Wild wild west - DND -2016

 

Snippet from an exciting DnD at MM. Theme was wild wild west and we dressed as cowboys of course. 

The Zumba team of MM performed on a few numbers. We put a lot of effort and practice into it and it was so much fun! a few songs I recall are Cotton Eye Joe, Waka waka. Coreo by Michelle and Missy. In the pic we have Sonia, Wing (dressed as a cow) and Missy.

  Cheers to good old times! Binu, Gaelle, Kirsty.

Belly Dance performance 2

Ayumi and Jotika 

My second stage performance was with Belly Dance Haven run by Giselle Qi.

I performed two group dances and got a lot of cheering from my friends and well-wishers.

our troupe: Giselle, Ruwani, Carla, Cerlyn

Move to new condo and 1st Diwali - 2016

Time has come to bid farewell to our home for the past 4 years in Singapore. Our first ever home where we lived for more than a year!

Since Yohaan's school is in Sembawang and he will be going there for the next 6 years of his life, it only made sense to move closer to the school. We couldn't break our lease earlier otherwise we would have moved out of Bukit Batok sooner.

 Our first Diwali at Eight Courtyards. Yohaan was 6 years old and enjoyed making a mess!

Some artwork by Inaya, Yohaan and Sehek

Mandar and Mrunal with Shambhavi and Nandita

Aditi, Amit with Ahaan and Anaira

(We were lucky to have several more lunches and dinners with Mandar before they moved to India in 2018. In an fatal illness Mandar left us for his journey to the other world in November 2019. Our hearts were broken and we were shocked and grieved. Our heart goes out to his brave family and his larger than life personality remains forever etched in our memories. We were fortunate to be able to know him and will treasure the precious moments he spent with us! Miss you Mandar!)

Family and close friends visited us at our new home.

Rohit and Nayana with Aarav (and later Ronav)

Ciara & Kirsty spent time celebrating Diwali with us in Nov 2016.

Alex and Oleysa move back to Moscow

For the past three years or more, Olga and her children have been close friends of our family.

Alex and Yohaan got along very well from day one and so did Inaya and Oleysa. In fact so did Olga, Shaheen and I. Our kids enjoyed each other company and we've had several fun times, meals, birthday parties and play dates for them.

Sadly, they are moving back to Moscow for good and the children are devastated. Especially Alexsey and Yoyo. They will sure miss each other a lot.

Thankfully, Salman and I are both moving out of the Parkview condo in Bukit Batok and going closer to our kids' new schools so they will find new friends and we hope that being busy coping with the new locality, schedule and people, they will miss their friends a bit less.

A belly date!

20^th August 2016 was a special day! Not only because it happens to be the special day when I chose to bless this earth with my presence years ago, but also because my hard work and sweaty afternoons running between two dance classes would finally pay off on this day! As a clandestine student of belly dance since early 2015, finally on my 36^th birthday, I performed my first group performance at a private event organised by my teacher Shiblie Nur at Holiday Inn, Singapore. It was also the first time my family got to know that I was learning belly dance for the past 1.5 years.

My first belly dance teacher was Shiblie Nur, (she passed away on 31^st Oct 2016) a loving and gentle task master. She was trained in Egyptian style and all her classes were extempore, even her choreography classes. I only attended her beginner classes once a week. Her studio was behind Cuppage Terrace, a stones throw from my office. But her classes were late in the evening, which meant I had to wait around for a couple of hours after work and even then unfortunately, the class would almost never start on time and would never finish on time. For a full time working professional and a mother like me, this meant that for a class of one hour I had to be prepared to spend three hours or more. Even though I loved the vibe in the class, Shiblie’s style, her loving mannerisms and her enigmatic smile, I knew that it was not a sustainable option for me in the long run. So I began searching for another teacher in the hope of a more convenient timing with a fixed schedule. That is when I found Giselle Qi and her studio Belly Dance Haven via a meetup group app. I took up her bellyfit classes initially and slowly began liking her style. It was vastly different from Shiblie’s style. Her class was very structured and the choreography was pre-planned and set in place to the smallest hipdrop! It took me a while to commit to one of her group choreography classes as I would need to attend all the classes to complete the song. 

