Goodbye 2007, Welcome 2008!!!

I do want to write a blog entry today but am buckling under pressure. The pressure of writing something thoughtful and profound! If you think about it 31st December is just like any other day of the year. Then why should I feel that my blog entry today has to be something more meaningful than any other blog entry? Why do we celebrate 31st December so much whereas we should be celebrating every day of the year? (hopefully celebrating every day does not mean binge drinking :))

Enjoy this photo I took flying yesterday at Kamshet. It really goes well with the entire thoughtfulness theme of this blog...

This last month, I got whole new perspective as I experienced four people pass away.

• First one, in the family took place in a different city. Physical distance makes it so much easier to deal with such situations. For the 15 years that we stayed in US and away from family, deaths in family was a moment to pause and move on.
• Second one, happened again in the family. This time I came face to face with a dead body for the first time in my life.
• Third one, I witnessed while flying at Kamshet. A paraglider flying next to me collided with another one, both of them fell to the ground. Later I found out that one of them died on the way to the hospital. At one moment I was having a great time flying and the next moment I felt nauseating and wanted to land quickly.
• Fourth and last death, again happened in family. This time, I saw life extinguishing at an astonishingly close proximity and at agonizingly slow speed. I hope you never have to sit next to a person and watch their heart rate drop slowly over time to a flat horizontal line! It is not easy to fathom that the person lying next to you is taking their last few breaths!

The amazing thing about these series of deaths was that I got increasing exposure to end moments of life! It affirmed my belief that life is short and we have to enjoy it while it lasts!!

If I may borrow a song from my moondogger set of close friends,

People dying everywhere, happy new year!
People dying everywhere, happy new year!!

Chak De 2007

As we look back on 2007, it has been a year of massive change for us. After living in the (x=x+1) dilemma for number of years, we finally decided to take the plunge and make a move back to Pune. Only after we started packing our house we realized how huge of a task it is to wrap your life in packing paper and bubble wraps!  The whole ordeal of packing and shipping more than fifty boxes across continents, itself could have counted as a major accomplishment of the year. But that was just the beginning for us….

Then was the task of getting admissions into the only school we wanted Rhea/Roma to attend. We were lucky to not only get the admission but to also find out that the school uniform is color “green”, Rhea’s favorite color. Even just at 4 years, Rhea was letting us know loud and clear her opinions about how she does not want to go to a different school in a different city. We were quite relieved when she easily adjusted to the new school and new routine. Then it was Roma’s turn as she started her playgroup year at the same school and she also fell into a routine very quickly! A big sigh of relief! :)

Rhea and Roma have adjusted extremely well to the new surroundings. They especially love all the attention they are getting from both sets of grandparents. It also helps that they have numerous cousins to play with every day and night. Looking back it has been worth the effort to go through all the pain of relocation just to see Rhea and Roma enjoy the way they are here in Pune!

Medha went along with my decision to relocate and agreed to pack her life in a short span of just few weeks. In fact she was still in Pune on a vacation when we made up our mind to relocate. So she had to rush to Redmond, pack everything up and fly back to Pune. She too has adjusted well, although she is still not getting used to Pune traffic and routinely picks up fights with pune rickshaw-walas. I am secretly hoping that Rickshaw owners will boycott her, which will force her to learn to drive a stick shift and take on the Pune traffic! 

Me; on the other hand am still getting used to hassles of living in India. Slowly but surely am falling in a routine of getting up early enough when the traffic isn’t so badplaying badminton or tenniseating onion uttappa and filter coffee (ummm) breakfast at Roopali and then working from home! ;) It also helps that there is a great paragliding site near Pune which I have started frequenting almost weekly!

All in all we had a wonderful year and we are looking forward to more excitement and adventures next year. We wanted to give you an update from our side and wish you a very happy and prosperous 2008!

Cheers and keep in touch,

Roma, Rhea, Medha And Suhas
Pune, India

Desire to fly

I really like this clip. Captures the craziness people exhibit in order to realize their dreams!