Baby's Day Out

To begin with, for my own convenience I shall refer to my husband as "S" henceforth. The first Sunday of last month dawned with an air of surprise for me. "S" bounced up from his bed and cried "Lets all go to Wembley today ". I doubted the intention of his declaration as I have known him to be an ardent lover of his laptop during the weekends .He, on a ideal weekend would prefer to be glued to his laptop as it is one poor thing that could serve him ceaselessly the whole day and match with his seemingly endless reserves of energy levels.

Trying to figure out the credibility of his plan , I muttered "Is Wembley not within London?? .Why this sudden interest for you to visit the place???"... One word that he uttered made me speechless and it was "Chennai Dosa". We live outside London and South Indian cuisines are not in our vicinity.Within the next 40 mins time we were in Wembley car park near Chennai Dosa. I was peeping out of the car window like a "child in a candy shop" from the moment our car set its wheels into Wembley .I was genuinely baffled as to whether I had boarded a flight and disembarked in India already.I had a "peep show" of all kinds of shops starting from jewellery shops to designer wear saree shops.

We spent a solid 1 hour in Chennai Dosa and I bet we had tried every other item listed in the menu .The look on the waiter's face made it evident that he thought that we were starved refugees from areas hit by famine. To add fuel to the burning fire , "S" said "After tasting the food you cook anything else tastes like "ambrosia". If only I had a magic wand like "Harry Potter", I would have converted "S" into a "plate of pulao" that was three days old. Our bellies were "house full" and unable to stuff in any more food we made our exit out of "Chennai Dosa" and started walking towards the chain of Indian shops.

"S" naively (not aware of the implications) offered to take charge of the pram with our little one in it ,while my Mother In Law and I went shopping. We set our foot into every "chota mota" shop that had a name board . I was in cloud nine when I managed to get a "gaagra choli" for my 20 months old baby girl. It was meant to be her attire for the impending Diwali(remember this is an one month old flash back) . I imagined her to be like "Aishwarya Rai" in that choli and all her boy friends queuing up before our home to get a glimpse of her. My "daydreaming" was interrupted by my daughter's father who screamed " I cant imagine it took one hour for you to select that one metre piece of cloth". Now you know why men are deemed so different from women.

Then came the handbag shop, saree shop ,jewellery shop and what not , with a touch of Indian designs and tastes. We ventured into each one of them and "S's" purse was put to best and maximum use that it looked a little worn out by the end of the day.Before I realised , it was time for the sun to set. "S"was drained of his patience levels (thanks to our extremely co-operative off spring) and one look on his face , I understood it was time to leave. Half hearted, I boarded into our car. This trip had stirred up a feeling of nostalgia in me and I kept thinking about the days when I used to go for shopping with my family in India.

It suddenly struck to me that how lucky we are!!!..We are in this foreign land fully reaping the benefits of the opulence, advancement and the development of this country and at the same time enjoying the richness of our Indian way of life which can never be complete without the unparalleled Indian food and Indian costumes.As "S" often puts it "We have the best of both worlds".

Of course , it would not be fair to end this blog without mentioning this. Since that trip "S" has never ever offered to drive us again to Wembley . He is still in the clutches of "post traumatic stress" of going for a shopping with " TWO WOMEN" and "an adorable elf".