Janaki's Blog

“Owww..!!” I moaned. I pressed my forehead to the cool wall. “What happened?” Mom asked, taking the school bag off my shoulders.   “I got a headache” I said feeling very hot “it’s been a very hot day.” “Well, after taking food go to sleep immediately. It will soothe you.” And that I did. But in the night my eyes started watering while I was reading a book. Now I was feeling uneasy, I was sure something had happened to my right eye.  When we were sleeping, I was getting nightmares every now and then. When I woke up with a start, I felt something strange. I could not open my right eye. And even if I could open my left one everything in front of me seemed really strange. Like, as if there was light fog. It felt like somebody had stuck my eyelashes together with superglue. I was scared to death that if I wouldn’t pull eyelids open then it would stay like that. In the morning Mom woke me up. I was feeling hot and uncomfortable. Then I noticed I could not open my eyes, how much e...

“Finally” I thought “June, the month which holds my birthday has come.” I was feeling very delighted. I went to the bedroom and saw my parents were discussing something. I asked them “Dad, Mom, what are you discussing?” “Well” Mom began “we have decided to celebrate your birthday on this Wednesday.” “What” I almost screamed. I started jumping and skipping around the house. “Yeaiii.. we are having a party” back Mom told Dad “I wish I didn’t say that” On Wednesday all the children in the compound came to our home. The children came at 8:30 and adults were invited for 9:00pm. Tolha and Ayesha were the first. Just after they stepped into my room the door bell rang. It was Slomo. As we got inside my room I saw something in Tolha’s hand. “I wonder what you have got for me.”   “it’s a watch” Ayesha declared. “Hey, you are not supposed to say that” I laughed. At that time Slomo was exploring my room looking at all the little show pieces over there.   One by one came my friends,...

“Girls, we are going to have a trip next week” everybody pricked their ears at once. “we are going to a museum” announced our teacher.  “But why museum” asked a girl. “Malls are more fun”. Oh, for crying out loud, groaned a few girls. But I was very delighted. Our teacher made a tired face too. “It might be a little boring.” Now I started having second thoughts, “its okay” I decided. Back home, I told Mom about the trip. “When we get the notice, please let me go Mom” I begged “pretty please!” “Don’t make puppy eyes at me” laughed Mom. “You know I let you go on every trip you get into your hands. Till now I have never said NO and anyway it is an educational trip. It will be good for you.” Sunday, teacher told us to wear abaya (purdah) for the trip because it is compulsory in the museum. None of us could wait; we all had to buy our abayas. Finally, the big day came. All of us were dancing in the class showing each other the black dress we wore. Then we went to the auditoriu...

Yesterday we went to Goozy. It is a restaurant and has tasty food. But the most I liked was the Kunafa , which is an Arabic sweet. I was sorry that I could not finish it up because I was full. Me and parents were feeling fat, I couldn’t walk properly. We have to buy a birthday dress because of my birthday next month.

We have a huge drumstick tree in our garden and now it is fully dangling with drumsticks.  Mom made drumstick curry with newly grown drumstick, but I never knew it until one  day when we were standing outside waiting school bus, I asked. “When are we going to make a curry out of those lovely drumsticks?” “We have already done that”, said Mom. Mom also makes a nice dish with its leaves. Whenever the wind blows through our window we can see the tree swaying. This helps us know whether the wind is strong or not. “Yaiyeeee!” After a long winter break I and Dad have finally started swimming. The pool was as clear as crystal. Yesterday my friends Tolha and Ayesha called me out to play. But I was sleeping. They could not find any other friends too, so they had to return. Later I set out wondering if they would come. I got a huge greeting from Afra and her aunt who had arrived from Qatar. Afra jumped on me.  Afra is a little girl who has just started school and it is ...

For a few days everything has been exciting.   Three birthday parties in one week - Nichiketh, Devika and Eeshta! This is something I myself can’t believe. Yesterday, Eeshta’s party was at her home. She lives in Al Waha Compound, in which she recently moved in. Her father had not known the way so well since they were new and the location map they gave us wasn’t very helpful. Just when we were on the way there came a ringing sound from my Mom’s mobile which was in my pocket. After I fished it out, Mom saw that there was no name, but a number. Mom thought it must be my Grandma from India. So she said to Dad “It is from India.” My father who foolishly ignored the number said “Hey Mom!” but then he heard a voice saying “Hello, Uncle?” Dad, embarrassed, gave the phone to Mom saying “Eeshta, I will give to aunty”. Then Mom spoke attended the call. “Hi Eeshta, yes betta, we are on our way”. After Mom put down the phone we all laughed so much that we almost went into hysterics. When we...

Yesterday, we had a party here in our compound. It was at Raja & Rohini’s home. We enjoyed it a lot. Here is what happened: Me and my parents were going to their home when we heard somebody calling my name. I turned around and saw my friends sitting on the bench in the playground. I walked towards them. We then decided to play basket ball. After that when we thought of playing cricket uncle Loy came and told us it was time for dinner. So all of us marched towards their home. Albin said “I am really worried about my results.” Raja comforted him “I have confidence that you will fail in maths, but you shall succeed in the other subjects” that made us all laugh. The party was a buffet. There were few sweets too. Albin played a song in the computer and we listen to it as we had our dinner. Raja had taken appam and this was what he said about it. “Guys, I just love appam. It is like dosa on the sides and iddali in the middle” making us giggle. I was the first to finish my food. ...

