Some Of The Reasons We Come Home To India

Being away from our family tugs at our hearts and every opportunity we get we fly home.  It is so wonderful that all of you take the time to make every one of our visit memorable.  Our photographs, a two dimensional record of our multidimensional experience, are our most precious posessions.  We enjoy looking at them very much and  we want to share them with you - the stars and main characters of our story.  We are posting them in sequence, as we met you during our trip.

Thank you for being part of our lives.

Some of you, I know, wait to hear news about Sachi's regular check-ups.  Last week he went to the doctor and was given a clean bill of health.  We appreciate your concern and are enjoying the blessings coming our way.  Sachi is doing volunteer work five days a week, 3-4 hrs at a time, in the city's free clinics for the underprevileged.  He is thoroughly enjoying these hours.  Retirement suits him well.  We often go to see performances at the Lied center and do not miss any good movie.  We love the extra time we get with the kids (when they have time for us).  Surina, ofcourse, grabs the lion's share of our enthusiasm. 

Suraj and Ravi have some good news to share with you. 

Ravi has been invited by his college to represent them at a Scientific Conference being held in Washington state.  He will present a paper on the research he did at Johns Hopkins in the summer of 2009.  He is planning to go back there again this summer for a similar research internship.  He is very focused on his studies, research programs, applying to medical school etc. but is also involved in mentoring school kids. In addition he is volunteering  at a free medical clinic where he  helps out with patient data collection and some simple procedures like removing an infected nail or taking blood pressure etc.  We are watching him grow into this wonderful person with great pride. We are pleasantly amazed at how he has turned around & changed focus from sports & fun activities to work, studies & career building. We are very proud of him.

Suraj has been learning to fly small planes for few months and performed his solo (as in - NO instructer with him) on March 2, 2011.  When he came home and told us, we sat motionless with our jaws dropped.   This photo is before his second flight. In the cockpit he is the picture of a radiant, enthusiastic & passionate young man out to fulfill his childhood dream.

Yes, thats him in the sky! on his second solo flight.

 We went out and celebrated his achievement with dinner and a movie.

 Next time we went with him to the airport and took lots of pictures.  We showered all the fan-fare, that his first flight deserved, to this second flight .  We are beyond being proud of him; We are in awe of him.

  "Neelay gagan ke tale" ( under the deep blue sky):  Since early childhood Suraj has been very interested in automobiles & aviation. Spreading his wings & flying into the sky, for him is dream come true. Keep shooting higher Suraj, for SKY is NOT the limit. As we were watching him so high up, the plane disappeared behind the clouds. Our hearts sank for a moment. Fairly soon it soared out of there & glided like an eagle. We then got into our vehicle & drove home, the whole time feeling as if we were with him in that plane.

....Ambi and Sachi