The last month of last year seemed to pass by very quickly, as every December has been ever since I became a Carnatic music and December music season aficionado.
December is that month when I am always in my beloved Madras, celebrating the music season gaining an enriching musical experience at as many Sanjay’s kutcheris as possible while my children enjoy their school vacation not caring much about what I am doing or where I am going. Being in Madras only has me rooting even more for life that would have been. Alas such is life and all that…. This December also saw me visiting my dream destination, Hampi. The grandeur of the ruins did indeed leave me in awe.
November was all about celebrating Deepavali and Karthigai, attending a talk of Swami Mitrananda on ‘The Survivor – Overcoming your fears and Challenges’ , keeping little R engaged at home as his school holidays kicked off in mid-Nov itself, grabbing the only one free hour of me-time that I got in the whole month by running off to Little India to buy vegetables…. See the task which gets priority once you are the one who has to manage the kitchen. This month saw me getting inspired by Elle Luna’s book, ‘The Crossroads of Should and Must’.
A good part of October was synonymous with Navaratri. There were music, sweets, sundal and a whole lot of conversations.
September and March being the exams months are always about half-day school, frequent sibling fights and revising spellings. September was made extra special with the visit to Angkor Wat and its neighbouring magnificent temples. This month also saw R beginning his swimming lessons. Another thing which caught my excitement was the release of Mani Ratnam’s Chekka Chivantha Vaanam.
August saw me slip on the rain water and fall and hurt my knee. With it went down the drain all my exercise routine. August also had my sister visiting me for a few days and I can’t tell how relaxing it was! That also made me don the tourist hat once again and revisit some places in Singapore along with her.
July was that month when I did yoga every morning and felt fresh all through the day. Given my tendency to procrastinate, it was a surprise that I kept up with it for that long. 😛
June was school holidays spent happily in Madras.
May was a typical month with the kids having their school and play area routine.
April saw S starting off a new academic year and making another new set of friends. With the new year came a Tamil book with 2-page long lessons which made me realize how my Tamil vocabulary is no good at all.
March was that month when my husband was away on an official trip for more than two weeks and exactly at that time the kids alternately were down with a high fever and cold. The entire month itself turned out to be quite crazy what with both of them having week-long school holidays too.
February saw me kicking off saraLi varisai and Bhagavad Gita chanting sessions for S, with R too joining in on and off. While we haven’t made as much progress as I would like, we continue to have these sessions at least a couple of days a week. This month saw me reconnecting with my singing, albeit at a slow pace, post the recovery of my voice.
January saw R finally start his play school. It did take us a couple of weeks to create something of a routine what with the timing of both kids’ schools not overlapping, Singapore being rainy and surprisingly at a cooler temperature for its standards and me being down with a severe cold and headache for almost the entire month.
All these routine apart, 2018 was that year when my children and I made some really good friends, that sort of friends with whom you can speak your heart out and relax on those crazy days.
Though more than a week is already over in this new year, we came back to Singapore just last Sunday and for me, the real daily grind has begun just now. Let’s see how this year goes.
Here’s wishing you all a very happy new year!