Weekend with my mother

I had thought being on my own would be liberating, but you don't want everyone else to have fun while leaving you to cope with New Delhi's heat, dust and outages

No one is giving my mother’s request for a family weekend getaway much thought. Maybe because a summer break needs to be longer than a weekend, or even an extended weekend. All that planning, all that travelling, for it to be over in the blink of an eye? On the family group, where my kid brother has been given charge of rallying the family’s forces, he has been getting little traction. With prices hardening and bookings becoming increasingly difficult, no one can blame him for sending peevish messages.

Meanwhile, plans for longer vacations are under more active — if secretive —