Looking back a bit

March 10, 2010. That was the last time I blogged. It has been a crazy time since then- a whirl of activity- too much going on.

- I gave an entrance exam for Isabella Thoburn College. I am giving 2 more entrance exams for 2 different colleges. This exam was nuts or to be more specific, it made me feel as though I was nuts. It was totally tough. I couldn't have passed it by a long shot. The icing on the case was that we had to write an essay in Hindi. Why we had to write an essay in Hindi, I have no idea and why we had to write an essay at all when we were told that the entire test will be objective/multiple choice is beyond me. And the topic we had to write on: Privatization of Colleges and other institutions. Hello!

- It's perhaps God's way of telling me that I wasn't supposed to attend this college because quite frankly, everytime I thought about having to leave Chetan for 9 months, I came close to tears. I don't know if I ever could have done it. But what drew me to this college was the fact that it is renowned. And it's B.Ed. degree is the best ever. The college prepares you to be an excellent teacher in the Indian system and that was something I needed.

- Mom came to be with us in March and I was so blessed by her visit. And Chetan was thrilled to have his Aji around. He still refers to the bed where she slept as Aji's bed. It was nice to spend time on a daily, minute-by-minute basis and share our thoughts about our lives. It's just so wonderful to have a mother who is Godly, caring, going out of her way helpful and loving. Oh and she came packed with goodies bought by Sewa, some relatives and mom and dad. How I savoured those goodies! I felt like a little girl at Christmas.

- It is hot here. I can't yet say that it is insanely hot. But the thought about what is to come almost drives me to insanity. I just can't think straight about how we are going to survive this. The feeling inside me is the closest to the word fear. I actually fear the summer. The heat feels like murder- actually sapping life out of you. Today it is 43 degrees and presently the electricity is going 12-14 hours a day. It almost seems to me like the government or whoever provides us electricity is out to kill us.

- There are some positives about the heat though. One is that the clothes dry in less than an hour. The curd sets in two hours flat. Mangoes are already appearing on the scene and so will watermelons. If you fill water in buckets and leave it for a few hours, the water becomes cold and then you periodically immerse yourself in said water and this actually enables you to survive the heat from 1-4pm.

- Chetan has grown taller. He's skinny but he's taller. He's eating better but not as well as I'd like. I suspect this is because of the weather. Samir and I have already cut our meals in to half and our evening meals now are no longer full course meals. It's impossible to eat dal and roti and sabzi. All of it just makes you feel sick and it make me feel sicker to enter the kitchen to cook an Indian meal. Last night we had macaroni and cheese with tuna (courtesy of Sewa)and a vegetable salad with a bowl of curd afterwards and it was the most delightful meal we had had in forever. Not one bite was left of the meal and it took me only 10 minutes to prepare it all.

- Chetan can now say his ABC's, courtesy again of Sewa. It's so cute the way he says it. He sings ABC's totally off tune and he says T instead of P. He's speaking well and is managing to express himself in Hindi too. He gives us no problems with sleeping now and though we still struggle with behaviour like defiance and saying no to everything, on the whole he is one phenomenal kid and he brings much joy to our lives.

- Samir and I are learning to not say anything negative to him or about him in front of him. We have stopped saying anything against him even when he is sleeping. We discuss any negativity when he is out of earshot. We are learning to condone the behaviour and not the person. We are learning to praise him more and more. We talk positively about him to other people. This was a big step for both of us.

I will try to keep a better update on the blog. Stay tuned.