In Jan 2016, I signed up to her intermediate level 1 class – Aswan. Around March I signed up for level 2- Soraya, and in May I signed up for Veil – Track 7. Then around April, Jo (my friends from Shiblie’s class) and I caught up and she told me that she has signed up for solo performance for the Al Hambra Hafla in August and she was also going to participate in a group dance – ‘Shik Shak Shok’ too. She encouraged me to join the group dance and I decided to take the plunge.

So from April 2016 to August 2016 were the crazy months when every Saturday, I attended two classes back to back. From10am -1130 with Giselle at Outram park, then a quick train ride to Somerset with an apple or sandwich on the way to the group class with Shiblie at 1pm. I was on a roll! I felt good and looked good! All the shimming for ‘Shik Shak Shok’ and the windmills and veil moves had toned my body. Although insanely tiring and time-consuming, these classes brought a breath of fresh air to my work-home schedule and I enjoyed every bit.

During the course of our training, Shiblie looked tired and sick but brushed it off and did not tell us anything. I put it down to her age as getting tired is natural when one is older. While she walked about, she really looked like her age had got the better of her BUT the moment she stepped on the dance floor, her face would lighten up, her eyes and her smile would brighten the room and her encouraging look would make me feel beautiful!

Finally on the 20^th August, it was a test of nervous as most of the girls in my troupe were performing for the first time, with the exception of a few senior dancers. I did my own makeup too – first time ever! During rehearsals we realized that the stage was smaller than the studio area and we would need to squeeze in a fair bit and be mindful of each other so we don’t fall off the stage! Our names were called and we tumbled on to the stage one by one as gracefully as we could. The song began and we sailed thru the steps, I made a couple of mistakes but nothing disastrous in the larger scheme of things. Longest song ever, 5 plus mi

ns later, I was done, relieved and hungry!

Satya had very kindly kept some food for me and I went over to his table and gulped that down. He and my colleague Yoko liked my dance. After Yoko left, Satya and I then headed out of the ballroom for a quick photoshoot in the corridor. Once I was happy with a few photos we went back in to watch the other performances, including one by the celebrity guest Najla Ferrara. The performances by Miki and Rania were also stunning.

All performers were finally invited to the stage for a group photo and we also huddled around Shiblie for a picture. A real starry night experience where I felt overwhelmed but also awesome.

I’ve finally been able to live my dream of learning belly dance and I'm proud of it. Way to go!

Langkawi July 2016 and 10th wedding anniversary

Meritus Pelangi resort is a five star beach resort and spa in the Pantai Cenang area of Langkawi. This is a popular tourist destination in Malaysia. Although it’s a small island, when we landed there we were amazed to see how clean and well maintained it was. At the resort, the first day we rested while it rained. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits, instead, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book in our little patio on our private beach facing room while yoyo played in the sand and Satya enjoyed reading, watching TV and trying his hand at the dart board! We walked by the beach in the evening when it cleared up a bit and planned our activities for the next two days. 


The next day when we took a full day trip to see the island and also went up to the cable car and sky bridge (the one made famous by the Hindi movie, Don), we were lucky that it was hot and sunny. Due to that we could get a clear view of the adjoining mountains and the valley down below from the sky bridge and cable car and the surrounding sea. The day after that, we tried the jet ski bike and that was one crazy experience! I may give it a try once again if we get the chance!

10^th wedding anniversary!

The real reason why we had booked this trip was to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary in a unique and memorable way and spend some quality time together as a family. Our marriage is a hard earned fruit and we treasure and guard with all our care. Of course at times we are reckless and we take each other for granted, we quarrel for the stupidest reasons (and some important reasons), but we try our best not to drop the ball and we are there for each other.  Satya is an amazing partner and I am lucky to have him in my life, by my side, sharing the good and the bad, forever! We have known each other for 18 years and have been married for 10 of those years. By the sheer number of years we have spent together, one would imagine we know each other well. But on the contrary, I think that the two of us, who got married that day in July 2006 were two very different people, different personalities than who we are today. We have changed and evolved. Our love for each other too has changed and so have our dreams and ambitions and expectations from life and from each other. But I can proudly say that we love and respect each other even more than we did before.

