Happy Diwali!...

I am working on a detailed post about the festivities here in India...especially the hindu ones.

As of now...I will just mention that this is the festive season of DIWALI and Ishan, Fabi and I are on our way to Dhule, where Ishan's parents live. We will be there until Nov. 5th.

I might not be able to post during those days, but I promise to tell you how our trip went.

Happy Diwali!

Fabi Kangaroo

I had never been out of the house before alone with Fabi because I thought he was too small or because the weather did not allow it. But now, the days are bright and shiny again and so both of us go shopping for fruits at the nearby market or go hang out at the biggest (i.e the only) shopping mall nearby. Fabi likes to sleep on his way back in the auto rickshaw.

Happy 'Seventh Month', Fabi!

He's a big baby now. What did he do to celebrate? Go to the pediatrician and get a vaccination shot!.. Good thing that he's a brave boy: soon after he was laughing and making new funny faces!

Sunday Birthdays!

¡Saludos de cumpleaños a José Alfredo! Ya perdí la cuenta de cuántos años cumple mi primo, quien aparece todo 'cool' en esta foto y es ahora todo un universitario. ¡Muchos éxitos y buenos deseos le deseamos la familia Prabhu Bogarín en esta fecha tan especial!











Happy B-Day, Irfan!...This picture is my 'virtual' celebration of your day!...

I wish you many successful and fun years ahead!...Continue to enjoy life like only you know how!

Sign my guestmap / Mapa de visitas

See that icon under the chatbox on the sidebar? It takes you to my guestmap...Go ahead...mark the map with your location. It's fun!

A la derecha de la página, justo arriba de los 'Links/Enlaces', hay un ícono con el globo terráqueo. El ícono te lleva a mi mapa mundi de visitas. Puedes marcar el mapa con la bandera de tu país y el lugar donde estás actualmente.

It's a small world!

When Fabi’s grandfather from Costa Rica decided to give him the first linguistic lesson by gifting him a set of bibs with the days of the week printed in Spanish , he had no idea that those bibs were going to complete a trip around the world!

A propósito de ser este un mundo pequeño, me pareció interesante este artículo del periodico La Nación, Amor sin fronteras .

Don't you just hate it when...

... the workers from the construction next door cut the cable to your Internet connection?

I spent the *WHOLE* weekend Internetless but I'm proud to announce that I survived. Now...I'll be catching up on my e-mails and blogging again...check out the entries of the past few days.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!........

Cotton Anniversary

October 18, 2003 - Wedding in Costa Rica

October 18, 2005 - Anniversary in Mumbai, India

Ishan and Mari have already been blessed with a little angel in the family and are looking forward to many years of happiness together.

Thanks to all the well wishers!

Fabi celebrates his maternal Grandmother's B-Day!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Oma Olga!

Espero poder ser un mamá para Fabián con tanto espero y cariño como el que he recibido de quien es ahora una orgullosa Abuela.

To understand your parents' love you must raise children. - Chinese Proverb

¡Felicidades Diego!

Hace varios 15s de octubre, yo contesté el teléfono cuando Tío Gerardo llamó a mi casa para decir que mi primo Diego ya había nacido. Hoy, en honor a Diego y al tema que tanto le gusta, les cuento que en los escrituras védicas Indias se menciona las orquídeas bajo el nombre de “VANDA”, que se ha adaptado como nombre genérico a uno de los grupos más hermosos de esta planta.

Una de las especies indias de la orquídea que es de alto valor ornamental es la Vanda Cristata:

Novedades

I love this picture...but it also explains why I can't write as often as I would like. However, I'm proud of the three new things I managed to put on my blog today: The Ticker with Fabi's age on the header and footer, and on the sidebar: the chatbox and the three clocks showing the time in Costa Rica, Germany and India.

Esta foto explica la razón por la cual no puedo escribir más a menudo. Sin embargo, hoy agregué tres novedades a mi 'blog':

• En el encabezado y al pie de la página principal hay un pollito que va indicando la edad de Fabián.
• En la barra de la derecha aparece un espacio para intercambiar mensajes cortos.
• En la misma barra, pero más abajo aparecen tres relojes con las horas de Costa Rica (-06:00 GMT), Alemania (+1:00 GMT) e India (+5:30 GMT).

Today's celebrations

In Costa Rica:

"Dia de la Raza" (Day of the Race) is the celebration of the Hispanic heritage of Latin America. October 12 is traditionally celebrated throughout the Americas as the day Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus sailed west from Spain to find a new route to China or the East Indies, instead he went to the Island 'La Hispaniola' (today, Dominican Republic -one of my favorite places on Earth!) He made four trips. On his fourth and final voyage in 1502, he landed in Costa Rica (another favorite place of mine!).

509 years later we recall the actions that mixed the European cultures with the indigenous ones that resulted in the current multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society we have.

En India:

Se celebra 'Dassera', una fiesta hindú que se observa en toda India en octubre o noviembre, celebra el triunfo del bien sobre el mal.
Muy pronto escribiré más en detalle acerca de las festividades hindúes.

A prayer for all the victims

El pasado sábado 8 ocurrió un terremoto grado 7,6 en la escala de Richter en Cachemira (Kashmir), la frontera entre Pakistán y la India.

Este otro mapa muestra el detalle de la zona afectada.

La distancia entre Mumbai, India (donde estamos) e Islamabad, Pakistán es de 1640 kms.

A special prayer for all the victims of the earthquake (08-Oct-05), as well as for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Stan that affected the Gulf of Mexico and Central America.

Hurricane Tracking

Fabi celebrates his maternal grandparents' 35th wedding anniversary

La 'O y J' celebra un año más de vida matrimonial.

