I am happy I got to spend time with my family a couple of days prior to Mother’s Day. Any day is an excuse to spend time with them. From that point of view, I am also lucky that I have had the opportunity to create a work-life where I can travel and take a vacation pretty much any time I want. I am not tied to a desk or office hours. Even so, sometimes, it is hard to even drive from Noida to Gurgaon to meet the folks. I usually tend to stay over at their home in Gurgaon for a night or two instead of coming back to my house on the same day. In an ideal world I would meet them every day, grab at least one meal, have a conversation. But we talk on the phone almost daily, updating each other about our day, making travel plans and generally wondering about the state of the planet!
When Akanksha mentioned that one of the brands she works with – Fossil – had asked her to do a Mother’s Day story while gifting a bag to Mom, even though I wasn’t part of the commercial contract, I thought it would be great to get lunch together. Both Akanksha and I had been talking about doing a story with Mom anyway. It would be great to get some photographs of all of us together too ( which we totally missed! We have photos of me with Mom, Akanksha with Mom, Me with Dad, Mom with Dad, me and Akanksha with Mom but we don’t have a single of all four of us together. Boo. Next time. )
Mom loved the bag too, which was a huge WIN. She had been looking for a sling bag because her shoulders don’t allow her to carry larger heavier bags anymore and a smaller sling bag / crossbody bag would be perfect. We had looked for the perfect piece earlier but weren’t able to locate a single one that Mom liked. She is a discerning customer and would always find *something* wrong with the bag after she’d used it for a couple of days. Not this one though! Apart from the fact that she was super excited to be part of a blogging story with us, she genuinely squealed when she saw the bag!
My parents are both more than sixty years old. Dad is a retired Indian Army Officer. Mom used to teach at a college before she got married and she was also a national level hockey player during her college days. Her village nickname was “goli” meaning “bullet”. I never tire of hearing the stories because I worry about not having them around me forever. I want to cling onto every little story like my life depends on it. I’ve even thought about doing interviews / stories and recording whatever they remember from their life.
But then daily life takes over and while I haven’t gotten to a point where I can do something elaborate, I try not to miss any opportunities to hang out with them.
We went to 7 Degrees Brauhaus at South Point Mall in Gurgaon. My parents had not been there earlier and both Akanksha & I quite enjoy the beer and food there. It was wonderfully cool and the large glass windows let in massive amounts of light making it perfect for more than one reason. We drank their Lager, ordered Original Bratwurst, Seafood platter and the delectable 3-day beetroot cured salmon and generally had a whale of a time. While making time for a couple of posed photos for Akanksha’s story, we ended up photographing a LOT. It was quite nice of the restaurant to let us be. We’ve been there more than a couple of times and find no reason to stop – apart from the Le Marche in the same mall, 7 Degrees Brauhaus is the only other place I go to.
It was good we took Dad along because he is the original photographer! He shot a couple of superb photographs of Akanksha and Mom and then of all three of us girls. I enjoy bantering with him about how he can’t nail the focus on “these new cameras”. He spent most of his life photographing on an analog fujiFilm camera and only 3-4 years ago is when I gifted him a FujiFilm X100, which he enjoys but doesn’t use as much. He still hasn’t developed complete comfort with the process of shooting and then transferring images to his laptop and then sharing them on social networks or emailing them to friends. But it is definitely a huge step up from having to physically go to a store to have photographs developed 😀
Thank you Fossil for allowing us to utilize another excuse to spend time with our folks. The bag really is beautiful and is made of buttery leather. Also the flat-lay photographs on your website currently? Stunning. The story as it appears on Akanksha’s blog.
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7 Degree Brauhaus : Website
