Diwali is coming up and as lot of you know it is time for us to take a family portrait. This is our first time taking a portrait in India. Our session will be at Celebrity Kids in Ambiance mall in Gurgaon.
My friends, if you wish to receive a Holiday Greeting from us, do reply to this post and I will mail you your personalized card! Of Course you would also get a letter enclosed with a card.
Hurry offer ends at Diwali.
Start preparing for Diwali!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Catch a Tiger by the Tail
This month 17th thru 20th we will be visiting the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. We will be staying at this amazingly luxurious jungle camp at Sherbagh. Check this link out to see the beauty of it http://www.sherbagh.com/about_sherbagh.aspx
You know what is more amazing, it will be just two of us and not the kids. Actually not taking kids part is not that amazing. Sunny really loves jungle safaris so I would have loved to take him with us but the trip is only planned for adults. I am super excited about it. I will write more when I get back.
Until then you check out the pictures of the park! Incredible India!
You know what is more amazing, it will be just two of us and not the kids. Actually not taking kids part is not that amazing. Sunny really loves jungle safaris so I would have loved to take him with us but the trip is only planned for adults. I am super excited about it. I will write more when I get back.
Until then you check out the pictures of the park! Incredible India!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Trip of my life
We had a long weekend beginning Thursday August 14 th till Sunday 17th. We decided to go some nice for a long weekend. Our discussion started right from visiting Dubai to Chandigarh. We finally settled on a place. Hotel room was booked at Holiday Inn. Clothes and Swim suites were packed. For the first time in ages not a whole lot of food was packed since we now reside in a country where food is not fried in a lard!
Manna and I took half day offs on Thursday and we decided to leave right after the Independence day program at Chiku and Sunny's school.
We left after the sumptuous lunch at Nerula's around 3 ish. Cold coffee ice-cream was a mandatory before starting our trip. It was us 4 plus Mummy ma(Manna's mom). The destination was 4 hours away. But with our new driver and heavy rains we reached the destination around 8:00 ish. The hotel was nice, similar to the one in US but more lavish service in terms greeting, saluting you at the entrance, carrying your luggage etc. I am used to all these luxuries in India by now! Here I will skip a day and go on to next one so I can tell you all about THE place we visited.
Next day after the continental breakfast (which also contains idlis, parathas and bhaji !) we set out to start our day. We drove(6-7 kms.) to reach the place. But we could only drive as far as couple of kilometers away from the destination. Kids loved to use horse carriage to reach the destination. They were very excited as well. We hired a guide who would narrate to us in English and Hindi. We got our ticket and went thru security clearance.
The entrance was magnificent. It had a grand structure with farsi carving on it. Now I was dying to get inside. Once I entered the gate, there I could see amazing Taj Mahal in front of my eyes. I could not believe my eyes and I kept quite since I wanted my eyes to make an impression of that picture into my brain so I could never forget it. It took 22 years to build it. It is basically a tomb of Shahajahan and Mumtaj. Inside it is carved beautifully and if that was not enough semiprecious stones are put into those carvings. Those stone actually glow under the beam of light.
Since we could only admire the beauty and take lots of pictures of it, we did the same thing. I was so happy to be back to India to experience such a wonderful monument. The guided tour made the experience more pleasurable. The river Yamuna flows at the back of Taj mahal makes the scene even prettier. To make our trip even more memorable we made Chiku tie Rakhi on her brother's wrist right at Taj Mahal. He gave her a nice bracelet as a gift. There were some other visitors who marveled this idea.
I really felt like wearing a T-shirt that day that would read "I saw Taj today"!
We also saw Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri during this trip.
It is not a fluke that this monument is one of the Seven wonders in the world. It really is magnificent.
Manna and I took half day offs on Thursday and we decided to leave right after the Independence day program at Chiku and Sunny's school.
We left after the sumptuous lunch at Nerula's around 3 ish. Cold coffee ice-cream was a mandatory before starting our trip. It was us 4 plus Mummy ma(Manna's mom). The destination was 4 hours away. But with our new driver and heavy rains we reached the destination around 8:00 ish. The hotel was nice, similar to the one in US but more lavish service in terms greeting, saluting you at the entrance, carrying your luggage etc. I am used to all these luxuries in India by now! Here I will skip a day and go on to next one so I can tell you all about THE place we visited.
