The lights that travelled from Smits’ abode to adorn Deeps’ garden

Smitha, who I fondly call Smits, had this picture of beautiful solar string lights up on her blog a few weeks back.

One look at the picture and I was pleading with her to visit me on her way to India next, with a huge carton full of these lights .

But the darling that she is, she didnt want to wait till she’d made that trip, instead offered to send them to me the very next day. I jumped at the idea!

She mailed in details with other designs on offer so I could choose the one I liked. I ended up choosing the one that Smitha had on her blog, though. Anyway a couple of mail exchanges later, here I was calculating the amount I would have to pay to her for the packet along with the shipping cost, etc. and there she had already shipped them to my address!

Not just that, when the courier reached me, I discovered to my utter delight that she had sent not one but two packs of garden lights as a gift!

And also, a beautiful D-I-Y art & craft kit for Namnam, which she was so thrilled to get that the few hours that followed were truly peaceful, sans any pestering, any nagging to play with her, to watch TV or go out..for all she cared was to open the kit and make the butterfly wands that were in it .

Smits, she loves the wands and they have already been placed by her in the favorite space of her room- her art corner .

Coming back to my solar lights, after about two weeks of pondering on where to adorn them, which angle to position them so they get enough sunlight to get charged- hah as though sunlight is in dearth here – I finally got around to hanging them in my backyard where the sun shone the most.

Here are a few pics of the lights taken during the day and some taken in the evening when the lights were fully charged and ready to glow into the night.

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Unfortunately because of my dokku camera-settings the images havent come out that sharp. Hence inviting you to my abode to see for yourself how the garden looks when adorned with these beautiful lights!

The story of my dual account

Oh no, don’t work up your brains to rob me… I’m not talking about a bank account. I’m in fact referring to my Facebook accounts.

I read a very interesting post by Neha about how she was intrigued by this growing trend of opening two accounts in the social networking site, one in your real name and one in the name of your blog.

I could have responded to her post by leaving a comment there itself. Then I thought it was better to bring out a post of my own to let everyone know why I have a dual account.

I have an account in my real name which I initially opened for my family and friends to stay in touch with them. Most of my family members are listed there and many of my school chums too. So this was a perfect arena to stay connected with them. The most amazing thing that happened after I joined FB & Orkut was how I could reconnect with my school & childhood friends with whom I had practically lost hope of ever getting in touch.

It was much later that I started blogging. And thanks to it, I came across a lot of wonderful people, many of whom became cherishable friends. But like everything else, blogging had its downside.

I started getting a lot of random invites from unknown people who were mainly reaching my page after reading my posts. I felt my privacy was being invaded a bit too much, because all said and done it was a personal account for me. And I felt allowing people I hardly knew to access it would mean I was exposing myself too much. For a private person like me, it was a bit difficult and unacceptable.

Thats when I felt opening a separate account exclusively for my blog would be a much better option. I could add my fellow bloggers to my network and keep myself abreast of their posts and keep them updated about mine too. Hence a dual account.

I’ve been able to manage both the accounts till now, I dont know how far I can. But for now it works out well for me.

Ever since I decided to open a separate account for my blog, I have wanted to write a post and share with you all as to why I have two accounts. I’m glad I came across Neha’s post which urged me to write this. Thanks a ton, Neha

The week goneby…

was nothing much to write home about.

First, there was the Madrid open which Federer lost to Nadal taking the latter’s all-time tally of wins against the world no 1 to 14. Fedex has a meager 7 to his credit .

Then I saw Swaram flashing her state of mind on Facebook with an ecstatic “Nadal won Nadal won … yay yay yay!” making me sulk even more.

And Sakshi even went a step further by asking me to imagine her having dinner with Federer!

If you have friends like such, you don’t need enemies do you??

Anyway, as Masood, a fellow manic member of the Federer Fan Club put up on my Facebook page, ‘Come Grand-slams (French Open this month and Wimbledon in June), we’ll have plenty to cheer about’. So here’s looking forward to the coming months with my fingers crossed!!

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Next my internet connection came crashing down crippling me for two days. The two days felt like two decades for me! Ok ok that’s a bit too filmy! I get it . What I mean to say is that those two days did reiterate my belief that internet had become an integral part of my life. It’s hard to imagine a day, a life without its gracious presence!

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Then I came across a very tragic and disturbing bit of news. A 4-year-old kindergartener died due to intense heat and asphyxiation after being trapped in her school-bus for more than 4 hours. It was an incident that shook up the entire Indian community here. The parents of school-going children were enraged at the school authorities, the management, the transport company to whom the bus belonged. Everybody was being blamed. And rightfully so.

The bus driver, who has been arrested, should not be the only person to be blamed for failing to check on the bus thoroughly before leaving the school, thereby leaving the poor little girl locked inside the bus. The school has to be held equally responsible for not ensuring the same.

If the schools are charging a certain amount from the parents as ‘bus-fee’, it should not just include a mere pick-up/drop-off of the pupils but should also include the responsibility of ensuring their safe transportation.

Many schools here, reportedly, do not adhere to the guidelines set by the Supreme Education Council. A set of parents have decided to form a committee and hold a meeting with the council to report such schools to them.

I hope these efforts yield some positive results and such tragic incidents never happen.

When I saw the photo of little Sarah, I couldn’t stop crying, because, in her I could see my Namnam.

Next year Namnam will start going to a proper school and I already feel the pangs of anxiety thinking about her safety and well-being.

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Finally I bade goodbye to a very dear friend who left Qatar for good to re-base in India. She was my closest friend here and our daughters were the best of friends( I hope they remain so though) .

We gave birth to our daughters around the same time. In fact I remember, when we were in India(she in Kerala, me in Delhi) for our respective deliveries, we would call each other up now and then to talk about our heartburn, nausea, cravings, aversions, baby-kicks, so on and so forth.
When we moved to Doha, it was amazing to see how quickly the girls connected with each other.

I know we will stay in touch, but it will not be the same as living in the same building, knowing there’s a friend living right next door who you can run to for a heart-to-heart talk. Parting is so very hard! I will miss you, J and Namnam will miss O even more .

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This is how my past week has been. I hope the coming week will pass by more favorably and will give lot many moments to cheer about.

So, how have you been?