Kolkata highlights – Part 1

Our time in Kolata this year was unconventional. Because we had about 2.5 days before going to Goa and 4.5 days after returning. Technically a week but I had to work for 4 days, which meant I had to wake up at 3am India time and I would be exhausted early evening. When we told Ma that we were coming to Kolkata in December, she immediately said “Let’s go somewhere”. We thought we’ll explain to her that it was a short visit and I was also working odd hours but then we didn’t. She barely ever asks anything. She enjoys an escape from her daily routine and a break from household chores. No matter how many times we tell my in-laws to go by themselves, they won’t budge. They enjoy it more when we take them. So, Abbas and I decided that we would book a staycation in Kolkata for 2 days after returning from Goa. We also wanted to take Kaku and Kakima (Bhabi’s parents) as they love me as their second daughter and we always have a great time with them. They too had a tough few years during Covid and hadn’t been anywhere for a while. Both these couples were super excited when we told them that we had booked a resort.

Our return flight from Goa was to land at 1:30pm. We went straight to the resort from the airport. Ma and Babu were to take an Uber and reach the resort. Dadamuni (Bhabi’s brother) was going to drop his parents by 2pm, our check-in time. We had booked a resort called Vedic Village, we were all given a traditional welcome and a drink to go along with it. The joy in Kaku Kakima’s face was precious. They both love travel and have always made it a point to do so within their means. Kaku had had a stroke during Covid after Kakima came down with Corona. Although they recovered, their life hasn’t been the same since. Kaku can no longer walk freely and Kakima too lost most of her immunity. To see the happiness on their faces was second to none.

Ma and Babu arrived a little late due to some confusion with finding the location. But once they arrived, we all had lunch together. After a filling meal, everyone wanted to go their rooms to rest. We went to both sets of parents’ rooms to help them get settled, make sure they are comfortable. In Ma Babu’s room , the girls found that the bathroom has a full length glass mirror wall that separated it from their room. The girls purposely rolled the blinds and told their grandparents that the bathroom was transparent. They were shocked and it was fun to see their flabbergasted expression. They were relieved when we showed them the blinds.

We had got some gifts for Kaku Kakima, Mantam had made a crochet vest (to match the same one they had made for Ma) for Kakima and a scarf for Kaku. We took all the stuff from our room to Kakima’s and shared their presents. Out of all the things we had taken, they were obviously super thrilled with the stuff their granddaughters had handmade. We let them rest and we came back to our room to do the same.

In the evening, we all went downstairs for coffee and found the games room there. Kaku and Babu played carrom together. Ma and Kakima were sitting and chit-chatting. We pulled them to try foosball. Initially they were resistant but we got Tammu to team up with Kakima and Mannu with Ma and it got quite competitive very soon. They had so much fun and it was heartening to watch the elders become children all over again.

We had plans of playing Uno with them after dinner but everyone seemed to be too tired. I had to wake up at 3am next morning for work. So we decided to call it a day!

Favourite Family Traditions

Bloganuary writing prompt

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

View all responses

After pointlessly rambling in the last couple of posts, trying to write a proper post using the writing prompt today.

What are my favourite family traditions?

Just today, we made Kathi rolls and I thought how lovely it is that this is one of the two meals that Abbas and I collaborate in the kitchen to put together. I absolutely love it. I usually pre-chop the veggies that are added as filling, have the meat cooked and ready. I then start sauteeing the paranthas and Abbas assembles each roll with his own personal touch. The girls sit on the couch for this meal and keep saying ‘It’s sooo yummy’. The other meal which is mainly served by Abbas is Phuchka / Pani Puri. He becomes the Phuchkawala and the three of us stand around the kitchen island with bowls in our hands as he keeps adding one phuchka at a time in each of our bowls.

During mango season, we usually eat the fruit right after our dinner. I am a fussiest of all when it comes to eating the slices that look pretty. Abbas, poor thing, always ends up eating the seeds and not-so-good-looking slices. Mantam get everything in between. The best part is that Abbas divides the plate into four portions and also a little piece of Laddoo, who lingers under the dining table waiting for her share. Even if we have finished our dinner before Abbas, we always wait for him to finish eating so he can allocate our shares.

