Soulmate's blues

Dated: 7th March 2009

I came to know from Teilang that a band from Shillong will be playing at a concert somewhere near CP at around 8 pm. I invited my good friend Riwin whom I have not met since 2005. Our rendezvous was Meghalaya house at 6.30 pm. The venue, which we later came to know, was an open air theatre, and the concert was part of the event called 'Romancing India's Northeast: An Akshara Theatre Celebration'. The most striking thing about the venue however, was that it was just behind the 'Trauma Care Centre' of the Dr. R.M. L. Hospital!!

...and I was pretty sure that either the patients were getting traumatised or revitalised, and I hope it was the latter since these days 'music therapy' is in...and though it would probably be the first open air blues therapy session they would have ever experienced, I sure hope it kicked some immune cells into action.

Soulmate, the blues band from Shillong was already playing by the time we parked our behinds on the chairs facing the stage. The music was undoubtedly very groovy...Rudy with the guitar was excellent as was Tipriti with her characteristic raw-smooth vocals. The band rendered cover songs as well as self-composed ones, among which the blues version of the Khasi song 'Sier Lapalang' got me and my friends cheering at the top of our voices.

Soulmate in the act

"Voodoo Woman"

A swing at the tee

Dated: 8th March 2009

It was my first game of golf that I played. Jishnu took me to the Sri Fort Sports complex where they had a mini golf course with 9 holes. Jishnu learnt the game in Jakarta and I eagerly listened as he told me how the game is played. So I began to understand things like par, boogey, birdie and eagle. I also learnt how to use the clubs with the mark 'S' and '7', and what they meant. We did not need to use the 'driver' today as it was a mini golf course, but nevertheless I felt good swinging the 'S' and '7' and seeing the ball fly and land on the grass (and sometimes on the sand pit).

Jishnu said I did pretty well for a start with 2 pars, 1 boogey and 2 double boogeys in my game. I know I can become seriously addictive to this game...Maybe one fine day, I shall visit the greens more often. Thanks Jishnu for the lovely experience :)

Positioning myself to hit my ball

This was at the second tee, where I got a par

Jishnu trying to liberate his ball from the sand pit





A squirrel near the 3rd tee oblivious to our game of golf but engulfed in its own affairs

Raag and Daniella

Dated: 6th March 2009

Raag (formal name Swetabh Changkakoti) is now 6 years and Daniella 3. They both have earlier stories in my blog (Raag - http://aibz.blogspot.com/2006/10/raag-wonderful-boy.html and Daniella - http://aibz.blogspot.com/2007/03/daniella-simply-adorable.html). It is wonderful to see them grow into beautiful children with wonderful personalities.

They amaze us with their talents, their grasp of language and the matter-of-factly comments they make. Raag is in Class 1, loves playing football and making 'masterpieces' (paintings and drawings). He's recently learnt how to whistle and it has been 4 days now that he has been whistling. He speaks English, Hindi and Assamese with ease. His current favourite song is 'Delhi 6' from the movie by the same name.

Daniella is in pre-school, and a month ago she and her friend, Ohm exchanged lip-to-lip kiss in school. She asked me the other day 'Are you crazy?' because I didn't know there was a bird by the name Sunbird. She obviously know the names of many birds she can identify from her bird book. So also with fishes and other animals...I'm so glad she is learning about birds and fishes at this age. She's become extremely cute with her curly hair and dainty behaviour. Her favourite colour is pink. She likes to converse in English with her mother and in Khasi with her dad!

Raag and Daniella on the balcony. Daniella is holding a strawberry pastry which she did not eat

Of course she has become quite photogenic too

Watching cartoon channel