Next day after the continental breakfast (which also contains idlis, parathas and bhaji !) we set out to start our day. We drove(6-7 kms.) to reach the place. But we could only drive as far as couple of kilometers away from the destination. Kids loved to use horse carriage to reach the destination. They were very excited as well. We hired a guide who would narrate to us in English and Hindi. We got our ticket and went thru security clearance.
The entrance was magnificent. It had a grand structure with farsi carving on it. Now I was dying to get inside. Once I entered the gate, there I could see amazing Taj Mahal in front of my eyes. I could not believe my eyes and I kept quite since I wanted my eyes to make an impression of that picture into my brain so I could never forget it. It took 22 years to build it. It is basically a tomb of Shahajahan and Mumtaj. Inside it is carved beautifully and if that was not enough semiprecious stones are put into those carvings. Those stone actually glow under the beam of light.
Since we could only admire the beauty and take lots of pictures of it, we did the same thing. I was so happy to be back to India to experience such a wonderful monument. The guided tour made the experience more pleasurable. The river Yamuna flows at the back of Taj mahal makes the scene even prettier. To make our trip even more memorable we made Chiku tie Rakhi on her brother's wrist right at Taj Mahal. He gave her a nice bracelet as a gift. There were some other visitors who marveled this idea.
I really felt like wearing a T-shirt that day that would read "I saw Taj today"!
We also saw Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri during this trip.
It is not a fluke that this monument is one of the Seven wonders in the world. It really is magnificent.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Security
Chiku and Sunny have this coolest security idea in their school along with I-Cards, Security Guards and many other human intervention ed security features. They both have a computer chip that fits in their I-card. When ever they enter the school main gate the card automatically gets scanned by these powerful scanners set at the gate. Yes it happens even if the child is sitting in a school bus while entering the gate. The SMS(text message) is sent on the mobile phone stating that the child has entered the school at this particular time. Same thing happens when they leave the school for the day. It really helps me keep tabs about the time they get picked from school.
Of course they use my company's service for transmitting those messages on the mobile phone so whenever the messages are delayed I check with our tech. ops team to see if service is having any delays.
Do you like this feature? Let me know what you think.
Of course they use my company's service for transmitting those messages on the mobile phone so whenever the messages are delayed I check with our tech. ops team to see if service is having any delays.
Do you like this feature? Let me know what you think.
Life is hectic
I am so sorry for not posting for so long. I know from the traffic pattern to the site that there are good number of my friends who read my blog regularly. I am so sorry my friends for not letting you peep into my life for so long.
Life has gotten really busy. Good busy in a way.
Sunny goes to school at 7:00 am in the morning, so we both get up in the morning to get him ready for school. Manna and I go to Gym pretty regularly as well. When Sunny is off to school we then shift our focus to Chiku on getting her ready. Some days she goes for horse riding before she goes to school. Our breakfast is served at 8:00 am and three of us start our ride from home. We first drop daddy off to work. I then drop Chiku off to her 9:15 am school. By the time I reach office it it almost 9:25 am.
Kid's school gets over at 1:30 pm where they get picked by the driver. They come to my office which is only 5 minutes away from school. I check their homework and spend few minutes with them asking them how their day at school was. After lots of instructions from me, hugs and kisses they set off to go to day care.
We have been really happy with their day care. It is very close to a day care in US in terms of facilities and expenses. I like this one better because they serve amazing lunch and evening snack(better than home made, I am not kidding).
I will write a separate post about the daycare for curious ones out there.
The driver comes to my office place after dropping them off to day care. I start from my office around 6:00 pm. I pick kids up first, then daddy and we reach home around 7:00 pm. There are some days when we get stuck into traffic as well, since I am not driving I am more patient with the situation.
When they get home their home work has been taken care of by the day care teaher. I just go thru it to make sure they have done it right. Some days we do some craft projects given in school for them. We eat dinner by 8:00 pm and put kids to bed by 9:00 pm.
I like my routine. Sometimes it gets too hectic and busy when Manna is traveling but I am ok with that.
Life has gotten really busy. Good busy in a way.
Sunny goes to school at 7:00 am in the morning, so we both get up in the morning to get him ready for school. Manna and I go to Gym pretty regularly as well. When Sunny is off to school we then shift our focus to Chiku on getting her ready. Some days she goes for horse riding before she goes to school. Our breakfast is served at 8:00 am and three of us start our ride from home. We first drop daddy off to work. I then drop Chiku off to her 9:15 am school. By the time I reach office it it almost 9:25 am.
