Gratitude for May 2016

on our way to chirapunji 

May has been a great month, after completing the April 2016 challenge – I was excited for this month; as this month had so many things happening in my life. The school closed and my daughter Dorothy was at home, which means I am relaxed without having to worry about dropping and picking her up from the bus stop.  I can take my time to do whatever I wanted in the early hours and also let her sleep for a longer period of time.

Khasi tribal look

This year once again Dorothy attended the Vacational Bible School (VBS 2016)  at the nearby Methodist church and made some new friends, learnt the bible and was very happy. She was also awarded for punctuality, singing and preaching too J I was quite happy to see her busy with her home work and also the project work that was given in the school.

This month also was a busy time as we renovated our home; made a lot of changes and tried much as we could to make the place easy to maintain and cleared a lot o clutter, also painted the house  giving a new look to all the rooms. It was a big task for all of us and that kept us busy with the workers and also managing our work places.

with my friend and our daughters

In between all this we also took a few days off for a holiday; just me and my friend Aparna with our daughters to Meghalaya. David couldn't accompany us as he had too many things to handle and most important his mother wasn't ok and she needed his presence both in the mornings and in the evenings. So I let David handle home which needed supervision and also his mom who needed him and I took off with my daughter. The trip was wonderful; and it was first flight experience of my daughter and she was equally excited.

our road trip in Meghalaya

I am grateful to my friend Aparna as she planned the entire trip to Meghalaya, being a native of shilling it was easy for us to move around and see all the important places. I loved this hilly region, full of trees, waterfalls, rivers and streams and so neat and clean. The weather was cold, sometimes raining and at other times filled with fog, going around this part of the country is not at all tiring. The people are so simple, sweet and content with what they have; living a quiet life on the hills, surrounded by fresh breeze, zero pollution and eating fresh fruits, vegetables and also chicken, fish, mutton, pork. I was thrilled to wear their costume and pose the typical khasi (Tribe) look.

Chirapunji

Along the journey, I found almost all the shop owners and hotel owners were women and it feels good to move around in a matriarchal society, wherein women is the head of the house.  I took a lot of photographs, my smart phone was very handy to capture moments to create memories for us and that’s what I did, with my daughter constantly reminding me to enjoy the journey without getting too caught up with pictures.

Chirapunji

Despite that I did click pictures enjoying the happy moments, completely relaxed and away from my daily cooking, cleaning and balancing work and home. I enjoyed the fried memos and freshly cut pineapples which tasted so sweet, the regular complimentary breakfast (bread omelets, sometimes boiled egg, butter) and the dinners were always special vegetable fried rice/jeera rice/ roti/naan/chicken curry/dal fry/paneer in a variety of combination. The special Bengali sweets were unforgettable as we visited relatives of Aparna in shilling as well as Guwahti; I got the taste of Bengali food and sweets.

popular Bengali sweets

Every evening went out for window shopping; without buying much; completely aware that we have to carry only 15 kgs in the flight and 7 kgs in the handbag. Visited two of my friends, one in shilling and another one in Guwahti. It was great to connect with them after so many years and was so much fun to just chat and chat forgetting the time limit I had. I returned with happiness and a heart filled with gratitude the entire experience of the North East. A lot more pictures in my next post :)

Be Blessed & Be Happy !!