Janaki's Blog

More 4 days to go … and then I will be in India!!! I love when packing starts. I don’t like waiting at the airport though and the only ways to entertain myself at the airport are: Read a book Eat a sandwich and drink cappuccino             I am a great bookworm so I always pack a few books to read when I am feeling bored. In the aircraft I try to go to sleep but it is useless. We haven’t started packing till now but Mom has ironed our clothes and dusted the suitcase so it will be easier for us. We are mostly taking full-sleeve shirts and pants because in India there are mosquitoes. The only thing I hate is that I am mostly the target for mosquitoes and that really annoys me. L Kunjunni, Savitri, and Kunjichechi are just as excited as I am. Savitri lives in another city far away, so I wonder how many times I will see her.   Whenever I get good marks, Dad gives me some pocket money. But I don’t spend, I just save them in my purse.  So I am planning to spend the money in India a

“Daddykins, please teach me how you made that movie?” I pleaded my Dad. Finally Dad picked up the courage to come and teach me. I was overjoyed. Sometimes while he was teaching me he had to give me a few gentle pinches. By the next day I had mastered how to make a movie with the pictures you have. So while Dad and Mom having their afternoon nap I successfully made a movie that only courageous people could do. But since all family members are there and their faces are shown Dad told me not to show it on the blog. Sorry folks! This is the movie Dad made first to teach me how to make a movie. Dad promised that I could take pictures on his camera, so you can expect nice movies of mine in the coming days.

Last 2 days have been lots of fun. On Sunday this is what happened……………… Alana called us to her home for dinner just like that. We were supposed to go at 9pm. So we had to finish playing by then. Rohini went to Alana’s home, Slomo had gone shopping and Albin was away studying at his home. That left me, Raja, Aisha, and Tolha at the ground.  The 4 of us were practicing basketball. Afterwards, we were thirsty and hungry. So we sat on the bench. Then Raja informed us it was 9. He then went home. “Alana told she would come and call us to her home when it was 9” Tolha mumbled. “Well, there is no use waiting now” I told him “Let’s go!” At Alana’s home aunty greeted us. She told us to go home, change our clothes and freshen up. That we did. At their home there were only me, the twins (Raja and Rohini), Tolha and Aisha. The food was from outside. Before it came we were watching the movie “ Night at the museum ”.  Aunty even gave us home made tasty carrot cake. Dinner was KFC .  I took a fe

I have written about my Dad’s home earlier, right people? But that doesn’t mean I wrote all about it. So here I go: After grandpa passed away, grandma moved to Bangalore with aunt Smitha. Few months after, they came back for a short vacation and when they reached our house there they saw a sad sight. Few flower pots have been broken and the well had been filled with rubbish. There were few other things that were damaged too. They were puzzled. Obviously there was lot of people who had done this, but whom? Almost the same time uncle Ajay called us from Bahrain and told that he has seen our house on TV. Some people were shooting a film there. Now all the puzzle pieces fitted into place. So that meant the film people were looking for a pretty house to shoot a movie. When they saw our home they thought it was a lovely place. With the help of our maid they shot the movie there, damaging a few things as they went by. So Dad called them and gave a piece of his mind. He would be calling

It’s full of excitement these days.   Every day I go swimming with my friends at evening 5:30 and then afterwards we go out to play. The only stumbling block is that the vacations are starting on 13 th . That means there are still a few more days left. Our school will then reopen on September 17 th .    There are times when Princi makes flames come out of us. Like when he had to change the timings of the school because of the increasing temperature, he made it till 1 pm. That’s still too much. The teacher’s moaned and the children had to groan, but of course behind his back. Before our school used to end at 1:40 pm L Niharika and Nichiketh already left for vacation. So did Malu and Devu. But there are still many of my friends whom are going on August, the same month in which I am going. Thank God for that!!!!!!!!! J   Today, I had a nice long chat with my cousins Kunjunni and Kunjichechi. First I was online with Kunjichechi, as her brother was practicing music. Then afterwards, Kun

June 26 th ! Today is a special day. It is my first blog anniversary. I have completed a year of blogging.  Last night we had dinner at pizza hut and there is a special reason behind it. Guess what it is? I had received full marks for social studies and science in monthly test. My Dad also gave me 5 riyals as pocket money. I think I have more than 100 riyals now, I am planning to spend this money with my cousins in India and have so much of fun. Just think of it! I have a pizza shaped scar on my knee. Two days back I tripped over a step and hurt my knee when I went to call my friends out to play.

“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 ever I tri

“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, and I st

“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 auditorium to

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 not the time f

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 rea

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 cycle

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 became s

‘’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 (kheer) and ada. Yum,yum h

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 looking

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 were all pil