Kid's school gets over at 1:30 pm where they get picked by the driver. They come to my office which is only 5 minutes away from school. I check their homework and spend few minutes with them asking them how their day at school was. After lots of instructions from me, hugs and kisses they set off to go to day care.
We have been really happy with their day care. It is very close to a day care in US in terms of facilities and expenses. I like this one better because they serve amazing lunch and evening snack(better than home made, I am not kidding).
I will write a separate post about the daycare for curious ones out there.
The driver comes to my office place after dropping them off to day care. I start from my office around 6:00 pm. I pick kids up first, then daddy and we reach home around 7:00 pm. There are some days when we get stuck into traffic as well, since I am not driving I am more patient with the situation.
When they get home their home work has been taken care of by the day care teaher. I just go thru it to make sure they have done it right. Some days we do some craft projects given in school for them. We eat dinner by 8:00 pm and put kids to bed by 9:00 pm.
I like my routine. Sometimes it gets too hectic and busy when Manna is traveling but I am ok with that.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Life of Sunny
As you all know it has been 6 months since we shifted to India. I feel that we have been here lot longer. I guess we adapted to this life lot faster than we imagined. Kids have forgotten US except for some special people that we had in our lives. We dearly miss US when we are running short on Almond Butter or some such exotic Trader Joe's goody. I know my life revolves around food!
But anyways Sunny has adopted very well to Indian life. He is now a skinny, tanned boy. He absolutely loves his school. He is most well read boy in his class. So teacher says his thoughts in writing are really well constructed. His handwriting has improved a lot after coming here. He has to write lot of essays and creative writing type of things. He is now trying to write cursive.
His Hindi progress has been phenomenal. In 4 months he is doing grade II Hindi. He still does some mistakes with his 'Matras'. I can tell that he really does not like Hindi as he always finds excuses not to do his Hindi homework. School also has started giving him extra attention on Saturdays on an individual basis so he could do better in Hindi.
His math skill are good. But I feel that the math level that they are doing in school is lower than what he used to do in Montessori. His school is also having math teacher retention problems since the academic year began. I am thinking of putting him in Kumon for same reason so he could learn at his own pace and not with school pace.
One area where he really lacks is his organizational skills. He never completely writes his homework in his Almanac. He fails to bring appropriate books related to that homework. His cubby in his school is never arranged and he has hard time finding right things for the appropriate periods in school. He leaves lot of blank pages in notebooks for no reason. His notebooks are messy. He forgets things everywhere. We(teachers and us) are putting extra efforts in getting him more organized by giving him guide lines and and using points system even at home.
The school giving them good exposure to lot of extracurricular activities like music, soccer, gymnastics, basic computer skills and Olympiads. He plays soccer in school with friends. On Tuesdays he has swimming, Wednesdays he has Horse riding and Thursdays he has skating in school. He has opted for Chess for his activity. They also have computer education where they are teaching him how to write and save a file and some other basic things.
They have show and tell sessions in school on Mondays. They have an assembly in school on 3 days a week. They have morning 15 minutes health class where they do some sort of exercises. He also participates in Gymnastics. Since so many of the activities are covered in school I am happy that I do not have to drive him anywhere on weekends for any classes.
Sunny as usual eats his oatmeal in the morning. At 9:00 is he eats a fruit, snack and juice tiffin. He eats his Roti and subji lunch at noon. He reaches the daycare around 2:15, where one of the didis helps him change and serves him nice lunch. He then rests for some time before beginning his homework. They have evening activities in the day care as well for an extra cost. He participates in chess, gymnastics and skating(playing hockey) in the day care. He then gets his snack with Bournvita milk at around 5:30 pm.
Over the weekend he has Piano teacher coming home to teach him keyboard. I don't think he is doing too well with it since he never practices keyboard during the weekdays. But I am hopeful that this will at least make his motor skills better. Also over the weekend the school gives them enough homework to keep them busy for at least couple of hours.
Sunny and Chiku are always together wherever they go. They sometimes fight but I bet not as much as my bro and I fought. So I am happy that wherever they are, they are always there for each other.
As usual he has been a avid reader where he has fallen in love with Roald Dahl and finished his entire series except two books. He has also finished Mary Pope Osborne Magical Tree House series.
He takes long time to make friends. He only has one boy in school that he say "is not too silly like other boys". That friend is over to our place today for a play date.
