Some upcoming news

Okay, so we are finally set to invite close friends and relatives to a lunch to celebrate the "misaq" ceremony of our younger daughter Hannah on the coming Sunday, i.e. on the 25th of April 2010. "Misaq" refers to the initiation of a Bohra Muslim girl into adulthood and enjoins upon her the duties to be undertaken by a devout Bohra Muslim woman. The actual ceremony took place more than 1 1/2 years ago at the hands of a priest who is officially called the Daawat-e-Muqaasir saheb. We were to hold the function around the same time, but, unfortunately, one of our family members, Dr. Altaf Savliwala, a pediatrician based in Lonavala, died around the same time, so we had to cancel the function. This time around, we hope to have no further obstacles. I will certainly post pictures of the event in the week following the Sunday the event takes place.


In related news, some relatives of Nishrin, my wife, are coming over from Punjab. We will be hosting them in our house. We hope to be good, nay, very good hosts, to these (wo)men. Some of them are visiting Mumbai for the very first time in their lives!


Finally, a word about the function: as is customary, most of our guests will be eating out of a large round steel plate known as a "thali". However, we are having some guests who may not be very comfortable with this system, and we would be serving them on tables. In fact, we are having more than a dozen and a half people who are strict vegetarians.

Inas wins herself some medals and trophies

Readers of my blog, too few, I know, but treasured friends nevertheless, may already know my daughter Inas, who is now in her second year of the three year B.Sc. course in Tourism and Hotel Management at the Anjuman e Islam's A.K. Hafizka Institute located next to the Old Lady of Bori Bunder (a.k.a. the Times of India) H.O. 

Well, the good news is that she excelled in her first year's annual exams. She stood first from among the 300-odd students from her batch; not only that, she also got the highest marks in 2 of the 6 subjects for which she appeared. This was old news, of course, to us, but she finally received the prizes and awards at a glittering campus evening on Saturday, 6th of March 2010. 

In all, she received one gold medal for her first rank, and a rotating trophy and a certificate for the same, and two other medals for the two subjects, and a rotating trophy too, for one of those two subjects, and two certificates for the two subjects. My parents and my wife, along with me, were those who witnessed her triumph on the stage at the event. Presenting here, some pictures of the momentous event.

She really made us proud. Unfortunately, we, i.e. my wife Nishrin and I, could not stay back to enjoy the dinner, as we had to attend a wedding of a doctor friend of ours. My parents did, however, stay back, and informed us that the meal had indeed been a good one. 


Inas, congratulations to you from your entire family! Do continue to achieve high targets in the years to come!

A net friend comes home

I have known Anna Morawska, a Polish citizen living in Legionowo, a suburb of Warsaw, since the past several years. Or, have I? I must say that I had never met her; I had heard her voice but twice; and I had spoken to her just once over her mobile phone. Apart from this, we had exchanged a few SMSs and about a dozen-odd personal emails. Thus, I was to meet her for the very first time on her maiden trip to India. We interacted a few times on the chat module before planning and finalising. Finally, I decided that my family and I would host her when she came down to Mumbai, and help her out whenever she went to different parts of the country as a tourist.


Anna arrived in our society building on Monday morning at around half past eight, escorted by a doctor friend of hers (he is Dr. Sandeep Pendse, a non-practising MBBS doctor, who is now a teacher in "humanitites"). Lugging a large orange suitcase, and a smaller, softer bag and a hand bag, she arrived with a large - nay, huge smile. Chatting with her, I realised that she is a witty, soft-spoken, fit and intelligent person. Nishrin served her and the doctor "upma" and "gulab jamuns" for breakfast. Afterwards, while I went to my clinic, Nish took her to Fort for a little bit of shopping. She wanted some Indian dresses. I joined them at a store near Kala Ghoda, and Nish left for her parlour work. Eventually, she (i.e. Anna) and I went to the Gateway of India, took the harbour cruise, lunched at the Colaba Delhi Darbar, and returned home on my scooter - weaving this way and that, and scaring the day-lights out of her!

She vows to write about her experiences in the form of a novel!