Brimming with pride as the year draws to a close!

It was Qatar’s National Day on 18th and Namnam’s school had organized a concert to celebrate the day. Namnam was quite excited as she was to perform in the event. And this being her first concert , R & I were equally charged up !

The children were asked to come dressed in a traditional dress for the event. They were to sing 5 songs.And much of my days were spent prepping Namnam up for the event. I was to also arrange for a Qatari dress for her. But the rains played a spoiler, hence couldnt go out for an extensive search. Thankfully the school was very forthcoming when R asked if she could wear a ‘Paavada'(traditional south Indian long skirt) instead.

Needless to say,Namnam was elated when she got to know she’d be wearing a paavada. Its her favorite attire. So much so that if given a chance she would even wear it as a night dress.

She was also asked to bring a red&blue T-shirt. By the sound of it,the colour-combo may seem the easiest to find. But let me warn you,it is far from being so. I could find every possible combination but a red&blue. I even went looking for it in the boys’ section.Anyway,after much running around the malls,we did finally get a red shirt with a bit of blue design on it.

On D-day, R & I reached the school, eagerly looking forward to watching our little one perform for the very first time. To be honest,I feared that Namnam would be hesitant to perform if she saw us. But, R didnt have any such doubts. He was confident that if she saw us,she would be as enthusiastic to perform as ever.And when I saw her coming out of her class along with other children, all my doubts were put to rest too.

Here was my girl,who used to go on a wailing spree at the mere sight of strangers till about a year back,now walking past them with not an inch of inhibition. Just when the program was about to begin, she saw us and waved at us with a blushing smile. I was so overwhelmed with emotions that all I wanted to do,at that point, was to run and tightly hug my little one. I was so proud of her !

It was amazing to see all the children perform with such confidence. I realized,as a parent,what mattered to me was that my child had the confidence to face anyone. It didn’t matter if the girl standing next to her looked better than her or the boy at the back was more audible. All I could see was my daughter giving her best shot. To me, she clearly stood out. And I’m sure every parent,present in that room that day must have felt the same way for their child.

I’m deeply grateful to the school and her teachers for helping her open up and bring out her confident self.I hope and pray she is always blessed with such teachers who will guide her in the right direction at every stage in life and be instrumental in shaping her future.

On that note let me wrap up my last post for this year with an image of the concert. No prizes for spotting Namnam though!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year! May the coming year bring you and your family, new joys,new hopes and beautiful moments to cherish forever.

ETA: Dear all, I’ve scheduled the post for auto-publish as I’ll be away from blogosphere for some more time. Please accept my apologies in advance for any delay in responding to your comments. Will see you all next year 🙂

Taking in to the ‘on-a-short-break’ wave!

Yes,me too! As much as I hate to say this, I too am going to be taking a short-break from blogging for a while. No,I’m not going on any trip. Its just that I have a lot in my platter,right now,that needs my attention. And I’m afraid blogging will have to take a backseat if I have to sort them out. My blog-hopping is going to hit an all-time low and my reader, an all-time high! Gosh,its scary!

Anyway,please excuse me till I have taken care of my priorities. Will be back hopefully,with much clearer thoughts.

Happy blogging and blog-hopping,people 🙂

Bystanding is a national timepass!

Last weekend, R,Namnam & I went out to enjoy the lovely weather. Yes,the scorching,sweltering summer is slowly giving way to the cool,breezy winter. We celebrated this change in weather by roaming around Souq Waqif,a traditional market situated in the heart of Doha.

Now the post is not about our visit to the Souq. I’ll reserve that for a later date. Maybe,I’ll share some snaps of our visit in my next post. This post,instead is about what happened after leaving the place.

On our way back,we saw an accident on the opposite road, where a cyclist had been hit by a motorist. By the look of it ,it seemed like a terrible accident. The cyclist was lying on a stretcher,right in the middle of the road, being attended to by the paramedics.

As much as it was a disturbing sight to watch, what was also pathetic to see was how much this incident was garnering interest among all the passersby. Everyone was so glued to that unpleasant sight that they were causing a mini-traffic jam in the process.

R was so pissed off with this attitude that he was on the brink of getting out of the car and shaking the drivers to get moving. We didnt understand what was so interesting to watch. What was the need to stop and watch a poor man fighting for his life? Unless of course they had some help to offer,which they clearly didn’t. The ambulance was there. The paramedics were doing the needful.

By-standing seems to be in our veins. When someone is beaten mercilessly, or when a woman is paraded naked or when there is a scuffle in the locality,all we do is stand by as mutants and watch. I’m not saying we enjoy it,but we don’t seem to mind it either.

If we cant offer our help or speak out against an injustice ,we should just walk away and move on. At least its less miserable than being bystanders and adding to the sufferings of those ill-fated souls.

Can girls really be friends?

I was reading an article in one of the magazines wherein this question was posed.The article was presented as a debate and two women had contributed with their own differing opinions with a ‘Yes’ and a ‘No’. After reading it,I thought it would be interesting to ask myself the same question.

I went to a co-ed school which means,I’ve been fortunate enough to form some wonderful friendships with both boys and girls over the years. And I cherish all of them. But I’ve always been closer to my girl-friends, because they understand me better.

I believe that there are certain things that you can discuss and experience only with your girlfriends…be it having endless discussions about your crushes. Or be it experiencing a state of Nirvana(well,almost! ) by ogling at handsome hunks, or be it simply heading out for a walk just to feel kicked up about being ogled at !! Or be it sharing the misery of your wretched menstrual cramps and empathizing with each other. Or better still, be it going on a shopping spree, picking the trendiest of clothes,parading in front of the mirrors together and boosting each other’s egos !!

Courtesy Google Images

I doubt if, even discussing these things with boys would be half as fun. Leave aside,experiencing !

I know, gossiping,bitching,back-stabbing,mud-slinging, and the likes are some of the other things attributed to us. Yes,many a time,they can spoil a friendship. But,in defense of the sisterhood, men gossip too,don’t they? They may probably have a different name to it…a heart-to-heart talk ,a frank opinion or whatever. Basically they too have disagreements among each other. And sometimes it can even reach a stage where they wont shirk from taking out their cycle-chains,hockey-sticks or baseball-bats to thrash each other to oblivion.

At least we’re not that harmful . I can proudly say that. All we do is indulge in some harmless gossiping or some verbal-spats,if things get out of hands or at times, if we are really good with words,blog about it and kick it out of our system ;). And the rest of us,who are not so good at it,just ignore. Thats it.

That will certainly not mean I’ll stop making friends with girls. I will because I know we are fun to be with despite our hiccups.

So,if I ask myself ‘Can girls really be friends?’. My answer is ‘yes,of course’.

Ok,now before our men from Mars come out in unison to thrash me,let me just go back to the safe cocoon of my planet Venus 😀