Soulmate

If you take your life lessons from Bollywood - not only the concept of soulmate is true, you only ever fall in love with your soulmate. With your first sight of the person, you know this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and you would even die to be with this person.

According to Mills and Boon - your soulmate is ALWAYS good looking, charming, suave, intelligent, witty.

Science says soulmate is with whom you have the correct chemistry.

Bangladeshi culture says your parents know better who your soulmate is. (I know that's a huge generalization, but those of you that are from BD, know what I mean)

I don't believe in any of these alone. I think it is more a permutation and combination of all these. What are some of your thoughts?

Here's to my Princess

Happy Birthday Jaanu. I love you!

I feel horrible

You always hear stories like this and think things like this never happen to me, but it does! A family friend in Bangladesh has been missing for the past couple of days. He is my Mom's best friend's husband. No one knows what happened. He was close to 70, but in good health. No one knows if he was kidnapped for ransom, or if he had some sort of rivalry with someone and that person tried to hurt him somehow. My mom is quite upset over this incident and we were talking about it this morning. I can't imagine what Aunty is going through right now! I was telling ammu about abbu, that he was sick, he suffered and passed away - all in front of us and we are still hurting two years later. If they never find Uncle, can you imagine what Aunty has to go through for the rest of her life, what their kids are going to think for the rest of their lives! I atleast have some closure, what will they do?! Will they ever find him? If they do find him, in what condition will they find him? Is it better if he is never found or is that even worse? Would they then think all kinds of horrible thoughts?? I am so genuinely sad for them. I wish I knew how to console them. I wish I could help somehow.

Bitter sweet

A friend from high school, whom I hadn't seen since then, came to visit during Labor Day weekend with his wife and two kids. Essentially, I've known him only as a teenager. To meet him as an adult and to find out that I like him even more as an adult was a great feeling. He has done well for himself, has a LOVELY wife whom all of us adored to death, and the kids! Oh wow! Raffae was instantly friends with S who is just a month younger than him. My mom and I got busy with N who is just about five months old! She is simply adorable. The next day, I offered to baby sit N as my friend and his wife wanted to go see some places in DC. S refused to leave without Raffae, so ammu and I ended up babysitting all four kids and Tanveer took them to DC. The kids had fun coloring, playing at the park, napping on couch cushions on the floor. S was very affectionate towards Zoya too. Every time Raffae and she went to the basement or to another room, she took Zoya with her. Zoya received loads of hugs and kisses from her throughout the weekend. Both S and Raffae cried when it was time to say goodbye. We put S in the car promising to send Raffae and Zoya by mail! She is bugging her dad everyday to talk to the postman since Raffae and Zoya haven't arrived yet! How adorable is that!?

And then we found out my Boro mama (eldest maternal uncle) suffered a heart attack. After my mom's heart attack in 2001, everyone in the family recognizes signs of heart attack and he was taken to the hospital immediately. He received proper treatment at the right time, so he is out of danger at the moment, but will have to take a lot of care of himself for the rest of his life. The scary thing is this mama is the most finicky eater in the family. At 74, he is still very active. You would think he wouldn't be at risk for heart related problems except for that one fact - gene. Almost everyone on my mom's side has had a heart attack or has passed away from stroke. It’s scary to think that I happen to carry that gene too!!!! I need to get in shape, need to lose all these extra pounds I gained during the pregnancies. Just can't seem to motivate myself enough to go to the gym! How much more of a sign do I need?!

I want, I want, I want!!!!!!!

This one and this one!!! OMG! I am so happy that I might not sleep tonight!

Zoya singing ABCs