Yes it’s that time of year again. For me this annual letter is a little window when I reflect upon all the things that have happened over the past year and savour or relive those experiences again. Generally life moves at too quick a pace for us to be able to do that. Yesterday’s events are long forgotten as today’s challenges arise in force and tomorrow’s issues loom on the horizon. As someone recently mentioned, we are suffering from ‘hurry sickness’ So this annual letter not only catalogues what has happened over the last year but also lets me savour the experiences of the past year for a few minutes longer.
2008 has been a challenging year for all of us – the biggest banking crisis for all us in living memory and everyone appears to be impacted whether you work in the financial sector or not through falling property prices, falling stock values, falling pension values and also through redundancy. A year ago you would never think things could ever be this bad – and it’s not yet apparent whether they have bottomed out. On a personal level, we also had highs and lows to cope with.
We had plans to go to a friend’s house for New Year’s eve but Hitesh was so ill that we just spent a quiet night in. We didn’t even see the New Year in as both us were fast asleep by that time . Shows we’re getting old! .
Nikhil and Arjun both had exams in January –the ‘A’ levels being modular means they have constant exams which all count towards the final grade. We had been debating whether to go skiing at Xmas but decided against it because both of them had exams – well Arjun only had one but Nikhil had a few more .
The boys were planning to go skiing in February half term but Mina and Rahul were having a big celebration for their 50th birthdays so they decided to postpone their trip. It was a lovely celebration and it is at those times that you really miss Bhabhi’s presence. She would have loved it so much.
Arjun’s badminton commitments fell bang in the middle of Easter, so he was not going to be able to come skiing with us as a family. So Nikhil decided he was going with a couple of friends at Easter. We therefore decided to go in March – unfortunately it was to coincide with Arjun’s 17th birthday so not only did he miss out on a skiing trip, he also did not have us at home on his birthday. Arjun was not as bothered as I was though. Having said that we had an absolutely fantastic time on the slopes – there were only 4 of us – all good skiers so we were racing down the slopes. We went to Sestriere – we’d been there 2 years earlier with Bena and Vipul; this time we went with Kirit and Kirit. The skiing was superb, the weather was great and having had my cataract operations done the previous year, I could actually see where I was going! – always helps. We were in Italy but even went skiing all the way into France one day – we must have covered over a hundred km just that day!.
The day before we went skiing Arjun had a nationals Badminton tournament. – he had been performing really well in regional events and was always being pushed to enter more events. He’d entered both the singles and doubles events and had a really early start. Hitesh drove really early in the morning to take him all the way up to Stoke on Trent. In the singles he did reasonably well losing in his box to a ranked player but in the doubles they did exceptionally well – they got through their box and then had to play the England no. 4 pair who they beat . So they were in the quarter finals only to meet another England pair. – had they won that they would have had to stay over –Hitesh had made arrangements with another parent to bring Arjun home in that case but in the event they lost although I was told that the England pairing got given a run for their money. Hitesh said it was fantastic to watch him play .The England coaches were getting a little worried in case Arjun and his partner did make it to the semis.
They finally arrived home past midnight and we had a plane to catch around 5.30 in the morning – so Hitesh barely got 2 hours sleep before he drove us all to the airport.
Still we had a relaxing time skiing – although we skied hard, it was great being in a hotel and not having to worry about cooking.
Over Easter Arjun had his ICT (Inter counties tournament ) again at Nottingham university for 4 days. This time he was the captain and so was looking forward to the challenge. Unfortunately they did not do was well as expected due to some injuries and inexperienced players but he still loved the whole social aspect of it.
In April I was on Jury service for a couple of weeks – I was actually really looking forward to the experience but in the end was really disappointed – only sat on one case and spent the rest of the time waiting around to be selected for the case.
May was the start of the exams – no 4 month break for me this time! Arjun was seen diligently working; Nikhil was spending most of his time watching movies. – having had good results in his AS exams last year and good results in January, he said he only needed C and D to get the A grade overall.
Arjun finished his exams in early June and had a couple of weeks off before he went back to school for his A2. He along with other friends went to Nottingham for an open day and had a crash on the motorway on their way back. He did not even tell us about it until the next day. Luckily no-one was injured but everyone was completely shaken up. It was a fault of a foreign lorry driver who had hit their car and spun it round – luckily it was near Luton where the speed limit is 50.
When Hitesh and I found we were distraught at what could have happened – he had not yet taken his driving test and part of me wanted to stop him from taking it. But of course you can’t hold them back – you have to let go and hope that everything works out.
So in july Arjun passed his driving test and was promptly chauffering everyone everywhere. Nikhil finished school and was out celebrating most nights. Shreya, Harshad and Sandhya’s daughter had decided to come over from the States to spend time with her cousins – it was great to see her all grown up and spend time with her. We also had Hitesh’s cousin Avni’s wedding in July and this was great fun. – it was a lovely family occasion with lots of functions and the kids loved meeting up and getting to know all the cousins and their children.
