Start on a Sunday

Sundays are bitter sweet. Sweet because you still have one more day to rewind, reset (?!), do chores before your re-run. Yet it is the last day of weekend. So, the night before, I tried to list what all I would like to do the next day and the list was long (as usual). My hair was due for its henna & there is the cupcake I promised my daughter, her English tests, the routine grocery chores & my intention of 10 mins surya namaskar.... 

I planned to finish my cooking before my family woke up and to some extent managed to achieve that (at least 80% of it). I was satisfied with my progress, achieved in spite of me getting up at at 7 AM. I am little unusual among my friends as cooking to me is still very specific with my own attention to detail, successfully repelling all few cooks that I had tried.

Now that my daughter was wide awake I tried to steer her to do some physical activity before plunging to studies. She was excited to go in her bike now that the puncture is fixed. I tried to coax her to yoga but then gave up as something is better than nothing. We agreed for a cycle trip outside combined with grocery buying (at least one of my task will be done en route). Me and my daughter enjoy our cycle trips even though it is among bustling vehicles in bangalore streets. 

I was glad that I changed my routine & we went out at 9:30 AM without my shower (told myself it was still ok). Post our shopping in which my daughter successfully squeezed in her picks, she suggested a short break at the library. Being the voracious reader that she is, I couldn’t resist her suggestion. After all reading is a good habit, that too physical in these digital days. In the library we had set ourselves a time limit and I too picked up a book. I picked up Sujatha’s short story, one of my favorite writers. As I scanned through the pages I realized that I am still bound to writers of my generation. I do thoroughly enjoy the immense content, rationale, narration style of writers like Jeyakanthan (my dad’s favourite), Sujatha and RK Narayanan but it is time that I also try the contemporary writers of this generation. I had recently read Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories that my husband had picked up for me & was really touched by two or three stories. In spite of them being very much NRI based but the context itself was based on current lifestyle. So, reminded myself that I should note down some new recommendations for reading. 

Now it was already past 11 AM (not really sure what the time was) I was caught up in series of calls to trace my maid! My husband was also not at home and so didn’t want to face a disaster by missing her. Once this was sorted we reached home and finished our breakfast at noon (never my preference). I asked my daughter how did she like the outing and hearing her positive response told her it can be repeated if she is up before 7 AM. But she is usually like her father, prefers to go to bed late and start her day late, whereas I am the opposite.

Assured that the start of day was good enough motivation we pushed ourselves to prepare for her tests (half a day is gone!). After reading her first lesson my daughter was yawning! me too! she took a break suggesting it will revive her. After couple of reminders we again successfully turned our focus to the mammoth syllabus, I was baffled. Do they intend to make a 4^th grader an English writer already?! Her topics were writing recounts, newspaper articles, poetry, fables, legends, autobiography, biography etc., Overwhelmed but still coaxed my daughter to prepare as this is not the time to analyze/debate on our school’s goals/methodology😏. While guiding my daughter to write a recount – I was suggesting how she could start and write a recount of our morning outing. When she stepped out for a bio break I thought why not me too, write my own recount as an example. Now here I am, and you are reading my recount …. I am delighted that I was able to open up, finally sit down and do this writing, writing that has been lingering inside for a while. I enjoyed doing this and was glad that I was able to take my first step. After all the fourth grader’s lesson has helped the mom to recount, restart and discover 😊!!