Dressed up

...for Sam's wedding reception

More Pahalgam pictures

Posing with the boys

Pics taken at Nishat bag (Shrinagar), Aru valley (Pahalgam), Baisaran valley (Pahalgam) and Sonmarg respectively. The last picture was taken by Kabir :)

Hello from Pahalgam

We arrived in Pahalgam this afternoon for our 8 day long vacation. The car ride from Srinagar to Pahalgam was breathtaking and we fell in love with our hotel (Hotel Heevan) the moment we saw it. It is right along the river Lidder which gushes down the lush green mountains here and is a beautiful crystal blue colour.

In the evening we took a walk around the hotel and took the boys to a nearby amusement park.

Complementary hot chocolate, coffee, tea and biscuits  by the hotel made for a very happy Lodha family

For dinner the hotel staff gladly entertained our request for making home like kadhi-khichdi for the boys, who devoured the meal. The dinner buffet that we had was pretty decent as well. The tired boys crashed right after the meal, giving me time to blog. Hopefully I can stay on top of it through the rest of the trip!

dadisa's laddoos

...arrived by post a few days ago from Udaipur.The boys couldn't wait to open the package which contained mathri, besan ladoos and as always, a loving letter from dadosa. The boys now have a good collection of letters from dadosa which often include stories and poetry written by him. How special!

kyun kyun ladki

A couple of weeks ago we took the boys to NCPA for a wonderful children's play called 'kyun kyun ladki' based on Mahashweta Devi's book by the same name. The book is already a favourite in our house and that coupled with the fact that the play was in Hindi made it a real treat. Ofcourse, the train ride to town with good friend Puku and his parents made the evening even more fun.

This was Anurag's first play (Kabir had been to 'The Jungle book' last year) and he was absolutely riveted. There were no props used in the play and the cast beautifully and imaginatively portrayed things like Moyna trying to kill a snake, children riding bicycles, big waterfalls, handpump etc. Anurag was smitten by Moyna and asked to see her after the play which she readily agreed to. Unfortunately he refused to let me take a picture of him with her. But I do have some pics from the play which I will post shortly.

K and K

Incidentally, that is Kabir in his school uniform. He started 1st standard at KV this year. He's already had one month of classes in May before the school closed down for summer vacation. School reopens end of this month. He's been very excited about 1st standard because wearing the school uniform gives him a 'big boy' feel. Its a task to get him out of the uniform even after he's back home! What he (and we all) hate about the school though is the school timing - it starts at 7:20am every day. What a crime!