Tuesday, January 29, 2008

And then there was LIGHT!

Or maybe it was 'aight'. I any case, officially it is Evani's first word...yoohooooo!!!

Friday, January 25, 2008

A peek into Evani's world

Below are a few clips of Evani that pretty much covers the major part of her daily activities.

Here is Evani trying to feed herself from the bottle right after I changed her diaper. Her expression when she loses grip of the bottle is classic and cracks me up each time I watch it.



It has always been Shomeek's dream that his daughter will be a soccer player (I have no idea why!) and it seems he doesn't want to waste any time in the process. So, when Shomeek spotted the soccer ball at Ikea, he had to pick it up. Soccer training has officially kicked off. Beware my dear friend Conor - you will be needed pretty soon. (Conor is a very good friend/ex-colleague who is also a soccer coach:). Btw, here is a little secret: Shomeek likes playing with the soccer ball more than Evani does.



Evani is drawn to the remote like a magnet. However much I try to put a variety of toys out for her, she will automatically get drawn to the remote on the couch and ignore the fact that we spend money to buy her toys and that she should be putting them to use.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Cheap Entertainment

It did involve a big screen and lots of unknown people, yet it had nothing to do with cable or internet. It was the monitor at SF international airport that allows you a viewing of the arriving passengers right before they actually get out into the arrivals lobby. The intention of that might be for you to get ready to receive, whoever you are there to receive, with a broad grin or something of that sort, but for us Pauls it was better than comedy night on NBC.

The best part is that most passengers do not know that they are being watched by herds of unknown people. So, their actions and emotions are absolutely genuine, and for some, pretty embarrassing if they ever found out that they were being displayed on a huge screen. I wonder if their friends or family ever let them in on the amusement.

We were there on Saturday to receive my mother-in-law, who was returning from her vacation in India. As usual her luggage was amongst the last to arrive and hence we had a pretty long wait out there. With Evani keeping herself entertained in her stroller, we resorted to observing strangers around us, especially on the screen. It was a Cathay Pacific flight that had just arrived from Hong Kong. It was intriguing to watch all the passengers. We started weaving stories on their lives based on how they were dressed for such a long flight, the luggage they carried, their facial expressions. It was fun to watch the first timers arriving in SFO trying real hard to suppress their excitement before coming out of the gates. There were the occasional nose pickers as well oblivious to the fact that they were on camera. The stilettos and freshly applied makeup of a few after the 14 or 15 hour flight put me to shame and reminded me how shabby I looked after the early morning (which is 8 am, btw) 2 hour drive from Sacramento.

The one who most caught our attention however was a guy who was at the receiving end. An Indian guy sporting a formal jacket over jeans - seemingly not an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi), who clutched a laptop with his dear life waiting for someone to arrive. The reason he had a laptop was the object of curiosity for us. He must have had a very reasonable cause for it but the fun lay in the conclusions we came up with:
1. His newly-wed wife must be arriving to the U.S. for the first time and he carried the laptop to impress her
2. He was a geeky software engineer who felt insecure without his laptop
3. He was meeting a client for business and had to start working immediately upon their arrival at the airport - nah! (this was ruled out by Shomeek)
After much discussion on him we named him 'laptop da' ('da' being colloquial for 'dada' which means 'elder brother' in Bengali) and was eager to catch a glimpse of the person who he was there for. However, amidst all the other strangers who were entertaining us, we missed that most important moment and he was gone. It reminded me of the power cuts that were bound to happen in the middle of our most favorite shows back home and so the mystery remains forever.

You writers can be on strike for as long as you want - we don't need you or your characters to keep us entertained!

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Welcome '08

Happy New Year!

I know...I know...my first post in the new year has long been due. Initially I had thought that the holidays would be more of us just chilling out at home but eventually it ended up being pretty hectic. The highlight was our Tahoe trip. It was Evani's first snow experience and she seemed to enjoy every bit of it.

The holidays being over, I find myself back into the daily groove of things. 2007 was a very special year with the birth of Evani, Wacker Design Group and TranceFusion Dance Company. These all came with a huge responsibility as well. I just hope this year I am able to balance every aspect of my life.

2008 started off with Wacker Design moving into an office space in Roseville, thanks to some wonderful friends - YAY! We're not fully functional there yet, but that's not too far away.
TDC has been invited to perform on Jan 26th at a fundraiser for the cyclone victims of Bangladesh. We have also set ourselves in full gear for offering classes to adults and children.
I am continuing to knock on doors to find someone in India who can help Dr. Ernie Bodai introduce the Breast Cancer Stamp there. All efforts in this regard is seeming futile, but I will keep trying as long as I can.

On the home front, Evani has been growing rapidly. She is a burst of energy and is trying to take a few steps if you hold her. We will finally be making our trip to India with her mid Feb. Cleaning poopy diapers is just getting worse by the day due to the stench. I seem to smell poop everywhere. Shomeek's huge nose is finally coming in handy - he seems to identify that Evani has pooped from miles away. I continue to watch crappy movies that Shomeek gets from Blockbuster as that seems to be the only form of entertainment for us. We have been trying hard to control our urge to eat out, which results in the fact that I am having to cook regularly...uurrghhhh!!! From the onset of '08 I have been craving chocolate brownies with vanilla ice-cream. The craziest thing I did however was meet in person a friend I made online (I have not heard the end of this from my other friends). Thankfully he didn't turn out to be a criminal or a weirdo. In fact I am really glad I met him. He seems to be a wonderful and talented person and he has become a very good friend (okay, you know who you are, I deserve to be treated for saying such wonderful things about you on my blog:).

All in all, 2008 has started off pretty well. Lots of things to do and greater heights to be achieved. Thanks to all family and friends for being around and supporting me in every endeavor of mine. I hope to spend some more time with all of you this year.