So this is Sunny's life jam packed with activities and school. But he enjoys all of it.
I am really glad to have a son like Sunny!
But anyways Sunny has adopted very well to Indian life. He is now a skinny, tanned boy. He absolutely loves his school. He is most well read boy in his class. So teacher says his thoughts in writing are really well constructed. His handwriting has improved a lot after coming here. He has to write lot of essays and creative writing type of things. He is now trying to write cursive.
His Hindi progress has been phenomenal. In 4 months he is doing grade II Hindi. He still does some mistakes with his 'Matras'. I can tell that he really does not like Hindi as he always finds excuses not to do his Hindi homework. School also has started giving him extra attention on Saturdays on an individual basis so he could do better in Hindi.
His math skill are good. But I feel that the math level that they are doing in school is lower than what he used to do in Montessori. His school is also having math teacher retention problems since the academic year began. I am thinking of putting him in Kumon for same reason so he could learn at his own pace and not with school pace.
One area where he really lacks is his organizational skills. He never completely writes his homework in his Almanac. He fails to bring appropriate books related to that homework. His cubby in his school is never arranged and he has hard time finding right things for the appropriate periods in school. He leaves lot of blank pages in notebooks for no reason. His notebooks are messy. He forgets things everywhere. We(teachers and us) are putting extra efforts in getting him more organized by giving him guide lines and and using points system even at home.
The school giving them good exposure to lot of extracurricular activities like music, soccer, gymnastics, basic computer skills and Olympiads. He plays soccer in school with friends. On Tuesdays he has swimming, Wednesdays he has Horse riding and Thursdays he has skating in school. He has opted for Chess for his activity. They also have computer education where they are teaching him how to write and save a file and some other basic things.
They have show and tell sessions in school on Mondays. They have an assembly in school on 3 days a week. They have morning 15 minutes health class where they do some sort of exercises. He also participates in Gymnastics. Since so many of the activities are covered in school I am happy that I do not have to drive him anywhere on weekends for any classes.
Sunny as usual eats his oatmeal in the morning. At 9:00 is he eats a fruit, snack and juice tiffin. He eats his Roti and subji lunch at noon. He reaches the daycare around 2:15, where one of the didis helps him change and serves him nice lunch. He then rests for some time before beginning his homework. They have evening activities in the day care as well for an extra cost. He participates in chess, gymnastics and skating(playing hockey) in the day care. He then gets his snack with Bournvita milk at around 5:30 pm.
Over the weekend he has Piano teacher coming home to teach him keyboard. I don't think he is doing too well with it since he never practices keyboard during the weekdays. But I am hopeful that this will at least make his motor skills better. Also over the weekend the school gives them enough homework to keep them busy for at least couple of hours.
Sunny and Chiku are always together wherever they go. They sometimes fight but I bet not as much as my bro and I fought. So I am happy that wherever they are, they are always there for each other.
As usual he has been a avid reader where he has fallen in love with Roald Dahl and finished his entire series except two books. He has also finished Mary Pope Osborne Magical Tree House series.
He takes long time to make friends. He only has one boy in school that he say "is not too silly like other boys". That friend is over to our place today for a play date.
So this is Sunny's life jam packed with activities and school. But he enjoys all of it.
I am really glad to have a son like Sunny!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Ye Mera Ghar
We did not bring any bedroom furniture from US when we moved to India. We never had great bedroom furniture to begin with. It was all garage sale collectibles. So ever since we moved here I have been thinking about buying furniture. Delhi is well known for good furniture. I went to all the areas famous for furniture making like 'Kirtinagar', 'Ghitorni' . I did not like the concept of ordering the furniture and getting it made. I wanted something off the shelf. Well that was hard since queen beds are not so common (kings are) in India. They did not have ready ones available. There are few stores like LifeStyle who sell readymade furniture but their prices were exorbitant. I was almost getting tired of this endless search when I found the store(chain of stores) Style Spa. They make furniture that is contemporary yet reasonable in price. I liked this bed because it is simple but elegant. I placed an order for bed, side tables, dressing table with a stool. It is compressed wood that is treated for termite or any other kind of natural damage. Basically Ikea kind of stuff.
Furniture would be delivered on Wednesday(25th). I am excited since my search for furniture is over before the school begins.
Check out their web site for more. It would give an idea to some of you who are eager to move back to India for good.
I will send you pictures of my bedroom once it is all set.
Bedroom image taken from Style Spa website
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