We celebrated Rakhi in a big way this year. Instead of each one of us roaming around for Raksha Bandhan, we did a breakfast get-together at our place. With about 35 visitors on the day, it is a good gathering after a long time. We all felt it is very convenient to celebrate the festival this way, so that we can meet everyone at the same place. Here are some pictures:
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| Rakhi2010 |
Surya headed to Gudivada on Thursday night for a chess tourney. He will be out there during this extended weekend and will be back by Monday. This is his second trip in as many months.
Took a new BSNL pre-paid cell ohone connection. It took me 10 minutes to get the SIM card from our local BSNL office. Most of that time is spent on the number selection - amongst the not so good choices. The phone became active within one hour or so. That is really fast…
Once the phone is active, I got it topped up with VennelaPlus connection and additional money top up. The basic connection cost turned out to be very cheap: Rs 20 for the phone activation and Rs 80 for VennelaPlus service plan. That is cheap!
This phone is used as a floating device for rest of the members of the family.
Surya is back to school this week after his summer break. Getting adjusted to the hectic morning schedules now.
Spurthi started going to college starting this week. Monday is a short day for her at college: only two hours. From today, it is going to be full day at college for her. That also means she is taking packed lunch (regularly) for the first time in about a decade. She used to get lunch at school while she is at Meridian.
We did go to the college and took a stock of the logistics on Saturday. Need to visit her college one more time in the next couple of days.
Spurthi’s Xth grade board exam results are declared today. She secured A1 grade in all the papers. Congratulations Spurthi!
These are pictures from our In-Laws’ Anniversary:
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| InlawsAnniversary2010 |
Sunitha and kids headed back to US on Saturday. The four week long trip bonded the kids together, so that is a bit hard for them to leave. We went to the airport close to midnight and they had an easy check-in. The seating allocation by Emirates is not good though, for the longer leg of the travel. May be that thing gets sorted out in the plane. The airport is relatively empty by the time we reached there and customs and security is very smooth for them. It got a bit crowded after that though.
The McDonalds at the airport didn’t offer any dessert menu items at 2.00am 
. A bit saddened by that because I was in a real mood for a Coke Float at that time.
Our Xylo came in handy for the airport trip. The third row seats are folded and I kept 4 regular sized international baggage, two small sized baggage and a couple of carry-in bags in the resultant trunk space. After that, 5 adults (including me, the driver) and two kids could comfortably sit through the 35+km journey. Nikil slept on the lap though, that being an odd hour.
Ravi headed home last week itself, due to shorter vacation. His Emirates flight is rerouted via Toranto due to the European ash clouds. Now the aircrafts are taking their normal flight paths.
Surya is a patron of TreasureHouse, the library and experience house. They are conducting a summer reading program called Magical Ride from April 15th to May 30th. This is a very good program for kids during summer vacation. They also have a set of summer workshops. More details here: http://www.treasurehouse.in/summerWorkShopsList.jsp
Nidhi’s pamita function dinner is held at Vijayalaxmi Gardens in Kompally on Saturday. We headed there early in the evening. Kids got a chance to pet the newly born calf at the farmhouse there. Guests started arriving a little after 6.30pm and the prime dinner time lasted till 10.30pm. Kids had a gala time playing in the cooled off summer evening. Even though there is no much breeze, the lower temperatures (when compared to the city) offered a good backdrop for a nice evening. We stayed there with close-knit family members till 12.30am the next day and headed back home.
Pictures and video are shot by a professional photographer and won’t be with us for another 10 days. Stay tuned…