What My "Stay-At-Home" Motherhood Looks Like!

Alright, I am not quite keeping up to the "daily" writing but am gonna summarize what's been happening over the last few days. Basically, I have been focusing on what I had said I would be focusing on - motherhood & movie making.

Now that I am back home in Singapore and technically pretty free, I get to spend a lot of quality time with the little one. I tell her "stoories", she and I exercise together where she keeps going "MUMMY, YOU CAN DO IT! COME ON, MUMMY! GOOD JOB, MUMMY!", she and I paint together, play together with her stickers, we sing bhajans together in the evening and what not. It's been really nice.

On top of this I have been pretty much working on the feature film - yes, the same one that I went to UAE for. We will be shooting in April and there is much to be done before that.

I rehearsed with the actors, who are based out of Singapore.
It is a conversation heavy film, so I took some time to read out the entire script and record it, sometimes with some reference BGM, just to get a hang of how it would sound once completed. That was a really nice experience.
I amended and embellished the script a couple of times, based on more relevant information from whatever I saw in UAE.
I had several production related chats with the team in UAE.

On top of that, I also caught up with the hubby over dinner at our favourite Swadhisht joint over some Thalassery Chicken Biriyani, Appam, Egg Masala and Neimeen Tawa Fry. We hardly get time to talk to each other, mostly because the little one takes over completely at home, so this was nice too.

Oh I must also mentioned that I have been working out every day. These days I follow the videos from Blogilates. They are led by a really fun lady called Cassey Ho and the workouts are mostly pilates based strength training. What I like is that the videos are not too long each, so I can simply do 2-3 different ones which mixes it all up well.

I most likely am ruining all the effects of the workouts with my daily afternoon siestas, but then how long would you get that privilege. So I plan to continue doing that!

I have also been watching a few movies - Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, Malayalam movies Varsham and Iyobinte Pusthakam, so far.

So yes, that's it. I spend time with the little one, I have siestas, I work on the film, I spend time with the hubby, I watch movies, I work out.

I have to say that this "stay at home" phase is working out rather nicely! I probably shouldn't get too used to it... otherwise getting back to work is going to be tough! But for now, it feels awesome!  

Day 1 of Sabbatical!

Today is the official start of my sabbatical; last Friday was my last working day at Procter & Gamble, and as of March 1st, am officially "on a break"!

Over the last few days, I had a really good time catching up with all the good friends I had made at P&G over the years and that last day was special too - it was our Chinese New Year celebration which I, as the "Culture" head of the team, organized. The team turned it into a lovely farewell and it was all pretty nice. I ended the decade long P&G chapter with a big smile and lot of excitement for the next phase!

Given that sabbaticals are not always easy to come by, I have decided to make the most of this one. I plan to get back to my daily blogging just like the before-30 times. Something tells me that there are going to be a lot of memories to cherish over the next few months and I want to make sure I capture all of them for posterity. Also, my Type A personality demands that while "taking rest" during a sabbatical is all well and good, I should also make sure that I am not "wasting time". Needless to say, that's a delicate balance to strike. And writing about one awesome thing a day the way I used to, might just help achieve the balance.

So. Today is Day 1.

And, what did I do?

I spent the whole morning rehearsing with my actors for my next full length feature film!

Yup, that's right! I am going to make another independent, low budget feature film - it would be my second one, after Mausams, and am crazy excited about it! This would pretty much be the first film that I am not producing on my own (I will be the writer - director), and even more excitingly, if things go according to the plan, I will be making this film in UAE! Yup, my very first film outside of Singapore! (EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD!)

But I have to admit that it is still too early to say that it's all locked and loaded. There are too many loose ends and open issues to sort right now to say that it is 100% going to happen. 

But what is exciting is that I will be travelling to Dubai tomorrow to meet the team there! The team is headed by my dear friend and co-film maker (he was the editor for Mausams and Inganeyum Oru Katha, cinematographer-editor for Aravindum Aarumughamum and is currently doing the food photography for Athazham all the way from UAE!). Once I get there, we will discuss all the pre production matters after which we will be able to lock the details for this film. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for this one and am really hoping that this goes on the floors very soon! If you have a prayer to spare, do send one across my way!

Separately, I am not sure whether I fit the bill yet, but I like to think that I am a temporary "stay at home" mom. In this new role, I was all over the Little One today, who, by the way, is currently sporting a Halle Berry look with closely cropped hair. I miss her curls but have decided that she looks equally (or maybe even more) adorable in the "Boy Cut". I spent the whole afternoon and evening playing with her, singing our current favourite song "Prabhuji, daya karo" together (a devotional one originally taught by her grandmom, my mom in law), doing "Ogga" (yoga) together, talking a walk and buying groceries together and generally enjoying each other's company. 

So far, the sabbatical is going super awesome!