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?