A Typical Day In My Life – #SuperBloggerChallenge2018 #InstaCuppa

A Typical Day In My Life – #SuperBloggerChallenge2018 #InstaCuppa



When I was studying in IIT, I used to wake up very late in the morning. This was usually the result of going to bed rather late in the night around 1 or 2 AM. This does not mean that I did not make any efforts to reverse the trend. At the beginning of every semester, I used to punctiliously make an attempt to inculcate the habit of going to bed early in the night and waking up early in the morning. But somehow it never worked out. Those were the pre-dinosaur days when there were no mobile phones around. One had to depend on those quaint alarm clocks to pull oneself out of a slumber. The first fifteen days of every semester, I would make it a point to go to bed promptly at 9 PM at night after setting my alarm clock to ring at 4 AM in the morning.

Well, I can’t blame my alarm clock for not being able to pull me out of bed at 4 AM. The poor fellow used to jangle away in his shrillest tone promptly at 4 AM every morning. He did his best, you know. And usually, he succeeded in waking me up. But he never got me to jump out of bed. The reason for this was, he insisted on sporting a knob on top of his clock-work face and banging on this knob would render him shell-shocked and he would immediately go silent. He probably felt he looked chic with this knob on top of his handsome head. Well, poor fellow, he must have felt terrible. Just think, here is a guy who does his duty faithfully at 4 AM every morning and sanctimoniously shouts on top of his voice, only to find himself told to shut up with a bang on the head. Well, thanks to this knob he never succeeded in getting me out of my bed during my entire sojourn in college.

So I never woke up at 4 AM when I was in IIT. Fast forward to 2018 and the job of waking me up has been taken over by my iPhone. I usually set her (I prefer to use the feminine gender for my iPhone because of her mercurial temperament) to ring at intervals of 15 minutes from 5 AM to 6 AM in the morning. I now manage to struggle out of bed by 6 AM. My wife wakes up rather early in the morning and she would be busy reading the newspaper. I would finish my morning duties and then enter my twelve-year-old daughter’s room. I would pat her tousled head full of dark wavy hair and say, “Wake up sweety or you will be late for school.”

“No school today Daddy! It is Sunday,” she would reply promptly. “It was Sunday yesterday dear, today is Monday,” I would say and point to the calendar we have hung up in front of her bed just in order to remind her of the day of the week every morning. She would then look at me beseechingly and give me that lovely smile of hers and say, “Just five more minutes Daddy! Please !” Her smile would melt my heart and I would reluctantly allow her to sleep for some more time. 

My wife would then call me from the kitchen, “Come and get your coffee dear.” I would then pick up my cup of coffee from the kitchen and make my way to the dining table. In between sips, I would rapidly scan through the Hindu. Usually, there would be some item or the other in the paper to shock me to the core. This habit of newspapers to stuff their pages with everything horrendous that is happening around us for increasing their readership and omitting everything that is decent and good has made me fall into the habit of collecting cuttings of any rare articles or news stories they print which are heartwarming. I would put a tick mark on all the items that are of this nature so that I can cut them out in the evening to add to my collection. Of course, nowadays you can find all news, good or bad on the internet. But I belong to the old school and I still can’t kick the habit of collecting newspaper cuttings.

In the meanwhile, my wife who is not so easily moved by my daughter’s sweet smiles would have managed to get her out of bed. I would then wait for her to take bath, wear her uniform and have her breakfast. When she was a very young child in pigtails I used to bathe her, dress her up and get her ready for school. Those mornings used to be really hectic. During those days there were times when I used to wish that she would grow up fast and learn to do all these things by herself. Now that she has grown up into a self-sufficient twelve-year-old, I find myself missing those mornings when I had to get her ready for school.  

My daughter would finally finish her breakfast and be ready for school by 7.30 AM. My apartment building overlooks a highway and every morning I am faced with the horrendous task of crossing this highway with my daughter to reach the bus stop where my daughter’s school bus picks her up. It takes a full five minutes to cross the highway and finally after seeing my daughter off on the school bus I would make my way back to my eighth-floor apartment. 

I would then wait till 8.15 AM, take a bath and follow it up with a light breakfast of oats and barley pudding. We call it kanji in Tamil. In the last few years, I have been having some health issues and have had to follow a rather strict regime in the diet. For quite some time in my career, I was working a very tight and long schedule. But at one point I found I was totally losing my perspective on life and switched over to light work. I am happy to say that I have a strict eight-hour work schedule. Fortunately, I do not have too many commitments in life and am in a position to take up light work at fifty-two. I know those of you who are IT professionals and are reading this would probably go green with envy and exclaim, “Wow! What a lucky guy! Calls himself an IT professional and says he works nine to five.”

To all such people, I have only this to say. I assure you I have also spent the major part of my career slogging for twelve to fourteen hours a day. But I am fifty-two now and a twelve-hour work schedule is definitely not up my street. My wife will not allow me to drive a car. So I travel to the office which is just four kilometers away by auto rickshaw. Well, actually I can easily walk and in winter months I do. But in the scorching summer months, I usually take an auto. Well, what should I say about the office? Ours is an Australian multi-national and my work also does not involve anything that is high pressure. 

Of course, there is some nominal work pressure. There are deadlines to be met and things have to go according to schedule. But fortunately my company believes in allowing the employees to maintain a good work-life balance and we are a very happy lot. Lunchtime is 1 PM and my wife usually packs me a solid and sumptuous lunch of vegetables and rotis. I strictly avoid rice in the afternoon as a heavy meal of rice for lunch on a weekday usually induces sleepiness. So it is roti and sabji for me in the afternoon.