For a few days, some things have been happening around here. Like, my Mom’s friends visited her or we went to visit them. Some had just returned from India. Mom was very excited, she couldn’t keep her voice down. We could hear her from outside. Today, we decided it was the perfect day to buy me a cycle. Everyone in the compound had told me that my old cycle was small for me. I knew that if I didn’t change my cycle soon they would NEVER let me hear the end of it. So, we discovered a bicycle shop and it didn’t take much time to find one. We chose a blue one because blue is my favorite color and I don’t like pink anymore. (I changed my favorite color pink to blue, pink now seems lame.) The new cycle “ TREK ” is great, I must say myself. It is from America. You could adjust the speed too. It wouldn’t fit in the trunk of our car. And then came the most terrifying part. We had to make one of the seat bend down. And the bike’s tyre   was on it. I dreaded every minute, praying the cy...

We decided to call the dove “whitey”. We set whitey loose, so that we could see whether it was flying or not. Whitey walked forward. He flew a little but could not go high. That meant he was just recovering. Me and my friends Tolha, Aisha and Nichiketh were excited. We went slowly after the bird so that we wouldn't scare it. The dove then went to aunt Jyoti’s house. There it put out a dropping. We all laughed. Then it went to the next house. It repeated the same thing! And because of all the laughter our friend Remya came out. She was astonished and tried to touch the bird. Now it was heading for a path between the houses. Uncle Joshi caught it in his hands and took it to the hencoop. We locked it in after giving it a final pat. Aisha had got scared when she saw the dove and had gone home. Yesterday we had an Easter party in our compound. After a short prayer we cut the cake.  The eldest boy of our compound Albin ate a small slice of cake. The reason was he wanted to eat al...

‘’Look at this poor thing.’’ Uncle Joshi said to me, patting a dove that was on his hands. It seemed to be sitting comfortably.  I stroked its head. It was very soft and that too a beautiful white dove, with dark black eyes. Uncle had found it in the street. It was the victim of a cat. The cat was aiming at it, ready to strike, but uncle rescued the frightened dove, and brought it to the compound. He had shown it to us. I and my friends, Nichiketh and Albin were most astonished. I was eager to show the dove to my parents, so I took it out of uncle’s hands and made it settle down. Then, after Albin took a picture of it sitting on my hands, I and Nichiketh went off. Mom and Dad were just as astonished. By looking at their faces, I could understand their question, what was a dove doing in my hands? I told what happened. Then Dad told me to put it down so that we could see wheather the dove could fly or not. I put it down. It tried to fly but could not. It just fell down. I beca...

‘’Wake up, wake up!’’ mom was calling me ”it’s Vishu . don’t you want to see the beautiful Vishukani?” I jumped out off bed. Whenever an exciting thing come, all my mother has to do is to say it and I would be out off bed in a second. For several days we have been waiting for this day to come.  She covered my eyes and took me to the dining room. There was the beautiful Vishukani, filling the room with light. There were raw mangoes, coconut, kindi, tulasi, a rose, nirapara, and a few vegetables. And then the picture of Lord Guruayappa.   Vishu is also my favorite day because of vishukaineettam. Today I got vishukaineettam from my parents. I can spend this myself and nobody is going to stop me! Last night, when I went to bed, my parents were busy preparing vishu kani. I was more excited, I could not get sleep for some time. I was thinking, thinking, thinking, until my thoughts vanished and I went to sleep.   Mom is preparing some yummy food like payasam (k...

Dad gave me the idea that maybe we should buy two pet fishes. And because of that I have been reminding him all day, so that he would not forget. At last we went to a pet shop. There were cats, cocks and fishes etc. The cats were white and fluffy. There were two roosters and many types of fishes.  Sometimes one of the roosters would go cock-a-doodle-doo! We chose a bowl and took 4 small fishes. One is silver color fish, Dad has named it Silvy. The black one was named by Mom as Leela. The rest were named by me. One is Lily, it is very easy to recognize it because its backbone can be seen clearly. The other one is Goldie. I will post a picture later. One day, we went to the hospital to get my Mom’s eyes checked. The doctor told she needs spectacles. Previously another doctor had told the same thing. We had bought her a spectacle. But the main problem was Mom keeps telling she needs them but she never wears it. But if she is watching a movie you could see her with her spectacles loo...

For some days I have been ill. I could not sleep properly at night. Because of this cold I could not go swimming with my friends, which I love to do. If only they had filled the swimming pool after my cold went I could have been happy. Every night, my nose gets blocked and I keep sniffing and make my parents awake. Yesterday uncle Biju and aunt Deepa came from India with their new born son, Rishik. This is what happened: We decided that Mom should stay back home because otherwise it would be congested in the car and would make the baby uncomfortable. The baby, Rishik was asleep on his mother’s lap. Sometimes I kept looking back to see if he was awake. He would mutter some sounds in his sleep and would make me think he was awake. I did a wonderful drawing by myself and made my parents proud. The teacher said it looked beautiful and I was very happy. I showed it to some of my classmates, to make them say “wow!”.   At least now you know the reason why I am keeping the photo here...

Today finally 5th standard began! It was a joyful day and all of us were very happy. I was the second last to reach the school. I knew that my new class was 5D, but I had no idea where it was. So I looked desperately for a classmate. Soon I spotted Shameena. She is one of my classmates. We decided to find 5D. Luckily Fathima, another classmate, saw us and lead us to the classroom. Our new class teacher came. She introduced herself as Shaguftha. She is our science teacher too. We didn’t study anything. All day we played and had fun. Nobody stopped us. Our teacher was out for a long time. After sometime, we had to go to the auditorium to get our books. We got a few of them. The rest would be given tomorrow. Two days back the terrible sandstorm hit Riyadh. It was very thick that you could not see beyond few meters. We were returning from our friend’s house so it was bad luck for us. Raja and Rohini celebrated their birthday on Saturday. There were lots of pizzas.    They wer...

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 ...

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. ...

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....

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 f...

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.