Yesterday was a perfect "home coming" after months of struggle. This year was tough with the impacts of pandemic wearing us out to the bones. That was compounded by the debacle of (yet another) flooded bathroom and garage, cars colliding into each other, kids losing traction in school and general disarray at home. And did I mention the missing passports!
Last few days a lot of stuff came around and came together- house is fixed, new passports arrived, kids are enjoying in-person school, grades are skyrocketing up, we had a marathon celebration for Diya's 16th Birthday- and, finally finally finally, smiles are back on the faces!!
Aadi's donation of his mane was almost ceremonial and very symbolic, shedding his coat of last season. And so was Diya going to the school dance with her friends - ditching her worn out sweatpants and converses for a fitting dress, bold makeup and yes, those Doc Martens!
Suvo cooked a ton of food and invited couple of friends from work for a reunion- who interestingly enough interacted with us and with Aadi with same ease - discussions mostly centered around emerging technologies, of which Aadi seemed to have acquired a surprising depth and breadth. (It seems he has been reading the IEEE Spectrum and Wired magazines we get, as much as we do!). There is something to be said about Geek-dom crossing generational boundaries. It was a new and refreshing experience and one to look forward to in years to come - continuing to share and build common interests- from Disney Pixar & Marvel to food & travel to music and now technology!
Feels like we are well on our way to coming back home after a long painful detour of the pandemic trail. I can smell the cinnamon pine cones, taste the pumpkin spice muffins and feel the warmth of elaichi-chai!
(Had to submit multiple times before getting it correctly posted with pics! Maybe the ordeal is not over yet :/)
