Gul Panag Instagram – I’ve often wondered about the changing phases of travel and leisure.
For years, my bucket list was long , driven by a fascination with history, mythology and culture. Places I want to revisit and immerse myself once again in. But all of that will have to wait, until Nihal develops that same curiosity.
Parenthood has taught me a quiet truth: I’ll go to those places when Nihal shares that fascination. When he has read about those people and places , when he wants to walk those streets with wonder, when he’s old enough to ask his own questions.
Until then, my energy is focused on breaks that are him-centric — doing things that make him happy, in environments where he feels comfortable. Which basically comes down to a pool… and of course, skiing (thankfully only once a year!).
And so our travels come down to a mix of road trips nature focused getaways. And staycations.
The way our lives are structured, weekdays are already a hustle: early mornings for school, my work compressed into school hours, then switching completely to mom-mode in the evenings. And lately, even weekends have started looking like weekdays — swimming practice in the morning, basketball in the evening, birthday parties, lunches, dinners. Where is the time to stop and pause? Where is leisure?
THAT’S what I choose now. Leisure, for me, now looks very different. It’s weekends where Nihal can explore at his own pace, where the highlight is the pool, or room service, or simply having all three of us together. It’s slowing down and savoring the smaller things we never get to do in the daily hustle.
That’s why we’ve embraced a slower rhythm. Hotels have become more than stopovers — they are the experience, the enabler of bonding, the stage where our memories play out. @theleelapalacechennai , the team curated a weekend of leisure just right for us. From thoughtful meals to creating space for us to balance family time with those little slices of self-care, it was everything we needed: a chance to breathe, to pause, and to live fully in the moment. ❤️ | Posted on 27/Sep/2025 14:28:12
