The holiday season: can’t get enough of it, or can’t wait for it all to be over already? Has your attitude toward the end-of-year holidays changed over the years?
Having spent most of my childhood in Goa, I associate this season with warmth and cheer, joy and happiness lots of great food. Christmas Carols and a host of feel-good emotions rush into my mind as I reflect on those years… from Stars and beautiful Cribs and Silent night and Joy to the World and roly poly Santas at every corner. Of course the fact that School was closing also added to the general feeling of well being!
After we left Goa, I have not celebrated X’Mas with the same fervor and so it was sheer nostalgia to go back to Goa about a year ago in December. The twinkling lights, the decorated houses at every corner… I felt I had come home! This time with a new family…. I also had the once- in- a -lifetime experience of meeting many of my lovely classmates for a meal……… Unfortunately today the net is playing up and I am unable to upload pictures clicked on that occasion .
We stayed at a lovely Resort … and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Lazy days stared with a walk to the beach which was almost deserted at that time of the day….. We would then pick on a place to visit and after the visit, taste the local cuisine at one the many eating joints that dotted the countryside. Yummmm!!! South Goa was untouched by the commercial tourism and it was a pleasure interacting with the fun loving Goans….
A family holiday to me is togetherness personified and we did a lot of activities to that end…. starting with a dip in the pool on some mornings.. eating at nearby restaurants… to playing cards and Dumb charades in the room….sharing music a great “binder” – as I read somewhere.. listening to the music your kids are listening to can open many windows and doors.
I must say, we came away richer for our experience, that Christmas.
The serene beaches, the beautiful sea in many many moods….all were memories we could draw upon for a long long time to come to recreate that feeling of togetherness….
Be It Goa or Pondicherry, Kerala or Shimla, Kanyakumari or Kashmir… family vacations have a way of creating bonds as we get busy creating memories…
I do not know what Santa has in store for me this year… as a popular joke goes, it is important that he gets my prayers right – I want to ask him for a Slim Me and a Fat Bank balance… Last year he had reversed the request !!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “In Due Time.”
In Due Time
What’s your next, most pressing deadline? Are you excited, stressed, or ambivalent about it? What’s the first thing you’d like to do once you’re done with it?
Life is a series of deadlines for most of us. From homework and assignments in childhood to deadlines at work as well as home are more the norm than the exception…
I am generally not very stressed by deadlines – in a way I welcome them to a certain extent, because I feel it “inspires” me to do my best.. As i often say, a wee bit of Adrenaline is always good for the task at hand!!
I found this particularly true when I had to give exams. I was /am unfazed by exams. And I noticed that I did better when I was slightly anxious about the outcome rather than too “cool” about the whole thing. There was an ad those days about Kelvinator being “the coolest one” and I was often called Kelvinator!
One deadline I grapple with almost everyday (and lose off and on ! ) is the morning rush. I need to wake up in time for a walk at 5.30 which means that I have to be up at 5 – this usually after putting away my laptop at 1 am!! My daughter leaves at 6.30 am.. and I usually hand around her till she leaves. Breakfast is at 7.15 and I plan to be out of the door by 7.30 so as to reach the hospital at 8. As a friend used to say, I sometimes get out at 8.05 and try to reach the hospital by 8am!!!
My speciality is a series of deadlines from everyday work to the natural outcome of each patient. the daily deadlines helps me deal with deadlines in general with a calmer and cooler mind, I guess.
My nearest deadline is to write this post in 10 minutes and hook it to the magical grid that is back in our lives. Thank you, WordPress!
You have to write a message to someone dear to you, telling that person how much he/she means to you. However — instead of words, you can only use 5-10 objects to convey your emotions. Which objects do you choose, and what do they mean?
This prompt is rather difficult. How can one ever convey one’s emotions through things? If one does have to, especially to someone away from you … I would use these .. Words create magic and nothing conveys emotions as well as the written word… To me my mobile and laptop are “the language of things” … to so many many people .. a few special people, my family , my friends. Maligned they may be , but they keep me in touch with my own emotions as well as my loved ones and well wishers
Another way I express my love is through food.. and I love cooking for my friends and family…especially the ones who visit infrequently. Knowing what they like, making it with my own hands and then watching it disappear is something I love.
Music is the food of friendship too and many a time I have used and enjoyed this on my phone and shared it with friends.
Thoughts words music messages and mails …keep a relationship alive and more so a long distance one.. and so here’s to those special bonds.. may they last forever and ever!! I hope these pics convey the message to the ones I care for..
Amidst the serenity of the backwaters of my home state ,Kerala – this is Ashtamudi Kayal at Kollam. Spent a wonderful evening and a morning walk with Rajiv.
A tryst with History – Visited the abode of one of Kerala’s best known painters – described as a prince among painters and a painter among princes, Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings are famous the world over. Visited the Chitrashala where he made many of his memorable paintings – at Kilimannoor Palace, Kerala.
Ripples N Reflections 