The Calm before...

Late February

It was vacation planning time for us. We matched calendars to plan the best possible time and then ideated on the destination.

My only requirement was a place where I could just plonk myself in one place and just spend time with family. No hiking, surfing and definitely no cooking and cleaning. The elder one wanted to go to a beach. My husband voted for Cambodia. The younger one didn’t want a long holiday. I wanted to go to Jaipur or Goa. The universe was probably laughing at us.

After much deliberations we realized we could not book any tickets until March end because of various meetings and tuition dates yet to be finalized.  We decided on driving to Coorg.

Last year, by this time I had already blocked 2L in tickets and bookings. Maybe it was the universe nudging us helpfully.

On the last day of February, Jo left for a school trip across Maharashtra.

News started coming in of the virus reaching India.

It was just one or two people to begin with. Then a few of their families. Then the people they visited. Some of them even went across their hometown hugging long-lost friends and family. Some invited their friends and families and neighbours over. The virus spread across the map like an animation in a horror movie.

Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad…Bangalore. Social media provide all the news in graphic detail. The new virus had arrived.

The kids were supposed to reach back on 8^th March, and then have 3 weeks of school before the vacations started. I was ticking off each day with a prayer for them to return to school safely and go back to the normal routine.

They reached a few hours later than expected but everyone was safe and healthy. ‘Normal’ however was going to become our most longed for dream over the next few months.

 

The Best Laid Plans

I plan. It helps me feel that I am in control (of whatever).

I need to make plans otherwise I get caught up in moments and land miles away from where I needed to,
And a lot of times, unexpected things happen, situations change and so do plans. So, I usually have a plan-B and even a plan C for worst case situations. This approach has worked beautifully for work-related projects, managing household inventory and investments and even holidays. With people, the plans need to be a lot more elastic, but the overall idea usually worked.

And then came March 2020.

Campus closures and travel bans. Kids at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go. The whole family at home, the maid at her home, and all the office work to do. Flights cancelled for vacations on which now we anyway don’t plan to go. And I don’t even know what to plan for.

Priorities changed.

I have started checking Bigbasket and Amazon Fresh to see when they are restarting deliveries more frequently than I check Facebook or email. Instead of cribbing about work, I am thankful for jobs that are allowing us to go about ‘life as usual’.

Instead of planning for the future, I am living in gratitude in the present. Thankful that the family got to move together before we got locked out and doing my best to help those who could not. And instead of waiting for holidays and vacations and big-ticket purchases, am just waiting for the days when a safe cure is around to combat this fear, and we can get back to the routine, humdrum, boring old life.

And getting my maid back? I certainly have renewed appreciation for her work, but I would not fear her leaves so much any more. Of all the things that have given me confidence, learning to manage with limited resources, without maids, while keeping kids occupied and doing justice to my job among all this mayhem are the topmost.

I am grateful we have been able to cope well so far and hope the same for all. Sharing my prayers for those still in peril and fear, and hopes for a world that heals soon.

Best laid plans

I hated planning; thinking ahead, organizing….the works

Life being what it is, tried to teach me all about it, giving me no option but to buckle up and change gears.

Now I work on a calendar on which most work appointments are (thankfully) maintained to some degree by Microsoft Outlook.

I keep adding other meetings, personal reminders (to book gas cylinders, doctor’s appointments, picking up stuff for school projects, getting laundry done, filling petrol, submitting bills, buying gifts for birthdays the kids have to attend etc) to that.

And yes, once the school calendars are out, I superimpose those to my existing one so that I also get the reminders for school competitions and holidays, unit tests, parents’ days, sports days etc.

Since this calendar doesn’t work when I am offline-I add all the important ones to my phone too-so that every driving, shopping, talking, walking, moment is organized to the bar of the T.

I’ve also organized my grocery shopping through a master list, from which I need to strike out the items I don’t need, and generate the list for any month.

Enough to win me a nomination for Ms. Efficiency? Probably.

Had it not been for the times, I left the phone in the car and missed the reminder for calling my college room-mate on her birthday or picking up stuff from the dry cleaners (or the umpteen times I leave my phone charger at office and leave the battery to whimper out) .

Or the times I’ve pulled up at a petrol pumps and realized that I’d left my credit card at home.

Or, the times when I’ve received emergency calls from school/daycare and raced out of meetings, training sessions, client calls….whatever.

Even the times when I’ve got hold of an interesting read and let go off everything else.

And the last few times when I forgot to print the programmed grocery lists and ended up with four bottles of toilet cleaner, three packets of turmeric and an empty sugar canister.

Well, there is only so much planning can do!