Zindagi Everyday

Every now and then I stumble across the posts/websites related to Stay At Home Mom(SAHM) and Full Time Working Mom, and with each supporting post I start justifying myself about my decision to be a SAHM. Seriously, do I really need someone else's views to determine what I do is right or wrong.
Why I want to follow the other's views , of course everyone differs in their views, needs, and choices..so how can I compare and justify myself from someone else's point of view. The glass looks greener on the other side always. When I was working, the only wish I had was to be with my kid every moment, and when I am with her I do miss my earlier version. See, there is no satisfaction in any situation. With every action/step comes a new set of lifestyle,responsibilities, thoughts,appreciation , and criticism. Its me who have to decide what is good for my family.
Getting bothered with everyone's question 'R u still working?' or 'Have you rejoined office' adds more to the confusion. The only way to be at peace seems to look at my child, smile and ignore the thoughts which make the confusion exist. After all, its me and my kid who will gain or suffer from my thoughts.


This is so well said  'Motherhood is not a battle against other mothers.Motherhood is YOUR journey with YOUR children'.
Why should I judge myself being a full time mom with other working ones. I decided this for myself, even though I thought it to be a 1-2 years break,and now it appears like a never ending one. Why so? answer lies within me. While I rejoined the work post maternity, whole time I was concerned about my newly born child who was not even 2 months old...the frustration, the anger, and the annoyance within me reached to a different level mixed with the feelings of guilt and sadness. I was employed but not happy, I was a mother but not with my kid...the milk which was meant to be fed to my child was wasted in the office washrooms ( yeah, that's true), and with each passing day I was thinking to resign. And finally the day came when I got over this dilemma and took a bold decision to be with my kid ...thus putting and end to my mental agony.The peace which I feel to be with my kid and taking care of her, feed her, bath her, clean her, every single chore made me cherish over my decision.
And now when my kid is 3+ years age, I am still not ready to rejoin the corporate world.
Well, here I do have some haunting reasons also, not only my kid is in thoughts. Firstly, it is really difficult to make a re-entry to the corporate world, as not many opportunities are made for the mothers after sabbatical. Secondly,when I go through the job descriptions of the various openings which are not even made up for the people rejoining after sabbatical, all the jd's appear so alien to me, the new languages, technologies, frameworks, models, everything are so unknown...Even if I decide to learn any of them , where is the practical working experience I would have for it. Just learning wouldn't provide me a proficiency level required for the profile. And now thirdly, I am really not able to think of spending 9-10 hours away from home, again doing an up-down to delhi/noida .....who will take care of my kid, though we have grandparents with us, but will they be able to meet up with her food choices, preferences,timings, tantrums, and conversations ( its only me who understands every word she speaks), her nap times, her schooling stuff, activities, requirements, etc etc.....can anyone take care of all of it? can I trust anyone to handover my responsibilities towards my kid? Maids, no entry for them, I dont want to spoil the language and mannerisms of my kid.. Actually I have no answers for the questions of mine. So, I stay being a SAHM.
Instead of thinking about how I would be , or my life would be if I join the work again, I am now taking pride and joy in whatever it is now. Instead of sulking over the career I had, or the imaginary future, I have started to live in the present.  I eat, play sleep, dress, study, learn, cook,click, and all those things which I haven't done ever, I am doing them right away with my kid. The immense pleasure seeing her excelling in studies,games, dancing,singing, is beyond mere happiness. The joy I feel when I get certificates of her winning stints, the lovely grades she has started getting from such a young age, the darling of teachers.......All I can feel is a blessing in my world.
For her sake, at the age of 30 I am learning to cook better, fry the pooris, make the perfect aloo parathas, make the yummy triangle parathas :D Can any job give me the satisfaction of feeding my kid with her choices and encouraging my every take with 'wow mumma, yummy yummy aloo paratha', and 'wow mumma, kitna sundar sundar, muah' ......
See happiness lies all near me, just needed the eyes without the shades of anger, frustration, and future visions.
So from now on no SAHM versus FTWM :)

When a child starts learning to speak his/her first words, its such a joyous moment for parents. My kid, her first word was 'Papa' instead of saying mumma, and for water she use to say  'mum', which at first I thought she is referring to me as when she felt thirsty she use to look at me and say 'mum mum'.This illusion of mine was cleared soon....but the word 'papa' was all time on her lips whenever she saw her father.

With kids around, everyday is an adventure, loaded with lots of fun, worries, lovable moments, sparkling eyes, the cheers, the name callings, and many many more. Totally this phase of childhood is something like racing ahead to finish off first, and here I stand to make most out of it. 

