Renu's Week

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Report of 11 Mar 2007

Sunny, bright, breezy, happy -

Hello from Chennai!

This kid is a treat to be around. He tends to cop an attitude when anyone else enters, like his father, and gets almost nasty to me (I can't figure that out), but solo, he's fine. We've gone through the exam weeks eating and quizzing and gabbing, and it's been fun enough - when he's solo. I guess teenagers go through stress, too, and these exams are gigantic. I think I've mentioned before that Naren's bio portions are those I did in 1st year of med school.

Last week, I was dispatched to Delhi as Vandana could not go - she'd been invited to speak at a national conf on Mental Illness. So I went and spoke. The 1st day was the inauguration attended by our President, Dr. Abdul Kalam; he spoke so eloquently and favorably on the Banyan that an option existed to meet him. However, in the earlier course of the evening, I'd twisted my ankle severely on the uneven floor of the auditorium and there was no option of scampering down to shake the man's hand before he was whisked off by Security. I spoke on the 2nd day and it went fine; as I told my sister, Anu, the B speaks for itself. In the group discussion that followed, several questions were raised about how to rescue mentally ill women from the streets, how to rehab them, etc., and the B had solutions for all of this. It was wonderful. Public speaking does not scare me as much as it used to - esp when I have Powerpoint in front of me!

The veg market was fine; I've minimised contact elsewhere as the focus is Naren now, and he seems to appreciate it. When I mentioned to a friend that we were punting the B's annual fundraiser concert, always a lovely show, Naren beamed. Navin has helped w/ quizzing Naren. This whole endeavor has become a family project. In 2 years' time, Naren will write 12th exams and Navin 10th, and then our fun will only double, or triple.

We got a huge box of People magazines from my mother-in-law. The men have fallen on it. We like the pics and knowing what's up w/ the movie scene there. Having lived here for 4 years, though, I'm always tempted to tell some of the picture subjects to put some clothes on. Puritanical, Victorian .... hmmm, that must be me.

Scott has held up masterfully and is a treat to have around. All of us are waiting for summer vacn. I will be in the U.S. for about 3 weeks, starting 9 April. I have 6 speaking engagements there and look forward to all of them. I also look forward to seeing my warm, rambunctious, sense-of-humor-as-large-as-Texas in-laws and a bunch of friends scattered around the country.

Unw -

R

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