Week 20/206: 18 May Monday to 24 May Sunday

Monday I started planning a short trip to Mysore. Since Dhruva’s birth we have not been anywhere, literally nowhere, not even travelled more than 150 kms. Otherwise we would go on a trip to a different state every year. Rajasthan, Kashmir, Odisha, Sikkim and Darjeeling. Four years and four states. And then came Dhruva.

I like travelling, to see places and experience the differences. Differences in people, history, culture, agriculture, climate, language, heritage, food, traditions, textiles, artworks, everything. My itinerary would be fullllll of places to visit. I do not spend time at the hotel we stay in, or on breakfast and lunch breaks. Travel literally means travel for me, from 8 in the morning to 8 in the night, sometimes beyond. I am saying “I” because Sujay is with me just for being there. He does not really like travelling.

But it is not possible now, at least till Dhruva grows to 3 or 4 years old and learns to enjoy travelling. I hope he will become my travelling partner, replacing Sujay, because Sujay is too boring as a travel partner.

So we decided on a short two day trip within the state. I checked many many reels and noted down places to see. But then both Dhruva and I fell ill. An infection we must have picked up from a family gathering earlier this week. Runny nose, sore throat, fever, and now cough. We recovered quickly, but we will not be able to travel. And then I also thought Mysore would be too crowded during summer holidays. So I consoled myself that we could plan it during the off season.

Before we fell ill, I completed reading many pending magazines from the last three weeks.

I also planned one more board game on agrobiodiversity of India as part of the NMG grant. Snake and Ladder is already going on, and Sounya is doing it beautifully. The second project was given for illustrations. This game was not even in the list before. The thought came suddenly, and it will become a beautiful one if the illustrations turn out well.

I really wonder now how that idea got generated while I was brainstorming with my GPT. Of course GPT does not directly give me anything, but it suggests random things that trigger better thoughts in me. I love this process. Again, I feel it is all God’s grace.

I watched the movie Aligarh, which had been pending on my list for a long time. It is about a gay professor working at Aligarh University, close to retirement, who is thrown out of his position after being caught in a relationship with a man, back when homosexuality was still a crime. The movie had very high ratings, so I wanted to watch it.

It is good, but it failed to touch me emotionally. There were moments where I genuinely felt bad for the professor and pitied him. But I felt the narration could have been better. Maybe I feel that way because homosexuality is no longer a crime now, or because it has become more mainstream.

Apart from the illness, this was also a week of meeting many relatives and attending family gatherings. We went to Sujay’s doddamma’s house and to my ajji’s house for pooja. Appa and amma also visited us. We have planned some family outings for next week too. Let us hope we actually go.