Janaki's Blog

Yesterday the pest control came to our house. So to escape the smell of the medicine, we went out for a drive. We went to a road where on both sides there were deserts. Sometimes there were camels, horses, sheep, goats and even people with their tents.   The camels were for sale and were given some water. The kept grass for animals in trucks. There were huge sand dunes. They looked beautiful as they were made of golden colour sand. Me and parents decided to go back. As we went along the road, we saw the king Fahd stadium and decided to take a closer look at it.  So thanks to the road which took us there, we were able to see it more closely. It looks a little like a lotus and is white in colour. It looked very pretty, especially if you looked at it far away. After that we decided to go back home. I was tired so I sat in a sleeping position and rested. One fine summer morning and it was the day to go to school to collect my results. We went to school and found out I had got good

Day before yesterday, it was supermoon . It means that the moon would be bigger and  brighter than before. It also is very close to the Earth. It happens in every 18 years. So while we played, my eyes looked out for the moon. I was getting impatient and it finally came out. It did not look big but it did seem a little bright.   Perhaps maybe it is big but you can’t notice the difference. I was the first one to spot the moon. I had told my friends that it was supermoon.   “Look” I said when I finally saw the moon coming out of the clouds “the moon has come out. See if you can spot the difference”. Everyone turned their heads to look at the moon. “It looks like before” said one of my friends Talha. He is 2 years younger than me. “Perhaps it isn’t supermoon’’ said the youngest of my friends, Aisha. “It is”,   I urged.   “I saw it in the news today” We then went back to our game. Afterwards, my Mom came and asked whether we had seen the moon. We all said yes. Yesterday, all the adult

For some days, since the holidays have not ended I have been enjoying every single minute. Playing games in computer, playing outside, sleeping as much as I can, eating sweets and reading books have been my style. No wonder I could not write my diary for a few days! I feel like I am the master of my house. Every day I get to do whatever I want. I even had a few friends over. Malu and Devu came here. We all played with Nichiketh and had fun. Every day all of us play games with my best friends. Some of my cousins are still unlucky. Their exams have started late. That means they will only end late. I am going to fifth standard very soon. It’s about time I start writing with a pen instead of a pencil. Coming Thursday I have to go to collect my result from my teacher. I wonder how I have done! (Please wish me good luck) 

Yesterday, Ammu chechi and Devika went back to India. They had come here for a short vacation. Since some their luggage did not fit into their car, the remaining was with us. Then we all drove to the airport, including two of their neighbors.   When we were going back home, things went bad. A sandstorm started, along with some rain.   We had bought a tasty tuna sandwich and a hot cup of cappuccino, so I sat comfortably, munching my sandwich. Today, something was clattering everywhere outside and made me scared. So I and Mom went outside to find what the matter was. The clattering was made by hailstones. I had learned in science that hailstones are frozen raindrops. See, when raindrops fall to the ground, if they pass through very cold air they freeze to form small balls of ice and become hailstones. I wanted to see them closely, so I picked some up. Thank my lucky stars that the hailstones were not heavy. Or else they certainly would have broken the windshield of our car. It stop

Yesterday there was a farewell party at school. We enjoyed a lot. After recess, all of us were in a mood to decorate. We climbed on desks and chairs to stick balloons and decorations.   It was fun. We enjoyed while we worked. Even our Hindi ma’am gave us a free period and helped too. We were all just in time as the last 2 periods came and that was when the party started. Our class teacher, Shiny ma’am gave us each a hug and told how she would miss us. She even took a video of us all. For us, we felt that among all the teachers who had already taught us, Shiny ma’am was the best. We had filled the balloons with glitter and chocolates and when we burst them, they fell out. All of us played games. There were party pops, which are thin cans and if you press them really hard, the lid would burst open and all colorful threads and glitter would fall on you. We had chips, doughnuts, nuggets, chocolates to eat.  A few other teachers came too. Fifth standard is coming real fast and we all

Normally, in Saudi Arabia only Thursday and Friday are the holidays. Our king, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, had gone to America for treatment since he was sick. He came back on Wednesday. So, we have a holiday on Saturday too. Let me complete what happened on the rest of our trip:- I went on almost all rides. It was fun. We were determined to go on all rides that we even went on the merry-go-round. It was booooring and so slow! We had KFC for a snack along with some juice. It was very tasty. I ate it all. I was sad to leave the mall. We ate the remaining food in the class. Nothing was left in my bag when we reached home.     Yesterday, my friends, Devika and Ammu chechi came to my house. We had lots of fun. I love sweets like Om Ali and kunafa . They are Arabic sweets. Today I ate a big   piece of kunafa. I can only write after the exams now. 

