Swim Meet.... Day 2

Day 2 of the swim meet had the other half of the Patel family competing....  this was Mira's day!  Vim and I split the events, Vim went to Milan's and I went to Mira's.

The pressure was on Mira since the little brother came home with a medal the day before....  Mira knew she had to give it her all....  And that she did!!

She competed in Freestyle, Backstroke, Butterfly and the Freestyle Relay.....  She had tough competition in all the events...  You knew she gave it her all in all of the events...  Unfortunately, she did not place in any of the events....  until the final event...  the Freestyle Relay.  In this event her team brought in the Silver Medal!!

So Mira and Milan end their swimming experience at Indus with a Silver and Bronze medal...  not to shabby, eh???  Indus as allowed them the opportunity to swim and compete at their grade level, which has been really good. 

We are very proud of both of the kids!!  Lets see if the choose to keep up swimming once we are back home!!

Before the big races begin!!

Taking off.....

In Action!!

The FINSH LINE!

Phwew....  its over!!

Its time for the medals!!

SO PROUD!!!!

Whoever Keeps A Promise? Milan...................

By Vim:

As the school year ends there are many events that parents have to attend at Indus International School - and most, if not all are very taxing to put it bluntly.  However, June 3rd and June 4th are the exceptions as its the Indus 2010 Inter-House Aquatic Championship Meet.  This year again Mira and Milan have been selected to attend the swim meet to cap of a wonderful year at school.  Milan has been practicing freestyle, back stroke, breaststroke - and of course is an expert at the doggy paddle - and very proud of it!  He woke up this morning at 5:45am and from the top of the stairs stated 'I will do my best to get a medal dad - I promise'.  During that moment I only hoped he does but more importantly I hope he has fun!  I was so proud to hear that - something any dad would be.

June 3rd-2010 Grades 1-3 compete.  With another scorching sunny day kids, teachers and attending parents are all excited to see these kids compete with each other but most importantly have fun.  Truthfully there are several parents who want their kids to win everything and there are those who just have a hard time for their selected kids to get into the pool and compete. 

The rule of the Aquatic Meet is simple.  Each grade competes with itself, boy against boys, girls against girls and then overall houses against house.  There are 2-4 groups per grade due to the large number of students in each grade.  1st, 2nd & 3rd winners are chosen based on best times achieved. 

Milan started with the 25m Freestyle event.  He came 3rd.  His timing was not good enough to contend with other kids from Grade 1 who were amazing.  He came out of the pool with a cheeky smile, high 5'ed me and said 'next race dad'.  I enjoyed watching him attempt this race knowing the field of contestants from Grade 1 looked a little stronger than him - plus it was a 25m!

The following races were all 16m.  He cruised to victory in the Freestyle group 3, but his timing was just slightly off the medal standing, the same was true for his attempt at breast-stroke.  Now all that was left was the Backstroke.  The happy go kid was in his final race and raring to go.  And guess what............. he made the medal standing , Milan kept his promise to get a medal today and that is what our boy did.  He was awarded the Bronze for 16m Back Stroke.

Pictures As It All Unfolded.........

Relaxing Before The Races

Bring It ON!

25m Freestyle....Ready.....Set......

GO....And He's Off........

16m Freestyle....No Time To Waste

Breast - Stroke Line Up

Back - Stroke...Cool, Calm & Focused.

Back - Stroke - and he's off again........................

Back - Stroke Finish Line.

Excitement at the Medal Stand

Medal Award.....

Promise Kept!

Returning Back... for the last time

We arrived back in Bangalore on Tuesday morning.  This was not like any ordinary return to Bangalore.

This was 'THE' return before the big departure!!

It definitely felt different.... hard to describe.

The trip home was great.... It did feel like home.... It was nice to catch up with family and friends during the short time that we were there. Hanging out, eating good food, and spending time with everyone... it was really great! Unfortunately the week flew by and we did not get a chance to see everyone... but it won't be long before we are back for good, and able to connect with everyone again.

Now being back in Bangalore, knowing the end is in sight is very sad. We are now going thru doing things for 'the last time'.... Leaving BLR will be very hard, but I don't want to dwell on that now.

Instead, I will relish the last month of our time here and make the most of it...

