Motherhood newly bestowed upon
me, had taught me my initial share of sudden fear, uncertainty and chaos. After
a neat two month tumble down the motherhood roller coaster, I was headed for a
bigger joyride, that of balancing motherhood and life otherwise which includes
household chores, husband, in-laws and the likes…
Funnily the precursor to my
joyride turned out to be an episode in itself!
This incident now looks funny and
strange et al but when we lived through it, it seemed like mini hell!
With our trusted rickety bright
neon green car, in which we dumped a lifetime belongings of a two month old
(trust me the kid owns more than us adults) :P we set out on a fine Pune
morning to head towards Mumbai. The initial leg of the tour went perfectly well,
as the clouds of parting emotions drifted away, me and my husband finally got
some “us” space to talk sensible adult conversation! (I keep needing doses of
it regularly to last me through my days of endless baby talk). The baby Miss A
was blissfully asleep and smiling intermittently creating almost a dream-like
scene! As we wound around the sahyadri ghats, rode up to Lonavla and drove down
Khandala, my chondromalacia afflicted knees knew it was time! Time to rest!
We stopped at the Khopoli
foodmall, topped up petrol and as we readied ourselves for the second leg of
the journey, poof the magic began! :P The car miraculously stopped, wouldn’t
budge an inch and all attempts at starting the engine, reviving the car back to
life were met with disappointment! Now the glaring afternoon sun caught us
unawares and pricked the baby alive from its slumber by shining down upon her
tiny eyes! So now there was a very frustrated newly minted father, ditto for
the mother and a baby threatening to cry out her loudest!
As we pulled out all the baby
stuff crammed in the car, without a clue as to what is wrong with the car, we
helplessly fidgeted around without success.
Finally a mechanic was hailed from the closest settlement, as we were
stuck in this oasis in the desert called expressway! Bleh to all mommy advice,
the new mother with the baby walked into a pizza outlet, thankfully that was
the correct choice.
What ensued next was a two hour ordeal of figuring out what was wrong with the car, and a helplessly flitting father at one end, and at the other, baby peacefully sleeping on the comfy sofas of the pizza outlet, enjoying the AC there, a worried mother gobbling her pizza lunch, eyes fixed to the watch, for baby mealtime was close…
What ensued next was a two hour ordeal of figuring out what was wrong with the car, and a helplessly flitting father at one end, and at the other, baby peacefully sleeping on the comfy sofas of the pizza outlet, enjoying the AC there, a worried mother gobbling her pizza lunch, eyes fixed to the watch, for baby mealtime was close…
Friendly and unfriendly stares,
mixed with hushed surprise exclamations, all thrown at the new mother were
deftly ignored, while she gobbled her pizza. As soon as she was done, Miss A
decided to begin her lunch time wailing! With no newly minted father in sight,
mommy newest thought out the next best plan! Requested the outlet manager to
allow her to feed the baby some place closed, what she got in return was a
basement room where the store supplies lay!
A baby in hand sure opens doors!
New lesson learnt! So finally the new mom peacefully fed her baby in the
basement of the pizza stores, where there were empty pizza boxes and cheese and
sauce bottles for company! Meanwhile the father was clueless about the baby and
mother’s whereabouts! But still ate the leftover pizza aimlessly, waiting for
the other half of family to return. The mom and baby arrived, the mechanic
arrived, and finally after what seemed like eternity but was a mere 2.5 hours,
the car decided to come alive! The baby decided to sleep, and the parents
decided to re-start the final leg of this strange journey!
There was a relatively incident
free drive till Mumbai, only to be banged really badly from the rear side of
the car by some unruly car driver, who wanted to jump signals! Welcome to
Mumbai baby! Where signals are to be broken! The car ran along a mile post this
bumping in, later the car engine began sounding so ominous that it scared the
parents to the core…please no more adventure they prayed but alas, the engine
gave in! Finally an auto-rickshaw was hailed, mom and baby got home, car and
father followed suit! Only to have a long spell of power cuts at home which
meant the entire family ended up fanning the baby all evening!
Phew! So much for getting the
baby home!
What a way to come back to the
city of your birth! :P
