No parking in front of the gate

Time for a marathon - time for donation!

On 15 January 2012 is the next editon of the Mumbai Marathon. Just like last year we will have a group of IDBI Federal Life Insurance particpating and running for a good cause. Because running is not a goal in itself and the Mumbai Marathon combines the running efforts with supporting fundraising for good causes.
One of them is Swayamsiddh, a NGO at Aurangabad that runs a special school and boarding center for unprivileged children. It is the first mother-parent trust in India and has won national award for its excellent work. You can know more about this NGO at Swayamsiddh's website. At IDBI Federal we decided last year to start supporting Swayamsiddh. In the first year we had 26 runners, this year 90!

Swayamsiddh is a great cause, started from a parents' initiative it can have all our support to continue their work and reaching out for groups where the disabilities of these kids are not easily recognised. Your contribution will be of help for Swayamsiddh and it will make me run harder in the 2012 edition of the Mumbai Marathon! To donate (from anywhere in the world), just click on the link ... And I promise to run faster than last year.

Homecoming Princess

Melissa was elected Homecoming Princess at IMG. Doesn't she look great with the tiara?!
And of course we are very proud of her. First pictures:

Diving at the Andaman Islands

Melissa and I spent 4 days diving at Havelock, one of the Andaman Islands, a group of islands in between India and Thailand (though much closer to Thailand and Burma). The Andamans are very prestine, beautiful islands with white coral sand beaches and cristal clear water. The diving was fabulous, every day we made two dives, up to 30 meters deep. We saw a lot of fish (Baracudas, Lion fish, Sweetlips, Tuna, Clown fish, Napoleon Wrasse, Giant Garupa, and many many more) and turtles. The resort was a quiet and gentle place next to the beach, and the diving school is right at the resort. We were lucky with the weather, though it rained sometimes, all days were nice sometimes with abundant sunshine.

Mumbai blasts

A little while ago there were three bomb blasts in Mumbai, we are all fine and reached home relatively easy.

Melissa won tournement in Leusden

Last week Melissa played in Leusden and won the tournament. Very good, congratulations, Melissa! Yesterday was the price ceremony and Melissa gave a winner's speech.
A good warming-up for the (stronger) tournament she is playing in Loosdrecht right now. And her first match here she won, a good start.

Winners in Leusden

Serving on clay again

Melissa is in Soest and played last Sunday in the open tournament at Soest-Zuid. Back on clay ... it must feel very strange after 4 years!

Career move?

Last Tuesday we were invited for a reception on the HNLMS Tromp. The Tromp is currently NATO commanding vessel in the actions against the piracy in and around the Arabian Sea and docked for a week in Mumbai. With no captain on the bridge, will my military career finally take off?

Reconstruction

The surgery on Camila was very successful and the doctors are satisfied with the results. It took 4 hours and Camila still has quite a deal of pain, but she is very happy that it is over. Tomorrow morning the tampons will be removed from her nose and that will be of great relief. More news to follow.

BCH

Camila @ BCH - Breach Candy Hospital. Tomorrow morning she will have surgery because she fell (once again) on her nose. This time the result is a bit more complicated and repair is necessary. The nurses are very nice, the girls like very much the doctors, so everything will be okay by noon tomorrow.

Prom

Melissa had her first prom last night, and the pictures are coming in. Yes, agreed, she looks as pretty, radiant and happy as being married, but we think she just danced the night away ...

School picture

Last year Melissa was herself not very happy with her school picture. But after seeing this years you will all agree that can't be the case anymore!

(this is not a very good copy, have to wait for a better file ...)

Stunning sunset

Especially for Melissa on her birthday, a stunning sunset at Petit Hall.

Sweet Sixteen

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Melissa in New York

Qualified

The result was in today: Qualified.

Festival of colours

Today is Holi (होली), the festival of colours. It is widely celebrated in India and everyone is throwing colours / paints to everyone. When you go to the street you end up completely coloured. Camila and Melissa went playing Holi and this is the result.

One Act - 'Remember?'

Camila submitted her play 'Remeber?' for the Manhattan Repertory Theatre SPRING ONE ACT PLAY COMPETITION 2011.  They love the play and would be thrilled if Camila would participate in their competition with her production. Very good! What to add?
Camila also arrived in Mumbai, so now we are all together!

Spring break

Melissa's spring break started. For two weeks no tennis and no school. She achieved some remarkable academic results. Her average scores for both Spanish and History are around 100%. For Spanish that's no surprise (she likes it and it's already like that for the last one and a half year) but it's very, very good. Melissa's explanation for History is: she got tired of the complaning of her teacher and decided to study it seriously ... What to add?
Her teacher English explained us that 'she has not read or studied much this quarter. However, she tests well and thus is doing okay'. Again, not much to add.
Oh yes, she arrived in Mumbai yesterday evening, and we like that very much!

