Monday, December 31, 2012

2011 -- a (delayed) recap...

I just realized, I didnt write up my recap for 2011.  Tells you how busy my year has been and how fast time has flown that it's April 30th, 2012.

The year was so busy, I dont remember much.

January 2011 rolled around -- we had our little one in Sept 2010, so time was really flying.  I barely noticed it as I was working constantly, and even from the delivery room I should mention.  Our project at work, finally went live in January, delayed, but went live.

Roll forward to March where we did a stability release for the product, which made my life so much saner.  I wasn't being called in the middle of the night to troubleshoot the product anymore!

We went to July / Aug India in 2011, so it was really great to meet all my family and celebrate.  I worked out of the Mumbai office for a week which was interesting to the least.  Definitely a change in culture, and tone compared to working in the US.  Especially true, since I was working UK hours, so that I could talk to my colleagues back home, and still go back to the hotel at a decent hour!  Mumbai has changed significantly, yet  landing in Mumbai, the view from the air gave me a shock of my life.  Not to mention just walking down the road from my hotel, I found a bicycle repair guy living in literally a treehouse, and he had a ladder going up to his "house".  What was unbelievable was, he had 2 kids who were running around!!!  Really -- gives you a pause to think - when we the educated and probably middle class think many times about the future of our children - he doesnt -  he just has his kids as a matter of fact!

August was great, as we celebrated Aarathi's birthday (my niece).  I haven't been around for one her birthdays since 1999 - so this was excellent.  Lots of fun!  She'll probably get married soon, so this was one of the last birthdays we were all able to play pranks on and have a "kiddish" time :)

We also had a couple of ceremonies for Vaibhav ( the new one :) ).  Those occasions brought together all our friends and relatives at one place, and was great to meet all of them.

We came back to the US, and then it's back to the grind.  Pranav started First Grade, Vaibhav turned one in September, and we did his birthday party at our friend Suresh's community hall.  That was fun too.  My Brother-in-law, sister-in-law and my in-laws were all here.  So it was enjoyable and fun.  One of the most memorable moments was when Vaibhav barely a year old was being carried by our friends and he pointed to a photograph of his mom on the camera and pointed his finger out back to the hall -- his intention " take my to my mom!".  That was unbelievable.  The power of kids without even saying a word :)

Ofcourse, we also celebrated my wife's birthday in September.

My birthday was low key again in November.  December rolled around and we're off into 2012.  

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