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Showing posts with the label vacation to india

The Burger Junction - Kochi

“It's black.” I noted. “Yup.” Kunjunni showed a photo of The Samurai. “That's red.” No one in my family had ever seen or eaten a black/red burger, but we caught an Uber and made our way there anyway. Inside The Burger Junction (TBJ) , the menu had several options and for a while, we all just sat there stupefied. Hellboy caught Dad's eye. It claimed to be extremely hot, owing to the fact that it’s contents included the spiciest chilli in India. Dad can handle almost any kind of chilli, and he loves spicy food, so none of us made much of an issue about it. The burger's description also mentioned that it wasn't recommended for children. Even though Dad wasn't a child, the waitress still made a special point of mentioning that it was very hot. “I'll take that challenge.” Dad waited for the rest of us to order. Kunjunni went for The Dark Knight. I decided to have the TBJ special. And then when the food came, Dad's burger was an angry

Movie Time

 I watched a total of four movies in India this time- ‘ Inside-Out ’, ‘ Jurassic World ’, ‘ Premam ’ and ‘ Ant-Man ’.  They were amazing. But one notable mention is ‘Jurassic World’, which kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I hope one more movie comes out! I have watched all the ‘Jurassic’ movies and they get better every time! Raaawwrrrr!!! What I like about them the most is the suspense. One minute you give out a sigh of relief, next minute you’ll be screaming, and running like Usain Bolt from a hungry dino! Woo-hoo! Except ‘Premam’, I watched all the movies with Kunjunni and Kunji chechi, so it was double the fun. Kunjunni really wanted to see ‘Ant-Man’. But all I could say was ‘Seriously? Ant -Man?’ “It has a high rating.” “It’s going to be lame.” “You can decide that after the movie’’. In the end, I loved it. I declared that while we were leaving the  theater  and got a smug look in return, plus, an ‘I told you so.’ In fact, if there is a sequ

The Mehandi Designer

Well! Our vacation in India flew past and here I am again! As usual, vacation was a blast. This was our evening schedule- Kunjunni and Kunjichechi would come over regularly every evening. When it would be time for dinner, Kunji chechi would make a beeline for the kitchen. She would be the one to flip the chapattis for she really loves to cook. At 8, everyone would make themselves comfortable in the living room. Then we would watch “Sell Me the Answer” until the show ended at 9, which was the time Kunjunni and Kunji Chechi would get shooed away by Granddad to go home. Mom and I would watch them cross the street to their home and then wave to them from our window. Everything went on like this for a few weeks. When we went shopping for groceries once, I spotted mehandi cones and bought one. I like putting on mehandi and I rarely find good quality cones too, so this was a golden opportunity. When I had put it on my palm and showed it to Kunjunni, he was intrigued. Kunji c

Summer of 2015

Phew! So the FA-2 exams are finally over! The last exam was yesterday. Now, its officially time for summer vacation. Mom and I are going to India tonight and Dad’s coming later. Last week was really hectic so I’m looking forward towards the vacation. Kunjunni has already taken leave from school so that he can greet us at the airport. Kunjichechi’s first year at college starts in August, and since she was not able to spend much time with us last year due to studies, this time she plans to  be at our home 24/7. My grandparents are eagerly waiting for us as well. So it’s clear everyone is excited. We’ll reach tomorrow morning at 9. That’s always what I like; reaching India in the morning. You can start off with the new day instead of the time when you reach there at night, and everyone nags you to go to bed even though you are not sleepy and want to do something else.  Nanditha’s plane was today too, only hers was at noon and mine’s late night. Her flight had got postponed an

Aargh!! Back-2-school after 9 days

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After one more week, school’s going to reopen, which  means I have to get up early next week, which means  I don’t want to go to school, which means school is reopening, which means I have to get up early next week and ………blah blah blah. The days passed fast, like they always do when you are having a good time. And at school, time goes so slowly and every minute feels like a day. That’s just so…… cruel and……..unfair. These days, the book that most of my friends are reading is “ The Fault In Our Stars ” by John Green. Mostly because the book has been made into a movie which was showing at the theaters, and partly because it’s popular and partly because it’s now available in almost every bookstore. I read it too. Dad bought it for me at a store. It made me really sad at the part where (Spoiler alert) Augustus died and (Spoiler Alert) Hazel read the pages Augustus sent to Van Houton. On our way back from India, I watched “ Divergent ” in the plane, on the TV scre

