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Enjoyed vacation, no scholar badge!

Today was the Parent–Teacher’s Meeting. Let me describe it; Mom woke me up at 8 o’ clock today. I never wake up at 8; I sleep till 10. So I was still sleepy. I became nervous when we reached school. I had pressure on my mind. I knew I did well but still I couldn’t stop shaking. But there was a surprise. Shaguftha ma’am said “She has done the exams very well. She was eligible for the scholar’s badge again, but since she missed the FA4 (monthly test) she cannot receive it. I am really sorry.” Oh well. I knew I wouldn’t get it anyway. My classmates told me I wouldn’t get it because I missed monthly exams by enjoying in India Even though I am not going to get scholar’s badge, I am happy that I got good marks. So why worry? Oh yes, and 1 more thing. Mom said that I have my reward, which is Taco Bell . I am really looking forward to that.

Holiday news

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Only 9 days left for the holidays to finish!  Oh! NO… And to make it even worse, I have caught a cold. I don’t want the holidays to finish. They are so good. But there is one problem and that is the climate. For few days there have been sandstorms and it was cold too. And just yesterday there was drizzling. So in the evening we only go to malls and no parks. But last night, I had a good dinner from Applebee’s .  We had Blue Ribbon Brownie for desert. French-fries were so crispy and tasty that my parents who always tell me to eat only few French-fries because it is too fatty, stuffed themselves.  But desert was best. Blue Ribbon brownie was chocolate cake along with ice-cream. We decided to go to Taco Bell too on the day when I get my results. But that will be possible only if the results are good. If not, goodbye Taco Bell.    I sent a mail to my best friend Eeshta , who is now settled in China, asking her how was China. She replied that China was horrible place wher

Dinner at Bangkok seafood restaurant

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“Here we are” Dad announced as he parked the car in front of a restaurant called 'Bangkok seafood restaurant'.  “Thai food is served here as Bangkok is the capital of Thailand“ Dad explained. It was spick-and-span inside. There was a fish tank too. We scanned the menu quickly. All the food had funny names like ‘Goong gang’. Then we called the waiter. “Which food is good among these?” Dad asked the waiter. The waiter and he spend some time like that and I started to feel hungry. Finally we ordered ‘ Tomyam goong ’, which is soup, ‘ Pad thai noodles ’, some beef, chicken and ‘ Halo Halo ‘ for desert. Our waiter was from Nepal. Unfortunately it was a long time before Dad realized that he knew Hindi. And it would have been more easier to speak with him in Hindi, because Dad knew it too. “Hello Hello, what is that?” I wondered out loud, after the waiter left.  “It is sweet of Philippines, and it is ice cream. Don’t say it’s name as Hello Hello. It is Halo H

No more studying!

Diary, I have exciting news. Today is my first day of holidays after the exams! Ok, perhaps it’s not exciting for you because you are the one who gets holidays practically on almost all days.  And when I write on you, maybe you feel like the pencil is massaging you. Who knows? I don’t lead a diary’s life. But the minute you laugh at me, I will tell mom and you are going to be in big trouble because mommy is going to be angry that you laughed at her darling daughter. And so you better watch your tongue. Kunjunni’s exams are still not over. But Kunjichechi’s and Savithri’s exams are over. Today is Savithri’s first day of holiday too. But she has summer vacation. I kind of felt jealous when I heard that because during our summer vacation we need to study for the monthly tests next months. And my cousins don’t need to even look at their books during the you- know- what. Oh well. I guess India and Saudi Arabia have their differences. I can now see my cousins after a week havin

Rockstar Nara!

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“We need some money… We need some money..” The song ended. “Good song’’ I said to Kunjunni. Then I did not know what to say. “Bye” I interviewed Kunjunni when I went to India this year for a new song, which he wrote and gave the tune by himself. Its name was “Money”. He even gave himself a cool name. His real name is Narayanan. At school, friends call him Nara. So his “cool name” is Rockstar Nara, because “Money“ is a rock song. I was really astonished when he told me that his friends called him Nara.  Here is the video of the interview: Nice song, isn’t it? You could bet, I was impressed when I heard it. “I am impressed” I told Kunjunni after the interview. “Me too” said Kunjunni. Then we both laughed.  

