, it got banged by a Bus, Can you believe it?

Have to say, have always thought of words like was frozen with fear, was paralysed with sock etc as just words thrown about by writers and Imaginations of people, But got to say the feeling you see when you see a mammoth Bus running towards you, just seeming to miss you and a loud bang  right behind you (Bus hit the car at the back) really is scary. The thoughts how much damage the bus might have caused etc comes later, at that moment your mind is blank, just blank. I guess that is what is called as shock, I am unable to describe the feeling right hear, but if you have been in such a situation, you will know exactly what I am saying, and If you have not, I pray that may it continue like that and you may never have to face such a situation.

The thing is every time I see the dent, I feel a bit sad, I know its just a vehicle but still so. Moms always going around saying, be happy that only the vehicle is hurt, no living thing got hurt, be happy for that. Guess she is right, We can always buy a new car, but we can't buy a new human being.

Have noticed, extra so that the BEST drivers in Mumbai are much more civilized than the Bus drivers here, Kerala's tag line is 'Gods Own Country' but the bus drivers drive here as if its their country, following no rules and go around the narrow roads as if they are Michael Schumacher

Anyway, this is it for now, Part 2 might mostly be written only after I am back in Mumbai, so till then Merry Christmas to all.