One little tradition that I follow every time we leave home for a long vacation or a short getaway, I keep some money under the Ganesha idol we have and say a silent prayer that we have a safe trip and return home. Although I don’t practice any form of worship, this tradition is one that my Amma used to follow every time we left home for a few days. After we returned home, she would donate that money to the needy. I too follow the same. I somehow tend to do it naturally before leaving home. When the girls were younger, they once saw me doing this and I remember Tammu bringing some more loose change and shoving under the Ganesha idol. When I asked why she did that, she told me that she was hiding money so thieves couldn’t steal from us if they broke in during our absence. That’s what she thought I was doing too.

This one used to be a family tradition until we all shared one bathroom. Abbas, usually the first one to rise, would always apply toothpaste on all the toothbrushes when he brushed his teeth. Since the girls have their own bathroom now, he does it for me. Only on days when I wake up before him (which is few and far between), do I apply toothpaste on my own toothbrush in the mornings. Otherwise, I have my toothbrush ready with paste on it and it always brings a smile on my face every morning. Never gets old!

Kissing and hugging goodbye before leaving the house. No matter who is leaving the house, they have to ensure that have kissed everyone in the family before they left. Even on days when Abbas or I have to leave early in the mornings before the girls wake up, we ensure that we have gone to their bedrooms and said our byes with kiss and hug. Sometimes they are so deep asleep that you don’t wanna wake them up. You try to be as quiet as you can but then they complain later if they didn’t remember you saying bye to them. When we go to drop them to school as well, they kiss goodbye before getting off the car. I love it so much!

That’s all for today! Tammu has organised a family movie night and she is making popcorn. I am already two minutes late. Muah, byeeee!

Fourteen!

Tammu,

The last year has seen your personality change in many ways. You have become very passionate about many things. You like to learn and raise awareness when it comes to many worldly issues. At times, you get on our nerves with your holier-than-thou attitude but we know that your heart is always in the right place. You have also fallen back in love with Bollywood and all those Brown Tiktokers you follow have made you more connected to your roots and feel proud about it. There was a phase where you did not want to wear traditional attire and thought Bollywood movies were so boring. You are making up for all the short-lived phase these days. You recently borrowed ‘Jhumkas’ from me on two occasions and I couldn’t have been happier.

You have also become very conscious of your hair, skin, attire and looks. The amount of time you spend on your hair and skin care routine in one single day makes me wonder who have you taken after? I used to make fun of you earlier when you wore same coloured top and bottom but turns out co-ords are in trend now. You must be a fashion visionary for you thought it was cool before it became a thing. Your outfit choices are always clever and chic. We all love looking at you get ready because you put so much thought, time and effort into it (which neither Baba, Mannu nor me do. Laddoo is the odd one coz she is committed to her birthday suit for life)

I had requested all your friends to send me a video message for your birthday recently. And it was heartwarming to see every single friend of yours said you were nice, caring and helpful. The way they all described you unanimously felt like it was scripted. But it was a testament to how you are as a person and a friend. You are also the one who helps your friends with their homework, spends extra time with them and try to teach them. The best part of it all is that you always detested Maths and thought your were bad at it. But now, not only are you doing great at it, but also helping your friends understand how to solve complex problems. This morning you surprised me by saying that you had Maths test and you had to do well in it because it have you a high. For a Math nerd mom, it sounded like a Mathemetical equation to my ears.

Lastest update to your lingo is you calling Mannu as Mazu, Baba as Boba Tea and on me as Moomy Loomy. We all ‘Bro’ each other all the time now. a new hobby you have developed is scrapbooking. Everytime we go for an outing or a vacation, you carefully collect pamphlets, tickets, invoices or some memorabilia and then journal those memories artistically in a notebook. Your obession with reading has peaked this last year and I am loving it. You are still interested in cooking but don’t cook as much as you did last year. But funnily enough, you are the one making requests for dishes although Mannu is the resident foodie.

