Amita's artwork.

Spring is here!


Princess 'Tea Party'

School admission process in the US.

Our city ISD(independent school district - for those who are not familiar with the term) is having "kindergarten round-up" this entire week. That is to say they are enrolling children for KG classes starting from August '09. All the preschools were informed of the event early on and the ISD officials had updated their website a month back regarding the event. Each ISD does this every year in the US. The process itself is pretty simple. If you are living in a particular city, then your child will be eligible to attend kindergarten if the child is 5 years of age as on September 1st of the current school year. The school nearest to where you reside is the one you need to choose to go and enroll your child in that particular school. All you need to do so is the child's birth certificate, social security card, immunization records and the driver's license of the parent who is completing the registration on behalf of the child. Pretty simple and straight-forward. No child is denied admission unless the child is mentally-retarded and exhibits no capacity to comprehend and communicate in any manner whatsoever.

I enrolled my child yesterday at the elementary school she's going to go to from August. It took me about 15 minutes to fill the forms and finish the necessary obligations. My child had accompanied me and she said "Amma, i like this school". I then knew she was ready for it. I hope she'll continue to like the school once she really starts attending the school. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Then, i started thinking about school admissions in Indian metros. I've heard the horror stories. Standing in long lines just to get the admission forms and later dreading the "interviews". And then comes the ordeal if the child is denied the admission. Your child can be denied admission for no reason at all. Or, if the child is from a low socio-economic background, then the child does not stand a chance in getting inside any of those touted schools. Education in India is a business. You cough up hefty fee just to get into a reputed school. And the worst part is that the child has to commute miles together in the school bus just to get to school each day( I know that's true in Bangalore. Can't talk about other places). What a pity!

I wonder if things will ever change in India. Since i and my family have made up our minds to move back sometime in the future, I'm dreading those admission process and such stuff when it's our time to go through all that. Till then, I'm going to let my child enjoy her "walk to school" and all the time saved from commuting in the school-bus.

The schools in the topic are all "Public schools" which are funded and aided by the US government. There are Private schools here too and they have a different process of admission and costs you much more. But Public schools in the US are the norm and i guess 90% of the kids go to Public schools( according to stats, 11% of the kids in the US attend a private school). Some Public schools are highly reputed and others are not. So, if you want to go to such reputed schools, you will have to move to the area where the school's located. Other than that, the standard is pretty much the same through-out the US.

Homemade Pita bread.

I tried making homemade pita bread. Pretty lengthy process but the outcome was rewarding :-). I served it with vegetable jalfrezi. Sounds exotic...eh? It tasted pretty decent. I and my family devoured all of it. Lol...

My Princess's castle!

And, Oh! It is raining hearts :-)

Faith in Humanity.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi.

Wish i had the same optimism......*sigh*

The detestable killing machines.

My child has been sick for one whole week now. She first came down with the cold, cough, croup and then the strep throat. Poor thing has been going through quite a bit in the course of a week. I did my best to ease her suffering but the ordeal was inevitable. If it wasn't for the antibiotics, the suffering could have been greater and the pain worse.

This whole thing made me think about the invisible suckers who took control of her body and created havoc by invading her body. She was at the mercy of microscopic creatures we cannot even see let alone comprehend their power over our bodies. I began to ponder over the sheer power and intelligence of viruses and bacteria. Power to destroy something which can be a billion times greater in size to theirs'. Their capacity to have wiped out human and animal population in such great numbers in the not-so-distant past is something of an awe to me. They somehow seem super-natural to me.
Even at the turn of 20th century when mankind was spearheaded towards scientific revolution, these killing machines were still unstoppable. They were, and continued to be one of man's worst nemesis. Pneumonia was deadly and tuberculosis was a death sentence to humans.
But Man, as had always done previously, came up with a befitting answer to these abominable killing machines. Vaccines and antibiotics were the greatest inventions of 20th century. They have saved countless lives and continue to do so. I am just beginning to understand what a difference they have made in improving the quality of our lives.

There still are many more of these suckers out there seeking every oppurtunity to cost humans their civilization dearly. They are ever evolving and mutating to give rise to a new breed of super-bugs to which mankind has still no answers. It is beyond my intelligence to comprehend how these tiny little things are cause of such distress in our daily lives. All i can understand, from my limited knowledge about them is that they are here to survive and thrive as long as humans and animals continue to exist on the face of earth. They were here before the humans came and will be there after we are extinct from this planet.

Friends.

I was compelled to write this post based on my recent experiences with my friends. I realized that every experience was enriching and taught me so much about different kinds of friendships we all have with our friends.

There are so many different kinds of friends. There are the "takers", the "givers", the "noble-hearted", the "counselors" and then there are the "toxic" friends. I have them all in my friends and i'm sure most people do. One must be really blessed to have friends who can accept you for who you are and not judge you. In real life it seldom happens. Doesn't mean they don't exist. They are just revealed to you when the going gets tough for you. Then you'll know who are your true friends. And who are just your "acquaintances".
Treasure the true ones and keep the acquaintances just where they belong. It will keep you from heartaches. And, i am lucky to have few such treasures in my life.
My friends, if you are reading this, you know who all i am talking about. Thank you for being there when i needed you the most!