We are not a perfect couple (and don’t want to be) but we hope to keep going on this journey and live up to the promises we made to each other so many years ago as teenagers. We celebrated this 10^th anniversary with our Yoyo by our side at a peaceful and lovely dinner by the sea. We had an amazing time together; we relaxed and soaked ourselves in the joyful bliss of the celebration of our love and recalled events of the years that have gone by. With tears in our eyes we called our dearest friends and family and thanked them with all our hearts for their unconditional love and support thru all these years! We could not have made it this far without each one of them.


Family of course, but we give special thanks to our friends – Tracy, Mohit, Mihir, Devdatta, Anila and Najma for never leaving our side. To Cynthia aunty, Timothy Uncle and whole Crasto and Monterio families and Anagha tai - Deepak, Shreyas-Nivedita, Natasha-KK and Aditi-Nachiket for being our family in Dubai and helping us thru tough times and sharing our joys. 

We love you tons because you stood by us and our love! 

Teddy bear on a date

My boy has turned 7 this year and time is flying. Luckily, the questions of birds and bees have not been asked yet but I can see that time is not too far away now.

Yoyo is a really innovative boy but also with a funny bone. He loves to make things, and try out new ways of using the same toys. One late afternoon, at our apartment condo in Bukit Batok, Yoyo walked up to Satya and asked him to help him find his tie. Intrigued, Satya asked him why he wanted it and was tickled to hear that he was getting ready for his teddy's date!

And so the make over began. They decked up the teddy with a tie, yoyo's shark shorts from when he was 3 years old, mickeymouse sunglasses and batman perfume!

At 5 pm sharp, he said he had to go down for the date and left home. My hubby called me immediately to share the whole episode. I was smiling ear to ear and amazed with his creativity...I had heard of Doll's marriages and Barbie parties but a teddy bear on a date, that's new!

Such events not only remind me how fast time is flying by but also warn me how the day, when my little puppy will walk out that door on a real date, is imminent!

7th Birthday bash!

4 June 2016

This was a special day as it was the 7^th birthday of my dear little Yohaan. This party was a special one, not any typical birthday parties with a magician or face painters. Yohaan’s 7^th birthday party was just unique, where the children got a taste of the simple fun games of yesteryears.

We booked the multi-purpose ground in out condo in Bukit Batok and about 15-20 of yoyo’s friends were invited. We decided to play the games from Satya and my childhood days. Today kids are more advanced, they have the latest gagets and fancy toys and we were delighted to see that they loved the funfilled active games of yesteryears! 

We played dog and the bone, chain cook, vish-amrud and some other games that the kids suggested too. Amma was there and she had got the zebra sweets for all of them. That’s also such a sweet memory from our childhood days. Zebra sweets are pepper-minty so some of the children found them spicy but gobbled them down all the same! 

We went back home after the games, to cool down in the air conditioning after all the running around, had some cold juice and the kids danced on tunes like Gangnam style (J adorable). We had pizza, by popular demand, and chips and cake (Angry Birds theme). Yoyo wanted to wear a formal shirt and tie with a jacket for his birthday and he looked so smart and cute. We even found a full sleeve shirt with an angry bird logo for him! Inaya was with Yoyo,  enjoying herself and trying to boss the kids into playing her games as usual. Seher tried to join in later and played with balloons. Later all the children and the three cousins kindly posed (i.e stood still for micro seconds) for a few pictures.

The party ended by 7:30 pm and all the kids at home were so tired, they went straight to bed! Then Salman, Shaheen, Satya and I went for a nice, peaceful dinner to Muthu’s curry in Little India and drove back home.


A special day celebrated in a special way.

Oblivious

Oil prices have reached an all-time low,

Donald trump’s votes are beginning to grow,

Panama papers have made a huge row,

Damn! Where did my other sock go?!

Zika virus is on a killing spree,

Hunger crisis in central Africa is on the increase,

Ozzie coastal water temperatures rise by several degrees,

N.Korea’s nuclear test distributed radiation for free,

I’m running late for my meeting, I better hurry!

Jihadists and ISIS are making the world flare,

Beef ban in India turned into a big affair,
Whole planes go missing while we stare,

Girls have still no right to education, how’s that even fair!