Amidst all the chaos of the school forms, collection, submissions, short listings, interviews, etc etc , finally we are done with the kiddo's school admission for the next session nursery 2016-2017 in the top most school of the city. But seriously, this whole education system has become so commercialized and has taken a form of well earning business. In every nooks and corners of the city new schools, playschools all are flourishing like mushrooms.
Everyone just eyeing on more and more money on the name of fabulous infrastructures, facilities, extra curricular activities, competitions etc which really make it difficult to decide which school is good/best for my kid. Anyways at least I am satisfied that the situation is not as worse as Delhi in my city. We filled the forms of just two schools, and get through both of them. Though for the school of our choice we had to face some tough competition along with the siblings factor for some Kids.
Amongst 370 shortlisted candidates for the interviews, only 140 students made through the final admission. The kid's interviews/interactions, parents& kids interactions, and then final interaction of parents with the principal.....Gosh, seriously it appeared more of like a job interview rather than the school admission :P
But, thanks to our kid's good educational growth that she made it right from the first phase itself. I am not showing off, but can't stop from mentioning the small wonders/achievements of my kid, afterall this blog is for her...and after some years I may be busy with her more achievements , and forgetting the past ones which are right now the most dearest and proudest for us.
Even, in her recent playschool she won the first place for 'Rhymes Competition'...and third place for 'Fancy Dress Competition' where she portrayed 'Doctor'.
In the recent PTM (parents teachers meet) , her teacher was all so ga ga over her, not forgetting to mention that she is among the top 4 brightest kids( answering all the 13 questions during the assessments) of the class. She loves rhyming, and yeah she knows every single rhyme taught, along with some extras learnt from Youtube. Writing skills excellent, memory excellent....oh wait wait I will update her report so that it remains intact for me, along with her certificates of the competitions.
Right now not having them but soon will be updating here.
As of now, the Doctor kid rocks :D

My Cute little Doctor

Let me Check u

The only hardest part for the teachers is to make her dress up in traditional dresses.  Yeah she never likes wearing traditional dresses, no matter how hard I try. She will end up crying instead of wearing. Even on Dussehra, Janmashtami, Rakshabandhan, she ends up school in her tshirts and shorts. The most favour she will do is , agree to wear a frock instead of tees. Hahaha...
But finally this diwali we all succeeded in making her wear at least a nice dress .The pictures arrive here :)

For Dussehra In scohol, Pehchan Kaun...Hahaha, the one in night dress with black thread in neck :D

Happy Diwali 2015

Praying...She is so fond of Gayatri Mantra, and as a matter of fact knows it well

The Teachers finally got her clicked in some Party dress atleast

Right now I so want to write more and more...my writing horses are on a high right now :D
But, but, but, got to go....work calling...Will continue later on....
Well, some update here today. Have finally got the copy of her report card. Her first ever report card and that also an awesome one...all reasons to cherish

Assessment Report Page 01

Assessment Report Page 02

Assessment Report Page 03

Assessment Report Page 04

The Certificates

Hope my little girl continues to learn new things everyday, and keep enjoying her childhood :)

Planting a tree with grandparents

The birthday decorations done all by kiddo's dad, its just a glimpse

The especially order made 'CHHOTA BHEEM' cake

The best fun activity was popping the balloons with a pen point.

Yesterday she has got her bicycle and she is too much fond of it. From the night itself she hasn't left it.Even she kept it in our bedroom so that the bicycle is infront of her eyes. The first thin gin the morning after waking up she did is, went to the bicycle and asked me to take it out of the room. Once the bicycle came out of the bedroom, she has to ride it. Such is the fascination, that even she brushed her teeths, got dressed, and ate her breakfast without much fuss, and went to school. After returning her first task again is to ride the bicycle. The lollipop of riding the bicycle to park is doing its charm.

Surprised, shocked ofcourse pleasant shock, watching her over and over while writing here. My kid is used to throw the things on the floor whenever she doesn't like anything or activity. But just now something different happened. I asked her to put all her hairclips which she obviously has thrown on the floor, threatening her of no park visit today if not done...and surprise ahead for me, she really asked me if she has to put those in the box . On saying yes she started putting them back in its place. I don't know what is going on in her mind, but she really is doing the work. 

As already I have ranted so many times about the minimum celebration, and gifting habit of hubby S, this year was full of surprises for me.

Anniversary Surprise

Birthday Surprise

My kid use to follow her grandfather a lot. She visit park, local market, etc with him. So its kind of real comfort zone between both of them without me worrying to take her to outdoors.
Recently this scenario took place and its left all of us in smiles. Whenever her grandfather purchase stuff from the local area shop, she takes the money from his hand and handover herself to the shop owner. Yesterday it was a Rs 500 currency note in her hand. She observed it and finally indicating the mahatma gandhi image printed on the note, asked her grandfather ' Dadu , ye aap ho ?' {meaning, grandfather is that your picture on the currency note } what could be the answer other than the giggles and laughters.

