Nothing...

Nothing is clear
Nothing is interesting
Nothing is happening
Nothing is impressive
Nothing is worth doing
Nothing is there to look forward to
Nothing...absolutely nothing

YES, I AM DEPRESSED!!
And the reason I am very worried (actually extremely worried) is there is nothing to be depressed about..Everything's just fine...it's just that I am depressed and nothing is fine anymore :(

So much has been happening!

Yeah I know I was really lazy...very very lazy to say the least..
There's been so much happening in Dhriti's life that it is unfair, it isn't logged.

Okay..she is now a school going kid. Amazing really!
And right from the day 1 she never cried, I left her at school the first day there in the class and went back home..
And no she didn't cry (though I was feeling very heavy hearted, sentimental and all that!)

June 23rd was when her school started...and she's enjoying it.
She started picking up some english words and tries real hard to converse in English.

I am having a tough time, keeping a straight face, all the while when she's blabbering off in English :))

Here's hoping that she continues to enjoy school and has a lovely time.

P.S: Only problem is she has to be ready by 7.30AM and THATS REALLY TOO MUCH!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!

Here's wishing myself a very happy birthday!! :)
Truly happy with the way things are going on in life...at peace..

Here's hoping for many more such fairy-tale days and living "happily-ever-after" scenarios...

Lots of things..and caught in between them..

If I look back at March, it would possibly become the most hectic month till date..
We've had just too many things going on...too many places we went to...
Heard about too many deaths...
First it was father of the aunty who stays with us at home..
and I had to send her off for 15 days to her home town. We had my MIL come in and take care of Dhriti...but I did have to do a lot of stuff...stuff that I am not good at...like cooking :)
Then suddenly my peddanannagaru passed away. A pity that I couldn't visit him often though they stayed in Hyd too..I felt sooo guilty and bad at not having met him for quite sometime..And he always liked me...wished me the best...was a humble person who loved his family dearly..
My father was broke...seeing his elder brother, who was surely better in health dept, pass away in front of him..
And then...as if we switched channels...we were off to Vja to attend my cousin's wedding...
Calling it "attend" would be an understatement...we had to "organise" the wedding....
But now, the "we" in the above statement would be an overkill...I did do some running around etc etc...:)

And in the midst of all this, Shiva celebrated his birthday...I really couldn't think of anything great to do for him on his birthday...but I DID COOK :))

Dhriti to the core...

She's finished her play school for the academic year!! Quite an achievement considering the initial days where I had to sit with her all through the 3 hours of her school.
Towards the end of it, however, she was going all by herself, enjoying and having fun at school. I don't really know if she grasps it yet, but yeah, I for one, will surely miss EuroKids.

Hopefully, her stay at Meridian will be much much much better...We got her the books and gave the measurements for her school uniform today!!
Before we knew it, she is already a big girl getting ready for school...!

But, to be frank, the books did give me a scare...I mean captial letters, small letters, cursive writing(!!!!!), numbers 1-50 all in PPI????!!!!
I wonder how much the kids will learn once they pass out in Std X?!!


Have to add though, managing her through the summer is already becoming a nightmare :((
She has become extremely moody, lazy, hot-tempered and irritating to the core.
Hope this phase also passes off soooon.

And god only knows, how I will be able to get her to school by 8AM everyday...:(

Sometimes...

you just suddenly realise that people are very important in your life...Not that you don't believe that...its just that with the day to day routine...you tend to even stop thinking about people, forget calling them, talking to them...
But it doesn't mean you don't care, they are there at the back of your mind ALWAYS...
Today morning I got a call from Putchu...she was feeling low...wanted to talk to somebody...so she called me...Suddenly everything came back, the 10AM meeting did not matter, the traffic jam I was stuck in did not matter, the deliverable that my team is trying to meet and doesn't even look remotely possible...all this didn't matter...
I wanted to be there...talk to her...share her feelings...get her out of that "low". But frankly, I couldn't do much...I spoke to her about some stupid things that she already knew...the daily and the routine stuff...

