My sister and myself are both 'settled' in Bangalore with our families. We try to visit our parents once every year with our kids and spouses. And we try to plan our visits in such a way that all of us (kids, kids-in-laws and grand kids) will be there at the same time. That makes the period a true family get together.
This year is no exception. We have planned our stay with our parents for Onam. It's not that Onam is a particularly important festival for our family. But we thought it was nice to be home during festive season and to make the most out of it.
However, I generally do not take more than a week's leave at a stretch, if it can be helped. I would rather have 2 or 3 one-week's leaves than a single big chunk of leave. This would not have left Anuja and Jennifer much time in Kerala. So we decided that mom and kid should go in advance and spend some time with grandparents from both sides, without having to hurry through their vacations. After much deliberation, we decided that going by car was the best option. Train was vetoed since they required 3 months' advance booking. Flights were way too expensive. Bus seemed to be too strenuous for the kid. Car seemed the perfect choice. We could take all the stuff that seemed important for the baby without having to compromise anything. And we would be able to take as many breaks in between as seemed required. My father (God bless him!) also agreed to come to Bangalore first and share the 850 km drive with me.
Preparations commenced days in advance. Shopping...packing...arranging...more shopping...rearranging...shopping...more packing...vaccinations...and so on and so forth. We were more or less done with the preps two days before the actual journey date. My father arrived the night before and the car was also checked and prep'd by Friday. We bought some more provisions for the journey and went to sleep early.
Day of journey: alarm woke us up at 4 am! Jenny's mom heated up milk and filled up the containers. Jenny's dad arranged the luggage in the car. Jenny herself woke up in time to be swooped up into warmer clothes. We said a short pre-journey prayer and off we went.
The entire journey took us exactly 14.5 hours. We had a breakfast and lunch break and 3 feeding breaks. We learned the hard way (to be read as baby throwing up) that Jenny needed to be fed with the car not moving! But in general: she was an angel! I mean it is not an easy feat at all for a 9 month old baby to sit still in a car for almost fifteen hours at a stretch! At home, once she is awake, she hardly sits still for a minute. But throughout the journey, she was at peace...she slept well, ate well, enjoyed the ride, loved the breeze from open windows on her face and so on....We were truly amazed on how well she adjusted.
The trip in general was nice. The route was very scenic...traffic was very bearable...and we did very good time...that is until we reached Kerala. Kerala never fails to amaze me. I could always tell I had entered Kerala when I saw the vegetation suddenly grow lush and green. But over time, I came to realise that another way to figure out that I had entered God's own Country was by paying attention to the roads. 4-lane roads suddenly become single-lane country roads with more traffic than even the 4-lanes could have accommodated; all this with a generous dose of road-works, that include digging and concreting! It was pathetic. Whatever time we saved till Kerala, we lost once we got onto our roads.
Anyway, the journey was safe...we reached home well...and more or less at a decent hour. As soon as we reached, Jenny immediately went into the arms of her grandmother (my mother) as if she had been seeing her on a daily basis. Another interesting thing was that immediately after having had a bath, Jenny was back to her normal self. On seeing her, nobody would have believed that this baby had just travelled 850 km in 15 hours! She was crawling around, shouting, playing and so on as she would have done in Bangalore.
Thus Jenny reached Kerala for her vacation. More posts regarding her stay there and my stay (without her) here will follow! :)
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