Home: USA or India........"Attraction of Soft Power"

HERE IS A POST FROM VIM:


We arrived in the USA May-21st-2010 evening. 5 Days on, so far the weather has been the only aspect that makes one feel like Home. Its ironic, I "say the weather is the only thing that makes one feel like home" - its been quite warm and sunny. Outlook is Warm/Sunny all week while we are here in Michigan to seek out, a house to live for our return in July-2010, coupled with trying to land a job and also attend my nephews wedding.


But all this things are a mute point considering, I miss home. I refer to HOME these days as India. Strange as it sounds but it very hard to explain.......there is something about India that has drawn one back. It sort of like the parallelism to the show 'LOST'. You want to leave the island, but yet the Island calls you back. The best way to describe the overall feeling is summed up but the attached 20min YouTube 'TED Conferance' Video titled: 'Why Nations should pursue "soft" power' - discussed by Shashi Tharoor Former Culture Minister of State for External Affairs in India.

Things are moving fast!!!

It was 2 years ago, almost to the exact date, that we started this adventure in Inida.

It was May 23, 2008 that Vim and I boarded a flight to Bangalore India.  Vim's first trip to India after many, many year, and his first visit to Bangalore.  This trip was the begining of our experience in India.

Now here we are, 2 years later with another pivital flight ahead of us.  Tonight Vim and I a boarding a flight to Michigan.  This is the start of the move back home.  It is bittersweet....  this is now the start of the end....

A lot of emotions are flowing...  and we are really truly excited about being 'home' again.  But this means saying 'good-bye' to the experiences and the life that we had for the last 2 years.

We will only be home for about a week...  a lot to pack into a short time.  But, it won't be long before we are back for good!!

Weekend....

HERE IS A POST FROM VIM:

This past weekend Anant my nephew came to visit us.  He flew in from Delhi where he is on a ex-pat assignment until July-10. 

 

The most notable part of the weekend was that we all went to Iron Man 2!  About a year ago…… Dev wrote about our experience of movie watching at an Indian theater with a Gold Class Pass  where one actually gets his/her own 180 degree plush reclining Lazy Boy leather chair to sit and watch the movie, accompanied with full butler service for all your needs; foot massage to whatever you want to order off the menu to eat. 

 

Iron man 2 was screened in Silver Pass Class.  Now these theaters in Indian do truly out-do what you get back home in terms of space, view angle, rocking seat and theater staff that bring you your food rather than you wait in line for it – Disadvantage; no reclined plush seats nor a foot massage.

 

Now….  The interesting part of the experience was not the seating or movie for Silver Pass.  After few movie / commercial advertisements, I was surprised to see a message on screen,  “Please stand up for National Anthem”.  Everyone stood silently,  then as the short movie clip started, everyone started to sing.  During the Anthem, heard two off beat voices, next to me – Yes Milan / Mira were singing along with the on screen artists.  That made me so Proud that these two youngster have embraced so much culture and experience that they actually sang the whole Anthem.  In past conversations they have discussed the anthem and tried to make Dev and recite it.  The short clip that everyone sang along to was fantastically produced – with top Indian International Music Artists who are world renowned and the most famous we all know today who won an Oscar / Grammy’s that being; A.R.Rehman. (Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire).

 

This link will guide to the actual Anthem Short Clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3TtgYuaVFk&feature=relate

 

The English translation of the Indian Anthem – It is actually poetic which makes it a good read:

 

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind,
Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Ocean.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
Thou dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Pictures from the School Performance

If you recall, the evening that we were leaving for China, the kids had a program at their school.  It was called the Indus Day Program.

Both the kids were really looking forward to it...  they had been practicing and practicing...

Mira was in the Tabla Performance.  She was the only girl in the group....  go girl!!  she was really good...

Milan was in a dance.  And for weeks leading up to the performance, he was so excited about his dance.  He was a Katakali Dancer.  Now for many of you, you probably don't know what this is.  It is a traditional dance from Kerala.  The dancers are wearing a full head gear, costume and make up.  I was actually surprised that Milan was 'ready' to do this!!

Check out the pictures below.....

Milan was a real cutie in his costume!  I am sure that he won't want anyone to see these pictures 10 years from now!!

Mira was so good banging her drums!!

I was very proud of both of my performers!!