Blogging

It just occurred to me that Blogging really is a good way to allow people a peek into your life (you choose what they see which leaves you in control) and to make new contacts. So far, I have mainly been a "consumer" of blogs and I have really come to rely on the blogs of certain people close to my heart to know what's happening in their life.

Actually, coming to think of it: I only look at this blog and my sister's blog on a regular basis :) You can check out her two blogs here and here in case you're interested. Sidsel is not a very good email-writer, so I get most of my information on what's going on in Denmark from her blogs.

Funny in a way that something as impersonal as a blog (impersonal in the sense that you don't write it for a specific purpose but for a general audience) can allow personal relationships to survive.

I quickly read the Wikipedia entry on blogs and learned a couple of new facts about blogging I hadn't heard or thought of before: the history of blogging, the different types of blogging, but also people getting fired or threatened because of a blog. Let's hope that doesn't happen to any of us!

Looks like Friday is good for philosophical thoughts...

Rain

It is the first warm spring day we have had in Sydney in weeks. I walked out of the office and there was a storm brewing and for the first time here, I could smell the rain! If I had to pick my favourite smell, it would have to be the smell of the first monsoon shower in India.

I don't know if its the fact that all my friends are now all over the world and its been ages since we have had a chance to hang out together and have fun, but I would give anything for a humid June afternoon in Indore right now.

The beautiful smell would hit us before the actual shower and we would know that it was raining somewhere close. At that point, everyone ran out of their houses to get ready to get wet. What I miss most is rolling up our pants and going to the school sports field to splash around in the mud :D And then, after a few hours, we came back home to warm showers, clean clothes and piping hot bhajiya and chai.

Here is a picture, not of a June afternoon, but an early morning, at the bypass road in Indore. Gaurav gets the credit of introducing us to the its-beautiful-weather-lets-got-to-bypass concept. Here is a picture that all of us claim was the best time of our lives. Gaurav is the photographer and so not present in the actual picture. To this day, when we write to each other or when any of us are in Indore, a trip here is a customary, followed by an email to say it just isn't the same if everyone isn't around :)

Fabindia (and other Indian experiences)

Menno just got back from his trip to India (Gaurav and Gunjan's hometown of Indore to be more specific) and he brought back some really nice shirts for the whole family - all from Fabindia. They also make great beadspreads, table cloths, and a lot more you can imagine in beautiful vibrant colours and prints. We also got a beautiful Shiva sculpture as a present (I'll try and post a picture here soon, promise) and it looks great next to our Ganesha (a wedding gift from Menno's brother and his girlfriend). It looks like our household is becoming more and more "indianised" :)

an excellent upbringing

We were talking about Colwin at dinner last night (as we often do) and radhika mentioned tanja's post. We (gunjan and I) strongly commend tanja and menno (not necessarily in that order) for the excellent upbringing of Colwin. He's a smart kid, happy to be around people, who enjoys his games, sports, and his stories, and communicates clearly of what he needs. i reckon tanja and menno should write a manual for parents :-)

and yes, Colwin is growing up wayyy too fast. seems like yesterday that I saw him in the department corridor; sleeping in the pram when he was 3 month old and later met him at the christmas 2005 party and he was 5 months...... and now he teaches me something every thursday - how to sing/ why not to eat the ping pong ball/ where to tickle gunjan/ and how to kick a ball......