Today is Fathers Day. Ishi has no clue about what it is and what it means to her and her dad. As a matter of fact, days like this have surfaced only recently. As kids we never ever heard of any mothers day, fathers day, thanks giving day etc. It is all thanks to globalization that we came to know about stuff like this.
B pinni during her Bangalore visit was particular about visiting a hanuman temple near ISKON. I initially mistook it as Raagi guda temple in Jayanagar 9th block. But she corrected me saying there is one near ISKON. She tried going there herself for 2 days which dint materialize. So S finally had to take her there and he asked us to join. I was very reluctant initially as I had to wait for servant maid to come and finish her chores and then taking an early bath on SATURDAY.......unthinkable. I already had plans to sleep my day off once pinni goes to the daily conference at NIMHANS and S goes off to work. So this plan dint go down well with me. I actually was thinking for an excuse and .....yayy.......I found one. I told them that there is a lot of work in the kitchen and I cant do it myself unless helped by the maid. So by the time they start, if all this is done, I said, then I shall come. They agreed to my condition. Pinni had to attend a conference at 8:30. To reach the venue on time, she needs to start early to the temple. The plan was to start at 6:30 come what may. I knew it was practically not possible. I was happy and in my mind was planning on how much I would sleep, what I would do to put Ishi back to sleep in case she wakes up and all that.
The servant maid came at 6:20 and finished all her work by 7. We at home are all Indians right,.....and you must excuse our punctuality. We were all ready by 7 and not 6:30. I dint give Ishi a bath. I woke her up just before leaving and made her Pee. B pinni came to check on what she was doign and asked her if she would come to the temple. The word 'temple' sounded like honey to her ears......and all her sleep was gone. She said, 'Amumma, please wait, just two minutes ok. I'll come'. Had it not been for that temple reason, she would have been lazily relaxing and would have been taking a second innings of her sleep on my shoulder :-).
So finally we all left home at 7:05. Though we knew that the temple is situated behind ISKON, we were not clear about the route. We had to ask many people on the way and reached the venue around 8:20. Yes you read it right.......we were in the temple at 8:20. Today being saturday, we dint expect any traffic. On the contrary it was a mad traffic. While S went to park the car, we rushed our way into the temple. We initially came across a huge idol of Seetha ammavaru. We payed our obeisance to her and then moved on to see the much talked about Hanuman idol. B pinni has been telling us that its a very huge idol and a very pleasant one. The moment we reached the idol, I was spellbound. The idol was etched on a single huge monolith stone. It is around 15-20 ft high. There is a small crane behind the idol to help the priest adorn the Swamy with garlands and to perform arathis. The idol was not pompously decorated, but was very raw, in the sense....it looked very natural and had an aura about itself which I felt is lacking in our regular deity idols which are over adorned with jewels of all kinds. There was some sanctity within that temple and I felt so much at peace. I made Ishi bow to god and made her drop money in the hundi as our offering. She usually likes doing it.
Suddenly I realized S was not around. We already finished our darshan and were about to leave as it was time pressing situation for pinni. I silently prayed god to let S see him. And I saw S at once coming out of the crowd. I was very happy and waved at him so that he can see us. He too finally had a chance to see Swamy. Then we decided to start back home. Can you believe it was just 8:25 at that time?? Yep we were super quick in finishing our darshan. But trust me never did we feel that we were being hurried. Once we got into the car....we all took a look at the time and it gave us a heart attack. S promised to drop pinni at the venue. It was a race against time but S promptly dropped pinni off around 9:10.
I thanked pinni so much for taking me to such a nice place. I was really happy. On the other hand, I thought what a way to start a fathers day for a father who is an atheist !! :-)
We reached home at 9:35. But we dint have any time to relax as we were to attend Fathers day celebration organized boy Scribbles management. We quickly got Ishi ready and gobbled our breakfast. Ishis breakfast was served in the car while we were en route to VET grounds, the venue. We were there by 10:20. But by that time the volley ball match for fathers has already begun as scheduled. S dint feel like taking part in it and chose to sit watching all fathers play. The two teams playing were 'Dashing daddies' and 'Fantastic Fathers' and the later walked away with the prize.
Then an impromptu throw ball match was planned for just mothers. Why should dads have all the fun ?? Anyways I joined the play hesitatingly but later was glad that I did. I enjoyed playing after many years. The match was fun with kids coming near moms in between the play and clinging on to them. Poor things would later be pulled away by their teachers or dads. Our team finally won after a tie between the two teams.
S then left to leave for work as he was already pretty late. I chose to stay back for a while as Ishi wanted to play with her friends. Also....this is the first time that she left me for her friends and moved around freely with everyone. I was glad at this move of hers. Earlier it always used to be 'Oh mom n dad have again got me to school on a holiday. I wont leave them' kind of feeling. And now she has outgrown that. She even walked to the food counter and grabbed a juice unmindful that it is not free and need to be bought. Luckily for her, her mom tip-toed her way (yeah ...she dint want me to accompany her) to that counter and made the payment :-)
After a while I wanted to leave and met her teachers. They were all praises for her as usual. they told me that she was conversing well in kannada and English. She is good with her rhymes, sloka and phonetics. She is the most active kid in the class when phonetics are being taught and responds very well. Was glad to hear all that. We finally left the ground around 12:40 and were home soon. I then gave her lunch (sadly it was heated last nights left overs)....which she dint quite relish. She son hit the bed while I chose to clean the mess up from the mornings chaos.
S came home late this evening. But I was glad we could spend some good time with him in the morning on the eve of fathers day. Signing off now......its high time I hit the bed after such a hectic day. Love you babies( S n Ishi).....
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