The aged and bald grandfather really matches with the Mahatma Gandhi picture on the currency ;)
                       

Life post DSLR !! well, this suits so well to me these days. After proudly owning my canon DSLR, ofcourse as an anniversary gift....I could be found somewhere at my terrace, or balcony, or in the nearby park at times with the hanging camera in my neck. If I am not found in my room, that means I am on my trials with clicking :D
By the way, I am proud to mention that I have operated my camera well until now, and have succesfully clicked some 'not so bad' shots. And now, since I click, then I do have this itching of sharing the pics, but where and with whom?....ofcourse I dont want to bore my Facebook freinds with my clicking adventures, so let me spare them and not block me :P
Hence, I started sharing my captures on Instagram, and Flickr.....phew found a good platform to learn things, and share my own. So far the journey is going good.
In case if anybody wants to see my clicks, the links are shared below:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132562284@N07/
https://instagram.com/reshu_katiyar_photography/
Yuhu I have got 100 followers on instagram...

After long long time, finally I visited my lovely blog, I am sure my dear blog, you must have felt so lonely and secluded. But totally not forgotten anytime. To be a regular in writing is a real big deal, kind of a challenge. Let me soon begin with today's post, not sure when the next post will arrive.

So, from where to start......ummm....ok, i will start with my love, my life, my super energetic 2.8 year old angel. The month of june is a real stress buster, reason being the much awaited summer vacations of kid. Waiting for the holidays, & vacations reminds me of my childhood days where we used to wait for vacations to visit my grandparents and relatives. History repeats, we too visited my mom's place in the vacations....hopefully reason for my absence from my darling blogspace gets justified a little bit. Had too much of fun. My kiddo gets company of other kids there and she gets involved with them so much, refusing to come back home. Seriously kids enjoy each other's company, how bore they get when they have to play with we the elders.
This time during my stay at mom's place, I met my school friends on a lunch outing. To meet them, remember old times, yeah of course a little bit bitching also gets involved ;) But that's a different fun where no discussions bout home, life, future plans etc comes into mind....only memories, old ones and the newly created ones...its totally different feeling, especially when you do not have your freinds physically available ( I am really bored of the virtual freindships now, so much have changed..may be we may even take time to recognise each other's faces)

Coming back from my ranting, every time my home visit makes my child to learn many new things. She is now a bigger chatterbox, all time she has one or other thing to say. She now creates an imaginary world, and acts just like we the elders do. Mostly, she will involve me in her world of imaginations and ask me different things. Now, she wants to do everything on her own. Be it taking bath, using toilet, combing hairs, getting dressed, eating food, washing clothes, etc etc....the list is endless. At this time, its really tiresome to catch up with the energy of the kids, it seems they really never get tired.

Now a days she has got this strange habit of using the word 'naa' (hindi word) with every sentence of hers..for  example mumma 'naa', no 'naa', papa' naa', go 'naa'....it doesn't  matter if she is speaking hindi word or english word,'naa' will be everywhere. Along with this, its really tough to get her do something as per my wish....if she said no..that means a no, no one can change it. Sometimes she gets on my nerves so much that I end up getting angry, but the sweetest part of it is she will try to cheer me up, will kiss me on the cheeks, and blink her eyes. She is such a drama queen and intellectual kid, knows what will work on whom. After so many cuddly gestures who can manage not to smile and love her back. See, such a clever kid she is.

Her school got reopen today,and I swear it was so difficult to make her complete vacation homework. But somehow, i managed to get it done. Phew ...task accomplished !!

Whoa, this is my 100th post. Never thought I would manage to write this much.

This centenarian post must be something which is close to me. Its about me.
Lets begin !!

Sometimes I feel I am multifaceted, but then what is special about that..Almost every second girl is or thinks she is. As I am writing about myself here, so lets not get bugged up with what others are,do, or can do.
Why I am saying multifaceted, its because I have so many creative interests which never got to come out. From the school days onward, I found drawing & painting alluring, and not to mention I was really good at it. People use to say I would take Biology as my subject, and to everyone's surprise I ended up with the scary Mathematics.

Then nature always interested me, which came into photography...yeah I take bearable clicks :D. Fact supporting it is, my clicks when shared at various photography groups on Facebook have got appreciated by totally unknown people, neither of us knowing each other in any way. The likes have touched the marks of 75 people at max. This sounds so kiddish, but actually it gives motivation :)
Next comes writing, I know I am not very good at it, but I really like to write my thoughts, words, and feelings.I use to always write diaries while in college and during job, though none exist now :D. Sometimes it comes out good leaving even me surprised.

At the end,I pursued none of my interests, confining myself to just studies and engineering which made me more of an introvert which I use to be. Always focused towards studies, expectations, and better career. It would not be too much to say that I fulfilled my parent's every dream- got good grades, desired engineering college and stream, handsome placement, an honors degree and a good arrange marriage.
 For a typical middle class family, the child's hobby never mattered (at least in my case), what mattered were good grades, selections, and clean character certificate ( clean in the sense of no boyfriends/girlfriends, no going out with friends/classmates, or should say no friends). In between all these, my interests and hobbies got missed and long forgotten. Its not that I am blaming anyone for this, not at all, because I was always aware that what I am getting is the best my parents can afford for us(siblings included). This realization made me more close to my mother, whom I always admire for her patience and adaptability. Knowing this fact, I never asked for new dresses, money for hobby classes other than tuition fees, no accessories, nothing till I was in intermediate ( in college, i did put some of my demands on top priority, guess it was college effect ), and also avoided any activity which may lead to rumors and stories . At times I really felt frustrated, you know the company you keep is at times provoking too. It would be surprise, but the first visit to classmates I made was in the 12th class at one of the birthday celebrations, before that I have never been to anyone's home. I was always hesitant to invite my friends to my home, as I always thought that they may not like it. But luckily I always got so good friends that they never let me feel bad about anything, always took care of me, and supported me. Don't know what they really liked about me, but they were totally supportive. Can say I am a blessed child :)