How to train your croods

This is another “Kunjunni and Janaki Together Written” blog . Also known as KJTW blog . Now, we start our story- Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived 5 children . Their names were Kunji chechi, Kunjunni, Janaki. Savithri and Shanku (age wise). Note- Kunjunni is only 6 and 8 months older than Janaki and Savithri respectively. Do not believe what he says about being a complete year older than them. Janu, you know I am sitting here. Well, yeah. Well, that’s reassuring. Now we start our reeeeaaalllll story- Yo, this is Janaki. And ya, this is my awesome cuz Kunj-unni here. Yo dudes, he wants to write this blog with me, I hope ya guys like this. Ok, back to reality . Reality . Reeeeaaaallllliiiiitttttty. Reality is sometimes boring. We like to be crazy. No, no, wrong. We are wild. Just like The Croods . Only thing is that we were born in the 21 st century. Not in the century when there were huge man-eating flowers, a guy called Guy

Kunji chechi's day-off

On this fine day, Kunji chechi has taken a break from school.  She has taken the day-off due to back pain. Therefore, Kunjunni gave her the evil eye when he left for school today. Poor Kunjunni. Kunji chechi had fallen down at the morning assembly. She said her friends had informed her that she fell down in a funny kind of way, like a “Tom and Jerry” style. Sadly, she was on the stage in front of the microphone , therefore when she slipped, the word “AAAMMMMAAA!!!!” echoed throughout the school. Kunjunni heard a familiar sound and that was when he realized it was his sister. 

Houseboat cruise in Vembanad lake

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“Is that a hen?”  “Certainly not!” ”Then what is it, smarty pants?”  ‘’It’s a rooster!” “How can you tell?” “Look at the tail and also it has some more differences like --!’’ “Oh, shut up!’’ “You’re the one who asked!” “Will you all keep it down?!” “We are moving!” “No we are not, the other boat is moving, and you just feel like it’s us because you are looking at it.” “Look, the rooster is crowing!” “Told you, it was a rooster.” “Oh darn! I forgot to take my iPad!” We were all chatting, arguing and joking. Sitting on a comfy chair, I looked all around me. Savithri was sitting on another chair next to me, Kunjunni and Shanku were monkeying around, and Kunji chechi was admiring the view. We all were in the houseboat, by the way and the journey had not yet started. Vembanad Lake, the largest lake in Kerala, was beneath our houseboat. The boat, White Water Cruise , belongs to Savithri’s Valyachan and it was big and beautiful with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a living room

Nara Speaking!

This blog post is really special because it has been written by not just me, but also with my cousin Kunjunni. So, right now, Kunjunni is sitting next to me, pondering on what to write. He actually has never seen someone BWIA (Blog Writing In Action). Therefore, he is going to try it out too. Hi, I am Kunjunni here (also known as Narayanan, Rock star Nara , Detective Nara etc). A few days back, there was an exhibition held at my school, Chinmaya Vidyalaya . We had to prepare 2 charts and the topics were “History of music” and “Father of music”, Purandara Dasa .   As my friends and I were roaming around, we met Janu, listening carefully to a girl explaining about DNA. She said she would see our charts later as she wanted to check other things too. When we were admiring our hard work, our music teacher walked up to us and said “You have made a big mistake in one of your charts. Instead of writing about Purandara Dasa, you have written about someone else.” Oopsie. We h

Rainbows and elephants

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As usual, whenever I come to India, I immediately notice the following changes every day; -       From cereals and sandwiches to idli, dosa and appam -       My waking-up-in-the-morning-timing from 8 in Riyadh to 9 in Cochin -       My confusion with Malayalam words increases by 10 per cent Also, the landscape affects me sometimes. I mean, when you look at Riyadh down from a plane, you see deserts and buildings with few trees and not a single river. But when I look at Kerala from a plane, all that I can see is green. Trees, bushes, herbs, shrubs, saplings and sometimes a snake-like river twisting itself and a spot on it indicating a bridge. Why am I talking about the landscape so much? You may ask. That is because a week back I was able to see a beautiful rainbow from the terrace of our flat, which is the 9 th floor. And even better, my cousins were there to see it with me. I, Savithri, Shanku and Kunjunni were standing there with the breeze slapping our faces

In the Land of Coconuts ...

