In the past two weeks, I saw the Fridays come and go with me not posting on my blog here. I found myself struggling with work on a tough assignment and it left me averse to spending any more time at the computer than I absolutely had to. The first week of the lockdown went by in a tizzy of making sure we had all the supplies we needed as well as making sure our loved ones are okay. With the second and third weeks, it was a problem of finding our rhythm and getting a routine going. We all buckled down to work in the morning. In the afternoons, DH relegated himself and his laptop to the master bedroom while the kids and I did our own things.
I'm afraid that we took the "vacation at home" thing a bit too seriously because in the first three weeks, we made homemade pizza, garlic bread, Kerala parathas and several kinds of fried snacks for tea. The result was that last Friday, I got on the scale and saw that I had put on three kilos!!! So now I've informed my family that we are going back to our plain fare, rice and green gram gruel if need be, so that we will still fit through the door after the lockdown is over.
For our fortnightly vegetable shopping expeditions, I sewed up these:
I knew there would be a use for old jeans! Denim and some black felt were the closest woven fabrics I could find in my stash. I shaped them just enough to make them fit snugly. In fact, they fit so snugly that they tickle my lips, so my next iteration will be a mask that stands away a little from the end of the nose and lips. I already have a pattern downloaded for the same. But even this version is super cozy, sweat absorbent, moldable over the nose (twist tie inserts), washable and passes the "blow out the flame" test.
In the midst of the work craziness, cooking craziness and regular housework I spent half an hour every evening for two weeks on a live meditation program every evening. But soon I found that I was rushing around the whole day just to get from one task to another without stopping. So I decided that Sudarshan Kriya and Sahaj Samadhi meditation practice in the morning would have to do for each day. The last week, I slowly started discarding what I saw as non-essential in my days till I stopped feeling rushed - can you believe it? Being rushed, during a lockdown!!! If that isn't irony, I don't know what is!
So this week, both in honor of all those who couldn't even be with their loved ones for Easter or Vishu and in the cause of minimalising, we had a pretty low-key sadya on Tuesday. Usually I make all the requisite curries that fill the top part of the banana leaf for the Vishu sadya - pachadi, kichadi, olan, thoran and aviyal. Not to mention parippu, sambar and kaalan to add to the rice. This year, we made do with two side dishes and two curries. The kids didn't want to cancel their sweet dish, so I made the simple palpayasam. And that was that. The only thing luxurious about our Vishu this year was the Kani - with its sumptuous display of golden blossoms...
My Dad's golden shower tree provided us with that opulence. Speaking of my Dad, I am very grateful that he has taken our warnings so much to heart that now he has finally started calling us when he needs anything from the shops. In the first week, DH called him just as he was about to take the car out to buy something that he had forgotten when he bought things before the lockdown. After our repeated requests not to go out, he has finally brought himself to ask for our help when he needs something. That is a really hard lesson for an independent man like him, but he has learned it!
I also found itty bits of time here and there to finally finish this muffler/scarf that now only needs a little trim of the tassels and a little blocking to finish it up...
I finally finished and uploaded my final assignment yesterday. Now I am going to give myself a real summer break with little work at the computer except my daily writing assignment and my blog, of course. I am going to find more time and energy to play with this little gal..
I hope you all remember Minnu, from here . She has grown bigger, has been weaned (although she desperately tries sometimes and gets whacked by her mother Chunchu), and resides in our garage most of the time. When she wants company, she comes and mews at our front door. Her voice is uncannily like the homemade whistle we used to make with green coconut leaves in our golden days, so DH has given her the alternate name of 'Olappeeppi'. It looks like her mother has given her over to our care just like her grandmother Chakki left Minnu's father Akrami with us. We don't mind!
Everyday, we call on each other to witness some new funny thing that the kitten does. One day we screamed with laughter as she scrambled on our jack fruit tree and hung on there with her arms flung out as our lab Goldie came gamboling out of her kennel. Another day she reenacted Hollywood hero-style action trying to escape Goldie - you've all seen those stunts in which motor bikes skid under eighteen-wheelers and come upright on the other side, haven't you? Minnu skid under the garage doors just like that! Kunjunni and I were doing some weeding in our upper yard at the time and we had to cling on to the rake and spade to save us from toppling over with laughter.
I'm not saying that things have been perfect all the time at Karthi. It cannot be when a stir-crazy father, a football-loving-and-missing teenager, a TV-loving and sedentary pre-teen and a mother who goes crazy if she doesn't have a long stretch of alone time everyday are cooped up together at home. Fortunately, we take pains to accommodate each other, find common interests and have decided to accept all this. That is called love, in my definition and my cup overflows. Hope all of you are finding your own havens at home in these difficult times!
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