We were fooled! Dad got a message that there would be rain that day. So Mom did not send me to school.   We waited for the rain, but it did not shower. I and Mom regretted that why I did not go to school. Today is Thomas Alva Edison’s 164th birthday!   He is the one who invented the bulb. I found in one of my magazines a thing what 2 foolish thieves did in real life. They planned to rob a bank but in such a hurry called the bank they were about to rob and told them that they are going to rob it! The bank manager said OK but quickly called the police. The thieves must have got a nasty surprise! Alas! Our trip to Marina mall has finished! I was looking fat that day because I had eaten too much. I went on the roller coaster and I loved it! My partners were Lynn and Eeshta. Our teacher told us to protect our partners. Eeshta and Lynn both wanted to be my partners. So I choose both of them. Eeshta asked me “whom will you protect?”   I told “you two protect me, ok?” everybody laughed.

I could not write for a few days, so I am writing today. We are having a school trip on next Sunday. And I am soooooo excited! I am great. I did a super work in my drawing class. And my parents loved it! Here is the picture of it. Well, what do you think? I should say that I myself loved it. It took me lots of classes to do it. Like how they say, no pain, no gain. My pain was that I was DYING to bring it home to show to my parents. But I swallowed it off. There are good news and bad news. The good news is I finished all my weekly tests so it’s a breeze. The bad news is my exams are starting next month.   Sot it exactly won’t be breeze next month. Exams are a headache. It is the worst gift schools have given us. Honestly, I think it is dangerous to a child’s brain. This weekend was great. We played a lot since we all are having less to study. My friends, Malu and Devu, visited us too.

I have happy news. Yesterday uncle Biju’s wife aunt Deepa gave birth to a baby boy! I am really excited to see him. But I am also sad that they are in India now. Today I had seen his photos, he is soooo cute! Now, let me tell you about my Dad’s home at Manakad. Manakad is situated in a town called Thodupozha in my motherland, Kerala. Manakad has a river too.   And there are lots of trees, different types of flowers, insects and lots of farms. I like the river most. It is only a 5 minutes walk from our home. The river itself is very outstanding as it seems to have shades of green because of the plants on its banks. One day on our way to the river we saw a goat, the goat was eating some juicy leaves and it did not look at me even when I tried to give another juicy leaf. It ignored me all the time and soon I had to leave it, chasing another cow. It had the same habits as the goat and I had to leave it too. Our house is very large. Squirrels could be heard running on the roof and c

Today the weather was really bad! It rained the full day. And it is STILL raining now. Who knows if there is rain tomorrow. When we were going to school there was rain, hail, thunder and lightning. We all got really scared. But we pretended that we were smoking when we went outside because smoke would come out from our mouths. And the teachers didn’t teach us anything too because they did not come to our class. School was only till 11:40. We all danced in the class when we heard that news. Some children had even brought umbrellas.  Tomorrow is a holiday for us all because of the rain.

Last Saturday was sports day.   We had to do our drill that day.   W e had to do marching, wishing and some other exercises in front of the whole school. We were happy when we had drill practice before the sports day because we could miss a few classes. The pom-pom dances were great.   I heard that the house Hejaz (I am in Hejaz) got the 1st prize in dance and 3rd prize in relay race.   Yippee! But when all the pom-pom girls were dancing, some of us spotted a small camera under the gate, spying on us all. The principle climbed a tree and saw a boy outside the gate sitting beside the camera. It was the principal’s turn to spy now! The boy however must have felt the principal’s eyes following because he suddenly ran away, taking the camera with him.    

The next day we went to the Ayyappa temple since there was some pooja Balaji Ammavan had planned. Our lunch was the prasadam from the temple. In the evening we went to aunt Paromita’s house because there was another pooja too. Uncle Arvind was present. He and Aunt Paromita sat on a carpet on the floor. All the elders blessed them. A priest was there, doing the rituals. We were given some tasty laddoos to eat during the pooja.   Yummy!   And not only that, after the pooja we all went out to the garden where a buffet was waiting for us.   There were lots of tasty food like vadapavu, alu tikki, pani puri etc..    I don’t know the name of some. Double yummy! When we were taking our food, we saw an amazing sight. There was a peacock near our neighbor’s house! After that we all went back the guesthouse, but we had to go to the gardens again because there was going to be a feast both Uncle Arvind and Aunt Paromita had planned. Triple yummy! The next day was the engagement. It was coo

I will continue to write about our Delhi trip.. There were still 2 days left for the engagement. We went to a restaurant called Kareem’s restaurant. You might think it was a small restaurant, very congested too and that I was silly enough to go there. Well, the ancestors of the chefs were cooks of the Mughal kings. Thankfully now you know that I am not silly. We went there in a cycle rickshaw. Kareem’s restaurant is near the Jama masjid so we saw it on the way.   Kareem’s restaurant is a non-vegetarian restaurant. The food there was great. I must tell you that we saw the Qutub Minar BEFORE we went to the Kareem’s restaurant. The Qutub Minar was REALLY tall! And I think there are 365 steps inside. Then we went to the Humayun’s tomb. I believe that some kings were cut into pieces since in a room where a king’s tomb there was lots of other small tombs. We also saw the Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate and the Parliament house. We saw Rajghat too. It is the place where Gandhiji was