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It has been 2 weeks since I reached Kerala and we have had a family gathering, seen a movie and done some shopping. Unfortunately for me, my cousins’ exams are going on but they managed to squeeze some time to have a lot of fun with us. I, Kunjunni and Dad saw the movie “ How To train Your Dragon 2 ” at PVR and we enjoyed it a lot. Well, at least I and Kunjunni enjoyed. Dad never saw the first part so I don’t think he understood a lot. But in any case, the movie received loud cheers and applause at the end. Achamma (Dad’s mom) along with uncle Sujesh, reached Kerala from Bangalore the day after we reached India. So we had a family gathering with all our relatives, had a great time. Kunji chechi’s Fa-1 exams finished 2 days back and now she is a free bird. But for poor Kunjunni, his exams are finishing only tomorrow. His crafts teacher had told the class they needed to buy a pot and paint it. You get these materials in the store. So, the night before the Hindi exam

Alappuzha Trip

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“Mew!” A kitten mewed when I stroked it. The other one brushed against my legs as it walked past. Their mother sat on the ground lazily, and watched the kittens lie, lick and run.  I started to stroke the other kitten and it ran between my legs. We laughed. The mother cat was named Mickey as Savithri and her family thought Mickey was a male cat and Savithri and her younger brother Shanku, ended up naming it Mickey. It was only after she gave birth to 2 kittens that they realized they Mickey wasn’t a ‘he’, but a ‘she’. Sadly, one of the kittens (Chakki) died later.   And when I visited them a second time, I saw a crow lying on one of the electric post. It had got electrocuted.  A murdered crow was surrounded by a ‘ murder of crows ’ ! Even though, that would be sad news for the crow, I was so excited. I had never seen a dead crow. Especially not one that had been electrocuted.      Two people from Mathrubumi came to interview Savithri’s Achachan (Grandfather).  

Back from India...

Hey everybody! It’s me, Janaki. Whoops!  I am starting to sound like Mickey Mouse. You know, like how he says, “Hey everybody! It’s me, Mickey Mouse. Say, ya wanna see my club house?” And no matter how hard you scream “No!” he says, “Then let’s go to the club house. Oh, I forgot that we have to say the magic word. Misca Moosca Mouse ca doodles! Come on, say it with me” It’s pretty weird stuff, considering the fact that we have to say the words that make absolutely NO sense at all. I came back from India on the 11 th of August, with sadness and sleepiness, because we left home at 11 at night, so I had a quick nap in the car while going to the airport. So, I was pretty grumpy and sleepy when we reached the airport, for I had been having such a good dream. For a sec, I did not even care leaving India, which might have been a good thing because otherwise I would probably run screaming “I don’t want to go back!” to the car. But then, I remembered the fun I had all th

Vacation begins..

A lot of things have happened (and are going to happen) during all this time, so I shall quickly go over them in points- My exams finished 2 days ago Summer vacation has begun I am going to India tomorrow. I shall come back on August 11 th It is very rainy in India now 2 weeks ago I held my birthday party. Chandana and Anne came, we had a lot of fun and I got few gifts. J !!!!!! I am so happy that I am going to India tomorrow! I am going to have so much fun! The only problem is that, it is really pouring rain in India. Many streets were full of water and some were flooded. My cousins got a lot of holidays from school because of this dreary rain. So, it will be difficult to go out unless we want to be drenched in the rain. But since their home is just across the street, we can always play an indoor game. My 3 rd blog anniversary was on 26 th of June, the day when I published my first post.  Yaayyy! My exams were over on Wednesday. The last exam we

Away for 3 months ...

I am going to India tomorrow! Yaaay!! We are going for 3 months. I will come in August. Woo hoo!  Gouri’s marriage is on June 2, we are going to attend it. My classmates bid me goodbye with tears and hugs, so I kind of felt like some celebrity. It is summer here now, so they changed the school timings. The school starts at 7:25 and ends at 12:00, now I reach home early. Our new flat in India has been already furnished. Now there is only 1 thing left: live in it. My grandpa and grandma are also going to live with us. But the best part is that my cousins, kunjunni and kunji chechi are just living opposite of the flat. So any time I can go and play with them. I am also going for swimming, drawing and math tuition. Mom is even thinking that we both should go for yoga class. Breathe in……… breathe out………………. These are the reasons why I am so excited. I can hardly wait to go!

Journey Home

Great news! I am going to India today! Yippee!! I won’t be able to write for some days but I bet I will have tons to tell you when I return. I can hardly wait to step inside the plane and zoom off. We will reach India tomorrow morning. Dad will stay here in Saudi. I will miss him for a few days. But on the bright side he will be able to look after my pet fish. When we come back Dad will have the Hajj holidays so we might be able to go to some other place in Riyadh. Today while I was feeding the fish I had a few words to say to them. I said “Hey, I am going to India for a few days. That means Dad has to feed you. If he doesn’t or neglects to clean the bowl, don’t blame me.”