Amazing how things change...when we were in college...we really did not know the world outside...the problems...the struggles...yet we had loads of things to talk about...but now...when we are a part of that rut...when we are living here in this hell called "world", we know every nuance of it...we have got really nothing to talk about...!!!
After a 5 minutes conversation...it is back to..."So what else" or "Nuvvu Cheppu...?"

Have we really lost touch??

P.S: But the intention is still there. I really want to have those looooong conversations...those unending discussions...I really do!

A step forward...No a leap actually!!

Enrolled Dhriti in Meridian school just now...
This was by far the toughest decision that we made...which school?
The fact that there are just too many options all around...the fact that there is nothing that matches all the criteria that you want....the fact that there are "values" and "money" involved...all this added up to a lot of debate...discussions...recommendations...and finally...all we needed was to convince ourselves...

Okay....later in life just incase I forget why we choose this school in the first place...
1. It is nearer to where we stay right now...the schools normally start @ 8AM and I didn't want to wake up @ 5 everyday and I didn't want Dhriti to wake up early either....coz I know for sure that we won't be able to wind-up for the day before 10 PM.

2. The school is "generally" considered good...might not have the brand value that something like Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has...but is amongst the good schools in town...

3. There is no homework. I never understood the concept of writing the same thing over and over again 10 times resulting in any sort of benefit. I am really hoping that Dhriti need not go through all that. She might not be a child prodigy, superlatively brilliant...but yes, she is an intelligent girl. I seriously would not want to insult her by getting her to do these kind of homeworks. And no, I don't have the patience and time for that either...!!

4. You have food provided in the school premises along with all the children. You get to eat the same food WITH everybody. Gives Dhriti that "commonality" and saves me the additional effort of rushing through things every morning...

5. I didn't want Dhriti to be in any sort of pressure during her schooling days. As far as possible tension-free. And this turned out to be one school that has exams and all that (not too modern like not having exams at all) but still has time for extra and co-circular activities

6. And finally, one last thing that was stopping us...(its me actually) - THE FEES. I've had to accept the fact that we've "really" moved out of that "middle-class bracket" and can afford the sort of fees these schools demand.

And afterall I wanted my daughter to have the best!!

Just like any other decision I've made so far in my life...how sure am I about this??...not sure at all...but all along things just worked the right way...this one will too....:)

Hmmm...nothing much...just lazing around..

so...a year that's gone by...I have been reading the lists- the best, the worst of 2007 all over the place...well actually not all over the place...just all over rediff :))
some people can't change...I mean I can never bring myself to get interested in economics, changing dollar values, the greatest CEOs' of our times...I am interested only in movies...what are the films to look forward to in 2008 (and BTW and good compilation on rediff about that!!)

So, how do I sum up 2007, quite good actually, on the personal front, we came back to India, we've settled down in India, I've been to my parents, my in-laws, relatives and all that...
Downsides of coming back to India, Dhriti has been unwell quite frequently, maybe 'coz of climate change or whatever, but she is fine, quite a brave girl that one.

But in general not a great year for the world all over. I thought terrorism was something that was restricted to certain areas/parts of the world only. Bomb blasts in Hyderabad shook the hell out of me.
If someone now predicts that the human race will end by so-and-so year, maybe I'll believe them (looking at the gory acts happening all over the world)
Add to that the fact that we've lost a colleague of ours (quite an young guy actually, all of 38) to heart attack.
I mean, can this really be happening???!!!!

Things like this make life very uncertain, unpredictable.

SO...now for some gyaaan:
Let's make merry, have loads of fun and yes most importantly take GOOD CARE of ourselves.
Go get those regular check-ups done, eat regularly, exercise.

Live life to fullest.

Here's wishing everybody a more peaceful and safe and healthy and happy new year!!!