bph: October 2023

It has been 2 weeks exact since my holidays started. And it ends now. Well I not only survived them but am coming out in flying colours.

The 16 day challenge :)))))

Hehehe. It really seems like an exaggeration right? So lately I find it not so smooth when I don't have a routine. Working days are set and I love them even though they are hectic. As I have mentioned in my earlier posts, if I have to just relax or if I don't have too many things to do, it becomes a challenge to keep up with it :)

Somehow an untold message in the world is that not doing anything or not doing many things implies that we are not productive or efficient or making full use of our potential etc. etc.. I guess it has somewhere stuck in my head that I have to keep doing something. It is a good thing for me that I love doing lot of things and love being busy. But the restlessness that sets in when I am not doing much is not great. We all have heard the proverb - an idle mind is devil's workshop! What idoes it really mean? I have come to realize that an idle mind need not necessarily mean an invitation to devil thoughts. It is absolutely fine to not do anything or do lesser things or slow down or sit quietely. In fact majority of the research community says that we need to schedule time to sit quietely. I guess whether we are busy or not, an important fact to remember is that if we are comfortable with our own thoughts and comfortable with our actions, we feel great.

Every aspect of life comes down to being our own best friend whom we love, respect, cherish and be proud of. That way whether we do something or not really doen't matter because this doing/not doing is in reality defined by an external source. Let us not define our worth based on one or two things we do. Let us not define or label anything. Let us just be and as a result every moment can be joyous!

Holidays be like...

An amazing trip and drive with cousin and kids

Just be

Lunch with a dear person

Lemon juice made by kids

Messy painting time

Saraswathi Pooja

Cooking festival sweet

Yariappa

Durga Pooja

Hot-chocolate, made by my foodie son
Ayudha Pooja :)

While walking with my friend

Random cooking

Pancakes..

..with bananas

Mysore - always refreshing

Mysore Palace

While eating gaadi chats!

Katte time

Lunch with kids

A lovely day 😍

Managed few walks in between

😛😜😝

It is Dasara time and we have holidays. So decided on a quick one night trip to a nearby place. It was a nice pleasant getaway with 2 of us ladies and 4 children 😊

I knew 2 of my colleagues had visited this place which was close to Bangalore and so after exploring a bit for other places, we finalized on Bekkinakaadu. Bekkinakaadu is a farmstay near Magadi. As it was nearby, we left Bangalore after breakfast. We had our google maps to direct us/re-route us everytime we missed a turn 😜. With hindi music giving us company and all the kids playing/bickering/chatting at the back my cousin and I had a great time driving to the farm.

Hidden road to the farm

We reached Bekkinakaadu right on time for lunch. They had just 2 rooms at the property (the 3rd room is being rennovated) and so we had the whole place to ourselves! After parking the car, we freshened up quickly and headed to the open dining area where hot yummy lunch awaited us. It was simple food - phulkas, daal, curry, rice and rasam. The place also hosts animals - hens/cows/horse - keeping our children fully hooked on to them.

The entrance

View from the first room

Towards the dining area

After a relaxed lunch we wanted to explore the place. The farm is spread over an area of 25 acres. The rooms we had were 10 minutes apart. The first room was near the dining area and the second room was closer to a stream passing through the farm. We walked amidst the various fruit trees to reach the second room. We spent sometime sitting outside the second room overlooking the stream/trees/open well.

Lush green

The room had lot of things to keep the kids occupied like croche kit, books, games etc. Well, the children were happy running around outside and making up stories about different wild animals that they spotted behind the bushes and trees 😂. After a while we went around for a walk for one hour. We could see Savandurga hills from the farm. There were lot of different kinds of birds. The farm borders the forest area. The caretaker/cook told us that leopards/bears/wild dogs/deer were spotted in the farm during night.

View from the 2nd room

The stream

Bones

After the walk we relaxed for a short time near the room before heading towards the dining area for tea and snacks.

Sunset

It was October and so the sky got dark early. It took all of us to be a bit brave to walk from the room near the stream to the dining area for dinner as it was pitch dark with zero sound (other than crickets) and we kept thinking about the bones we had seen near the far end of the farm 😁. Well we were more than brave and made it after all 😂

After a hot dinner we had to head back to our rooms. We asked the caretaker to accompany us to the room this time. We settled down on the bed and read our books for a while before calling it a night.

Open sky bathroom

There was a heavy downpour all night. But the next morning was clear. We woke up to the sounds of hundreds of birds with the peacock call being the loudest. With shoes on, we headed out for a walk along the edge of the farm. We spotted a variety of birds and insects.

Can you spot the peacock?

We saw the sun rise behind the thick trees and also heard a loud growl behind the thick bushes.

We went back to the dining area to have tea and continued our walk towards the fruit trees. The caretaker showed us a lot of fruit trees and the children were super excited to pick and smell so many fresh fruits and kept following the caretaker uncle all around.