Cravings during pregnancy are common, at least they begin somewhere in the second trimester. Usually, these cravings are for food – sour, sweet, bitter, burnt, lime, chocolates, ice creams, spices and the works. Some mommies have a wardrobe craving too – fits right, shows my bump & not the flab, color – oh yes, that’s a big one. And then, there are some mommies, like me, who get the toughest of them all – the travel craving!

Oh, I can’t tell you how itchy & bitchy this craving is. It makes me drool over travel maps & brochures. It makes me make prospective itineraries like a crazy treasure hunter. It makes me dream & dream & wake up craving, even more.

Travelogues have been banned from my FB feed by my very-harrased-husband but the Friday paper can’t get banned, and that becomes my gourmet meal to whet the craving.

Everybody waits for the first trimester to end, to be assured that the ‘delicate’ time is over, the bun-in-the-oven news can be shared between giggles & a long desired bye-bye to the nausea & the frills is doled out. For me, I waited for the day just to hear the golden words from my doc, “All’s well & you can get on the road now….. for a couple of months that is”. Spoil sport and an angel, all rolled into one.

Lo & behold, a month long travel plan materialized in a day’s time. A rather safe travel plan actually, as it was all around visiting family in quaint little cities (which turned out to be a big boon after all) and a very convincingly negotiated mountain road-trip at the end!

The experience was surreal, the love & pampering absolutely nurturing & the conversations with nature at the really slow pace of this travel, very soothing.It did make me feel I had done well to satiate the craving and I could now get back to discovering the other mundane ones.

I did manage to find a couple – craving for ripe & taut pears (not babugosha or an overripe one, please!) and for cookies (ended up baking a batch of almond biscottis at 11 in the night, when I have never had a teeny weeny sweet-tooth in my body, ever).

I was just about settling in, to move on with the trimesters when the craving to visit Prague (no idea where it came from, but very specific& very clear – just like someone craving for a dark Belgian chocolate sundae) hit me very strongly this morning…..

So much for the easy to find pears & easy to bake biscottis….. 😀

I am sure you would have had you share of funny, whacky cravings too. I would love to hear the stories..

— Chandana Tyagi —

She is a Performance Coach and an HR Consultant working in the areas of leadership development and learning. She has 12+ years of experience with organizations like Coca Cola, Accenture and Sapient and owes her professional knowledge to institutes like XLRI & IET.

She is a mother of two wonderful boys aged 10 and 1 who keep her young at heart and agile on her toes, at all times. She is passionate about books, food, baby talk and human potential. You will find her blogging on topics related to the joy of reading, ecstasy of good food, exciting world of the babies and the unexplored enigma of true human potential.

You can find her experiences on her personal blog Reader Mommy as well.