Nearly seven and a half years since my last blog post, and now with the family in India (and me about to join them in a couple of weeks), I am reviving or at least attempting to revive, a passion of mine - blogging.
So many things have changed since I last posted; parents visited twice (2016, 2019), in-laws visited once (2017), bought a house (2019), kids grew up (thank you Google photos for reminding us time to time what we created), re-connected with old friends, visited my brother (2021), changed jobs (2022), stayed State-side without a chance to visit India (until now) and of course, a world altering event in March of 2020 that brought everyone to their knees and reset how things are meant to be.
While I am eternally grateful to have escaped Covid without any long term repercussions, especially with the family, near and dear ones, all in decent health - there were moments that were truly scary and confusing.
The kids, now 9.5 years old, have grown up so fast - and to see them do well in school, at sports, at dance, at studies in general - brings us great joy and with that greater expectations as they progress toward their 10th birthday. It was a little sad to see them finish their Kindergarten year at home and spend their entire 1st grade year on an iPad but they endured, never complained and got along emotionally and physically as well as one can. At one point for the best part of 2 years, the four of us were in different rooms on the same floor, each glued to our respective screens and trying to get through the day as the pandemic ran riot sparing no corner of the earth. It was our (good) luck that we bought our house just 6 months earlier. It would have been brutal to experience what I wrote above in a 2-bedroom apartment!
While Covid really turned the world upside down, it did unintentionally create a miracle for me - a topic I hope to write about one day. Believe what you may but a higher power had my back - possibly divine intervention when I needed the most, and for that, I am blessed and humbled to have what I have today.
I am glad to have visited my brother and his family in Seattle in 2021. Co-incidentally, it was my 40th birthday and my supremely talented niece, Sidhya's Bharatanatyam Arangetram. If there was one moment when my daughter (then about to turn 8) needed to get her interest in her own journey through Bharatanatyam, that was it. She was as wide-eyed as a girl can get seeing her cousin light up the stage with her brilliant performance.
Come 2022, I finally changed jobs and got the opportunity of a lifetime to work in Downtown Chicago at one of the world's prestigious accounting firm. What is an engineer doing in an accounting firm, one may ask - and trust me, I am also figuring out the answer to that question! This is another topic I potentially would write about one day. Kids - do not try this at home, err, in your professional career!
Fast forward to 2023, we finally have our chance to go to India. And while it would be in the rainy season - a season in India I just did not like, I am very eager to go as this has been a chance that has been very hard to come by.
Lots to write, so much to share, the journey has just begun!
Here we go again!
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I will written.