Mannu,

You have become a unique person although you inherit a lot of my qualities by default. Your sarcasm and wit has only gotten better, you crack me up all the time. And by hearing your friends’ messages, I now know that they all find you hilarious. You also told me that it makes you the happiest to make other people laugh. The other quality of your that has shone through in the last one year especially is that you are chill despite the situation. You are a born procrastinator (just like your momma) and I cannot bring myself to lecture you to not be one. You always appear to be in control of everything, but I know deep down that we are like ducks swimming in the water with a calm facade while our feet are vigourously flapping to get us to our destination. Your attitude of ‘I’ll figure it out’ in any given situation is a gift. I hope you never lose it.

Unlike Tammu, your hair, skin and looks are the least of your priorities. Your outfit choices often make me blurt out ‘You look homeless’. Your fashion mantra is ‘comfort over everything’. Although you are not crazy about clothes, you have a special love for sneakers. I am happy that we share the same shoe size now. 😀 You make up for the lack of your regard for outfits with your passion for gadgets and gaming. You love playing video games and apparently you are good at them too. You have also recently found joy in learning photoshop and editing photos to come up with goofiest creations. It started with editing photos of people in yoga poses by replacing their head with the animal representing that pose. Then you moved on to editing photos of animals by replacing their faces with your teachers’. I though they were brilliant and funny at the same time. You also love making paper stars and gifting them to your friends.

You and I had a big fight at the beginning of this year. You were mad at me like never before. We were cold to each other for some time. It was because you told me that you wanted to quit the band. I asked you why you didn’t want to continue but you wouldn’t tell me the reason and expected me to let you quit. I put my foot down and said that you had to give me a valid reason or continue to go and that was the end of discussion. I know you were mad because I had let Tammu quit last year when she said that she absolutely disliked playing instruments. It was different in your case because I knew for a fact that you enjoyed playing drums. Cut to the present, you tell us every now and then how well you played the drums. I’m glad that I stayed firm although it killed me inside to have been that tough.

You have also joined hands with two other friends and performed at your school’s function. You even auditioned at a youth group for a performance recently. You have joined the school choir with Tammu this year. You have also been going to art class and spend your free time creating marvellous pencil sketches by spending hours togetehr on them. New in your lingo is saying ‘Slay’, ‘You’re done’, ‘The audacity! The nerve’. You are not so much into reading these days but you still enjoy craft activities.

Mantam,

Everyone says, raising teenagers is tough. But so far, I have had the most fun for the past one year since your became teens. Yes, you have had your phases of replying in monosyllables, being unreasonable but they have been far and few between. It feels like I am living my teenage years all over again through you both. I look forward to you both returning from school and spilling all the tea about your teachers, friends, and everything under the sun. I absolutely love the fact that I am in the know. I’ve also become active on Snapchat because you both think FB and Insta are passe. I secretly get a kick out of the fact that your friends think your mom is too cool because she has streaks with you on Snapchat.

You talk about some of the kids in school apparently dating. We keep asking you to let us know if you like someone. But apparently it is still ‘Ewww’. We’ll see how long that stays. Tammu says they ship Mannu with Germany (they have code names for all the boys in their class) and Mannu says they ship Tammy with Jamaica. For all millenials reading this, the Gen Z meaning of shipping is the action of wishing for two people to enter a relationship. I’m having a ball pulling both of your legs by bringing up these two country names and getting on to your nerves. What fun! It feels like being in high school all over again 😀

This has probably been the longest birthday letter I have written so far. Time to wrap it up now. As always, Baba and I are proud of you both and will be forever. Hope you both will always be good friends and great human beings. Be happy, live and let live. Never forget that we will always have your back, no matter what.

Love you both!

Mumma (and Baba) 💕

Tween Mantamisms

On our vacations, we usually eat all the meals outside and try exploring local places and food specialties. This time on our vacation though, we brought a few utensils, and a few basic pantry staples to make rice and dal atleast. There were a lot of border closures and restrictions changing so frequently that it gave us a sense of peace to be equipped with resources to cook a meal if need be. Last night we were really craving for some comfort food and I cooked rice, dal and fried potatoes. We all had a soul-satisfying meal, burp!!

