Thursday, September 02, 2010
September 2010 Update from Lincoln
September 2010 Update from Boston
September 1, 2010
The kids are back in school, kids are back in school! And we have plenty of company: Byrne's Landscape is here clearing out all the undergrowth and we subcontracted New England Household movers who picked up our shipment from India at the port. It arrived last Friday (August 27) and went through customs. They x-ray 80% of the containers (ours is a 20 ft container) and Diem (with the shipping company in Texas) had told us beforehand it could get held up, but we were lucky. It did stop in Italy on the way here, and we had to pay $150 extra (I wonder how many lira that is--or euros, I suppose) for customs inspection there.
September 18, 2010
Brought Charlie to soccer.
Maya had a game at Concord. Ended in a 2-2 tie. We went along with the team to Bedford Farms in Concord for ice cream. Ruby's mom Nina was there and she mentioned that Maya said she misses school in India, where you walked in outdoor hallways between classes, rather than inside a building. She seems the least enthusiastic about school here at this point. She really loved Aditi.
Badri and I went to the John Coltrane 33rd Memorial Concert at the Blackman Theatre at Northeastern University. Left home 5:45, picked up tickets at 6:30, walked over to Our House--a favorite old bar of Badri and his buddies--for a drink, then back at the theatre for a 7:30 (almost) start.
September 22, 2010
I'm still getting emails from MAIS, Mallya Aditi International School--where Maya went to school in Bangalore from 2007-2010, and Molly and Charlie in 2009-2010. My eyebrows went up as I read the latest email from Satish Jayarajan, the principal, "In light of the uncertainty prevailing over the Babri verdict, [examinations will be postponed and and parent teacher conferences re-scheduled]." Janaki auntie was always lending me books, and the last book she gave me weeks before she died was Indian Odyssey by Martin Buckley. Written in 2005, it weaves tales of his adventures in India over the years (first in the 1980s and then in 2004) with his abridged version of the epic Ramayana. Why the raised eyebrows? The Babri verdict refers to the courts deciding who is right--the Hindus or Muslim--s. 60 year dispute Badri just said his friend Praveen was when the Mughals invaded Ayodya, they destroyed Ram's temple and built the Babri masjid on top. So in 1980 the BJP's Hindu fundamentalist stormtroopers destroyed the mosque. So this verdict is all about deciding who's right and who's wrong--the Hindus or the Muslims.
September 1, 2010
The kids are back in school, kids are back in school! And we have plenty of company: Byrne's Landscape is here clearing out all the undergrowth and we subcontracted New England Household movers who picked up our shipment from India at the port. It arrived last Friday (August 27) and went through customs. They x-ray 80% of the containers (ours is a 20 ft container) and Diem (with the shipping company in Texas) had told us beforehand it could get held up, but we were lucky. It did stop in Italy on the way here, and we had to pay $150 extra (I wonder how many lira that is--or euros, I suppose) for customs inspection there.
September 18, 2010
Brought Charlie to soccer.
Maya had a game at Concord. Ended in a 2-2 tie. We went along with the team to Bedford Farms in Concord for ice cream. Ruby's mom Nina was there and she mentioned that Maya said she misses school in India, where you walked in outdoor hallways between classes, rather than inside a building. She seems the least enthusiastic about school here at this point. She really loved Aditi.
Badri and I went to the John Coltrane 33rd Memorial Concert at the Blackman Theatre at Northeastern University. Left home 5:45, picked up tickets at 6:30, walked over to Our House--a favorite old bar of Badri and his buddies--for a drink, then back at the theatre for a 7:30 (almost) start.
September 22, 2010
I'm still getting emails from MAIS, Mallya Aditi International School--where Maya went to school in Bangalore from 2007-2010, and Molly and Charlie in 2009-2010. My eyebrows went up as I read the latest email from Satish Jayarajan, the principal, "In light of the uncertainty prevailing over the Babri verdict, [examinations will be postponed and and parent teacher conferences re-scheduled]." Janaki auntie was always lending me books, and the last book she gave me weeks before she died was Indian Odyssey by Martin Buckley. Written in 2005, it weaves tales of his adventures in India over the years (first in the 1980s and then in 2004) with his abridged version of the epic Ramayana. Why the raised eyebrows? The Babri verdict refers to the courts deciding who is right--the Hindus or Muslim--s. 60 year dispute Badri just said his friend Praveen was when the Mughals invaded Ayodya, they destroyed Ram's temple and built the Babri masjid on top. So in 1980 the BJP's Hindu fundamentalist stormtroopers destroyed the mosque. So this verdict is all about deciding who's right and who's wrong--the Hindus or the Muslims.