Annual Day at DPS Riyadh

There was a red carpet on the floor. There were girls on 1 side and the boys on the other. Everyone started clapping as Kabir Bedi walked on it…… It was annual day in our school yesterday. Kabir Bedi was the chief guest. Me, Safana, Mizna and some other boys and girls were standing and watching him go. We all were really stunned to see him. Safana and Mizna were my other friends who too had won the scholar badge and so I was glad that I had a few friends with me. Our school had built another stage outside the auditorium so Kabir Bedi saw the programs nicely. The programs were nice with dances and plays. There was Spanish dance, Chinese Dance, African Dance, Puppet dance and many others. Puppet dance was a dance with children holding strings and acting like puppets. At last Prize distribution came. We all had worries in our mind. We thought “What if I sneeze?” or “What if I cough?” At last my turn came to get the prize. I took a deep breath and climbed the sta

Dinner with Rishik

I stared at the food. There was French toast, pancake, tuna sandwich and apple cake. I wondered which I would eat first. The apple cake looked delicious, it melted in my mouth. So yummy! I took another slice. Wow… It was a ladies and kids party. Our moms chatted while we roamed around. There was tea and juice. I had juice. We did not play anything; nobody was in the mood for playing. The party was for a short time, it was not long before we said good bye. My exams will start next month. I have to study a lot. After that two weeks holidays, then the sixth grade! I am not getting time to read the books we bought from India. Still I have successfully completed a few like the firework-maker’s daughter, Big nate, Am I the princess or the frog and Sophie the awesome. Last night we had dinner at Pizza Inn with uncle Biju, aunt Deepa and baby Rishik. The food was great. Rishik was in a playful mood. His mother had ordered a special pizza for him. When the waiter brought pepsi,  R

Gopichan & uncle Venki

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When we reached India, there was a huge surprise for me. Gopichan had printed out my blog into the pages of a book. It is really wonderful to see with shiny papers and photos.  There were great illustrations by artist Venki uncle which I admired a lot. We gave some copies of the book to my relatives. They liked them a lot. I even took the book to school and showed my classmates. My class teacher Shagufta ma’am borrowed it for a few periods and read the whole book. My friends told me that the book was great. I am really grateful to Gopichan and uncle Venki. I promised to myself that if I ever got a chance to meet uncle Venki I will get his autograph.

2 weeks in India

You must be wondering why I did not write for many days. Surprise, I spent two weeks in India. It was lots of fun and I spent most of the days with my cousins. We attended uncle Prasanth’s marriage with aunt Vani and met all our relatives. There was tasty food and yummy kheer for desert. My cousins were also there, so it was fun. I wore a beautiful green dress and everybody admired it. It was a half-sari half-latcha. One day we went to Kollam with Kunjunni, Kunji chechi and Madhavan. There was a get-together there. We also celebrated my parents wedding anniversary at Golden Fork which was attended by all my close relatives and cousins. When I came back to Riyadh I received a warm welcome from my classmates and teachers. My best friend Lynn looked at me sulkily because she had to sit alone for two weeks and not to mention that she had to go to Malayalam class alone. But she was happy later. I am feeling sleepy now, expect more from me in the coming days.

Riyadh Gallery

I will continue what happened at the field trip. We got inside Riyadh gallery and as we walked we looked at all the shops. Then we climbed up the escalator. It was fun. The children’s play area was Oceanica.  I, Aamna, Lynn and Safana were a group. The first ride we went on was the bumper cars. We love bumper cars like hell. So each of us climbed into a car and then started to have a happy time dashing each other! Then we went to another ride. Its name was pirate ship or something, I really don’t remember. It is mostly in the form of a ship. It is like a swing only that it is much scarier. It goes to and fro high. Me and my gang were sitting at the last seat so when the ship swung backward, when we looked down we felt like we were going to fall down any minute. I enjoyed because I kept my head bent down so I only felt like I was flying, but Lynn kept yelling and screaming in my ear.   Lynn, Aamna, and Safana went on the boat ride but I didn’t want to so I just strolle

Class assembly + field trip = Fun day!

