These things occurred on Monday February 24, 2025 in Mumbai, India
The previous evening, I had overeaten dinner like it was my job, including all the vegetable side dishes our children refused to eat, because the Chabad House’s food is really that good. And then I was up with a bubbling stomach for three hours in the middle of the night. Ugh.
Chaim had to go to work in the morning. I was supposed to lead the boys through a half day of school in the morning a half day excursion in the afternoon. With the state of my stomach I could not stray too far from the toilet. I prayed it was just due to overeating a ridiculous number of vegetables and not food poisoning. I had no time for that. It was our last day in India and the boys had been begging to visit the Paradox Museum. Visiting illusion museums around the world had become a thing on our world tour. I could not disappoint them.
Well, I did what any sick teacher did. I designated Amichai as my substitute teacher and assigned everyone a writing assignment. I wasn’t surprised when I learned three of the four boys struggled to focus. I was just proud of myself for not defaulting to giving them screen time, which I have done many times before and since this moment. Once I was feeling somewhat better, I took the boys back to Chabad for lunch. We had so many leftovers but there was no way I was up to eating anything, yet. We took them to go and put them in the fridge in our hotel room.
A driver picked us up just after 2:00PM to take us to the Paradox Museum. It was a blast! The boys went through each exhibit multiple times, loving the unique illusions they had yet to experience in other museums. They got a kick out of an audiovisual illusion that had funny word clips on the screen, including phrases like “Lactating at the pharmacy.” The audio remained the same, but as the phrases changed, we noticed how what we heard in our minds changed with it. A major difference we noticed in this museum was that attendants were stationed at every exhibit, telling people what to do and explaining how the illusion worked. The boys told me they preferred having the chance to figure it out themselves and were slightly annoyed when they were robbed of the opportunity.
Afterward, we visited the famous Hanging Gardens. Perhaps it was the wrong season, or perhaps we were dropped off on the wrong side of the gardens. Or maybe we were just hungry, tired, and hot. Either way, we were underwhelmed. The boys did appreciate climbing the giant shoe inspired by the nursery rhyme about the woman who lived in a shoe. But the views were obscured by smog. We left after forty-five minutes and met up with Chaim back at the hotel where I promptly fell asleep.
That evening we returned to Chabad for dinner. I had planned to stick to chicken soup, but my upbringing made it impossible for me to not finish the kids’ food. I inhaled chicken and vegetables. Plus I was famished after emptying my stomach contents earlier in the day and not eating since. Although I worried I was making a big mistake, I ended up fine. We purchased extra babka to have as breakfast the next day and as a snack on our upcoming multiday journey to New Zealand the next day. Really, I just couldn’t imagine life without the babka. It’s deliciously moist with a perfect dough to filling ratio. I really need that recipe!
On our walk home I was in the middle of praising Matanel for how confident he head become walking through busy streets when a motorcyclist turned and almost hit him. Thankfully, Matanel had been carrying our takeaway bags for us and they prevented the motorcycle from hitting his leg. Sufficed to say, he clung to me after that when crossing the streets.
We finished our evening with a hilarious game of Rock Beats What on the internet. We were cracking up for hours before we finally decided to get ready for bed and finish packing. That night I finally turned my attention to our upcoming cruise that I had booked almost a year prior. No one told me how much prep work is required for a cruise! I had no idea we had to fill out so much information (again) and download apps ahead of time. Whoops. I took care of what I could and then went to bed.
