30 Days of Summer - a separation that brought us closer
We split up for a month this summer. But post that, it might be the closest we have ever been.
It’s been a while since the last article. Well, like a lot of you, we had been on a summer break 😀
For thirty days this summer, our family split up and went on two separate paths.
Pankhuri went one way. The girls and I went the other.
It’s never easy to say goodbye for a prolonged absence, but we knew the reason and that gave us strength.
I will be honest. I did not know how a month apart would feel. But, confident from previous such experiences, I was optimistic that it would get managed.
Pankhuri was going deep in Kathak.
A month-long immersion in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Guess where :)
Thirty days of riyaaz, rhythm, discipline, exhaustion, discovery, and dance. Thirty days to go as deep as she could into the one art that is fully hers.
Meanwhile, Tara, Tashi, and I went for the road.
Mumbai to Delhi, Ghaziabad, Roorkee, Dehradun, Panchkula, Chandigarh and then back to Mumbai. Meeting and spending time with our closest family.
While Pankhuri went deep into her dance, we went deep into our roots.
Now, here is what nobody tells you about family.
We are taught that proximity means togetherness.
So, you would think a month apart would cost us something.
It did the opposite.
Because Pankhuri was away, the three of us could not glide through the life like we used to with her being around.
There was no other parent to share the responsibility, when tired.
No one else to absorb the sudden hunger, the window-seat negotiations, the bathroom stops, the repeated questions, the tears that came without warning, the jokes that made sense only to the three of us.
There was just us.
And in that gap, Tara and Tashi and I became our own small unit.
We had our own jokes.
Our own rhythm.
Our own thousand kilometres of conversation.
Some of it was serious.
Some of it was nonsense.
Some of it was the same question asked in seven different ways.
Meanwhile, far away, Pankhuri was becoming more herself too.
A dancer, finding and creating herself with each passing day.
There is something powerful about children seeing their mother go away to learn. To start something again. To be vulnerable yet confident. To belong to something that is hers, outside the daily machinery of family life.
Maybe Tara and Tashi will not remember all the details.
Maybe they will only remember that Mumma went to dance.
That may be enough.
And maybe they will remember that while Mumma was dancing, Papa drove them across half the country and listened to their stories.
So maybe closeness is not always about staying in the same place.
Sometimes a family grows by letting each person go all the way into the thing that is theirs and trusting the love to hold across the distance.
When we all got back together, something had shifted.
Pankhuri carried new dance in her.
I carried thirty days of the best conversations I have had with my daughters.
We were the same four people.
We were not quite the same family.
We were a closer one.
Sometimes a family grows because each person is allowed to go fully into the thing that is calling them.
Sometimes love becomes stronger because it is trusted across distance.
You leave full.
You come back fuller, satisfied, happier.
The pieces fit differently afterward.
Somehow, better.
As a dad, this was the most fulfilling month I can remember.
We had to drive a thousand kilometres apart to find it.
P.S. Go deep into your own thing. Trust the people you love to do the same. Then come home. :)
The PI Square Way
At Life of PI Square, we believe children learn best when nobody is scheduling it for them. When their curiosity has room to wander. When they are trusted to explore, to question, to fail, and to try again.
We built this for our daughters. Now we are sharing it with families who feel like something is off about the default path, but don’t quite know what the alternative looks like.
Want to join us for a Saturday morning at SGNP? Or curious about how we approach learning at home? Reach out. We’d love to walk with you.
Because parenting is easy. When you trust your children.
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