Malavika's surpise birthday party at Nandgaon Beach

As I was moaning my last month of maternity leave in January 2020, my phone blinked with a whatsapp alert on a new group saying "Malavika's surprise birthday". My sister Malavika was going to turn a year older in February and her husband, Kaushik wanted to surprise her with a family holiday close to Bombay. I looked at the message and was immediately tempted. Then I remembered I had a 5 month old and a 7 year old and my husband had a commitment to teach physics at the Bangalore Planetarium on the weekends. So if I had to go it would be alone with the kids. How could I go? "Should I say no" were random thoughts in my mind. However, I was also tempted as I wanted one last holiday before going back to work. The December holiday was too short. So I replied to the whatsapp group message saying that I was tempted and to count me in. I would reconfirm in a week.

The above message got my parents thinking. They were going to say no as they had another holiday plan in February and also had a huge european holiday planned in April. Basically their year is spent in planning holidays. Ahh the joys of semi retirement! My poor parents though always have my back and they later told me that they decided to come to help me out with my kids. I would like to think that was their only motive. The selfless parents that they are:) Wink wink! Jokes apart they do help me a lot. They rush to my rescue when in need.

Taking off from Bangalore

Malavika was in the dark about all this and we all arrived in Bombay on the night of the 6th of February and landed in their flat. My kids and me from Bangalore and meines eltern von Madras(sorry excuse the German. I just want to show off!!!) .We were greeted by their dog perry and their caretaker Pinky. Malavika and Kaushik were at an event in Bandra where she was speaking on CAA, NRC and Aadhar privacy. That would have been great to attend if I was childless. Kaushik made some excuse to get her out of a group dinner and get back to their flat. Malavika was miffed because she wanted a night out at Bandra with her husband. Bandra is a hip suburb in Bombay filled with restaurants and nightclubs. If you are lucky, one could also spot a bollywood celebrity. Finally they arrived nearly at midnight and the look on Malavika's face when seeing us justified the eventful plane ride from Bangalore with my brats. Check this video out for a live capture of the moment.

The next day we set off nice and early to the gateway of India to catch a ferry to go to Mandwa jetty. From here Kaushik had organized cars to get us to Nandgaon where we were going to stay. I must say that the family behaved well and we managed to get everyone( two children, one dog and a couple of young senior citizens) in two cars and reach gateway by 9 AM to catch our ferry.

Birthday girl and nephew Raghu

Cheesy attempt at selfie with gateway in the background

Kaushik man in orange giving a thumbs up! And the crew

Sisters, dog and kid.

We got off at the beautiful Mandhwa jetty after our short speed boat ride of twenty minutes to get into two cars to go to Nandgaon. I was particularly impressed by how well organised Mandhwa was to help people with luggage and also have golf carts to ferry people across to the parking lots. The 2~2.5 hour ride to Nandgaon revealed a very konkan scenery similar to what we had experienced while driving to Bekal from coorg in December. The gorgeous Arabian sea coastline and western ghats dotted our view. Finally after making a pit stop for Batata vada(yummy), we reached the beautiful beach house. This was going to be our home for three days. Words cannot do justice to the beautiful house and the coconut grove which led us to the sea. We had this entire beach to ourselves for three days. On either side of the beach one could see the mountain, ending at the sea. Such pristine beauty that was accessible from crowded Mumbai was a real revelation to me. I always have this poor opinion of Bombay because of the huge crowds and cubby holes that people live in. But this changed all that. There was a way for people to escape the chaos on the weekend and commune with nature. And that too without colliding into someone:).

Our gorgeous home for the weekend

Even nursing the baby was such a joy in these surroundings! I was not irritated like I usually am when the baby cries at home. Here apart from not having the usual responsibilities, the beach air unwound me. I was literally smiling all the time. You can see the grin for yourself.

Happy nursing mom.

Satisfied baby

There is a theory that when one sees so much open space, one automatically relaxes. I do buy that because suddenly time had stopped. Everyone was smiling. The sea breeze made everyone happy right from Perry, to Keshu and little Raghu. Raghu my five month old could not stop babbling. I had never seen him laugh so much. Keshav who had a fear of dogs was hugging Perry and enjoying all his time with him. Not once during those three days did I see him watching youtube videos on my phone or say that he was bored. Is this the power of nature? Absolutely!!!

Keshav enjoying his time with nature and being gadget free!

Just having breakfast

Enjoying the view of the coconut trees

Father and son checking out the ocean

We were joined on saturday by Vinayak, Kaushik's brother to add more zing to the party. Vinayak arrived late as he wanted to cast his vote in the Delhi elections. Good samaritan and citizen.

Vinayak enjoying the morning sun

Lazy mornings

We also made a short trip to the Murud janjira fort minus the lovebirds. The fort as per wikipedia was built by Raja Ram Rao Patil to guard against pirates. I assumed that it would be a fort along the mountains like we had visited in Goa and Bekal. Instead it was right in the ocean. I am not sure if the sea line has extended now and the fort lies on an island but double checking wikipedia shows that it was built on the rock there. This was to ensure a strong line of defence. We did not make the ferry to take us to the actual fort because we were told that visiting the fort would require three hours. That's impossible with a small infant and so we decided against it. The trip to visit the fort was eventful as we had to take a small bus ride on an old town bus to reach murud. The roads were bumpy and the bus ride gave a flavour of how it was to live like a local. My seven year old really enjoyed the ride.

Murud janira in the background

The last day was spent in playing billiards, gossiping, eating a lot of very healthy Maharastrian food and drinking lots of good wine and champagne. We returned by cars to Madhwa and took the speed boat back to Bombay. The trip ended by visiting our cousins(Hrishi and Pushky's families) in Bombay. Aanchal and Hrishi hosted a scrumptious dinner and we could not have asked for a better end to the holidays. The boys met their cousins and the dinner was like the icing on the cake to end a satisfying holiday.

Kaushik was a host par excellent. He thought of everything and made sure everyone had a great time. I am leaving you with few more pictures from the trip. It's a great option for anyone wanting to get away from Bombay.