Reliving childhood in 40 days

We spent 40 days of winter in India this year. Cousin announced his plans of getting married and we decided to be a part of his celebration. What followed..lots and lots of packing(did I mention I was to travel alone with my 3 yrs old..YEP YEP! The craziest stunt I attempted..I'll need a whole new post to describe that trauma), shopping, planning, some more shopping some more packing and finally it was time to board the flight. 

After 24 LONG HOURS, we finally reached Mumbai. Sigh!

No words can express the joy I felt at that moment. I'm smiling even while I'm typing this sentence. I'd just had a 24 hours journey with not more than 2 hrs of sleep with a hyperactive 3 yrs kid and then walked almost the entire distance up to the carousel with  the same 35 pounds sleepy kid in my arms and a heavy backpack, my entire body ached and yet I felt on top of the world. I can bet that there was no other person as happy as me in that entire airport at that time. Pharrell Williams "Happy song" played on repeat loop in my mind and the glimpse of my parents outside the gate was like a cherry on the cake.

I'd decided to take it easy during the first week and control my cravings for roadside panipuri and any other cool stuff that could possibly make me ill..I had to for

the sake of my child. Typical precautions NRIs have to take that I wasn't used to. A few days of pre wedding shopping followed by the big fat Gujrati wedding. 3 days of non stop fun..food, family, dancing like maniacs and meeting tons n tons of relatives(including those whose names you never remember) and non stop talking and laughing. I hadn't spoken that much in 2 years as much as I did in those 3 days. Wow! It felt good to exercise all those facial muscles after so long.

By the end of the 2nd week, Vyomi was already a Mumbaikar. It was fun watching him speak in his gibberish Hindi with the kids next door, play hide and seek, catch catch in the building complex that I grew up in. Wow! It was like re living my childhood days. Rickshaw rides were now his favorite and he'd stop one even when we weren't going anywhere. "Bhaiiya abhi left, abhi right.."he'd give directions to the rickshawala.

He was enjoying the attention  he was getting while I was enjoying my freedom. Gobbling down bombay special sandwiches, ragda pattice, misals and pav bhajis for breakfast, lunch and dinners, shopping through the afternoons and watching movies every other night was my happening routine while in Mumbai. Stay overs and late night gupshups with the cousin gang were the occasional events that made the stay even more fun. Cousins are that part of the childhood that remains the same.  The child in you takes the driver seat when they're around. The next gen cousins were having their own sweet fun.

Anyway, the idea was to cover 3 cities in this stay. Next stop- GOA! Aaaaaaah!

I think these 3 letters say it all..G O A! 
That's where I grew up! 14 years of my life were spent in this exotic, serene, beautiful place and now I was visiting it after 5 long years. Parents moved back to Mumbai a couple of years back and that put an end to my goa visits. Not this time. I had decided that I will visit Goa this time. I wanted to show Vyom this little piece of heaven on Earth.

Those 4 days spent in Goa are indescribable. Those early morning strolls on the beach, visiting our family temples, attending the kuldevta jatra( fair) after ages, the melodious garaney, the sweet smell of flowers and uttbattis, flavor of panchakhadya that lingers in the mouth, those refreshing dips in the ocean time and again, hot sumptuous seafood meals, those dazzling seaside shacks in the night, meeting friends, dinner dates with Advait( Oh yeah! He joined us by the end of our stay..poor chap couldn't stay away from this crazy duo for too long), partying the night away later, revisiting school, college, walking down those same old streets that I took on my way back home from school..those streets were glad to see me I'm sure and so were the little stores lining them. The grocery store, the stationary store, Maruti temple. They still visit me in my dreams. Sigh!

With heavy hearts, empty pockets and sand covered shoes, we finally departed from Goa. My mind is still wandering somewhere at the beach side. It'll join me soon..hopefully. Hmm!

Then followed the Pune trip to visit a few more cousins. A bus journey into the pleasantly cool city. A city I would love to explore more.

I'm so glad that I made this India trip with Vyom. It gave me this wonderful opportunity to relive my childhood with him, to relive those little experiences that mattered the most back then.

The best part was walking down those familiar streets from school to home..hope to visit them in my dreams again sometime!
I couldn't have asked for more! Cheers to life!