Since I belonged to such a humble background both socially and financially, it was really difficult for me to match up in the newly introduced corporate world with the new faces but no friends. Slowly slowly caught up  the trend and started getting comfortable with the new surroundings . But still being the small town girl at heart never indulged in too much of anything. Lived a life well composed and responsibly. Never wish bad for anyone, my parents always taught me, following it, if people did something wrong/against me also I ignored, and forgot.
 Then once because of my roommate I joined the Salsa Classes. And from there it was like a makeover for me. I started looking beyond necessities, the activities, people and things which inspired me, made me happy. And after that there was no looking back.
Faced failures, but then accepted them and emerged as a new and refined me.

After it, no matter how hard the situation become,  I never complained . Just started believing in karma and destiny, accepted what and how it came. May be this is what the maturity with age is called.
Now at the age of 30, I am a proud mother of a very very cute baby girl, a much loved and admired wife, honored daughter-in-law ( yes that's really true, hard to believe but now a fact :) , remember blessed child :) ), & a loving and caring daughter.
My hidden hobbies, aspirations all getting into limelight and practice, all credit goes to my in laws and husband. Be it pursuing job,  hobby, learning driving, taking decisions , be it anything, the support just makes me more strong and confident day by day. Everyone trust me with my abilities which motivates me further. The support has not changed a single bit from what my parents did.
As already mentioned, I am always lucky in case of friends, and this still continues. Some people really are more than friends under the tag of FRIEND, on whom you can rely upon anytime. Being thankful to the supreme power for keeping me blessed is the only thing I can think of.

Someday, may be my kid will read this, dont know what her reaction would be, but atleast for her it would be a story of her mom.

Happy 4th wedding anniversary to me :)

Yeah, we have stepped into the 5th year of the marriage institution. All those years just passed by, not even got a moment to review them, anyways who does that ;)
Anniversaries symbolises new learnings, experiences, understanding, and love. Every new year these elements keeps on increment, making the foundation and the future strong for the relations.

Hubby S is not much of into gifts and celebrating the occasion kind of person. He has different aspect to the exchange of gifts. As per him, what is there so special about gifting on occasion when you doesn't have enough to get one, instead get something you want, when you have bandwidth and necessity :P
So, kind of predecided what I wanted, and luckily its the anniversary too, I got my much dreamed DSLR, Canon 700D... yuhu. Along with this one, i also got the opportunity to attend much awaited baking class for myself. See, got whatever I wanted and dot on the occassion.

In such kind of scenarios, I don't need to worry for the hubby's gift, as he doesn't believe in one :D

Now my DSLR is in action mode. Everyday clicking and learning is part of the routine. Once I get hold on the camera, will create a new blog or new FB page dedicated to my clicks !!

Nowadays, have got special affinity to kitchen. Love to cook food. Few days back made Matar Paneer & Boondi Raita following the recipe from my favourite website vegrecipesofindia.com It was a big big hit, all cleaned up with no left overs. Compliments pouring from all the in laws and most importantly husband dear. He always prefers perfection when it comes to food, so its like a big achievement for me to hear 'wow' from him. Till now his best compliment is 'you make food just like mom, i cannot differentiate if u made it or mom' .....hmm half of the target to stomach achieved,no more mumma food cravings for him now :)
During navratris, I did prepare sabudana khichdi , recipe taken from the website mentioned, and it was also a great thumbsup from hubby and me too :) I had made so good khichdi both in taste and texture for the first time in my short kitchen journey. Pics are not that great as took them in a jiffy
Now here comes the pics of both the trials !!

Matar Paneer !!

Sabudana Khichdi !!

These days I am getting a strong affinity towards Cake baking and decorating.All those beautiful cakes allures and mesmerise me so much, and no doubt I am a big cake lover. So finally I have decided to give it a try. Have contacted one of the baking classes and now just waiting for the new batch to start !!
At the same time I am so attracted towards photography too. At times I do get credit for my photography, as well as my interest towards it is forcing me to try it out for once atleast. Just waiting for right gear to switch on. This hobby of mine is going to dig hubby's pocket a big blow :P
images courtesy : google images



I know I am thinking so much of dreamy things which even I am not sure I would be able to hang on. Anyways, if I try it or not atleast I can write it ;)

Kido is done with the playgroup, and now has started with the pre-nursery in a new school. The reason for changing the school is not by choice but due to the closure of the franchise of the school. Her teacher suggested us this new school where her daughter was also studying. She is so damn satisfied with the school efforts and child growth that I had no further doubts when I saw her daughter. So from here, the new school for kido came into picture.

