ANUAL TRIP TO MANCHESTER

I am writing this on the flight from Kolkata to Manchester. What memories this brings back. When I got married I was allowed to go to my parents house once a year so after I had my children I would always coincide this with their summer holidays which used to be the longest break in their school calendar. In fact I usually went the same day they broke up for their holidays and come back one day before school restarted. Each day was valuable! My excitement would build up as the time came nearer and this used to be the time I looked forward to the most. Protocol demanded that my mother would ring up my mother in law to send me and she would also request that Vinay come to pick me up on my return. I would go to the airport with my trousers and a top in a carrier bag, change in the toilets and give the sari to Vinay to take back home. There would of course be a sari safely packed in my suitcase for my return flight! What planning… and I must say everything went exactly according to plan. As soon as I wore my Western clothing my holiday surely began! I still remember the little Oberoi lounge we always sat in after checking in and the disgusting cheese sandwiches we used to devour with relish!

I used to go to Manchester with my children for about two weeks after which Vinay would join us and we would then go for a family holiday somewhere before our return to India. My mother would spoil me rotten during these trips and her only worry was that none of the children fall ill or lose weight during their trip to their Nani’s house. What would their grandmother think? I would visit all my extended family and loved spending time with my cousins. However, after the first few trips I used to draw the line at visiting all my mother’s friends… my ‘aunties’ were very sweet but I didn’t come to Manchester to go from one house to another. I wanted to go out, to shop and basically to gad around town. We always used to go for day trips to Blackpool to the amusement park and the water park. And another favourite was to go to the Lake District. Mummy would make a delicious packed lunch and we would go off for the day filled with fun and adventure. We were never bothered about going to fancy places… we loved walking on the beach, eating popcorn or candy floss, toffee apples and finishing off with hot dogs or burgers. Even a trip to the park used to be an adventure as we would play on the swings and feed the ducks. Such simple pleasures was all it took to bring a smile on our children’s faces.

When Rashi was born and I started taking both the kids I would take their maid with us as otherwise it just used to be too much work for my mother and she could never spend time with us. In the evenings she would always insist on staying home to babysit the kids so it just made life much easier all around. I remember that the maid never liked the basmati rice we got there so I would have to lug copious amounts of osna chawal with me! She would make her vegetables for herself ( with lots of mirch masala and sarson oil) and it used to smell so good that my sister and bhabhi would pounce on it and before you knew it it was finished… she soon learnt to make double of what she needed. I would then leave the maid in Manchester to help mummy and she would travel back with her… until of course the UK immigration authorities cottoned on and only gave her a visa to accompany me… it was worth a try!!

We travelled quite extensively around Europe and America with the children and basically had a blast. In England in the summer there is bright sunshine until about 10pm so the children would be very confused when I used to tell them that is was bedtime at 7.30pm and yet it was not dark outside! We went on a holiday to Iceland once and there, even our body clocks went a bit haywire as it only used to get dark for about four hours at night so you slept when it was light and woke up when it was still light.

I would always try to coincide my trip with my sister Suman and her kids and later with Nina and Aradhana so you can imagine the chaos that reigned in the house but they were fun times filled with lots of love, laughter and happiness. My mother would be cooking all our favourite food from morning to evening and the children, and I must admit me also, always loved going to the supermarket to buy groceries. Just wheeling the trolley from aisle to aisle with all the multitude of food available was like being in food heaven and the trolley would be full and overflowing within ten minutes. I would always stand at the checkout removing stuff the children had sneaked in only to find mummy had secretly slipped them back in!! Writing about all of this brings the memories back and really takes me to my happy place!!

More on my current trip to Manchester in my next blog.. till then a glass of champagne and a film are waiting for me!!!