Yaaahoooooooooooooooo! Am home alone after 1 year and 5 months.... One part of me feels guilty about having left Kimaya at Mettur with my parents, but another part of me shoo shoo's me. Anyways now that I've left her there, there is no point feeling guilty, right. I can as well enjoy this unexpected quiet feeling.

To be frank, I did not know what to do with the time I had for myself with no restrictions.... Yesterday since I was tired, I did not give it much thought. Today I feel lost, though I went and bought couple of books, something to eat, roamed around the mall for an hour, watched Cheeni Kum (some movie, that I've been wanting to watch to see Tabu and even tried couple of times, but with some interruption, I was never successful), had junk and browse net for hours..Ofcourse last but not the least - with teacher... I'm trying to find out hard things that I can do. Hmm... I've grown used to Kimaya being around.

I strongly advocate the thought that even parents need rest at times. It is more because of the guilt associated with leaving the kid elsewhere - not counting schools and play time, makes the parents miserable. I'm trying hard to overcome this feeling. She is very happy there. So why do I crib?? God knows why!

I've, rather, my other part has been looking forward to this break, hence I decide to ignore my part thats been constantly nagging me and enjoy while it lasts..

The function that did not happen on Nov 19th happened on Dec 19th, that is yesterday. Yes, my dad's sashti aptha purthi went on very well. It was a very small function and it happened at home. Only that varuna bhagawan played spoilt sport and made every place around 'nasa nasa'. I was so happy to see my parents getting married and we were all making fun of dad and mom. Appa was asusual very emotional about the whole thing.

Got home yesterday late in the night to go to office today... Tired and so good nite.

We had an impromptu holiday last month. My dad's sixtieth birthday celebrations got cancelled because of a death in the family and that happened on the day we were about to leave from here. We had plans of visiting Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Thirukkadaiyur, Thirukkarugavur, Sembangudi and Nallicheri. And all those got cancelled. Since we had prepared also so much for this absence at office and Amma and appa were so upset, we decided that we will drive down somewhere and have a holiday.

So I chose Mudumalai from three options - Chikmagalur, Mudumalai and Karwar. Since he will be driving, I did not want it to be anything long which ruled out Karwar. Since we decided that we will leave my parents back in Mettur, and Mudumalai will be closer from both ends, we started our journey on Tuesday morning(Nov 20th) 5:40 am from Bangalore. Stopped at Kamath for breakfast. It was a 224 Kms drive via Ramnagara, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya, Srirangapatna, Mysore, Najungad, Gundelpet, and Bandipur. Till Mysore the road was great. From Mysore to Gundlepet, it was a bumpy drive. Once we enter the forest area, we were back on good roads.

Monkeys and deers were the only wild animals we managed to see in the trip. We took the van safari. As the review in Outlook 32 weekend getaways suggested, it was a bumpy ride and was not worth the money as we did not see any elephant. We did see one, a tamed one in the wild. Kimaya paid attention to the hen that was hanging around the elephant while we were trying hard to show her the 'real' elephant. It was really funny! That apart, it was a great holiday.

We stayed at blue valley resorts at Bokkapuram. (www.bluevalleyresort.com). We were the only ones staying there as it was during weekdays in off-season. Food was made after ordering. Even though the choices were limited, it was good and fresh. There was no TV, phones were not reachable (only BSNL works!). We were surrounded by fresh air and blue mountains. We went for walks, drives, ate, slept, played with Kimaya in the children's play area and played monopoly for hours before sleeping.

Initial plan was to drive straight from there to Mettur via Sathyamangalam on Saturday morning. We realised that Ooty is just 30 kms from Mudumalai and when my mom showed some enthu to see ooty, plans got changed. We checked out from the resort on Friday morning and drove down to Ooty via Kalhatti. There is another route from Theppakkadu (Mudumalali) via Gudalur, but as people adviced that this road is good, we took this even though I was skeptical about the 36 hair pin bends I read about in the week end getaways review. But I was glad that we took that road. It was an excellent drive. Car stopped at two places because he tried to take it in second gear when it was fully loaded. From experience, our advice is stick to 1st gear on the bends. They are pretty steep, but safe as long as you follow the rules.

We visited the botanical gardens and boat house - took the customary walk and the motor boat ride and left from there at 4:30 pm. Had to take a diversion to Kothagiri as the Coonoor road was blocked. Reached Mettur at 9:30 pm taking the Mettupalayam, Annur, Perundhurai, Bhavani route. There were bad patches but overall, it was a comfortable drive.

After staying Mettur for a day, we started early in the morning on Sunday at around 5:30 and reached Bangalore at 10 (Madivala) with a 30 mt breakfast break. It was excellent road all along and we just cruised through.

So all good things (Sigh!) ended and was back to office on Monday!!!!