After our Mumbai trip, we started the school for kido. She is admission-ed to pre- nursery as she already have the playgroup background. Thanks to my decision of sending her to play group, in the new school she didn't face a single moment of dullness or sadness. She gets ready in the morning with not much of fuss, enjoys her bath, let me get her dressed up , picks her lunchbox (she says it as 'tifin') and water bottle, wears her school bag and ask me to go saying 'time ho gaya' . Her grandparents mentions that she is just like her father, always neat and tidy and ready to go on time just like S use to do. She has the shadow of his father's personality :)

Kido never cried in the school. Also a very regular at informing the maids for her bathroom breaks. She is a quick learner as I already said, so has learnt the new rhymes quickly when taught in the school. She finishes her lunch with no tantrums.
There is improvement on my part too. Now I have started to pick and drop her to school in our car. Finally my driving lessons are getting useful in practice. In the morning when I drop her at school, she waves goodbye with all smile saying 'time aa jaun' meaning I will come on time :)
She has learnt to wish good morning and good afternoon to the teachers and the staff in the school. Her good morning sounds so crystal clear now. In the afternoon, when pick her up, she is all in smiles again running to me with her open arms. That is a moment which I love the most. Kido is such a darling.
Nowadays she has learnt counting, alphabets, rhymes, and coloring. And above all she loves to act and dance. Her teacher also told me that she enacts the rhymes so well. So finally I have also converted into 'Rhyme sunao beta' type of mumma :P can't help it out,typical motherhood symptom

Little wonders going around my world everyday !!

After visiting Shirdi, next day we planned a little bit of Mumbai sightseeing as kido also got well, thus thought of making the full utilization of the limited time we had in our hands. For the sightseeing we hired a INNOVA cab which charged us 3000 Rupees for the whole 12 hours. We couldn't use the full 12 hours, but then also it was worth it as the comfort, and driver both were great.

Beginning the Mumbai Darshan, we boarded the cab from Mira Road, and then decided to visit Juhu beach first. This was the first visit of my families to Mumbai excluding me. The juhu beach contrary to my expectations, was clean, with people jogging, enjoying the morning there. The water is as usual dirty, but the shore is clean. Family enjoyed the beach as it was their first experience to sea beach. We proceeded towards the Pavbhaji shops of the Juhu beach.Enjoyed the pavbhaji , and it was simply superb. After long time my taste buds got satisfied with the real Mumbai pavbhaji taste. On the eve of Good Friday, a beautiful sand art of Lord Jesus was made at the beach.

Sand art of Lord Jesus at Juhu beach

After Juhu, we headed towards Bandra. Lucky for us that being a weekend there was not much crowd and traffic on the roads. But yeah heat is always scorching in Mumbai. We reached Bandstand, Bandra. On the way was Shahrukh Khan's house 'Mannat'. You can see people clicking pics outside of the bungalow gate. Really its a huge bungalow !!
We reached the Bandstand at Bandra. It is just near the hotel TAJ, and the Bandra Fort. There is a well maintained garden known as 'Lands & Garden' where you can obviously see so many couples chitchatting. Yeah that's the most famous place for couples in Mumbai ...the 'BAND STAND'.
This fort is attached with the Bandra Fort. Though we didn't climbed up to visit the fort, but one can visit it too. Right from the Bandra Fort premise, the Bandra Worli Sea link is visible so clearly and so close.

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Mumbai

Lands & Garden, Bandstand Mumbai

Bandra Fort, near TAJ Hotel

BandStand

After BandStand, we visited SiddhiVinayak temple @ Dadar taking the Sea Link route, and it is really awesome.Kido seeing all the water around started saying 'Mumma Goa', the water reminded her of Goa both at Juhu and Bandstand.
 Due to the Lunar eclipse, not much of crowd was there, and we can get the darshan of ganpati within few minutes. Then we headed towards the MahaLaxmi Temple. It is a bit interior from the main road, just near the sea. Same here, not much crowded, no offerings to the goddess due to eclipse, so we finished our darshan within minutes. Visited Haji Ali on the way.
This was our last sightseeing spot. As per our train bookings, we reached to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) station, and dropped the rest of the family members there. Then headed to Mumbai Central (BCT) railway station to board the train.

Our Mumbai- Shirdi trip ended here. Though tired but everyone enjoyed the sightseeing.All felt good in Mumbai. Our trip successfully ended with everyone contended and smiling.

The last week we had an awesome trip to Shirdi, and enjoyed the partial Mumbai darshan. I am saying partial because due to the time constraint we couldn't visit many tourist spots in Mumbai.