Abbas (Suddenly had a thought): Mantam, when you fly the nest and are on your own, what will you eat to survive?

Tammu: We’ll eat sandwiches and salads Baba

Mannu: Hey, speak for yourself Tam! I’ll go to Maccas and KFC.

Abbas: You’ll have fast food and enjoy it for a few days. But then you’ll crave for home made simple food like this. What will you do then?

Tammu: I will never leave the house insert cheeky smile

Abbas: Seemu, I’m so worried now. What will they do? They have to learn to cook and learn so many life skills to survive

Seemu: You are worrying for no reason. When they will crave for it, they will learn to cook anyway. Look at me, I never moved a finger before marriage. If I learnt life skills to survive, so will they

Mantam (gasping for breath): Wait, what? Mumma, did you say that you never moved a finger before marriage. And here you are making us do all the chores at home at since our childhood? This is unfair!

Me: Yeah, because we had domestic helps at home. They did most of the things.

Tammu: Mumma, were you from a rich family?

Me: Well, kind of!

Tammu: You are saying, I could have been rich too!

Mannu: Tam, if Baba hadn’t married Mumma, I would have been born to Mumma anyway. I would have been rich. You would’ve been born to Baba. So you wouldn’t have been rich either way!

For the uninitiated, Mannu is the miniature version of me and Tammu is spitting image of Abbas.

Day 1 | Mantam-isms

Day 1 of the Blogathon deserves a post on Mantam-isms as the purpose of this blog was to document the anecdotes of my twin girls. But I keep digressing and using this space to ramble about my musings!

Back to the point!

Abbas is the first one to leave home on weekday mornings. Once he is out, Mantam and I eat our breakfast, pack our bags and get ready for the day. One of these days, we all waved and kissed good-bye to him and came back to resume our business. Just a couple of minutes later, all of a sudden the door opened and my heart trembled in fear. Then I saw Abbas coming in and my mind still raced through a million thoughts as to what made him return. He said that he had a flat tyre and that there was nothing to worry about. He said that help was on its way and he headed straight to the toilet 😀 (Making use of the time he had on hand!!)

Tammu goes close to the toilet and loudly asks him (while he is answering nature’s calls), “Baba, what is the name of my first teacher?”

Abbas: Whatttt??

Tammu: Baba, tell me what is the name of my first teacher?

Abbas: Why do you ask Tammu? I don’t know!!

 

Tammu, swiftly makes her way to find me, comes close to me and whispers:

“Mumma, this was a secret test to see if this man who just entered our home is really Baba or an impostor? If it was my Baba, he would know my first teacher’s name. You know how in Harry Potter, they drink Poly Juice potion and disguise as somebody else, I think someone has disguised Baba”

I start laughing my head off at my Potterhead of a child. Right then, Abbas comes and asks “What happened? Why are you laughing?”

Mannu enters the toilet and immediately exists with a wrinkle on her nose and closes the case by saying:

“That smell in the toilet!!! I am 100 percent sure it is Baba. It can’t be anyone else”

😀 😀 😀

These girls are hilarious, I tell ya!!!

 

 

Day 13 | All’s well that ends well

Today was a very hectic day at work! Tammu was feeling under the weather, yet we sent her to school asking her to give us a call if she didn’t feel better during the day. I went to office early, hardly got any time for breaks, stayed long hours. We were waiting for an email confirmation from our builder about the final dates today but it never arrived. I hopped on the train to home around 7:30 PM. All in all, a very dry mundane day. Hardly had anything to write about today, but hey! It’s not over until it’s over.

On the train while I was tiredly sitting, wondering how Tammu must have been feeling, the man of my life messages me to know if I had started from office. He told me that Tammu was doing perfectly fine and that both the girls were then dancing! Happiness score 1!

He told me not to worry about finances, as he had done all the calculations and that we were in a good position to move and very much in control. Happiness score 2!