¡Felicidades a Oma Olga y Opa José: que sigan compartiendo momentos felices y reviviendo lindos recuerdos!

'El matrimonio es como una planta...hay que cuidarla para que florezca.' - Oma Olga

Fabi celebrates his paternal Grandma's B-Day

I'm sure my MIL* doesn't mind that I post my favorite picture of her on my blog....

Many Happy Returns of the Day, Ammi!


* Mother-In-Law

Comentarios

Gracias a todos los que me han escrito comentarios. Me gusta poder tener noticias de Uds. y saber que me están leyendo. No dejen de comentar en español aunque vean que yo escribí en inglés. Además, noten que estoy usando el color verde para el español y el color azul para el inglés.

Happy Birthday, Priya!

Instead of birthday candles, wish upon a star…whatever you wish for yourself…we wish for you too!

Many happy returns of the day....from Golu Pillu, Ishan and Mari :)

Birthday Wishes!

Saher: Keep Rising ...!
Allmecht! Iich wuensch Dir aan guuadn Gebuardsdooch!
Janam Din ki badhai!
Picture of Saher's visit to Vashi - 2004



Un saludo para Tío Gerardo deseándole un muy
Feliz Cumpleaños!

A quien pregunte por Fabián, yo le digo que 'ya se va viendo'....!

Foreigner Baby

I once read the story of a married couple who had triplets. They attracted a lot of attention from the public every time they went out. People approached them asking all kinds of questions and some even wanted to touch the babies, which didn't make the parents feel very comfortable, especially when the babies were very young.

I started to notice that Fabi was also a magnet for attention when he was two months old and my parents were here in India visiting us. Our favorite hang-out place was the local shopping center and every time we were there, we noticed people turn their heads to get a second look at Fabi as they walked by. We heard expressions like "He's so sweet!", "He's like a doll!" and my favorite: "Look mom, a foreigner baby!"

You might think that it's normal for people to admire babies who happen to be in a supermarket or in a restaurant, but in our case it has been a little more than usual. Here are some of my favorite moments:

- a group of shy school girls walk by and stand close to us whispering and laughing while covering their mouths. Finally one of them works up the courage to come and ask what's the baby's name while she shakes Fabi's hand.
- I am walking holding Fabi, who's asleep resting his head on my shoulder and covering his face with his own arm. A woman tries to keep up as she walks behind me, but is dissapointed when she can't take a good look at Fabi's face.
- As we walk into a store, a young boy and his mother are walking out. A moment later I realize the boy has asked his mom to go back to the store so he can see the 'foreigner baby'.
- When we go to the supermarket, normally Ishan holds Fabi while I push the shopping cart. I no longer get scared when I turn to see Ishan without Fabi in his arms. I just have to notice that next to him there's a person who has asked to hold the baby.
- When we go to a restaurant, I'm no longer surprised to see the waiters asking if they can hold Fabi, the baby with the 'golden hair'.
- A man approaches Ishan and asks him if the baby is German (?!)
- We walk by a fruit stand on the street, Ishan carries Fabi in a sling on his back. We hear someone say: "You carry him in that -- on your back?. We can't see him. Aren't you going to introduce him to us?" I turn back to see an older man holding a papaya in each hand. I wonder what exactly did he mean by 'us'?...him and his family?...society?
- A few months ago, if you had asked me if I would let a complete stranger stop me to kiss Fabi I would have said 'definitely not'. It's common to see girls/women be attracted to babies...but my favorite moment so far, has been the reaction of a teenage boy who told the person at the other end of his cell phone to wait because there was a beautiful baby...he kissed Fabi on the cheek then went on to resume his cellphone conversation.

It's very obvious that fair (white) skin is considered an asset in India, so naturally a baby with gray/bluish eyes and 'golden hair' attracts attention.

I've already seen this 'phenomenon' before: in Dominican Republic the girls like to wear their hair straight, because it looks like 'good hair', opposite of 'bad' (curly) hair. It's ok to want your hair to be straight instead of curly...but why the 'good' and 'bad' labels attached to it?

I have to admit it feels nice when people admire my baby, but I'm already wondering what's the best way to explain to Fabi that not all people look the same and that doesn't mean some are 'better' than others. I would like to teach Fabi to accept people for who they are, not for their appearance...and this goes for people who look different than him including the ones who have some type of physical disability.

If you have a child, have you already had this conversation with him/her? When do you think it's the best time to do it?

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

Hoy se celebra el 15 aniversario de la
Reunificación Alemana.

Apparently, this year’s celebrations were out of this world.

Speaking of Germany…it is definitely “A Time to Make Friends”. Where will you be from June 9 to July 9, 2006?

Updated to say: It's official... Costa Rica is going to "Germany 2006"!

Updated again: para complacer a Tío Alonso...una foto de Fabi sonriendo porque vamos para el Mundial 06.

Si hoy no hubiera sido domingo, hubiera sido feriado

From "The Times of India":
Indians across the country are celebrating the 136th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as 'Bapu' or 'Father of the Nation', was born on 02 October 1869.

An all-religion prayer meeting was also held on the occasion where representatives of nine religions - Buddhism, Baha'i, Christain, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Sikhism took part.

Words of Wisdom *
* Taken from ‘Home-ly Notes’ The Parish Weekly Newsletter of the Sacred Heart Church, Vashi

The wise owl says: “Violence will often be met with violence. And yet the way to meet abuse is: Calm and peaceful silence”.

That was the method Mahatma Gandhi used to finally win freedom for India. Try it and see – nothing so frustrates an angry man than the calm of the person he is attacking. During this week we will try to meet difficult situations in our life – our family, our neighborhood, our place of work in calm, peaceful manner. When we lose our temper – we are the ones who have lost out…