Gee, last day to buy tickets to the funfair!

Syrian refugees denied entry at ports,

Gang rapists don’t even reach the courts,

Greece's credit crunch is no child’s play to sort,

Oh dear! I’m down to my last bottle of port!

Yoga and me

The mental and physical benefits of Yoga are known to most of us and one can certainly find tons of written material on this topic, in magazines, newspapers and online. However, on my personal blog, yoga deserves a special mention. So here it is...

Going back to 2014 (over a year and a half after we had moved from Dubai in 2012), I was still suffering with a lot of the stress-related back-ache that a hectic job, a sedentary life and miles and miles of driving per day had done to my system while living in Dubai. Also trying to settle down in Singapore while continuing at a desk job and a seat on an hour-long journey on the bus each day, had not helped to improve my situation much.

It was then that my company, Mott MacDonald Singapore (which also deserves a special thanks) initiated a health program for all staff. The program which aimed at bringing awareness back to our health, nutrition and mental wellness included a lot of team building sessions with active entertaining games (like dragon boating, lazer tag, bubble football to name a few) which are both fun and get us to move about, a lot! We also had (and still have) weekly sports bookings for all staff for badminton, football, basketball courts and for those less sporty ones, the committee managing these tasks came up with a plan to host weekly yoga session at a nearby fitness center.

The sessions were conducted by different trainers of this center and each had a unique style of teaching us to connect with our body and mind. The sessions helped me tremendously to get my body out of the state of neglect that I had left it in, for a long time. Earlier, on constant urging from my parents, every few months I would do the occasional sets of 'Surya Namaskars'(sun salutations), only to abandon that routine in a few days and go back to being my lazy, exhausted self on the couch. I believed that my earlier years of exercise, running, and cycling had kept me relatively fit, but when I started attending yoga classes I realized how grossly unfit I really was!

At the beginning of 2014, I had numbness in my left shoulder with a tingling sensation and also had an excruciating pain in my tailbone which I felt was a borderline case of Sciatica in the making (at least the pain felt that strong!). Thinking back, how glad I am that I did not resort to doctors, tests and physiotherapy before trying yoga! Because within 3-4 months of starting yoga, I felt a drastic improvement in my body movement, felt an alleviated level of pain and experienced an overall improved level of fitness.

Besides, the peace, serenity and feeling of contentedness one experiences after a session of yoga (any kind) cannot be expressed in words and must be tried. Although one can argue that one can experience the same serenity after a long run or any other work out too. And I wont contest it, as my parents who have been life-long athletes, surely have experienced a kind of bliss that people associate with prayers or the pursuit of religion and in their sport I believe that they have indeed found god!

After each yoga sessions I felt stronger, more energetic, more relaxed and more confident.  2014 was one of my best years at work and I was happier at home too. My hubby and I even completed a 10k Standard Chartered race in Dec 2014, which was something I never imagined was possible for us to even attempt.

In 2015, my company continued yoga classes and as a bonus they added Pilates sessions too, introducing me to yet another amazing training technique that aims at strengthening our core. The core is the powerhouse of our body which houses all our vital organs. I also did some reading on nutritional do's and don't's and made basic diet changes for a wholesome wellness of my family. To add to all these changes, my division also participated in GCC which stands for 'Global corporate challenge' where a team of 7 staff members have to wear pedometers everyday and complete a minimum of 10,000 steps per day as they progress on a virtual tour across different destinations of the world with the steps the take. The competition between different teams and units and personal goals kept us on our toes for 4 months and such were the benefits of using the pedometer that many of us still wear our pedometers long after the challenge is completed.

This year in 2016, Mott MacDonald introduced us to Zumba which brought exercise to us in the form of fun and dance. We focus on body and mind coordination and learn some cool steps to groove on the dance floor! For yoga, I've signed up for lessons with a personal trainer closer to home and I'm loving it!

My resolution for 2016 , in fact, not just for 2016 but my whole life from now on, is to stay fit. And with the variety of methods available out there, I know I'm going to have a lot of fun while keeping to my word! I don't have a shape or number in mind as that would make my pursuit limited to achieving just that. I aim for persistence and regularity which I know will take me where I want to go.

