November 29, 2008 – 5:33 pm
But at the same time, things are just beginning. It was confirmed last night that two school parents were killed in the attacks downtown. They have three children in our school, one in Breck’s grade and another whom I’ve taught for both years that we’ve been here. We have an all-staff meeting tomorrow to discuss [...]
November 28, 2008 – 5:15 pm
Today is the day that we are celebrating Thanksgiving in Mumbai. Before the events of the last two days, our schedule was such that the kids had a half day on Thursday and we were all off on Friday. Obviously many plans for the holiday have been scrapped (such as the full-blown Thanksgiving dinner - [...]
November 23, 2008 – 2:26 pm
As part of our school mission, ASB is in the process of developing relationships with various non-governmental agencies (NGOs) in Mumbai. There are certainly many areas where we have the opportunity to “enhance the lives of others” in this sprawling city, and in the middle school we’ve targeted three sectors for the different grade levels: [...]
October 12, 2008 – 10:33 pm
(No, that’s not a picture of Oktoberfest)
In the past week, after our return from Goa, things have been moving at a lightning pace.
At school, we’re getting ready for the week without walls trips coming up next Monday, organizing community service projects with local NGOs, preparing for a family fun day in December, getting Mathcounts up [...]
September 18, 2008 – 3:25 pm
No, not the Scooby Doo character, but rather the character of the post-monsoon growth. As the rains wind down, the city is pulling itself into the greenest hues of the entire year. Everywhere we look, grass is growing on fields that were dusty and rock-strewn last spring, the trees are full and hearty, and the [...]
September 14, 2008 – 12:44 pm
I write this on a soaking Sunday afternoon, as we hunker down under the onslaught of the monsoon. The rains should be finishing soon (in fact, they were done last year at this time), but today they are out in force. This evening is the final night in the Ganesh holiday, and I am curious [...]
September 4, 2008 – 6:03 pm
The idols are all over Mumbai again, as Lord Ganesha makes his yearly visit to homes everywhere. Our school librarian put together a great little summary of the Ganesh story and the symbolism of the holiday. It is the most popular holiday around town, so it is handy to know what all the excitement is [...]
September 1, 2008 – 7:09 pm
This week marks the beginning of the big party season in Mumbai. Ramadan begins tomorrow, so all the Muslims are gearing up for a month of daytime fasting and nighttime feasting. There is a large Islamic enclave clustered around a huge mosque somewhat near our house (on our route to school), so it will be [...]
August 27, 2008 – 9:28 pm
As the last two evenings have been “Curriculum Night” at the school, Susan and I have been busy hopping to and from the school, giving our presentations and then putting on our ‘parent hat’ to sit in on the kids’ teachers.
Tonight, I had to get the kids home from school, get them all homeworked, get [...]
Here are the kids - all ready for their final classes before summer break! They have a half day today, and tomorrow Alea gets a birthday present: no school!
She got the first part of her ‘presents’ yesterday, as we welcomed the first big rainstorm of the season. The kids had just gone to bed when [...]
Through our first year here, we’ve posted a number of pages centered around things that we see in our daily life. As the school year is almost over, and we will be in the US for most of the break, this is the last page of pictures from India that we plan on uploading until [...]
This week was the fifth graders’ PYP exhibition, a culminating project incorporating all sorts of learning that took place over their elementary school years. The class focuses on a student selected topic for the last 8 weeks of the school year and then presents what they learned to parents, teachers, and peers. This year’s theme [...]
We had a Kiara roof coffeehouse evening last Saturday night called CAF-ASB (pronounced Café – S – B). People shared food and showed off their talents in the arts: poetry recitation, singing, music, painting, etc. It was a beautiful evening accented by flickering candles, providing the perfect setting for such an artsy get together.
One of [...]
The sun has been coming up earlier and earlier these days, as we move out of winter (or what passed as winter here) into summer. This morning, however, it actually seemed darker than it had in days past. Looking out the window, we figured out what it was - there were CLOUDS in the sky!!
Now, [...]
April 30, 2008 – 10:38 pm
One of the toughest things for the kids to get used to is the poverty. Mumbai is an enormous city, and India is still a very poor country, and people from all over head to the big metropolis in the hopes of building a better life. Unfortunately for them, most end up in the sort [...]
Who says Mumbai has no wildlife? In addition to the rats we’ve seen running along the sidewalks (for which there are official city jobs dedicated to killing them) and the raven/crows that eat everything the rats miss, Bombay is home to tons of different kinds of animals. Our experiences this weekend centered around 3 specific [...]
I love the news that runs in the papers here. Not necessarily because it is fun to read or ‘uplifting’ in any way, but because the headlines and stories serve as a constant reminder that Toto is no longer in Kansas. Just as a taste, here are a couple of snippets from recent articles (besides [...]
We have returned from the sunny south of India, after 10 days of backwater boat rides and the four s’s - sun, sand, salt, and seafood!!
Our trip was a great success; 3 nights in Fort Cochin, a ride through the famed backwaters and an overnight in Alleppey, 8 hours on a ferry down the inland [...]
With all the racket and traffic, the city fathers have decided that a day of quiet is just what the doctor ordered. April 7th is being orchestrated as No Horn Day in Mumbai. I’ll believe it when I see (hear) it. There is no way typical Indian drivers are going to lay off the horn [...]
Well, I’m certainly glad someone got around to quantifying this. I was worried about just how we’d stack up against other places around the world. I’d already known that Mumbai was big - ranked 1st, 4th, 4th, or 5th in the world depending on your population definition - but not that we held claim to [...]
We get these little tastes of Indian culture from time to time here at the school, and today was one of those special occasions. There has been talk of a ‘famous Indian dancer’ coming to perform at ASB - her name is Malavika Sarukkai and she is lauded as one of the best of the [...]
February 24, 2008 – 8:47 am
So Breck had an interesting experience this weekend. He and Dave went to a hole-in-the-wall studio where he had an afternoon acting like a model for a clothes catalog! Apparently this is something that the expat kids get to do from time to time, as white skin is still sort of a novelty here (and [...]
February 19, 2008 – 2:07 pm
No, not by us, but for us. Our driver quit right before winter break - supposedly since he wanted to go back to his hometown and be with his family. But since he is now working for a company in the area and still hanging around our apartment every day, we’ve started to doubt the [...]
February 12, 2008 – 10:53 am
Mumbai has been experiencing its coldest winter ever this summer: yup, temperatures have dipped below 50 Fahrenheit (the newspapers have said 9.7 Celsius). The city has gone absolutely berserk. We see people wearing ski masks, gloves, scarves, earmuffs, and fleece jackets.
If you have to sleep out on the streets, I suppose I can imagine there [...]
February 3, 2008 – 11:19 am
We held ASB’s first ever Mathcounts competition this weekend, and I think things went off pretty well. We’ve had up to 16 kids coming for practices, but with other events (including an Iron Maiden concert here in Bombay - talk about a phrase I never imagined ever writing in my life!) we had 8 show [...]
