Nivedita Basu and her family recently went on a trip to Kerala. This time the break was for as good as twenty days. The writer-producer-director planned everything to the T and spent about 11 days in Bengaluru and 9 days in Kerala.
“I think the 19 months of Mumbai lockdown took a toll on me. In fact, my family and I were dying to take a vacation. I am married to a Keralite. So we are usually used to visiting Kerala twice or thrice a year, and of course I am talking about how things were before 2020. So, since we’ve not been there for about a year and a half, this was a much-awaited trip,” says Nivedita, whose latest directorial, Tandoor has been doing well.
Short breaks are a must but things have been different of late given the pandemic. Sharing her opinion, she adds, “I think if you take shorter breaks it’s much better. Unfortunately, we could not take any break in between because of the lockdown and restrictions. We couldn’t even drive down to Lonavala or Alibaug or anywhere else. So, this time when we could step out, we thought we might as well take a longer break, and that would be like a cover-up for the next few months.”
Many people feel it’s good technology has advanced enough to help one keep a tab on the work even on holidays, while others totally detest this development. Nivedita has a mixed opinion.
“Yes, fortunately, and unfortunately both I would say. Work from home is the future for the next few months. My work and a lot of meetings are happening online, so are my husband’s. Unfortunately for school, I am not in favour of online classes, especially for children who are younger than five, six years. So I’ve kept her away from online. During holidays we would like to switch off, but you never know what important things might come up,” she says.
Just back from the trip, Nivedita shares that the entire family is feeling refreshed and happy. And, now they are looking forward to their next outing. Giving us more details of this holiday, she adds, “So the Bangalore trip was clubbed with a family wedding. I mean how corona weddings are now these days, we had limited people. But we got to meet our family members after ages. I think it was more festive. Bangalore’s weather is amazing. It’s one place where I would love to stay all my life. Kerala of course is home. It’s like living inside the forest… Even though Kerala is the highest in Corona numbers, fortunately, our side were safer. We stayed on the northern sides towards Mangalore. Once we entered the estate, it’s just like a forest and everything is inside the temple, school, houses… so you kept roaming around in the estate and had a lot of fun.”