We started our trip to shirdi first.To reach from Mumbai to Shirdi, we booked the AC  sleeper bus via  www.redbus.in This is my first experience of visiting Shirdi in bus, in all other times I have always booked a cab. Here, the bus we got was of ShreeNath Travels as Neeta Volvo tickets were not available .It was great in terms of comfort and seating, but everything has the plus and minus, so here also some exists. Actually the redbus people didn't share the contact number of the bus driver, neither they had correct information about the pickup point for us. We had to board the bus from Mira Road Mumbai, and the pickup points mentioned to us over the phone were not accurate. Important to mention, we had to keep calling the customer care of Redbus to get the pickup details, and these people kept on changing the pickup points once we reached their mentioned point. Our bus boarding time was at 9.00 pm but taking worst case scenario we started looking for pickup point at 7.30 pm onwards which proved helpful to us and buyed us time to get this mess sorted off. The customer care was not ready to share the travel agency details even, on my husband's sternness they finally spill the beans. We took the auto, and searched for the venue. At last we reached there, the pick up point 'Thunga Hospital, Mira Bhayandar Road'. And the travel agency there has a small box like shop, he was not even aware of our bookings mentioning that the details of  bookings done online are not shared with them. Gross !!!
Anyways, if you need to board the bus from Mira Bhayandar Road, then do search for correct pickup point. I picked up the visiting card of that traveller before boarding the bus, in case need the details please feel free to use the shared one.
PS: all details are based on the visiting card of the traveller.No claim of accuracy guaranteed.

Shree Nath Travels
Address: Shop No-4, Holy Complex, Opposite Dominos Pizza, Near Raymond's Showroom, Mira Bhayandar Road, Mira Road East, Thane, Maharashtra 401107

Contact Person: Mr. Sohan Singh Kitawat
Contact Number: Tel: 022-28119868
                             Mob No: 9029449772
                                          : 9324550015
Finally we boarded the bus which was already 15 minutes late. Looking the seats and working AC, we felt relieved. All were so tried that didnt realise when we slept, woked up at our destination...the last stop...'SHIRDI'
On reaching shirdi, the weather was pretty cool. You wil find many autowallas who can drop you to the temple, or in case if you want to get refreshed and take bath, the rooms on hourly basis are also available. We took the second option  and booked one room to get ready. It was comfortable and also reasonable (cheap) option. We didn't need to book the hotel room and pay extra bucks for just 1-2 hours. After getting ready, around 6 am we headed towards the temple, the same autowalla- i guess he must be the agent of that hotel, walked us to the temple which was real near by at 10 minutes walkable distance. There the hotel person has their own shop for prasad and offered lockers for the customers to put their belongings, shoes etc safely. From this shop we bought the prasad ( which is really costly, 500 bucks for one set) the other guy from the shop showed us the way to the entrance of the temple, and followed us to the premise without charging anything. I must say the costly prasad was worth it as our belongings, mobile phones, shoes, everything was intact and safe on receiving.

Lucky for us that we started early morning, there was not a single queue on the main entrance, and we had like a cake walk reached the inner premise, and here also it was not a much crowded one, no push and pull, along with a pleasant and cool weather. Kido slept on his father's shoulder, so no tantrums also. Remebering my earlier visits, even in the early mornings we had to face a huge crowd and so much of pushing, but this time it was total different. The next day 'Lunar Eclipse' has to be observed, so again fortunate enough that we visited on right time, else the temple would have been closed due to the eclipse. Finally we had darshan of the Sai baba, and then we spent a good amount of time in the temple premise as we had to board the bus at 12 pm.
Coming out of the temple, we had breakfast, and then started towards our pickup point 'Neeta International Hotel, Shirdi' . The bus we had to board got cancelled, and we had to wait till 1 pm for the substituted bus. Finally, the bus arrived and it was a pleasant journey watching the movie 'PK'.
Kido got some stomach issues, and had loose motions, but she also spared us from the mess as neither did she soil the diaper nor us, only asked to do 'potty' wherever the bus took the breaks. Lucky, lucky and just Lucky :) :)

We reached Mumbai (Drop at the last stop 'Borivali National Park') and reached home at 10 pm, picked up medicines for kido and dinner for us. All so tired, ate in a jiffy and went to sleep, to get ready for next day's Mumbai Darshan. !!

Sometimes instead of wandering in the labyrinths of old memories, its good to create new ones. Feels refreshing and relieveing, and on the top of that people who love and care for you makes them wonderful. Feeling blessed !!

