March and April have been strange months this year. I am looking back now and feel so overall negative about the last two months. This is an odd feeling because nothing awful happened (especially compared to the turmoil at the beginning of the year), but it feels more like a holding pattern, where I am waiting strangely passively for things to happen.
I am starting to realize that I don’t like feeling that I don’t have control of events. However, this was pretty much the case for the last two months.
Work
Work was in a start-regroup-stop-restart-replan mode, where I took two steps forward and then four steps back. A lot of work, but very little to show for it at the end of the day. Plus, all the chatter on the internet about job losses in IT, etc. was disturbing and anxiety-inducing.
Life
Home life was better. K is recovering nicely from his bout with cancer, getting his strength back slowly, and doing his checkups; everything seems normal for now.
It was the kids’ summer holidays and there were no major plans – partly because the heat was overwhelming – making me not want to even step outside my air-conditioned room. Second, K was still recuperating; we didn’t want to make any plans as a family while he was still under the weather. Also, this year my poor Piglet has a bucketload of holiday homework to complete. I don’t know what the teachers were thinking to give such a workload over the holidays!
Snubnose had a school trip planned, which was very exciting for her – a trip to Europe – Paris, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Heidelburg, and several other smaller towns. It was a most exciting time for her, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Piglet’s crestfallen face when he saw her enjoying her dream trip, but there was nothing for him.
Still, she did work very hard the last few years in school, and it’s been a pretty rough time for her, so I am glad she got the opportunity to go have some fun.
Now that she’s back, it’s time to slog her butt off for the next year or so, so she’s well-prepared enough to get into the college of her dreams.
Books
In terms of books and reviews, these were good months. I read A LOT, and reviewed quite a few too.
Of the entire lot, I loved The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told and The Song of Achilles. They were simply fabulous. I also enjoyed The Wych Elm (my introduction to Tana French and her sublime writing style) and The Hunting Party. Dark Matter was good too, but not exactly my kind of novel. The biggest disappointments were Ghost Lover and Don’t You Cry. The former was a bit too much overall in terms of angst, and the latter, while having an interesting premise, just seemed too unfinished and poorly written.
There were plenty more good books in the past two months and I will be sharing them on the blog soon.
Screen time
I didn’t do much screen time these last two months. Nothing seems that interesting! I started on a rewatch of The Vampire Diaries – a series I had watched when it first came out, but I think I have outgrown vampires. I also watched the third season of Indian Matchmaking – fun but predictable. At least, this season – the people seemed nicer. Scratch that; only the women are nicer. The men are as entitled as ever.
Travel
I look forward to May, when the kids and I head to Chennai for a few weeks during the summer holidays. Yes, we are heading from the frying pan into the fire (regarding the summer heat). But spending time with the gramps is always fun for the kids. Plus, we are traveling in the new Vande Bharat train, which is pretty exciting for Piglet. I hope it lives up to his rather high expectations.
We aren’t going to do much other than visit relatives and buy Piglet a new school bag and a pen (he’s super excited that from next year, he will be writing with a pen at school). We may also try out a couple of new restaurants and visit Piglet’s favorite crocodiles.
I originally planned some personal travel in May, but the more the time passes, it looks like that isn’t happening 🙁 .
Still, I have my fingers crossed things work out. If not, I realize it’s not such a big deal. In my current mindset, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.
How has your year been looking so far?
