It's a BOY!!

Infant Joy
by Wiliam Blake

"I have no name:
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty joy!
Sweet joy, but two days old.
Sweet Joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while;
Sweet joy befall thee!

And there's sweet joy all around!! This morning, colleagues, friends and family all across the world woke up to the brilliant news that G, (an old boss), has just had a baby boy! What fun! Before I knew it I had pictures of the little one as well! All the old cliches are simply begging to crawl out of the bag!
The one thing that amazed me though was how delightful it was to live in the digital age! Right from the onset of labor to the birth, updates by sms and email made sure that those of us who were far away, never felt the distance.
As for G, his new job as Dad will be unlike anything he's done before I'm sure :) Although he might say that he did baby us for a while. So, with full hearts, here's wishing him and his wife, the very best. May they always have a helping hand with the diapers!

They're leaving on a jet plane!

Somewhere over the arabian sea right about now is an airplane that carries my mom, dad and grand-dad as they head back after being here with AB and me in Dubai for just a week. It was a crazy week to say the least. We visited as many malls as we could in 5 days and did all the standard things tourists in Dubai are supposed to do. We went on a dhow cruise, saw Sheikh zayed road in all it's lit-up glory (at great leisure since we were stuck in traffic!) and did the desert safari. Where my 84 yr-old grand-dad insisted on dune-bashing, pace-maker be damned! He really made this trip memorable for me. Every time I see him I think of my gran and how much fun she would have had and thank god for him. I know he watches me with her eyes as well as his own.
And now after a week of crowding into our 1BHK, they're gone. After a week of waking at 7 to my dad's rather rambunctious enthusiasm, Sonal's masala chai, Pulin's droll humour, my grand-dad's chanting before every meal and my mom just being my mom, they've all left to go back. And although now we can go to the bathroom any time we like, and run around in various states of undress, the house seems so much the emptier.