It was the first time I was travelling without R. We had always been happy travelers till then. It was a taken that he would handle all stuff since he had more experience than me when we started off and also he is a very careful and methodical guy. That was the first time I was travelling with children and also parents who were new to this kind of traveling.
I was very happy to visit home and my main worry leaving him behind was that I had to handle so much.(Yeah Yeah, I am mean ;-)) ) It was very tiring and long journey but my little darlings were very well behaved in the longest leg of our journey. I had particularly chosen Emirates as it the JFK-Dubai leg covered most of the journey and and also co-incided with their sleep times. Nish was a very troublesome baby until then and I was very apprehensive about his sleep patterns and feeding nightmares but thankfully it was tolerable while we were flying.
As soon as we boarded the DFW-JFK part, Nish had messed up his diaper and clothes and I had to change. wash/dispose his clothes all in the crampy bathroom !
And once we reached JFK we took our sweet time to feed the kids, and go to our gate. The walk to the specific gate was harder than the journey itself. Finally when we checked in at the counter we were told that we would not get the bassinets as they were all taken. Since I was warned of this, I ensured I got in early but still that did not help..I was too tired to even shout at them but I gave them my piece of mind.
All along I was irritated and snappy and who else than one's parents will take in all the non-sense and still understand and justify and reason out the cause.
I was tired of being alert of the nappy changes for both, feeding times for the baby, whether we tagged all the baggages along, the way to reach the gate etc etc.
Finally when we were about to enter our plane, we were told our hand-luggage was too big and I had to re-org the stuff into small different bags provided by Emirates and remember which bag had the spare clothes, diapers, sippy cups etc.
But once the plane started, it got easier. Rish and my dad were seated a lot behind us so that he will not bother me and the baby. It was a blessing that dad
could handle/ entertain him. In a few hours, all of us dozed off and Nish was amazingly well-behaved and slept off that the mothers of other crying babies were throwing helpless glances at our direction :-)) and he earned the bassinet of the other crying baby !
I was recharged with 5-6 hours of sleep though grudgingly thought of the husband traveling happily all alone, with much lesser cares and happily watching movies. And how it would never happen to me for a long long time. But I guess I would not enjoy it too as much so I stopped the comparison there. And the kids woke up only when we were closer to Dubai. Dubai was so different and small and compact as opposed to the airports here. We wandered around a bit and changed and fed the kids and just had enough time to board our flight to chennai. It was a short flight but both kids were wide awake. Thankfully before they started troubling us we landed and were ready to be received by my FIL. We had hot shower and food awaiting for us. It was funny to see Rishu's reaction to the road and traffic. I too felt a sense of "coming home". These days it happens both ways for me ;-)
My MIL was only too glad to have Rish. The fact that I had a new born meant that I was with nish, she was his care-taker. And she took great happiness and pride in that. In showing off his skills, or taking him around he was pampered. And I was too with good food during the stay. After a week I was ready to go home.
It is a different feeling being home. Just the familiar atmosphere makes you relax. I had enrolled Rishu in a local play school. It was a good change for him and for us. It was a small, clean house and I guess that was what I needed. A clean place and a bunch of neat kids so that he would not fall sick and of course walking distance from my house. I stayed home for nearly 2 months but still never took him on a train or auto or to the beach as nish was only a few months old. Lot of pending wishes to be accomplished in the next visit.
When I used to walk Rish to school, I used to meet many of my old neighbors who knew me from when I was his age. It is a totally different feeling when you meet such people. It is almost like you become a kid again. I even managed a trip to Saravana Bhavan with my parents ! Despite the distance, and nish being a small baby, and my aged granny at home we managed.
Once Ravi came, the time just flew so fast. Mostly with the wedding and his bangalore trips. and by that time I was content with my stay and was happy to come back to my other home :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment