My Kind of Sunday

After a madly hectic phase when my sister and nephew were visiting, I was even more occupied Friday and Saturday with work. I literally was working from 9 am till 8 pm yesterday, which is a way was good because it helped take the edge off the fact that my sister's gone back to the US. Today morning dawned bright and clear and we decided this would be a great Sunday to hit the club. Our club has a brunch on the lawns on Sundays in winter, with a singer who knows all the old 50s and 60s numbers - Khoya Khoya Chand, Pal Pal Dil ke Paas and so on. They had a Hyderabadi and Lucknowi kebab and biryani festival which I knew A would love.

We woke up in a leisurely way and after bed tea, had the time, after a really long time, to go through the papers, especially the Sunday Brunch. Brekker was light since we knew we were going to gorge at the club . I sat down to feed Bojjandi and found one of my favourite programs on DT&L being telecast - What not to wear. We finally made it to the club around 12:30, by which time the sun was out in full force, in that typically Delhi Winter way. We dawdled over lunch, Chubbocks freaking out over all the 'Non-veg kebabs" as he loves saying, and Puddi feeding herself four pieces of tandoori paneer. The food was good - low on oil, with a great selection of veg kebabs - and the music lovely. A and I sang along, really getting into it and enjoying the warm sunshine on our shoulders. We even ended up sampling three out of four desserts - GJ, Gajar ka Halwa and Kulfi, and Puddi made a meal just out of dessert!

On the way home we were all pleasantly drowsy and even Chubbocks wound up napping. I actually managed to go to sleep and had one of those deep slumbers which one gets occasionally in the afternoon, at the end of which you can barely drag yourself out of bed and the eyelids seem too heavy to open. I had been needing more sleep for a while so it was good to get down to it. When I woke up, the kids had gone to the park so only A, I and Bojjandi were home. We had our tea sitting out on our new patio, with a slight chill breeze running through the jacaranda tree and green plants all around, under a bright blue sky. A and I could sit and chat quietly. It was like a magical interlude, snatched out of time. The colony was quiet, for once no noise coming from the DLF constuction sites nearby. Not even a bird cry disturbed the stillness of the afternoon, and suddenly I felt such a sense of peace stealing over me...Reminding me of my favourite lines by Browning, "God's in his heaven; All's right with the world..."

It's so important to remember that, all the more during these turbulent times when it seems like there is only turmoil externally: the economic news sucks, friends and relatives are leading unhappy lives, we're missing loved ones...but still it's a wonderful life!