Everyday new stories are born when you have kids around you.
Kido has become a real naughty and stubborn girl. She now knows how to show her anger to the people. I came to know about a funny story of her's in the school. Her teacher narrated it, and I was all smiling and surprised. So here goes the scene. 
Today dressed up the kido and went to drop her at school. She walks to the teacher's office and see 3 kids already there.Two of them occupying the chairs where she use to sit and place her school bag, while other was lingering nearby the chairs.Teacher seeing kido, asked her to come and wished good morning, but she didn't reply. Ma'am smiles and said she is still angry with me. 
Now begins the fun story. As per the teacher, yesterday kido was having lunch with her, in the meantime one of the kids came walking ( he slightly limps due to some knee problem). Seeing the kid limping, the teacher picked her up in arms and made him sit near kido. As soon as my kido saw the ma'am engaged with the other kid, she stared, picked up her school bag and water bottle & started walking towards the classroom, to be precise walking away from the teacher. The teacher seeing the reaction called her ( my miss angry kido) multiple times, but why would she listen now :P
Once reaching in the class, teacher sat near the kidos bag and bottle, but something strange was waiting for her. Kido picked her bag and bottle, sat away from the teacher.
She was showing her anger to the teacher, she was not ready to accept her ma'am to go to other kid.And the after effect showed next morning too when I went to drop her. She seeing other kids near to ma'am didn't walked straight to her teacher as she really do, instead went to the classroom without talking to her ma'am.
Kids are really intelligent and do have ways to show their emotions now.

Accidentally came across this wonderful thought. It seems so true to me, forced me to loosen my thinking horses.
Its the truth that life offers so many things, sometimes good, and sometimes bad. The life is full of such uncertainty leaving us puzzled to decide our future course of actions. 
Recently I encountered a tragic accident of suicide. It seems like yesterday when I saw this young boy all in smiles and touching the elder's feet. His smiling face image just does not leave my brain.When I visited his distraught family it was like an emotional choke to me.He was just 20 years, chilling with friends, the apple of the parent's eyes, riding his highly demanded sports bike. Well what made him to commit this drastic step to take his own life. He hanged himself leaving everyone in tears and cries. His  mom, what she has more now.This grief ridden mother says that how can she forget the 20 years of her upbringing ? The family made his every logical/illogical demand fulfill be at any cost they had to bear. Were they wrong doing it, should they have been hard and questioning his demands and choices? I dont know the answers of all these.
Now everyone is asking why did he commit suicide, what made him do so? Well whom to answer this question, the person who knew everything is now not with us. Some says it was depression, some says father scolded, some says it was a failed affair. Whatever may be the reason, the boy did not even gave a second thought to his action, not even thinking about his aging parents to whom he was the walking stick.
His smiling photo with flowers on it took my breath away. I cannot cry, for me tears are a sign of weakness, I choked, controlled, but couldn't help them to stay in the eyes. His photo frame made all the bridges collapse. Now me being a third person is so ripped with this incident, just a thought of the agony of his aging parents raises the goosebumps.
Is life so cheap to spend it in vain over another person? Its very true that life offers hundreds of shits , but then overcoming the hardships and surviving is what the life should be. Just succumbing to the failures, depressions, heart breaks, should not be the way. 
Its true when life and love tests you, its really hard to take a wise decision. It leaves one in many bits and pieces.But how wise it is to quit all the hardships and taking another route of complete destruction. Life offers many virtues to the humans in which courage is the most important one to deal with the pieces. Be it anything or anyone who made pieces of your life, it should be you to be brave and accept the challenge.
Life is more about collecting the pieces, good and bad experiences, memorable moments, learnings, and optimism for a better future out of every shit. The hope to find something good in every adverse situation is something which helps the life to go on.Optimism lays the road to move on. Why should one spoil her/his life on something/someone who don't even gave a thought before messing it.
It takes real effort to see something good in every situation, but this is the motivating factor to begin your journey to future with the broken pieces.Sometimes its worth the effort.

Just feeling so sorry for the loss of the family, couldn't stop my thoughts from spilling here. May be I am not right but atleast I have mustered my failures, trials, confusions, breaks and whatever mess life offered me. Its worth taking a ride of optimism rather than stucking in the past and blocking happiness away from yourself. That's what I think.

I am running late in writing posts, still will try to pen down some of the moments here.
The most exciting one was my experiment fooding in the kitchen. Actually we are pretty regulars in our menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During the month of February I started experimenting some stuff on my own. I tried to bake a choclate cake in the microwave (not convection one) , made pavbhaji, made idlis (in the microwave with instant mix), and sandwiches. And the most important factor in these experiments was the liking of everyone for the taste and texture.
Idlis are such a hit with my kido that everytime she sees me with the idli maker, she will say 'mumma idli bana do' and m happy to oblige her request :) Everytime I pick the microwave bowl, she will ask 'mumma kya kya bana rhe...cake bana rhe' . Actually she is the reason behind my kitchen adventures !!
Recipes of all the items was taken from various websites and blogs over the internet.So I am not going to post the recipes. But in case you need any recipe just visit my favorite website www.vegrecipesofindia.com It is one of the best website I have encountered so far. My pavbhaji recipe was a word to word tried from here and it was a big hit.
A snapshot of my experiments :)

Veg sandwich, recipe from Kido's friend mom :)

Rice idli prepared by the instant mix

Vanilla cake with chocolate glaze

Yum Yum Pavbhaji

The Chocolate cake baked in microwave

The best part of the cooking !!

After these outcomes, have got an affinity towards kitchen and experimenting items , which are new to me in case of making them at home !!

