Tribute

For our family, Ruby buaji was a woman of strength, love and an epitome of will power. I vividly remember her visits to our house in Delhi and how we would wait by the window for her car to arrive.

How excited we used to be and how mama would make Kadhi Chawal on Ruby buaji's request. There was so much to talk about and so much love.

I remember our visits to Siddhartha Extention and New Friend's colony on weekend family gatherings and how I admired ruby buaji's style, her independence and all that she believed in.

She was suffering from leukemia and could anyone tell? NEVER. She was a strong willed woman, who never let her illness take over her. She always wore her bright and beautiful smile and her strength and will power kept her going.

Today, as we remember her on her birthday, I wanted to share the impact that she has left behind, not only on her family but also her friends around the globe.

I came across this writeup on one of Ruby Buaji's friend's (Priya Jain) FB page. It showed up on my newsfeed as Raj uncle was tagged and it got my attention as I saw Seema Singh mentioned. I was touched beyond words and so proud. Now is fitting moment to share it with you all.

I am glad to read that bone marrow registeries are being set up and being thought about. But a lot of work still needs to be done to create awareness.

About 12 - 13 years ago we lost a dear friend Seema Singh Chauhan because there was no registry in India. No family member was a match for her. Although many friends came forward to be tested, it was refused by the hospitals because this was then against the law. Seema was a very talented trainer who had worked on adolescent health and the girl child, as a member of Prerana, an organisation that was the first to take up this issue. Her work on a manual on adolescent health was used in many countries. A great loss to her many friends and colleagues...

On a personal note. I joined Prerana in 1987 just months after she had. As we became friends i discovered she had cancer and she got to hear about my epilepsy. We had not disclosed these facts to our colleagues in Prerana but soon we felt we should. Even as we feared how they might respond. But we were struggling with our health issues and it did not seem fair to conceal these. The support we got from everyone in Prerana was amazing. They became more than friends, and more like a family.

Seema is the one who pushed me to speak up in public about issues for people with epilepsy at a conference in 1989. She helped me think through and write the project proposal that took me to work in Belfast. She was a great friend, always cheerful and looking at the positive. We miss her.

This was the article that was shared: http://scroll.in/article/741410/treating-cancer-why-is-it-difficult-to-find-donors-for-bone-marrow-transplants-in-india

Buaji, you live long in our hearts and in the hearts of all your friends whose lives you have touched across the world. We love you and admire you for all that you have done.

Happy Birthday. We miss you dearly.

Warm Hug.

Fall 2015

We've been back for over a week now and settled into our routines. Kids are back in school, Tarun is traveling for work and I am back to juggling things. It's great to be home and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Fall has been beautiful, not too terribly cold. Infact, we have had some nice days with 70 degree temps.

 Kids enjoyed their visit to the local fire station recently, for the open house.

 Tarun and I attended the parent social for Kabir's class at the pre-school last Friday. It was great to meet the other parents and his teachers and hear ravings about Kabir. We were so proud!

Kabir loves going to school. This year he is going 5 days/week which is a big change from 3 days last year.

He is progressing well with learning sounds and has been doing some experimentation, one of the recent ones was mixing water and oil. He's also learning about plant life. They did a study on apples recently, tasting different varieties and have planted the seeds. They are working on their pumpkin booklets this week and next and have started stamping goodie bags for Halloween!

He now gets to checkout a book from his school library and keep it for a week. This is something only big girls and boys get to do! He looks forward to Library Wednesdays. :)

 He's made new friends with the new enrollments in this class and is giving the younger ones lessons on Practical Life.

Vir is just happy being in school. He goes twice a week for an hour and 15 mins. He's been very good at sharing the toys and listening in the class. Enjoying music and doing art and craft. He loves the playground time! He's a curious child who loves to explore what is around him.

At home, we continue to build, play, jump, run, bump, climb, fall and repeat! :)

Vir has really started to talk a lot more; forming sentences like "Daddy come here", confirming if he wants something by saying "Okay" or "Yes", saying please and thank you. He's a fast learner, picking both good things and not so good things from his dear brother. Like calling food "ucky" (Yucky). He loves bath time. He knows his routine pretty well. He loves book time and has be picking books of his choice to read. He's a total sweetheart, asking for "tinkle star" (Twinkle, Twinkle little star) just before I put him in his crib at night. That's our very sweet moment together each night. I long for it and absolutely LOVE it!

Vir is a very independent child wanting to do everything on his own. His toilet training is going well. I can't wait for him to be off diapers. While K sometimes wants us to feed him, Vir is happy eating with the spoon and the fork by himself. Such a contrast! Sometimes it feels like Vir is the older one! :)

He understands the concept of timeout now and he's been getting some too when he climbs our kitchen island by getting on his high chair! That's a NO NO…too dangerous. Ofcourse he loves doing it.

Kabir is super excited for Halloween. Both the children have Halloween events at the pre-school next week, which I'll be sure to blog about! :) Btw, Kabir wants to me put Halloween decorations in our house and I have been kinda taking it easy so last weekends this is what he had to say to me "Ma, you don't know what you can do, till you try" :) Love this kid so much! :)