I will take a break from our Delhi trip. Today I decided to write about the Christmas party we had in my compound, here I go: The party was at 6:00. We decided to go to the dentist because I had complained one of my molar teeth was hurting me. We all were getting ready to go but afterwards my dad wasn’t sure if the dentist was available. So I went out and saw that my friends were out decorating for the Christmas party.  The drumstick tree was decorated with lights and balls which made it look like a Christmas tree instead of a drumstick tree! Alvin was riding his cycle, Allana and her mother and Slomo were there. I and Slomo had to chase all the balloons that went rolling away. But even when we kept all the balloons on the playground off they went rolling again. Some even flew in the air.  I noticed Allana was going to stand on a chair and stick letters saying Merry Christmas. She needed help. So I held the tape. Slomo told us he had to go on Alvin’s roof to get a few tennis balls

The next day we went to the beautiful Lotus temple. On the sides of the temple were huge pools. And there was a beautiful garden that led you to the temple. We had to remove our shoes before we got inside. The Lotus temple is a Bahai temple. When you got inside you had to sit quietly (or you would get thrown out). The Lotus temple can be visited by anyone ( JJ even you JJ ) of any religion. Next move was to the majestic Akshardham Temple. The temple was full with beautiful carvings and gigantic idols. There was a crowd. Later we went to a shopping mall called Citywalk. All the families separated. Me and my parents drank coffee and donuts. The people there in Delhi were stylish. We then bought a few things and all of us together went to our bus. We had our dinner at Ammayi’s home. Me, Karthik and Tappu played video games. After that long exciting day we went back to our guesthouse were we waited for the next morning to see Qutub Minar.

The next day, we woke up early. We went down to have breakfast. I loved the breakfast. I had cornflakes, bread-and-butter, and tea. I decided to have that kind of breakfast every morning. I have read about the kind of tasty food English people have like bacon, cake etc. I think they are people with good luck. All my relatives were at the guest house.  Soon we all were ready. We had a bus to pick us up. We were going to see the Agra fort and Taj Mahal that day. All of us thought of going to see the Taj Mahal first, but some ministers were there. So the Taj Mahal was shut down for a while. From Delhi we had to pass Haryana and then come into Uttar Pradesh to go to Agra.   Balaji Ammavan had hired a guide for us. It was very kind of him.  The guide uncle explained everything nicely. We understood every word. The fort was beautiful. The carvings of the red sandstone were especially pretty. We saw the chair were Birbal used to sit. It was white in color, just opposite to that was Ak

Dear diary, Let me shoot about what happened when we arrived at the Delhi airport. Well, when we were at the Delhi airport we had to wait for uncle Ajay to pick us up. The reason we went to Delhi was that because of uncle Arvind's engagement. I think I had told you that before. There were mostly dogs in Delhi. I seldom saw cats. I seemed to miss those little cute furballs. Because, well ….er... you know what it is. Anyway, uncle Ajay soon came. We then kept our bags at the guest house of International Institute of Technology (IIT), just next of the guest house was the college. After that, we went to Balaji Ammavan’s house. The people there were: Karthik, Madhav, my cousin Thappu, aunt Subha and Ajay uncle, Balaji ammavan, Ammayi, uncle Arvind, aunt Renjitha, uncle Kanan, aunt Anu and uncle Hari.  After sometime, all the ladies and me had to go for shopping. And I was so bored to death. I wished I was with the others who were in the park. Mom had told me later I had to go wit

We have come back to Riyadh. And I tell you it was good to see India again. We saw Delhi. But we did not see Kulu Manali or Bangalore because we did not have the time to see them. So that was out of question. Delhi was beautiful. We saw the Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Taj Mahal and goodness knows what all places I visited.  The malls were good too. We saw a piano playing by its own. School had started before I came back to Riyadh. So now I am copying my missed notes.  We will be seeing India again after 6 months. That’s fine with me as I will have to wait very little. I will write more about our vacation later, I don’t have the time now. Sorry folks.

Dear Readers, I have reached India and a pleasant surprise was waiting for me. Gopichan had made a book out of my blog!  He has even added a few simple things and some pictures which made my book grand. I have got lots of comments from my relatives and from people of far-of-places saying that they loved my blog. My family keeps encouraging me. Thanking everyone, Janaki

Diary, guess what day today is? The melodious day to go to India! Congratulations to me. I am so exited. Sorry I cannot write for a whole month. Because we will spend one day at Kulu Manali , a week at Delhi   and few days at Bangalore. All these plans are driving me crazy. Diary, I wanted to tell you something for a long time. I decided that I will start a new blog like this one but it shall only tell stories. I know lots of people love stories and that’s why I will afterwards send them. I shall send some Amelia Jane stories. She is a teenager who is a detective and a 15-year-old. Her parents are divorced. Her father is Danny Smith and her mother is Amy Jane. Amy lives in Chicago. Amelia has 2 friends who help her in solving mysteries. They are: A stylish girl named Berta and a tomboy named Alan.   My parents are busy. Dresses and passports are being hurriedly packed and discussed.  Nichikets parents visited us yesterday as we are going to India today. They are not going this ti