A very very delayed post about the speeding progress of the kido.
Trying to get a grip on my pen, let me start from somewhere. Ok, the kido is now 2.5 years old naughty, smart, and intelligent kid. She has got a good amount of words to speak. I just love to hear her melodious words, giggles, tantrums every moment, her love towards coloring and dancing. She is a good dancer to her age, enacting the steps watching the videos she do great moves. But on the other hand she is damn stubborn. If struck on anything, she will get it either by her innocence,chivalry, by crying, or screaming, whatever it takes. 
Let me list some of her progressive acts:

1. She speaks a lot of sentences these days, and mostly repeat after us.The best scene comes when anyone talks over the phone. Copying the styles, she will start walking and repeat ditto words, even put some of her own words at times she doesn't hear words frequently during the conversation.
2. I use to pick her up from the school on my two wheeler, and she is a pro there also. Always standing at the front and enjoying the ride is her favorite. 
3. She loves to stroll in the shopping malls, not on her feet but daddy's arms. While I visit the trial room, she has to accompany me, and at all the same time will do "o mumma shame shame " :P Kids are so naughty these days :)
4. She has such a affinity to the household chores. Now she has her own set of  rollpin and chapati board.Each time we make chapati she has to have the 'ata' and make her own 'roti'
5. She plays with her kitchen set , making and serving tea to everyone.
6. Teddy's are her all time favourites . She loves them, hugs them, and plays like a mumma to them enacting my ways.
7. 'Chittiyan Kalaiyan ' song from the Bollywood movie 'Roy' is her current favorite dancing number.
8. She sings the song as ' Tu mera main teri bang bang' from the Bollywood movie 'Bang Bang' :D Along with it she sings 'sa re ga ma ' in her melodious voice and she is really good.
9. She tries to sing in her beautiful voice enacting some of the nursery rhymes like 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', Twinkle Twinkle', '5 little monkeys', 'One Two buckle my shoe', and 'Wheels on the bus'. the recent addition is 'Machali jal ki rani hai'.
10. She directs her grandfather (dadu) to go to the bedroom, remove the footwears, lie on the bed and then will say 'so jao' 'gud night' 'sweet dreams' 'c u' :)
11. Everynight before sleeping, she will keep my and her papa's mobile phone to the respective sides of the bed along with the water bottles too.
12. She will pick up her own diaper to wear and play her favourite songs to begin with her sleeping routine. Actually she will do all masti, dancing, rhyming, singing all activities infront of her father before going to sleep. Not to forget mentioning, she will watch a lot of videos on you tube before finally handing over the mobile phone to me when she feels sleepy.
13. She will give kisses by touching cheeks to cheeks :D
14. The first thing she will speak in the morning is 'mumma utho' ...Yeah she is my morning alarm.
15. For brushing her teeth she will sing along me 'Brush your teeth' :D .Sometimes she is damn adamant to not do the brushing, by the way she hates paste. So its kind of challenging to make her brush with such a big pool of water from her eyes.
16. She can cry anytime in a second flooding eyes with tears and running nose. I don't know where she gets that stocked up and release it at the exact moment.
17. She loves to eat Potato curry with chapati,fondly speaks it as 'Aloo Boti'
18. She is not a milk lover, but at times she will ask herself for it and finish it without any fuss, while other times its a herculean task for me.
19. She is big lover of 'Alpenliebe' toffee.
20. She knows how to get ready when we say 'Party', she will pick her own dress for the occassion.
21. She now knows to speak our names as 'reshu mumma', 'sidda papa', 'sourav mama', 'prem' , and her names 'pardhi', 'goggi' :D She is so much into calling our names that many times she will not say mumma or papa instead will speak our names. She knows the names of our both the maids and will always call them with the names only. Good thing is if asked in english language too she will answer correctly. Smart kid :)
22. Cartoon watching is her favorite one these days. She calls the names of the characters as 'Chota bheem' 'robom for robinhood', 'mikka for mister maker',& 'kisna' .So finally nobody gets to watch tv when she is around.The cartoons rock the tv screen.
23. She has learnt to enact whistle. She will put finger in between her lips and make sounds of whistle. While calling us, firstly she will try with us as mumma, papa, dadu ,jiya, bua, and if we missed out to listen she will start whistling to us in her very cute ways and say 'oye'. I kind of need to get rid of this habit of hers though it looks innocent. I am kind of tempted to her actions :D 
24. She loves to bath these days in her colorful bathtub. She puts the tub at the perfect place, puts on the tap, bring her ducks in the tub and then just ready for my signal to jump in the water.
25. She loves to accompany me with the laundry.Loves to put the clothes in the washing machine, and if not allowed then be ready to get flooded with watery eyes. As a matter of fact i have just converted into clean clothes maniac, so everyday i have piles of laundry to do :(
26. She has got her ears pierced on 19th January 2015. She cried continuously all caught up in hiccups, running nose, flooding tears. After getting it done, she had her own part of the story.She use to say 'mumma uncle dishum dishum nana' which meant mumma we will go with nana and beat the uncle who did the piercing.