Going WILD

Sunday we traveled to Guwahati in Assam, the North East tip of India, behind Bangladesh and close to China and Burma. It's a long way from Bombay; first flying to Calcutta and then on a plane to Guwahati, total trip of about 5 hours. In Guwahati IDBI Federal has a branch which we visited. From there we drove (another 5 hours) to Kaziranga National Park, the place in the world to spot the rhino in the wild!

Early Monday (5:30 am ...) we went off on our safari; spotting the rhinos from the back of an elephant. And we saw many, even with babies. After the elephant safari and breakfast we went on a jeep safari. It was marvelous! Many, many animals we saw like rhinos, elephants, kingfishers, swamp deer, water buffaloes, pelicans, otters (we spotted a group of about 15), eagles, etc. etc. The only animal we missed was the tiger ...

park entrance

only wild cat I spotted ...

on our way with Rahul

Star performance in Jaipur

Next steps in Buddism

Last Thursday I was in Bhopal for a press conference. After this we drove to Sanchi, the location of the very oldest Buddhist monuments (dating from 3rd century BC!). It was a very nice visit, absolutely very nice to walk around in between these magnificent old stupas and temples.

Rock Garden

Chandigarh (Le Corbusier's planned city in the north of India, capital of two states) is home to the world famous Rock Garden, next to the Sukhna Lake. Some pictures.

Secure flight from Chandigarh

Last Tuesday I flew up and down to Chandigarh. In India you have to add a name tag to your hand luggage (name is not necessary). After the security check the tags are stamped. And before entering the plane you have to show your bag and the stamped tag. This time in Chandigarh there was a double check of the tags, before walking onto the platform and to the plane. Of course the tags have a date stamp, else you could try to fool the system ...

Fly smart and secure from Chandigarh

IDBI Federal unveils new pension plan

These days we are presenting our new pension plan to the world. Part of that is a series of press conferences throughout India. This week it was for me Mumbai and Hyderabad, next week Ahmadabad, Chandigarh, and Bhopal.

Parsee Garden Party

Yesterday evening Ivone organized a party in the garden for 50 guests. It was all in Parsee style; the food, table setting, decoration and lightning. The pictures show the long tables were everyone is seated at one side to allow the waiters to serve the food continuously on banana leaves.

(Setting up the long tables)

(At the end, behind the white frame, the kitchen was constructed)

Ranchi - 2

We had a wonderful welcome at our branches in Patna and Ranchi. Both were inaugurated a year ago, and reason visiting them was the great business they did and the anniversary celebrations.
Some pictures of our visit to the branch in Ranchi:

Ivone addressing the branch's staff

Professional cake cutters

Welcome and get empowered!

Home again, the "diva" had difficulties in saying goodbye ...

Ranchi

From Patna we traveled to Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand. This state is "famous" for being at the center of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. A reason for which trips out of town were not recommended. Ranchi itself is a lively city that surprised us. We enjoyed walking around. The picture below is not very clear, but we met a group of women carrying lamps on their head to bring "enlightenment" to a marriage party.

Seeking enlightenment

Last days we have been traveling a lot. Thursday we flew from Mumbai to Patna, a city in the east of India, the capital of Bihar, and close to Nepal. This part of India is very poor (and famous for its lawlessness), but the countryside is also very beautiful and colorful. We drove to Bodhgaya, around 135 km from Patna. In Bodhgaya Prince Siddhartha Gautama 26 centuries ago attained enlightenment beneath a bodhi tree and so became Budha. The Mahabodhi Temple Complex (World Heritage) is truly beautiful and very peaceful. And in this time of the year full of Buddhist pilgrims from all around the world, coloring Bodhgaya with their maroon robes. Even visiting at night, it is a special experience.

Mumbai Marathon 2011

Today was the Mumbai Marathon. Up at 4:30 am, running for a taxi around 5:00 am (the one I ordered didn't arrive ...). It all went off at 6:15 am. In the picture below this hellish event is clearly depicted; it took me a shameful almost 5 hours and many, many cramps (as you can see). Start with a nice temperature, and even not feeling fit it went off nicely fast. At 22 km I got my first cramp and the fun was over: walking, running, I passed the finish line. Very frustrating: at the end my running speed was still not bad at all (and I was not exhausted, that you can also see in the picture which is taken 3 km to the finish, just mad). I am not really dreaming of a next time right now ... But I finished. Even better, Ivone was at the finish line and we went to one of our favorite Parsi restaurants for fuel.

Tomorrow is the day