Well, I return from office usually by 5.45 PM and in the evenings I walk back home. The sun would have set or would just be setting and it is a pleasure walking in the cool breeze. After reaching home I would have a cup of coffee and some light snacks. I would then spend some time playing the keyboard which I am learning now. I am a keen music buff and have always wanted to learn musical instruments but somehow it never happened when I was young. My daughter would practice the violin which she has been learning since her first grade. She is a very competent little violinist by now. She can play the movie Titanic’s theme song, songs from some of the musical dramas like the sound of music and several other songs. If it is a Thursday the music teacher who teaches me the keyboard and my daughter violin would be waiting for me and I would spend a pleasant hour learning new lessons on the keyboard.

By seven it would be time to sit with my daughter to look into her homework and the lessons she had been taught that day. As far as teaching my daughter is concerned, my wife and I have split her school subjects into two groups. My wife takes care of Mathematics, Hindi, and French while I attend to English, Social Sciences and General Science. Of course, we don’t put too much pressure on our daughter and insist that she work on all the subjects on all days. Generally, we teach her our respective subjects depending on the requirements of her school timetable for the next day. This ensures that on days when it is my turn to teach I spend a very pleasant one and a half hours teaching my daughter English and Science which are the subjects she likes the most. She dislikes Mathematics intensely. I am hoping she would pick up some love for Mathematics as she goes to higher grades.

We have dinner sharp at 8.30 PM. And since I avoid eating rice in the afternoon and am so fond of it, my wife usually makes sure that I get to eat some rice at dinner time. My wife also makes sure that there is a plate of cut fruits on the table at dinner time. After dinner, I watch the television for some time and then at 9.30 PM I put my daughter to sleep. Of course, I don’t read to her or anything as she has grown out of that habit long time back. But I sit by her bedside and discuss what she had been doing in school that day and several other things for ten minutes. Once I tried to get out of this duty. I pointed out to her that she has to grow out of this habit of me putting her to sleep every night as she was growing too old for it and anyway I can’t be doing this forever. When I said this she smiled and replied to me, “Daddy, even if you are a doddering old man walking with the aid of a walking stick I will not allow you to sleep till you have put me to sleep!” Well, what to say of kids. They say the cutest things sometimes.

Then by around 10 PM, I pick up the newspaper and carefully snip out the heartwarming news items I had marked in the morning. After that, I usually sit and do some writing on my blog, take my medicines and slip into bed. This is my usual schedule on a weekday but Saturdays and Sundays are a different story altogether. That is when I get to spend some real quality time with my family but that is a topic for another post. 

Author’s Note: This article has been written as a part of SuperBloggerChallenge2018 conducted by Healthwealthbridge.comFashionablefoodz.comAllaboutthewoman.com and should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. SuperBloggerChallenge2018 is not responsible for any kind of infringement caused.  

27 thoughts on “A Typical Day In My Life – #SuperBloggerChallenge2018 #InstaCuppa”

  1. Such a heartfelt post Jai. Just loved it. I can see you as a perfect family man and a loving father. It's good that you now pay attention to your health and following a good everyday routine. Do share your weekend stuff as well ��. I want to know more about you.

  2. Wow enjoyed it . All of it was alive by your words . Even I have that hidden desire to learn music and musical instrument , glad that u r learning . Violin too is a very melodious one . The teacher comes to your place for keyboard ? What did he start with ? Ragas ? Let me also find out how can I move ahead to learn music .

  3. Lovely post Jai. I enjoyed reading about your day. About how you are prioritising the important things in life now like your health and family and pursuing your interests. I am glad you have figured out that work is only a part of life, not life itself. And the love for your daughter just glistened off the pages!

    Namratha
    #SuperBloggerChallenge2018

  4. Hi Shipra, Thanks for your comments. Yes, after a certain point I felt it was time to get out of the rat race and start living for myself and my family. Being a software professional yourself I guess you can understand that. I will share my eekend day soon. Cheers, Jai

  5. Thanks Roshan for the comments, That comment of my daughter's left me speechless too. And she was quiet serious about it !!!

  6. I learn western classical music. I am not yet into tunes and other things. I started learning only recently. So still picking the ropes.

  7. I loved the phrase "glistening off the pages." Yes, my daughter is very dear to me. I guess that is a rather mundane thing to say for all parents their children are very dear, but I guess you know what I mean.

  8. Yes, children are so cute and sometimes make such mature comments and leave you catching your breath. I read your book review. Planning to order the book from Amazon soon.

  9. Hi Jai! This is such a heart-warming post. Thank you for letting us have a glimpse into your personal life. You are blessed with a beautiful family and I loved peeking into a day in your life. If you weekdays are so special despite a packed schedule for all three of you, I can imagine how the weekends must be. Stay loving and blessed! 🙂

  10. I banged the poor alarm clock on the head everytime too, poor guy.
    It was fun getting a peek into your day, Jai. Family time is the best and I'm glad you get plenty of it together. Stay blessed.
    I like how strictly you follow your diet and take walks when possible. Health comes first.

  11. Thanks for the visit and the comment Tina. Well, myself and my wife simply dote on our twelve year old who constantly has a mischievous grin on her face and is up to something or the other. Just about to visit your post.

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