After Mauritius, Ayaan and Ariana spent 6 straight weeks in India during the festive season in September, October and November (Anjali and I had a 5 night escape to Jordan without the kids that was incredible). During this time the kids have really adapted to the Indian culture, school, food, lifestyle and Hindi. They’ve loved getting pampered by the grandparents and have really started enjoying their school Creative Kids. On dropping Ayaan to school he always says “Don’t pick me up too late”, while Ariana on getting picked up from school says “I want to go to school”! At school they’ve made friends, dressed up in Indian attire, made several field trips to the post office, grocery store, library etc, done several show and tells, and made several art things. Even though it’s just 2.5 hours for Ayaan and 1.5 for Ariana, they seem to be making the most of it. They even come home singing Hindi songs like “Henna Bolo Bolo”. Ariana continues to develop exponentially and is now potty trained using the 3 day method, while Ayaan can ride a tricycle super fast and remains obsessed with his baby car.

I have kept busy playing tennis (my game is finally back), watching cricket, reading books, spending time with kids and parents, spending time at CCI (including the lawns) and connecting with friends. I’ve also started advising Hearsay, my most recent employer again, which has been intellectually refreshing. To our complete surprise we were also able to catch Above and Beyond, our favorite DJs, at a show in Bandra! We’ve also tried a few more restaurants in Mumbai including Miss T, Yautcha, Clearing House and our favorites Trishna and Mahesh. I also took advantage of having help around and no work to get a minor surgery on my hand that went smoothly. I was also lucky to be able to watch the India – West Indies ODI cricket match at CCI and the WTA Mumbai Open at CCI in October.

One of the highlights of this leg of our journey was our trip to Delhi end of September to celebrate my brother in laws 50th birthday. My parents and I spent 3 nights in Delhi, while Anjali and Ariana joined us for just 1 night. Ayaan stayed with Nani and it was the first time Ayaan and Ariana were separated. It was a great trip as I got to spend time with my nephews Aditya and Siddharth, take them out for lunch to sushi and see Sids new college. The 50th birthday party was fantastic as my sister Sonil hosted over 200 people at her beautiful home and I got to meet several folks after decades. We also got to visit India’s best restaurant Indian Accent which once again lived up to the expectations with its amazing modern 6 course menu.

After the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi in September, the kids enjoyed praying to the Durga mata idols in the neighborhood and collecting Prasad everyday. They also loved the Dassehra festival celebrations where they saw an effigy of Raavan or “the 10 headed monster” being burnt followed by fireworks. They enjoyed the Radio club festival for Dassehra in October where they won chocolates in game such as bowling, spin the wheel and shooting. Being there to celebrate Nani’s 65th birthday was also special! A couple of weeks later the kids enjoyed the grand festival of Diwali. Ayaan went to the CCI Diwali festival with his grandparents and loved the cotton candy, train, the hanuman god on a unicycle, the live music and the laser and fire works. He’s also learnt many, many Hindi words and phrases and songs such as “Khushi Manao, Diwali Aayi hain”. Both kids enjoyed decorating dadi and Nani’s house for Diwali, and doing puja and eating sweets for Diwali.

Between Dassehra and Diwali, we made another trip to Delhi to visit my sister Sonil. It was great to spend time as a family as my parents joined as well and Sid and Adi were around too. The kids were excited to be on a flight again after 4 weeks and were very well behaved. The highlight for them was playing with fluffy, a pug, and playing with all the gadgets in the house including a handicap chair for the stairs. They also loved driving the motor cars and bikes in the mall and jumping around in the bouncy house. We got a chance to try out some fantastic restaurants including China House, Bukhara and Olive. We also took a stroll at Lodhi gardens and visited the amazing Humayuns tomb – which was an inspiration for the Taj Mahal. I asked Ayaan at the end of this 6 week period if he liked India and this was his response “yes I like India because it has a lot of speed bumps”. Oh the mind of a 3 year old!