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| Trina Mukherjee of Bag of Bong drew this based on the stories I share of K, the boys and me. #kayteecooks was based on her imagination! |
Hybrid life
K had a work call this morning and she conducted it from the hall while I sat in a corner and chanted quietly. Little Nimki was perched on the bookshelf by my side. We are a room short right now with renovations going on at home and hence we were all in one room with #kayteecooks making fresh dosa and sambar for breakfast in the kitchen and her sister cleaning the bedroom and making the bed. The study has been out of my bounds for a fortnight because of the work and my work table has been in the bedroom.
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| Crisp is what I asked for today |
Soft or crisp. How do you like your dosas? I like them crisp when fresh and #kayteecooks (apparently everyone calls her KP, short of Kalpana) delivered just that today. I had breakfast while K conducted her call and Nimki played around. Loaf had had his wet food earlier, after spurning the same for a few days, and had disappeared into the study. Nimki, bless his soul, ate his food as if it’s the most wonderful thing in the world.
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| The cheddar omelette I made myself plus sourdough from Mag St |
Back to office
This tableaux was so different from yesterday’s. K’s Mumbai office had officially opened yesterday. She had gone a couple of times earlier when the campus had first opened but this was the first time that she had spent a full day at the office since the pandemic began and for first time since little Nimki was born. The house was quiet. The boys lay desultorily all day. Missing their mummy. Baby Loaf lay on the sofa while I had breakfast (cheese omelette and sourdough) beside him and then while I chanted. He stayed there and barring once, did not even come to the door the many times I went to attend to the doorbell. His normal modus operandi is to run when the door opens. Nimki lay quietly on the bed and watched me while I worked after I went into the study.
Life is beautiful again
Unlike yesterday, K is home and working today as her office is following a hybrid model at the start. I still remember the day in March 2020 when she came back home in the middle of the day. “Office will be shut for a fortnight for this Corona thingie.” A fortnight became a month, then two, then three and eventually it was 19 months before they opened again. The story would be the same for so many. Some offices are still closed, awakening to the gains from remote working. Some started earlier. Often because the nature of work allowed no alternative.
Love in the time of lockdown
I had been working from home for a couple of years by then (earlier I used to go to Candies and work) and had found my rhythm and the lockdown was not that hard to adjust too. This was a new experience for K and so many others from the corporate world.
How will we cope we wondered being together all the time, I wondered.
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| Loaf by my foot at my temp office in the nedroom |
To be honest, we did not have it too bad compared to many. It was just the two of us in a two bedroom apartment. And a cat. Baby Loaf, whom we had taken in earlier in February. And then another cat. Little Nimki whom we took in in August.
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| Little Nimki loves to hug |
It is rare in human history that a couple has been together, 24 hours, for 19 months. We were not the only ones. of course This was common across the world thanks to the pandemic. I am not sure how it worked for everyone but I think I speak for both of us when I say that we loved every moment it. We are glad about the phased opening of her office. A clean break to full time office would have been painful for all of us. We will miss all those stolen moments during the day, discussing stuff married couples do (shopping lists, vet appointments, what to cook, dividing cleaning duties, water woes), breakfasts together, decaff espresso after lunch together, playing with the cats, the sound of her concalls, K’s attending to the doorbell as she was in the hall most of the time, savasana to youtube together.. there would be so much to miss.
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| A born again cat person |
Cat’s got your back
“Why don’t you get him a puppy. They are great stress busters and will make him feel better said (our late) Jamshed uncle when you were going through a low phase a few years back and were home alone when I went to work,” said K to me a couple of days back. We had often considered getting a puppy since I love dogs. Given that we both used to go out to work and travelled quite a bit, we were not ready to commit to getting a pup. Before you ask, we had collectively decided not to have kids early on in our marriage itself.
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| Baby Loaf changed me |
Then came in Baby Loaf followed by little Nimki and they fill our house with so much warmth. K says that no matter how stressed her day is, being with the boys eases her furrowed brow. Fun fact no 1, she was never fond of pets before this.
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| Would you believe it? She was scared of pets once upon a time! |
It is sort of funny how both boys gravitate towards me when I work. Baby Loaf would settle down on the platform in the front of my desk whenever I worked. Even when he was an inside outside cat. He continues to do so. As did little Nimki right from when he first visited our house.
No matter what time of the day it is, if I am at my desk, one or both of them will be resting around me. If I ever feel stuck, depressed or tired, I just look at them or pat them and feel refreshed. Unlike dogs, they crave no attention and are quiet and I can write in peace.
“If you had a dog, you would be petting it all the time without having written a word,” quipped K once. Fun fact 2, while I always loved the dogs, I disliked cats till Loaf had come into my life though I had once nursed a kitten left alone in the rain in the lobby of our apartment years back.
Fun fact 3, we had thought that the platform in front of my table was redundant when we bought apartment and even considered breaking. It’s now where my babies love to plant themselves while I write. Life finds a way of fixing itself.
Oh and talking of married life, K and I turned 20 last month. 22nd October 2021 was our 20th wedding anniversary. We have been a couple for 21 years. I had harboured visions of doing a small get together with friends on our 20th anniversary. The menu would be a mix of Bengali and Parsi wedding dishes. I was keen to do this as we had not done anything during our wedding. Barring a lunch and dinner for immediate family (where the guest list was in single digits). The idea then was to use the money saved to pay the deposit on our apartment, buy furniture and durables and to spend on our honeymoon. Throwing a party seemed like a colossal waste of money which we did not have as we did everything ourselves.
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| 22/10/2001 |
20 years later one could afford it and hence the idea of a party. Then came the covid 19 pandemic. We celebrated the last anniversary at home. Things have eased up now. People are holding events. However we did not feel comfortable with it. Nor did we feel comfortable with travelling. So we did what we love.
We booked ourselves into the ITC Maratha for a staycation while MIL looked after the boys. From someone who was wary of pets once, she now says ‘they are my best friends and I miss them when I go back.’
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| The boys love watching K TV with their didu |
Mom in law pampered the boys and K and I were pampered at the ITC where we were upgraded to a suite and had lovely food including double cooked pork, lobster in white sauce, nigiri sushi and udon noodles from chef Liang’s Pan Asian, kakori, mutton biryani and chicken rizala from chef Asif’s Dum Pukht, mutton burra kebab and kaali dal at the Peshawari, a surprise luchi alur chorchori breakfast in the room courtesy chef Nikhil Merchant and prawn sukhe, kombi cha rassa and batata vada and pohe courtesy chef Dipti and her local love menu. And a great spa session at Kaya Kalp.
PS: The door knocked just as I was finishing writing this and in walked K with Baby Loaf. “Can someone come in,” she asked. He flopped. I patted him. She clicked us. Went back to work calls. I took a break for lunch before getting into a #foodocracyforher interview. I have seen many dark days, been assailed by many dark thoughts but today I wanted to tell you how happy I feel and about the three people, all right one person and two cats, who are responsible for this. Here’s looking at you kid(s).
PPS: I subbed this piece late in the evening and just as I finished Nimki surfaced and climbed on my table and later gave me lot of nose boops on my foot.
I must share this lovely note that Trina sent with her illustration. I feel really fortunate such love from all of you.
Here’s looking at my three fav boys ♥️
to you my lobster (thermidor)