Of Halloween, Diwali and Injuries that are inconvenient!

That has been a veeeerrrryyy long break from blogging even by my standards! I have been kept otherwise busy- by the expected and the unexpected!

Every Diwali, I make a lot of traditional goodies like besan laddoo, chiwda, shankarpaLe, karanji, shev, etc. So shoping lists were made for the ingredients, and a visit to my regular grocer's carried out. Then came the long weekend, with a holiday on Monday. Now, weekends are a bad time to plan any extra work. There are so many other things to do with A and the husband at home, that sometimes I do not even have a longish stretch of free time in which I may read the newspaper. Not that I am complaining. I always love to have time with her, just to loll around and chill, catch up with our reading aloud sessions, or do some activity, something that we had put aside for 'later'.

Pic courtesy here 

This weekend there was the excitement over Halloween. Arrangements had been made so that all houses ready to trick-or-treat had a bat cut-out stuck on the door. The children were to go from house to house in groups led by teen volunteers, as some of them were as young as 3yrs.

A wanted to be a witch, but not just any witch. She had recently read a book on Russian Tales written by James Mayhew, and was most impressed by Baba Yaga, the fearful witch in Russian folklore, that ate children, lived in a house with chicken legs, flew around on a black broomstick, but was also revered for her knowledge, helping lost souls. 

So she planned her own costume, using pieces of clothing we had, as the one stipulation I had made was that we do not buy or hire anything, but make do with what we can find at home. So she decided on a European looking long skirt in stark checkered black-white-red, a full sleeved black t-shirt, two black dupattas for a cape and cloak, and a pointed black witch's hat she made with black paper. She also made a broomstick of rolled newspaper covered with black paper, with a tail made from black garbage bags. Scary makeup with black and red acrylic paint completed the outfit. We had a very scary looking witch ready for trick-or-treating, who joined a very excited group of ghouls, ghosts, skeletons, witches, devils, mummies, etc. for an evening of fun. And the witch came home after around 2 hours with a bag-full of goodies which she claimed would last her the whole year!

So the weekend over, I decided to get my Diwali cooking on track on Tuesday. There was something that I needed to get from the grocer nearby. It had rained in the morning, and I decided it was a fine day for the kilometer or so to the shop. Wrong decision- I should have just ordered in. On the way, I slipped over a wet patch on the uneven pavement, and the next thing I knew, I was performing a Sashtang Namaskar right there, the wind knocked out of me.

I got up gingerly and tried out all my joints to check that they were still functional. The husband had had a fracture with just such a fall last year. Fortunately my joints were all fine- but I had had a severe bruising and scraping on my knees and hands nevertheless. Getting up, I limped to the side and debated on what I should do next. I was too far from home to walk back in that condition, and there was no auto coming along for quite some time. I then called up a friend staying at my building, who, God bless her, came promptly in her car to take me home.

It was not a debilitating injury, but was enough to ensure that I slow down in my work, so that I could not do all that I wanted to do for Diwali. That put paid to my plans, also giving me not much time to go online. (You can imagine how that could have given me serious withdrawl symptoms, considering that we are just post-CROCUS.)

Technology did help, though, and with the help of the newly aquired microwave (Oh, yes, I'm quite backward that way. I didn't get one till now because I can manage quite well without it, thank you very much. Even this one came along when A voiced her grouse that I don't do any baking like her friends' mothers, and could I also begin baking at home, please?), my indispensible maid, (Amma has been a wonder at this time!), and a very enthusiastic kid at home (I'll help you roll the laddoos, Aai.), I managed to make besan laddoos and some very yum chiwda. Sent some freshly made to some friends too. And one of them got back saying she had made short work of them.

There was a laugh in the whole incident too. After her initial horrified reaction on hearing of my fall, and seeing the more obvious injuries, A asked me if anyone saw me fall. I was smiling at such a reaction so typical for her age! And all my mothballed salwar-kameezes got an airing as I couldn't- still cannot- bear the chafing by denims over my poor knees.

To their credit, both A and the husband have been very helpful around the house, putting their things away, helping in the kitchen and otherwise. A especially loved doing the round of putting out the diyas every evening with my supervision.

I was a bit better towards the Diwali weekend, and A and I spent a very enjoyable time one morning packing Diwali sweets and going to our friends' houses in the building with them, while the husband cooked lunch.

And went to a cousin's house for bhaubeej on Sunday where she, her daughter, A and I had a great time exclaiming over the gifts we got from our respective boy-cousins.

All in all, a good Diwali, though a bit inconvenienced by injury. Anyway, here's wishing you and your a belated Happy Diwali.

In the meantime, can anyone tell me how I can use an otherwise good but seriously torn on one knee pair of jeans? And no, it is not fashionable for me to walk around with a fancy patch on my knee. I'm at an age where 20yr olds call me aunty!