He asked me if I had checked the emails, which I hadn’t had the chance to till then owing to the busy day at work. He told me to check and I found his revised remuneration letter. This was due for quite some time. It felt so good to see it come through at a time when we are direly in need of it. Happiness score 3!

He hardly messages me these days, so receiving his messages made me feel that he couldn’t wait till I reached home. He was missing me and eagerly waiting for me to reach home. Happiness score 4!

I just made some instant noodles as it was too late by the time I reached home. But I noticed that Abbas had already cleared the sink and loaded the dishwasher to my life easier. Happiness score 5!

Day 12 | Return of Mantam-isms

Although these conversations did not happen today, they do bring happiness as I jot them down. So, cheating a bit to get today’s post done with 🙂

All four of us were watching the movie Queen on Netflix. There is a scene where VijayaLakshmi hurls abuses to a guy in French. The subtitles flash with the F word over and over again.

Abbas and I: (share eye contact wishing the kids didn’t notice the subtitles)

Mannu: What does that mean?

Abbas and I: (Again looking at each other yet clueless what to say, each hoping the other one manages the situation)

Tammu (takes charge): Mannu, it’s a bad word. So you don’t need to know!

Abbas and I: (Rolling eyes and trying to control our laughter)

Mannu: What???!! So you know it and I don’t need to know! Seriously?!

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Abbas brought a bunch of greens which is rarely available and I made a traditional Bengali dish with it. As we sat for lunch, Abbas looked at the dishes on the table

Abbas: Haven’t you cooked the greens?

Me: Yeah, I have made this mix veg dish with the pumpkin greens

Abbas: What? Seemu, they were bottle gourd greens and it is usually added to lentils.

Me: No no, they were not bottle gourd greens. I know very well that they were pumpkin greens.

And the argument goes on for a while in a fun way. Abbas makes fun of me and vice versa. We go on to google to look for images but are still confused who was right. Abbas looks for bottle gourd greens Bengali dish on Google and gets the same link as I get when I googled for Pumpkin greens Bengali dish.

It was a laughter riot in parallel to the argument.

Mannu: Guys, please stop it now?

Tammu: Mumma Baba, can you both first decide if you are arguing or laughing?

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Mannu, Tammu and I are walking to the station in the morning

Tammu: Mumma, you know what?

Me: What?

Tammu: I think I am a good person

Me: What makes you think so?

Tammu: Because my friends throw food in the bin, some of them drop food on the ground and others stamp on it. I try to make them understand that they shouldn’t do it.

Me: Yes Tammu, you are right.

Tammu: Actually I feel sad for the food. For example, the other day S dropped crackers on the floor and D stamped on it. Now imagine how the cracker might have felt. It must  have been thinking how excited the day is going to be, I’m going to go inside someone’s mouth. But it got hurt instead.

Mannu (Who was hardly paying attention to the conversation so far, suddenly got alert): What is she talking about? Who gets excited about getting into someone’s mouth?

Me: Mannu, that’s because that someone we are talking about happens to be a cracker 😀

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We went to a friend’s home and her mum had made fish fingers which were out of this world. Mantam enjoyed them so much and asked for seconds.

Me: Mannu, you loved the fish fingers, didn’t you?

Mannu: Yes Mumma, they were the tastiesst food I have ever had.

Me: That’s good

Mannu: By the way Mumma, no offence to your cooking skills, ok?

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Sunday evenings are routinely allocated to folding the truckload of washed and dried clothes and organizing them. Mantam usually help me with this chore. Tammu, being the lazy bum that she is, always gets distracted by the mirror and starts posing or acting weird. Mannu is the sincere one, always tries to learn folding techniques and always tried to improve. Tammu always picks undergarments as they are easy to fold. We named her the chaddi (underpants) girl. She always sits down and Mannu keeps flinging chaddis at her as she drags them from the mountain of clothes.

One day, Mannu wasn’t in her usual spirits and did not turn up to help. Tammu had already begun her chaddi folding business. Mannu dragged herself reluctantly to help us.

Me: Tammu, let Mannu sit down and fold the chaddis today. Why don’t you fold the other clothes.

