My Daily Routine

Routines – Sequence of Actions Regularly Followed.

And I hate routine. Just like the famous dialogue of Rajesh Khanna from the film Amar Prem – “Pushpa, I hate tears 😢”

Routine and habits make your life easy and there is no doubt about it. As far as I am concerned, my daily routine changes as per the character of the day. If it is a holiday, a working day, a day with the anticipated heavy workload, a travelling day or a day being alone.

Anyway, I am now beyond busy and hectic lifestyle. The advantage of being on the other side of the fence is serene. You may call it retired life. I call it a relaxed entrepreneurial life. Nobody to be answerable to and nobody to control. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to maintain a routine. More so, when someone hates routine (read me). But then without any prompting, life sets a routine by itself. And here I am, falling prey to routine, finally.

My morning starts early. I usually get up around 5 – 5.15 am. This half an hour of my morning time is fixed for my date with my favourite deity Krishna. We both say and hear a lot from each other. He is aware of my condition and my situation but I still tell Him. He smiles at me and says, keep faith in Me and do your best. This sets the start of the day on a positive note.
After that, around 6.30, if RB gets up, we both go to a nearby public park for a walk. 🚶‍♀️🚶.  Recently, I had been diagnosed with high BP and have also embarked on my “Type 1 diabetic” journey. The doctor has advised me to 2-3 km walk daily. After the morning walk, I have a video call with my son. I mentioned this in another post too. Pranayam for 10-15 minutes. This takes around an hour and a little more. We are back by 8. Time to have that hot cup of tea. 🍵🫖My tea can be green tea, kahwa, or apni doodh wali chai. I told you, routine is not my kind.
This is the time when the newspaper comes. Scanning through the newspaper 🗞️with a hot cup of tea is relaxing. More relaxing as I do my daily dose of Suduko at this time. Once Suduko is done, I give TOI to my father and I move on with my morning chores.

Time to head to the kitchen. I put oats with milk on the stove. Next task is to make sweet lassi for papa. In between, I hand over papa’s morning drink of hot water and honey concoction in his room. He stays in his room and is provided with room service by yours truly.  Along side, I keep the milk pot on the kitchen slab and go to take bath. This is just in case, if the milkwoman comes while I am in the bathroom. She will pour the milk into the milk pot and put it on the gas stove.
It is around 9.30 AM by this time.
Before eating my breakfast, I ask my father what will he have for breakfast. Usually, he loves to have sweet rose lassi. I hand over a glass of lassi and he hands over me the newspaper. It is like old-time barter. You take some, you give some. 😊
Around this time, my staff enters the society. I vigilantly check the “My gate app” to check the entry of two most important persons. Suresh Bhai is my father’s multipurpose helper. He spends about 30 minutes with papa, twice a day. Along with Sureshbhai, my all-in-one  house help comes in. Bhanuben – a middle-aged plump lady who always enters with a smile. She loves her job and does everything happily. Since I detest many people coming into my home, Bhanuben does all household chores, where ever I need support. She is efficient and fast. She takes around 2 hours to finish all the assigned work. During this time, I and RB fix ourselves at any spot and then become statues there. After all, who can walk over on a wet mop in any Indian home? 😊

Breakfast is eaten around 10. Milky oats with dry fruits, seeds and seasonal fruit makes it a delicious and healthy breakfast. Do you know that oats are one of the few items which decrease cholesterol? It in fact reduces the bad cholesterol and increases the good cholesterol. I am the proof. In my yearly medical checkup, my cholesterol rating improved after I had replaced my paranthas, puris ets by oats in my breakfast. This also saves us from the multimillion-dollar question – “ Aaj kya breakfast karein?”
After Bhanuben is gone, and my Suduko was done, I spent some time in scanning the newspaper. In between, we discussed making some plans for the day. If there is some household chore or job assigned for the day, we go out and do it. Otherwise, both of us take hold of our laptops and set ourselves on our respective workstations. RB is busy in his stock market. And NB (that’s me :)) busy on blog and Blogchatter. I also indulge in other creative pursuits like stitching and knitting too. 12 O’clock is the time when I feel like having a cup of tea or a nap 😪of 20-30 minutes. Both freshen me up.

We eat our lunch anytime between 2-3 PM. It is usually, rice, dal, khichadi or any one-pot meal. I usually plan and set the daily “cooking story” in my morning sojourn in the kitchen. I do not want to enter the kitchen very often. Not a good quality for someone who is running a food blog. 😀

After lunch, a TV-watching session of 20-40 minutes. I usually go for documentaries, which are seldom longer than this. The total time my TV speaks to me is one hour.

Freedom to choose what I would do after this TV session, push me to confusion too. I may go back to newspaper reading if I had missed some interesting articles or read any book. This is also the time when I clean one part of any almirah every day. It has been a routine with me for ages now. This keeps the almirahs clean and also, helps me remember what is kept in them.

My yoga class in the evening is from 5-6 PM. Weekend evenings are free and we drive out aimlessly to some less or almost nil populated roads in the neighbourhood. This ride has a romantic connotation in it. Romance has nothing to do with age. A nonbeliever of PDA, we feel the romance in silence. Yeah, so many times, we are just sitting quietly and it feels like flowing in the breeze.
Coming back home before 7 PM is non-negotiable as our cook comes between 7- 7.15 PM. Our dinner time is from 8 to 8.15 PM. After giving her instructions, I sit on my swing on my balcony and watch the world go by. I can see a newly created overbridge, so well lighted with vehicles flying past swiftly. The bridges join the distant lands, minds and souls. I stay about 80 feet above the ground so have a beautiful view around.

Sureshbhai comes again in the evening. He and papa share a good rapport. He shares his family stories with papa, and papa listens with attention and gives advice if he asks for it.

After finishing the daily chores by 8.45 – 9 PM, I come back to my room. I brush my teeth, wash my face and put on the purest of aloe vera from the plant I have on my balcony. This fresh gel keeps my skin glowing. And many swear, that – “ meri twacha se meri umr ka pata hi nahin chalta”. My suggestion to every one reading this post is that, you just  abandon all your beauty influencers, you are followings on social media and follow me. 😀 I am sharing the honest, tested and tried experience. I am not paid by my aloe vera plant to say fancy and good things about it. Looking forward to an increase in my followers. 😀

After, the day’s work is over time for some relaxation activities now. It is time for cards now. I and RB play three rounds of rummy. A call to my son, who is on the other side of the planet. Yeah, it’s day there when we have night and vice-versa. Thanks to these video calls, one feels the nearness.

Now is the time to contemplate and review the whole day. Yes, it is time to write in my diary. For this, I usually keep my lower limbs in a leg massager. Leg massager relaxes the limbs while pouring out my heart in a diary relaxes my mind and heart. These days, my heel spur is activated and this massage relaxes the tension built up due to this pain.

The last waking hour before I go to sleep is spent either in doing some writing on the laptop, reading a book or just having some fun on my mobile.
I call it a day by 10.30-11, but not before offering my gratitude and thanks to my friend up above in the heavens. Thanks, Kanha, for being there.
This is the rough statement of account of my daily happenings.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.
#BlogchatterBlogHop