My idea of a perfect weekend is one that can be spent at a magical place away from the city. The place needs to have a luxurious house with a spa attached to it and facilities for both indoor and outdoor activities. Most importantly, it must have a very comfortable bed.
But then again, I don’t have much to complain in the way that I currently spend my weekends. I make sure that whenever I get a chance, I head out of the city to one of our houses and have a great time out there. As soon as I get to the outskirts, I feel a sense of liberation that brings me closer to nature. The further away from the city that I am, I feel much better. These quick getaways with my family is my priority.
Once we are in house, we just laze around in the lap of nature. We jump on the trampoline or have a board game night. The kids also like to play football sometimes. We have an early dinner, sit down for a drink after that and get to bed early. The next day, we do just about the same thing before we have to head back to the city.
However, since my schedules aren’t fixed, it’s not possible for us to get out of the city often. Time flies when you are in Mumbai but we try to make the most of it. We usually go out for dinner, watch a movie, meet our friends or do nothing at all. I’m usually the one who plans the parties so whenever I have to meet my friends, I try and do it according to my timing.
This way, we can still have an early dinner and go to bed on time. There used to be a time when I would stay awake till 2 am and wake up late in the morning. But after my three kids were born, it has been impossible to do that. We all have to wake up by 7 am and get ready for the rest of the day. Even on a day off, my body clock doesn’t allow me to sleep later than that.
However, there are times when we hang out with our friends post bedtime as well. We have a drink and just spend time together. There’s no particular agenda for such meet-ups.
I am also fortunate enough to live close to my parents and in-laws. So we spend time with them quite often as well. Over the year, as a family, we plan a short and a long vacation.
In December, we went to Kashmir and it was absolutely beautiful. I went skiing for the first time and that was a great experience. And for our longer vacation, we went to London and Paris. The kids had a great time at the Disneyland there. Since our daughter is 10 and boys are six, there are only some things that we can do with them. Whenever we are together, we play board games like Monopoly, UNO, football, badminton and cricket.
I remember when I was growing up, my dad would prepare a ‘chicken on sticks’ kind of a dish before I went out to play. It’s great when he cooks now as well. The Indian-styled mutton with potato is one of his signature dishes – the gravy is absolutely delicious. Somehow the cooking skills never came to me, so I let the experts at home take care of that.
The kind of profession that I’m in, I know that having that perfect weekend is not always possible. There are times when I don’t even realise it’s the weekend. So whenever I do get the time, I cherish this moments that I have with my friends and family. That I would describe as my perfect weekend.”
A few of my favourite things
Acting
Movies
Spending time with my kids
To be in front of the television
A nice hot shower
(As told to Anila Kurian)
