Weekend break with a bundle of joy - 1

It was sometime in late December or early January this year that I got frantic Facebook messages from Anuradha & Som about their plan to visit Chennai and asking me to call them back. Anu is my classmate from Kalaikunda, Kharagpur (West Bengal) way back in 1992 (its almost 2 decades now!!!) and a very close friend. Som, Anu's husband works with TERI and is an avid traveler / photographer.

Coming back to the Facebook messages, when contacted first thing Anu did was giving me a piece of mind about how my phone was perpetually unreachable. And then they both shared a plan they were putting in place to visit Chennai, Mahabalipuram, Pondicherry, Ooty & Humpi. I was particularly excited for 2 reasons – about the prospects of travelling along and more importantly getting to meet Srishti, Anu & Som’s 3 ½ yr old daughter.

We spoke a couple of times again and the plan was fixed by some for the last weekend of February. Some change in plans and Anu reached a day earlier via Madurai. I was more excitedly waiting for Srishti who was landing on 25th Feb midnight. Born in June 2007, I have met Srishti only twice before. First time along with Reema (my better half) when she was a few weeks old and then in 2009 (gosh that’s a good 20 months back…time really flies) both times in Delhi. What added to the excitement was she had grown old enough to speak some really beautiful Hindi and we had a long conversation during one of our calls to confirm the trip.
Me & Anu went to pick Som & Srishti @ the Chennai Airport. Finally they arrived…she was tired but was up and about as soon as she saw ‘Mamma’. She lad lot of stories to tell about her Kingfisher flight on our way back. Soon we crashed with the plan of leaving by 10 am next day for Pondicherry via Mahabalipuram.

26th Feb, 11 am
We packed our bags, got into a Toyota Innova and left. Though it was just a few hours Srishti was already comfortable with Carnic and Reema.

First Stop – Dakshin Chitra (http://dakshinachitra.net/)
DakshinaChitra is a center for the living traditions of art, folk performing arts, craft and architecture of India with an emphasis on the traditions of South India and opened to the public in December 1996. The center occupies ten undulating acres overlooking the Bay of Bengal, at Muttukadu, twenty five kilometers south of Chennai, on the East Coast Road to Mahabalipuram. We spent a lot of time exploring the place especially the art and culture of various communities of South India. Though it was a bit hot Srishti roamed around sometimes on her own sometimes with me (which I was more than delighted about). She particularly enjoyed walking on the stone boundaries and looking around the rooms of various ancient houses. Som was happy to go around clicking. Sadly my camera was not working so was more dependent on my Nokia E73!

Mahabalipuram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram)
In about a couple of hours we left for Mahabalipuram. The Sun god was not any kind and the first thing we did was to buy a hat for Srishti which she selected! We did check out the temples and stone carvings before proceeding for lunch. Where else but Moonrakers (http://www.moonrakersrestaurants.com/)…a landmark in Mahabalipuram! Unusually Srishti like a good kid had her lunch and all this while had a lot of queries which we all tried to answer!!! Hope she was satisfied! Some window shopping and a few pictures later we proceeded to the famous Shore Temple where with the excuse of showing something new or the other I would take Srishti around. And finally we landed up at the beach…a quaint corner of it where both of us had a lot of fun playing in the sand. She particularly enjoyed the waves and also the merry-go-round! Soon it got dark and we packed up to leave for Pondicherry.

It was a fun filled day 1 of a three day trip with Srishti, Anu, Som and of course Reema.
The fun ride continues…