As I got ready for bed I was really excited “Tomorrow is the field trip to the mall Riyadh Gallery, plus our assembly. “ I told myself “What a day it is going to be!” As my school bus is always late and my Dad could not drop me at school today I went with Nichiket and Niharika. As we reached our school I got out and thanked uncle Sunil and ran to my classroom. Some of my classmates had already reached there. After settling down we made a dash to the playground while two girls went to the staffroom to call our class teacher. Our class teacher came as we stood on our places on the stage. I and a few of my classmates were for a friendship song. Soon as the assembly was about to finish Zainab the comparer said “Now I would like to call upon the DPS choir for the Saudi National Anthem followed by the Indian National anthem.“  I hopped down the stage and joined the choir. “AAchoooo!” A loud sneeze from outside the gate made us all giggle, I could hardly keep a straight face during the an

School news

I don’t have any incident or anything like that to write about, so let me tell you just a few things that are going around here. Now we have the school assembly in the ground. Want to know why? Actually the girls and boys assembly’s are now separated. So the Girl’s assembly is in the ground while the Boy’s assembly is held in the auditorium itself. To tell you the truth, we girls think that the auditorium is much better. Because it won’t be good for us when it gets really cold outside.   Plus the stage is too small and there is no podium to keep the papers. Our class assembly is on 20th, and our whole class is in it. We do not know how all of us are going to stand on that tiny stage. All of us girls would have loved it if the boys stood outside in our place, because in our school we detest boys as they keep teasing us and then at the end all of us call each other names  and later everybody gets busted by the teachers. It’s not pleasant. One of my classmates is going to China. She is

Rain rain don't go away

Nothing much has happened now except that the monthly tests are still going on… I have 2 more tests, Malayalam and Science. Science was supposed to be on last Tuesday, but it was a holiday ‘cause of heavy rain. The weather forecast said so. But there was no heavy rain, though. The rain was just drizzling or a little more than that. All of us students spent a happy day at home.  I am going to get a Scholar’s badge. That is a badge you receive if you do well in exams. I will get it for last year exams on Annual day. Annual day’s chief guest of last year was Kapil Dev. This year annual day will be on first week of January. But the principal is not telling us who the chief guest is this year. He is keeping it as a surprise. Anyway, as a reward I got a Subway sandwich from my parents (though I haven’t received the badge yet). Wednesday night Dad had a desert trip. This was a trip from his office and there were only a few people. I couldn’t go, and I was a little sulky.  But it was good

Winterrrrrrrrrr!

It is now winter here and I would love to be warm as toast. Because of the winter we have kept a blanket on the sofa in the living room as every morning when I have to go to school I feel cold and I eat my cereal in front of TV. And that‘s not all……. When we go out to play all of us will have our hands tucked into our armpits and our caps on. That is really a nuisance. But who could blame us? We almost expected smoke to come out of our mouth. Anyway, on Wednesday we had a Biriyani party in our compound. Coming into my compound might be like coming into a world with all kinds of parties. That is why all my classmates are jealous and I am happy. When I told them about the water balloon fight we compound kids had all my classmates had sighed and said “Lucky you!”, I was on top of the world. There was a fire pit in the middle of the chairs so we all kept our hands above it, but Afra, Ayesha’s younger sister who started school some months ago ran around it and we had to chase her away.

Exciting weeks

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I totally regret for saying that Riyadh was boring. Because the last few weeks were full of fun, fun and fun!!! There was a Kappa –and– Kozhi party, a barbecue party , the trip to the farmhouse and the trip to the bakery (which you already know about) and goodness knows about all the other parties I have been to. First let me tell you about the bar-b-q party. The barbecuing was to start at 9:00pm, but me and my parents had to go out so when we arrived at 9:30, a few people were already crowded around the grill. Some of the ladies were sitting in the chairs and talking. Few uncles were handling the barbecue. There was a table loaded with Pepsi, 7up, salad and some chewing- gum. It was the first time I had ever seen chewing gum on these kinds of parties.   The chicken was yummy! There were also chicken pieces on stick, and some people ate 2 or 3 of them because they were really tasty.  Niharika did not touch the chicken. When we asked her she told us that she had stopped eating c

