The week that was...

Last week was easily the most happening week of the year so far. It started with a maid crisis - our maid was hospitalized and would be out for at least 5 days. This was really disturbing as we had guests coming over the weekend for a family celebration. So the sunday was spent in a flurry of cooking, cleaning, wiping, dusting and washing clothes. Managed to find a replacement maid after much running around who would at least take care of the cleaning part for some days. Tuesday was hubby's birthday. It was celebration time from 8th midnight till the next midnight. I was just starting to relax on Wednesday, when my sis-in-law had to be admitted to hospital for delivery. So wednesday evening and thursday were spent at the hospital. There was some anxiety and also my parents had not yet arrived from Baroda. There was a break on Thursday however, as my maid showed up. What a relief! And then Friday morning was spent first in collecting my parents at the station and then depositing them to the hospital alongwith lunch for those on hospital duty.

Friday afternoon was the most exciting day of my life! I became aunt to a healthy baby boy and what a suspenseful few minutes those were. One minute we were fretting over what was happening as we had all been shooed out of the room that had my SIL. And the next minute, we were presented with the baby :) I can never forget the expression on my brother's face (he is the new dad). He was numb with shock and relief. The first thing he said was "he has so much hair! ". After that, there were lot of tears, hugs, congratulations and phone calls. The rest of the day passed in a blur. All I remember was seeing the baby for the first time and how innocent and clueless it looked. Completely oblivious to all the tension it had caused and boldly taking in the new world with its button-like eyes.

There was no end to the exclamations of delight and awe - "Born on the day of Mahashivaratri!", "Only baby boy in the batch of 7 babies born today." "Oh, he is so tall for a newborn!" and so on... The euphoria carried on even the next day. Until the city was rocked, and shocked, by its first ever bomb blast. We heard of it within 10 minutes, as I, alongwith my in-laws, had gone to visit the baby and we were not allowed to enter as they were expecting a batch of ambulances to arrive any moment. Shock and fear was writ large on the faces of the hospital staff and security personnel. Sunday was celebration time as my MIL was to turn 75 the next day. It started from dinner on Saturday and continued till Sunday evening. Spent some quality family time with sis-in-law (hubby's sis this time), her daughter and hubby (who were visiting from Mumbai) and of course my MIL.

All in all, an extremely hectic and happening bitter-sweet week and definitely most memorable.