But I’m going to try nevertheless. Apparently I have nothing better to do otherwise. The whole family is engaged - One is busy with office work, the guest is in another room with his phone and Baby is busy with Giraffe cycle ‘riding along country lanes making happy songs ... A B C’. Heart-warming song ‘Kannan vandhan’ is playing on TV.
And I’m still struggling with the flow. But you know I’m not the one to give up. I have to blog about this. Romba mukiyam you see....
So to continue form where I left you... On the day of travel to the west aara parivaarangaludan we reached the airport and checked in very smoothly. Smoothly in the sense I received boarding pass till the final destination, Baby had it till Delhi and the Mr had it till Chicago, and by lucky mistake we had to check out the monstrous luggage again in Delhi and check back in. So you see nothing out of the ordinary. And that’s precisely how I took it, because funnily, once you are married and a mom and all that you apparently have to have poise, dignity, matured calm and a grown-up air. So grown up air it is, I decided.
After long queues to emigrate and immigrate we landed in the Chicago airport 28 hours later only to know about flight delays and cancellation due to the ‘heavy rains and fog’. We were re-booked to another flight an hour later with the assurance that the flight was already overbooked and since we were transferred from another plane we will not be priority and that we should really hope most of the passengers of that flight don’t arrive on time for boarding. Cursing the good conditions of the roads, we waited. Breakfast, then lunch and even a small nap post lunch happened and yet even that damned flight was not ready for take-off. Finally airlines gave it up as a bad job at early evening and so instead of the obnoxious Delayed a red Cancelled flashed in finality against that flight too.
No tension or irritation. Nor the chill of the airport on that rainy day ever bothered me. I still got the grown-up thing going on. After all the society says that I should be able to see the positives in everything. So that’s how we landed in a beautiful hotel room at a discounted price and a warm tall cup of complimentary coffee. Actually the hotel stay and the half-day delay worked out well than if we would have traveled without the break. Warm blankets, hot water and room service and especially the no-cleaning-after-yourself part of hotel stay gave time for me to recoup some of the lost energy tending for a cranky toddler in a cramped aircraft with no sleep and food. So we were all very well refreshed and presentable the next day we boarded the flight that took us home. The day was sunny and warm. Seeing the positives and not rushing to take the midnight flight paid off.
Then the rest as they say is history, smooth as butter and other related clichéd phrases. Between breaking a necklace, a shoe, a tooth, a leg bracelet and tearing a few clothes and dyeing a few others, and amidst other buying’s and losing’s, we tried to settle down as family.
But seriously, all that nonsense aside, I’m really glad we are here and have settled down well. Smaller has taken well to the weather, food, car seat and other contraptions that has been supposedly designed to keep the baby safe but that which ‘buys the life’ of parents trying to teach them that it’s okay to be katti pottufied so. She is finally in routine and is growing in leaps and bounds emotionally, physically and mentally. It’s a treat to hear her mazhalai non-existent vocabulary, and enjoy her dances, her made up songs, her confidant and instant replies to questions which she doesn’t and couldn’t understand.
The Mr is as usual busy with office, stock and his cricket and whatever else he does on the Internet.
The “I” is also okay. And surprisingly not home sick. Not even a little bit. Maybe because I’m trying to make a home myself, or maybe because I've had enough and the time apart actually is soothing to nerves, I don’t really know. In fact I’m real glad that I have finally gotten a cozy nest to settle into. Although the walls are wobbly and the base is shaky and the colors are fading and such, I’m not really worrying about all that. It’s all workable right? Either you get used to it... or you get used to it. So you see the grown-up air is really helping me present a good and mature personality to others.
Anyways, on a not so personal front, I’m trying to stay off from Facebook apart from playing silly and addictive games and rather have face-to-face or phone conversation with friends; trying to work on HTML to add tabs to the blog to add few more ‘writes’ in it; dealing with numerous advice and mocks on staying home and wasting an engineering degree; being judged on if I'm cooking well or feeding the family at all; advice on how to raise a toddler etcetera etcetera.
But I’m not queasy with all these judgments and comments. It just shows that I have people who care enough about me to comment and it just shows that I have people to care enough about their comments. But whenever I hear someone say ‘Oh she is such a happy active child’ I thank the Gods and take hope that I’m doing something right. Also I smile internally (with a little spite of course) thinking about that one crack-ticket back home who had so much trust in me that he gave me a month’s time before I would come running home over-whelmed by the pressures of having to take care of my own baby.Ha!
I finish the monologue with a small prayer to God,
Udal balathodum mana niravodum engalai vaazha vaipai
Vendiya varangal vendiya Ganathil Thandhe vandharulvai