A special thanks my mom, dad and both siblings who always showed me how one's whole life can be dedicated to our physical health and well-being. I will try to live by their example. And finally, thank you YOGA and all the yoga-gurus in my life for giving my mind, body and soul a complete makeover! I'm rocking this new look! ;)

Yohaan ‘isms’ – 2015

Early 2015

We watched the animated movie Planes with Yohaan. He liked it and we had the DVD at home so he was asks a competitorable to watch it a few more times. In one of the scenes when Dusty arrives into New York he asks a British plane about his racing techniques. Of course he drives him away, not willing to reveal his tricks to a newbie competitor and angrily says, “of course not, I’m British”. A few days after watching the movie Yohaan was upset with me and said, “I’m British!”. Satya and I giggled and asked him what it means to him when he says “I’m British”. Due to the tone used in the dialogue in that movie, Yohaan thought it meant angry or furious. After a few more chuckles, I explained what it means and gave him the correct words to express anger. But a few days later, at a pound party at Nayana’s house he said it again! Much to our amusement… J

If Yohaan wants Milo he says “ could I have Milo-milk and plain milk?”, and for rose milk, he has coined the term, “rose milkshake and purple milkshake”.

June 2015

His 6^th birthday theme was Transformers - Optimus Prime. We had a nice party for the kids by the poolside. Games, dance and pizza. Yohaan felt so important and really enjoyed all the attention he got. Big boy! And such a loving one too.

Yohaan and Inaya were having a discussion in the car on the way to their hindi class on Saturday morning 25^th July. Yohaan said you know one night the moon was following me where ever I went! Inaya said, “oh the moon follows everyone” Both wondered how and why the moon follows people so Yohaan wanted to come up with his own explanation. With serious consideration he finally said, “ you know I think the wind blows it so it follows us!”. It was a very cute conversation to hear the bro-sis duo chat away. It was amazing to notice how their little minds work and how they are noticing the nature and curious to find answers. With them growing up, God has given me a great chance to relive my childhood with my brother.

The whole of July 2015, Yohaan has been totally absorbed in learning to make shapes with this fingers. Cobras, planes, fighter planes with missiles. He has also assumed his identity as a Jaguar and has a special jump called Jaguar jump (makes a huge leap from a crouching position).

August 2015

Yohaan plays with Parth, an Indian boy who goes to a British school and has an odd whiny English accent. They also go for Hindi classes and skating classes together. For the 68^th Indian Independence day, we took Yoyo to the Embassy on 15^th August 2015 for flag hoisting so he could experience some Indian patriotic feelings. He came home and was inspired to make a couple of Indian flags which made us proud of our decision to take him along for the ceremony. Later that evening he went down to show those hand-made flags to his friends. When he was back, at dinner time, I asked him what they discussed about India, our country, and the flags he had made.

To that came the most unexpected reply, “Parth says he is Japanese, but his mother wants him to go for Hindi class.”  Recovering from the weirdness of that statement, we had a good laugh! He of course couldn’t understand why it was funny at all!

Sept 2015

Amma  Baba came to visit us in Singapore. They got a monster truck for both Yoyo and Inaya. Big mistake! Inaya was not impressed but clung to her gift nonetheless and Yohaan assumed that both the trucks were his. (coz he knows that his Didi doesn’t like cars) Finally after a lot of pleading, fighting and then scolding, he finally agreed to give one truck back to Inaya. Before he did that, he did a quick test to see which one was faster and of course his truck turned out to be faster! Surprise, surprise! He returned the other one to Inaya teasing that his truck was faster! All in all, it was resolved without bloodshed, three cheers to that!

Oct-Nov 2015 Yoyo the negotiator!

Yes, everything is about negotiation these days. He tries to push the boundaries about everything under the sun. From what time he will do his Kumon maths worksheet to how much time he can watch TV. Which channels, to how many laddoos he wants to eat in one sitting. At times its enervating at other times it’s just “liharious” as he says it. Hilarious!! J

Favourite words of 2015 –

Liharious

Awkwardsss – he has no clue what it means and uses it with an ‘s’ at the end…haha

and Reallyyyyy!! (trying to convince that imaginary things did happen!)