Tammu (agreed half heartedly): Ok fine!

After a while, she remembers all the chaddis being flung at her by Mannu. She starts taking revenge. It was funny sight to watch and I couldn’t stop laughing. When she ran out of chaddis to flung, she took the ones she had already folded!

That is when I had to take the charge and stop her! (I’m not able to bring the humour through my words, but it certainly was a fun sight as all three of us were in giggle hysteria)

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Me (Hugging Tammu on some occasion): Tammu, do you know how proud I am of you?

Tammu (cozily enjoying my hug): Thank you Mumma

Me: I’m so lucky to have you as my daughter

Tammu: It was all due to your hard work, that you have me as your daughter 🙂

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Day 10 | Fri-yay

• Feeling relaxed at the end of the work week. The feeling of having a weekend ahead makes us feel so happy (Irrespective of the fact that two days pass in a blink and before you know it Monday morning will come back with its share of blues)

• Mantam cleaned the living room as if they had a magic wand. Can’t be thankful enough for these girls know how to impress their mum

• Nice, long, warm oil massage on the scalp by Abbas

• A chilled glass of wine while watching a silly comedy movie

• The feeling of going to bed without having to care a damn about the annoying alarm next morning!

Wish you all a very happy weekend!

Day 8 | Simple Joys

• When you meet this old lady on your way to train station and she gives the brightest smile, you smile too in return and say ‘Hello, good morning. How are you?’ She replies – “Hola! Hola” – and this repeats almost evert other day

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• When your ex-colleague messages you saying how she was discussing with the other ex-colleague about you, how you bring so much fun, happiness and positivity around you

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• When your children ask if they will ever get to see their great grand parents, you say that it depends on your parents, they reply “Mumma, your parents are good at heart. They will accept us one day”

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• When your kids have their noses buried in Harry Potter books and all you discuss with them is where they are up to, the characters, the situations, the plot etc and the only odd man out who doesn’t read books is trying to catch up on the movies to make sense out of the conversations around him

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• When you have been eyeing on fascinators in shops but waiting for Melbourne Cup to be over so that they come on sale, and as you predicted all the leftover fascinators’ prices are reduced by 90% the next day! You go loot a bunch for the following years 😇

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• When you come home and show the unbelievable bargain of a deal you struck on fascinators, your daughter replies indifferently – “Sorry Mumma, the fascinators don’t fascinate me! No offense” 😆

Day 5 | Twin Quiz

These days the twins are coming up with fun questions and testing their parents’ IQ. Well, we mostly fail and then laugh after they reveal the answers. To spread the joy and test all you lovely readers’ IQ, I’m posting a few such questions today. (Will post the answers tomorrow) Let’s see how many of you get them right. (No googling please 🙂 )

Here goes:

1. Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete fell off, who was still there?
2. What are the twins’ favourite fruit?
3. Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
4. Why didn’t anyone give Elsa a balloon?
5. Why wasn’t Cinderella good at Basket Ball?
6. What was Cinderella thrown off the baseball team?
7. How does an alien count to 23?
8. Why was the witch first in her class?
9. Where do rabbits go when they get married?
10. What do skeletons say before they begin dining?

Will reveal the answers along with the winner tomorrow. Good luck peeps!

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Edited to update the answers:

1. Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete fell off, who was still there?
2. • No one as Repeat fell off after Pete, true to his/her name
3. What are the twins’ favourite fruit?
4. • Pair Pear
5. Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
6. • Because it wanted to get to the bottom
7. Why didn’t anyone give Elsa a balloon?
8. • Because she would let it go
9. Why wasn’t Cinderella good at Basket Ball?
10. • Because her coach was a pumpkin
11. Why was Cinderella thrown off the baseball team?
12. • Because she kept running away from the ball
13. How does an alien count to 23?
14. • On his fingers
15. Why was the witch first in her class?
16. • Because she was the best speller
17. Where do rabbits go when they get married?
18. • Bunny-moon
19. What do skeletons say before they begin dining?
20. • Bone Appetit

If you like them, I will post some more. Do let me know 😁