Kahan gaye woh din...

My vacation is drawing to a close. Having a lot of time on hand and at a place where you lived a while ago, conjures up old memories and this stay has had me reminiscing about those days. It was not so long ago...

-when we were newly married and living in our first house in Hyd. Home was just a 10 minute walk from hubby's office. We would get up at 7.30 a.m. and still have a leisurely breakfast before hubby left for office at 9.30, post which I would start preparing lunch. I had never cooked a full meal (actually hardly entered the kitchen ;-)) before marriage, so in the initial days of marriage, it would take me a full 2 hours to cook up a menu as as simple as Sambhar, rice and a curry. Nevertheless, I would finish all the chores before hubby came home for lunch (yes life was that luxurious at one time). Post lunch hour, I would catch up sometime on the internet, read some books, sleep and before I would realize, it would be time for hubby to come home.

-Everyday for about three months that we took to set up our home, we would explore the market area to shop for our various needs. It was funny how we would buy several sets of containers to stock groceries in installments from the same shop. Neither of us had any idea how many containers we would require at the first go. We would always forget to buy something and go back a couple of days later to discover a different variety at the shop replacing the ones we bought. As a result, I have a hotch-potch of various shapes and sizes of containers.

-Almost every weekend for the first few months of marriage we would eat outside. Evenings on every other weekend would be spent at Hussain Sagar lake or at some mall catching up on some new movie release. Hyderabad is famous for several art exhibition that keep coming up every few months. I love visiting such exhibitions and we have spent a good amount of time doing so.

-We had to shift residence 'cause hubby switched jobs and the new company was located far off from where we stayed earlier. We moved closer to his new workplace but the luxury of coming home for lunch was no longer there. But by then I started work outside home, so it was compensated in a sort of way. This was a new and exciting phase in its own way. We would leave for work together. We didn't own a car at that time, so travelled by shared-rickshaws* and shared cabs*. After office hours too, we would meet at a common point and then travel back home together.

-Living closer to your work place and staying in a city like Hyderabad has its benefits. Even after coming back from a long day at work, we still had time to unwind ourselves, catching up on each other day at work and watching the odd program on T.V.

This was life in Hyderabad and most importantly before R came into our lives.
Almost everything has changed now. And changed so much that all this has become nostalgia.

*Travel by autorickshaws or shared autos in Hyderabad calls for a separate post. :-)

13 comments:

  1. Remembering good old times feels really nostalgic.... nice post as usual.. :) in the last few lines you mentioned everything has changed now... but has it changed for the better????

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  2. ahhh, the newly wedded bliss that you have mentioned here! Takes me back to my own period (not that it was very long time too; but things have indeed changed)... and hey I loved the part where u 2 went to work and came back at the same time. Sound romantic in a way! :)

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  3. Oh...such a nice post....yes it feels like a few decades have gone by since those times, huh? I hope those days come back (in another form, maybe) when the kids leave the nest!

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  4. Nice picture of pre-child(ren) days Uma.. oh those really seem far away now.. though I expected a lifestyle change with children, I didn't expect a complete turnaround like it was :).
    Have already started warning the children of the vacations amma and appa are going to take together(fingers crossed) when they are old enough to spend time with their grandparents on their own ;). I think when the younger one turns 5 is the magic age.. hopefully !

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  5. What an absolutely delightful read :)
    Your post brought back to me times I'd enjoyed being a newly wed :)

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  6. Radhika: Thanks Radhika! Well, things are not bad I would say. Just that post-baby, life takes a 180 deg turn and you tend to look back at the carefree days with fondness.

    Thanks a lot Tan!

    Purnima: Thanks so much! and do enjoy this period too Purnima, for things do change a lot even from here..:-)

    Aparna: oh yes, those times feel like a different lifetime now!..do we need to wait that long?? what the other Aparna suggests seems like a better option :-)

    Aparna: same here :-) wish the grandparents lived closer.

    CB: Thanks so much CB!
    How nice to be able to cherish those times, right?

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  7. Awesome......makes me misss Hyd dearly... :(

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  8. I r'ber those newly wedded days when we used to go hunting for stuff to decorate the house. And the container experience was similar too...lol. Lovely post Uma! Hope u had loads of fun in Hyd.

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  9. those carefree days sounds like Utopia right? no big stress, no strict timetables to keep.. hmmm...

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  10. Arv: :-)..come off..:-D

    Simran: Thanks Simran! Those were fun times, na? yes I did have a lot of fun.

    Vidya: yeah Vidya! feels like a dream now...

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  11. A very nice read Uma....enjoyed catching up on all the posts on this page and R's activities:-)).

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  12. Nancy: Thank you so much Nancy! I am glad you want to catch up on the posts..:-)

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