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!!!

Open House & Old Friends

Attended an "open house" in Dhriti's play school today. That's bascially for the parents to be with their kids alone in the classroom and learn what their kids are bascially "learning" at school.
It turned out to be fun, Dhriti (as I had anticipated) knew everything we asked and all that..
but what added to the pleasure was she was able to understand the questions posed in english and she responded to them....Yaaaayyy..!!!

So that's one more mission accomplished!!

And we had Aps & family visiting us yesterday...No, we werent able to catch up much and were pretty much tied-up with the kids but then it was fun tooo...
You don't have to worry about blabbing over and over about your daughter, the other person understands that perfectly well!!!

It was actually nice seeing the kiddos playing together...something that we didn't even visualise in our wildest of dreams when both of us were studying together...
Hmmm....time sure flies!!!

And yeah I know, this post screams for photos...and yes they shall be uploaded soon...

And now for the tag...

Have been tagged by Vidhya to blog about 7 weird or random things about yourself...

Rules of the tag...as explained below:
1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I might have to deviate with 3 & 4 not sure whom to tag next...so will amend that and say whoever reads this gets tagged (not sure if anyone is actually doing that!)

Anyways...coming up with 7 weird/random things that I do...

#1 I am your priority: I can never be happy being any other person in a gang/in a family etc. I need to be loved, pampered and need assurance that I am your first priority. I actually got around to asking my husband to prioritise between myself and our 3 year old daughter...I am that "bad"!!

#2. Always impulsive: I can never plan anything. I am that impulsive person who does things at the 11th hour. And I have strongly influenced everyone in my group at college that only things that we do impulsively succeed anything that is planned fails miserably..

#3. Strong exterior: Anybody who has known me would say I am very strong-willed, adamant, stubborn and then brave...I've tried very hard to build that image. But, actually none of that, maybe stubborn and adamant at times, but surely not brave, that's just a facade.

#4. I hate cooking: No I am not trying to be "hi-fi" by saying that I am a modern woman and hence don't have time and patience for cooking. Not at all, but I somehow detest cooking, staying in the kitchen for so long, waiting endlessly for that "right" taste by letting things simmer on low heat. I really can't do that and that's maybe because to be able to enjoy cooking you should be able to enjoy eating it.

#5. Very short attention-span: I can't concentrate on anything, any activity for a long time. I have very very short attention spans. My first month in the job and a very shrewd manager of mine was able to spot that. I strive hard to hide that fact since that day!

#6. Think & Analyse too much: Smallest and most insignificant things also, I spend too much time analysing them. And somehow I do this only for things that are not meant to be analysed like relationships, frienships, people and their actions...And finally having done this much of analysis I start acting impulsively when the situation demands it...Hmm...so much for the analysis.

#7. Can't really maintain relationships: Yeah that's very true, wherever I am, I have a new circle, new set of friends, new set of things to do. I somehow don't "maintain" relationships as in call up friends, chat with friends, mail friends...not regularly. I have been the most "active" member in my school days and had a whole gang of friends, but don't have contact of any of them now...
Thanks to a few very very very good friends (can't elaborate enough) I am in touch with some of the friends I've made since then...

That's it, its done!!!!!