The green suitcase

इतिहास गवाह है that I am not one to shirk responsibility for the mishaps the family encounters every so often in the course of sojourns undertaken by road or otherwise.  As I commence the dreadful exercise of making public some of the choicest of these mishaps, let me first allay any fears the reader perusing this post may have developed on happening upon the word “mishap”.  Rest assured, none of these mishaps have been safety related, so the reader may breathe easy.  That is of course unless the reader considers hypertension unleashed as a result of inter-spousal squabbling a safety hazard!

A 10 year old contretemps that falls in this category comes to mind.  The event occurred in the wee hours of a 2011 summer morning that followed a night of plotting and scheming an excursion at Put-in-Bay.  Well, may be not the wee hours, but the hours that failed to exhibit the weeness of the hours that preceded them and became the very reason for the contretemps by virtue of not exhibiting the said weeness.  In other words, both Pavana and I woke up late enough to ruin one of the first trips we had planned as a newly married couple.  Assuredly, I took sole responsibility for not ensuring that the alarm was set to the proper time!

A slightly more recent event involved a trip to Chicago, effectuated primarily to assist Pallavi and Prakash move apartments.  This jaunt included some common friends, and contained some glamorous moments like driving a 26 foot U-Haul truck through narrow alleyways and the traffic infested streets of Chicago downtown, and some slightly unglamorous ones like almost dropping heavy furniture down the duct next to the stairway while trying to “pivot” per the advice provided by a certain fictional paleontologist named Ross in a popular TV sitcom.  While the moving drill ended up having more or less a favorable outcome, evidenced by a satiating post-move dinner consisting of Lou Malnati’s Chicago style deep dish pizza, the trip consisted of two events that can be ranked as being mishaps.  I found the first one rather easy to take complete responsibility for, for all it was was a dent between the hood and the driver’s side longitudinal beam of our Honda Odyssey minivan caused by careless parking and my inability to spot a rather large trash can while backing the van out of the SpotHero parking spot.  The second one however was a little harder to take sole responsibility for.  After all there were multiple individuals involved in the decision to pick that particular SpotHero parking spot for our friend’s minivan, so how could I solely merit condemnation as culpable negligence when the minivan was towed under the citation of unlawful parking causing financial damage of $250 and extending our trip by half a day due to the time lost as a result?

The most recent of these mishaps is one that we are currently ploughing through.  It started with a Friday of packing for a week long Chicago trip.  3 suitcases.  The green one with all our clothes and toiletries, the pink one with Medha’s violins and music notes, and the blue one with blankets and comforters.  Everything was hunky-dory until there were just 5 minutes before we had to leave.  The minivan’s trunk was chock-full with laptop bags, Medha’s school bag, Mira’s toys, Mira’s stroller, a bag with our lemon rice dinner, another bag filled with snacks, and 2 out of 3 suitcases because the green one was waiting to be filled by Pavana with her clothes.  The kids, all dressed and ready, were playing in the driveway, and I sat in van and adjusted the phone GPS as we waited for Pavana to get ready.  Suddenly, Pavana’s head peeped out of the garage door.

“You didn’t leave any space for me in the green suitcase!”, she yelled between shallow breaths.

“Don’t come here, if Mira sees you she won’t allow me to carry her!”, I retorted, rather insensitively, now that I look back on my response.

“Why would you stuff the suitcase like this?”, she continued.

“Go away! Don’t show your face here.... look, Mira is already crying...”, I too continued.

Pavana’s head disappeared.

“Can’t do one thing properly....”, her voice trailed off as she went back into the house.

The stage for flaring tempers had been set perfectly.

“What thing?!  One thing?  What do you mean I can’t do one thing?  I did many things.  I do so many things...”, I bounded back into the house carrying a crying Mira in my arms, “...and I need to pee before we leave, so you have to take Mira from me!”

“Keep her there na!”

“Where?”

“What where?  Why can’t you see the context and figure out what I’m saying?”

“What??”

“Ayyooo, keep her in the car seat na!!”

“”Then say it clearly na!!”

“Lalit, I give up!!”

A few minutes later, the minivan was on the highway.  Tempers had either subsided or had been diffused due to Pavana and I getting on the same team against Medha’s constant whining to play her favorite songs.  Six hours later, we were parked in Pallavi and Prakash’s driveway.  Medha, Mira, and Pavana were all upstairs, mostly asleep.  Pallavi and I were almost done unloading the car.

“All suitcases done?”, I asked.

“Yes.  Both suitcases done”, Pallavi replied.

“No no, there should be 3 suitcases.  Which ones went inside?”

“Pink and blue...”

“What about the green one?”

“What green one?”

“Wait, where’s the green suitcase?”

“I didn’t see any green suitcase!”

Suddenly it dawned on me!  The squabble Pavana and I had had before leaving thad cost us exactly one suitcase full of a week’s worth of clothes, which was now sitting neatly packed in our bedroom back in Cleveland!