Al Rashed Bakery - Factory visit

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“Fine then” elders said, they were all sitting in a circle together. “Tomorrow we will all meet at 9:30 in the morning “ We did know what they were talking about.  All the people in the compound (except Talha and Ayesha) were going to visit the factory of Al Rashed Bakery .  Uncle Rajan working there and he is a big manager. I heard they make bread products and I love bread so I was looking forward to go there. I had a lovely dream that night too, that I was flying in the sky with my arms spread out. I guess that is because I always wanted to fly, just like Peter Pan. “Dress fast!”  Mom told me in the morning. I groaned. I was still too sleepy to dress. “Fine” Mom said “then stay at home” I muttered under my breath and changed because I wanted to see the factory. Soon we all were ready to go to the factory.  Nichiket and Niharika climbed into my car because uncle Sunil had to go to office. It was a merry journey. Soon we reached the factory. We had to wear hair nets to prevent ou

A sandy day

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“Janu! Janu! Wake up!” I opened my eyes and stared at Mom groggily. “Get up” mom urged me. “Remember we have to go to the farm.” Helped by my mother I got up and blinked until the room came into focus. I stared at my parent’s bed, Dad had already gotten up. I washed my face and sleepwalked into the living room. One hour later we were ready to go to the farm. One of uncle Loy friends worked in farm and we were looking forward, especially me, to see all the cow, goat and sheep since I love animals. Most of my compound friends were coming too along with Melvin and his elder brother Milan. To my joy Alana and Niharika climbed into our car (I hate sitting alone) and we sped off. As we went further we saw the hanging bridge of Riyadh and the beautiful view of mountains on both sides. Later when we reached the fields which spread out like a green carpet, my eyes caught a strange figure in the middle. It was a scare-crow! It had an Arabic dress and a scarf as its head.  We giggled and poin

D for Diwali - Party

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I will now continue with the happenings of Diwali party:- After playing we had gone home, Raja and Rohini came to each of our house and this is what they said “Meet at the ground in 10 minutes for the bursting of firecrackers.” But we all started to dress at the speed of a race car and reached the ground in 3 minutes! After checking everybody had arrived, Raja & Rohini’s dad announced that due to the death of Prince Sultan, noisy firecrackers wouldn’t be used. We just nodded our heads; we didn’t care about anything, but just wanted to start bursting crackers.  The firecrackers were superb. First, there was this type of cracker that sent sparks up like a fountain, then those types which we can hold in our hand. Another would spin and then fly into the air (which was totally cool) but then one of them instead of flying targeted forward and almost hit Raja who was in front. So that was the end of spinning-and-flying cracker. There was a long magic wand like cracker, the type whic

D for Diwali

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“ Click!” went the lighter as I lit a diya. “Next me!’’ squealed Talha, my friend. “Careful Talha” I warned him. “Don’t burn your fingers and you are only 8.”  “Don’t worry. Trust me, I can do it safely.” said young Talha.   “Sometimes we really can’t trust you Talha” said Nichiket. “Like remember when you promised us you wouldn’t scare Whitey the dove by going near it? But you still did it in front of our very eyes.”  “Well this time I won’t do anything like that.” promised Talha. It was Diwali and me, Talha, Ayesha, Niharika and Nichiket, my friends were lighting the diyas my dad had bought from the store. “Can I go next, Janaki?” asked Ayesha   “You are more 2 years younger than Talha so better ask my mom.” I replied. She was the youngest and mostly asked me questions and stayed with me everyday when we played because I am the only one who makes her understand and protects her from teasing boys and other things.  “I hate to be the youngest” complained Ayesha.  “Well, sometimes i

Music, Music ....

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I felt a tap on my shoulder during the school assembly. I twirled around and saw my classmate Lynn.   “It’s music sir.” she whispered. “He seems to want to talk to you”. I looked in the front and sure enough, my music teacher was looking at me. I shoved my way through the sea of students and went to him “Err….sir, didn’t you call me?’’    That’s when I knew I was in the choir.   He made me stand with the school choir girls. So we have to sing the national anthem on the stage’s stairs in front of everybody when assembly’s finished. Sir’s been putting me in a few things that are involved in music and I think I know why. See, last year I won third prize for singing. So now you know why sir has been totally on top of things. He even made me sing with a few other girls for our school in a National anthem competition. It was an inter-school competition, which means a few other schools were there too. I had to copy notes for the subjects I missed during Jana- Gana-Mana practice. But the m