Sabbatical Round up, Week 3

It’s actually Week 3/Week 4 now, but better late than never, I always say.

Actually, that’s not true. I hate being late. I absolutely abhor it. My husband’s casual attitude towards appointed times drives me nuts.  But that’s one of the themes for this month for me - the discovery that I have a little problem in my inability to RELAX.

I’m supposed to have taken this break to kind of , you know, take a break. Instead, the various other pending things in my life have just expanded to fill up every single available iota of time until as before, there is no time left.

It’s a good thing though – primarily because I’m able to spend more time with the family. I’ve got to see a lot more of my grandmother, who has been rather unwell of late.But at one point, I must slow down.

Meanwhile, in the last 10 days:

·         Action has been high on the book front, with my getting my author copies and various celebrations with Vijay and the rest of the family. Gearing up for launch, and it’s taking more of my time than I thought.

·         I’ve been thinking about and think I finally have a plot for Book 2 – now to just figure out how to get time to actually write it. It's going to take a large re-write.Will do it at some point, though.

·         The Zumba is on in full swing and the body is hurting, but I think it should get better from hereon. It is incredibly strenuous but good fun, for the most part. Zumba Teacher no. 2 proved to be a delight after Zumba Teacher no. 1. Must do a post on that soon.

·         Am evaluating guitar classes in July, but then again, given that that is the month the book is launching, I may end up just taking on more than I can chew. So am trying to resist.

·         I find myself pleasantly surprised that I have actually managed to make decent progress on Peanut’s holiday homework. However, all the Hindi homework was pending and I was nervous about this weekend – but it turns out the school came to its senses and decided to extend the holidays another week. Yay!

·         In the first week of July, the twins turn 2 and I am planning a little birthday bash for them and Peanut (who also has her birthday later in the month). This should be an interesting exercise in stress reduction. Not. As it is, I have been delayed in terms of booking the hall and lost one date (dammit!) to a neighbor. But tomorrow, aha!

·         Yesterday was a very interesting project – Vijay had some shopping to do in Ambience mall, and within a two hour period, we had managed to buy a music system, various kitchen and food items while we deposited the twins and Peanut in a play area, and then fed them a delightfully unhealthy ‘mall-lunch’ of noodles, rice and cold drinks. Obviously, in order to accomplish all this, we had to take along our help and split up between various floors of the mall at appropriate times. It was all accomplished with military precision thanks to my planning ( unlike Vijay who kept getting distracted and saying ‘Honey, look – the perfect study-table for Peanut!’ when I asked him to pick up a kitchen knife). Great fun and utterly exhausting. Am in no hurry to try it again.

·         The grandma is utterly delighted to have her copy of ‘Just Married, Please Excuse’. She posed with it very cutely, must upload those pictures soon. She’s the first person I’ve mentioned in the acknowledgment’s section – primarily it was because she once told me in an uncharacteristically austere manner that ‘To have a talent like writing and waste it is a Sin Against God’. I had mixed feelings when she put it back down and went back to reading Palace of Illusions. But then I couldn’t really blame her – she’s already read the draft of my book, and frankly, let’s face it – it’s Chitra Devakaruni Bannerjee’s masterpiece we’re talking about here. Still. I’m looking forward to her reading JMPE and laughing out loud all over again, now that it’s in it’s final and completely polished and finished state.

·         Vijay also keeps a copy by his bedside proudly and refers to me as ‘Author Madam’ and ‘Author Baby’ depending upon the mood he is in. He started reading it and a few pages down asked me in all innocence - referring to one of his dialogue's in the book -‘ Hey, so what’s wrong with Tamper Tentrums?’ It took him a while to realize what he was saying and then he tried to tell me that I 'have a bad typo' in my book.

Anyway, the launch event is in the third week of July sometime. Epicenter, Gurgaon. I do hope you will come?