August 14 was the day of results – I was more anxious than the boys – Nikhil got his 3 As and merit in AEA maths so was accepted at Bristol ; Arjun got 3As and 1B in his AS . He was disappointed with getting the B in physics especially as he was going to continue with it but he’d only missed it by a few marks.
The following week Hitesh was off to Kenya – my cousins sons Raju and Ricky were getting married in Mombasa and Dar-es salaam and we’d planned for months on going. We’d even planned a safari beforehand and Hitesh had then decided he’d also climb kilmanjaro before this. So he was going to go a week early , spend a few days with his cousin Omit and family and then climb kili (5 days ) before we joined him for a safari in Tanzania. When Omit found out, they also booked a trip to maasai Mara so Hitesh had a 3 day trip to maasai mara and then straight to Moshi for the climb.
Nikhil and I Aasha and Bhavini (my sister’s 2 girls) flew out a week later (Arjun missed out again due to school starting in a couple of days) – we also stayed with Omit a couple of nights in Nairobi before taking a long bumpy and dusty bus ride to Moshi. By this time we knew that Hitesh had successfully made it to the top of Kilimanjaro to Uhuru peak so we are all looking forward to meeting him. By the time we got to the Moshi hotel , he was nowhere to be seen! He’d gone into town to do his laundry!
The next day we were going to start our safari – first to lake Tarangire, a couple of nights in Serengeti and then to Ngrongoro and lake Manyara. The next morning Aasha had a fever and temperature – she had been fine the night before. We didn’t think it was too serious and decided to carry on as intended. In the end it took her a few days to recover and so she unfortunately was not able to make the most of the safari. It was an excellent adventure – none of us had been to Tanzania before and places like Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara Lake Tarangire were as beautiful as I’d imagined them to be. Serengeti though was a little disappointing! –lots of plains and driving for miles before seeing anything.
After the safari we took the bus back to Nairobi and stayed again at Omit and swati’s place – they are so hospitable and welcoming.- By this time my dad (Kaka) was also going to be in Nairobi and I’d asked Swati to arrange a car to take us to Fort-hall for half a day –I’d really wanted to show the children the town that I was born in. Kaka had managed through our relations and contacts to get in touch with Benson Mogo the man who had bought our house and shop 38 years ago. So when we got to Fort-hall we met him and he showed us around the house and what he’d done to it- it was an unforgettable moment for me and also I’m sure for Kaka to meet him – there was so much mutual respect there – all barriers of race, colour and faith were broken and it was 2 people embracing each other!
Back to Nairobi we went to lunch at another of Kaka’s friends whose wife had broken her fast of 108 days the day before. Amazing – I can barely last a day.She didn’t even look like she’d been fasting that long!
– we also then went to see another uncle who had recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer. It was lovely meeting all these people after so many years.
We got to Mombasa on Tuesday 9th September (Bena’s birthday – she was already in Mombasa having arrived there the day before) . At Nairobi airport we also met up with my cousin Dinuben and her husband as well as my cousin Zavbhai and his wife. Bena my sister had already gone to Mombasa the day before The festivities were due to start the next day but before this, one of our cousins had organised a dinner for the evening.
It was really hot the next day and very busy with all the food preparation. All of a sudden we realised that my banevi (Dinuben’s husband) was unwell and had fainted. After a while he got up and we thought it was just the heat. Then he collapsed again and Hitesh had to do CPR on him. Funny enough it was Samir(banevi’s son) who had given us all a demonstration of CPR a few months earlier.
Then we took him to hospital where he was in ICU for a day or so – luckily he recovered but what a start to the festivities.
There were lots of lunches and dinners from a Swahili night to a Hawaiin night and raas Garba and other things as well. It all sounded really exciting but by the end of the week we were completely exhausted – the heat did not help matters.
Saturday was Ricky and Meera’s wedding and another hot day – the wedding was in the afternoon and then music and dancing in the evening.
The next day, the dinner was from our side – Ricky and Raju’s parents. It was going to be at Fort Jesus –under the stars. So guess what happens on Sunday morning – it pours! Normally in Mombasa when it pours, it clears up after a couple of hours. Well it didn’t and by 2pm it was still raining. So change of venue – to Oshwal mahajanwadi. It was amazing – at 7pm when we walked in to the mahajanwadi you would not think this was a last minute venue.
Kaka had been feeling tired but we put it down to the heat and hectic pace. However after Sunday’s festivities, we had a few days to recover and enjoy the Nyali cottages where we were staying. On Monday however he was throwing up and when we brought him home, he nearly collapsed and then threw up. We called the doctor who gave him some medication and then took him to our room. He lay down for a while and then decided he would take the medication and some time – he got up and collapsed again – luckily Hitesh caught him but he was unconscious for a few minutes and we feared the worst. However he came to and over the next few days he seemed reasonably ok. We still had the trip to Dar es salaam and were not sure whether he should come or not. So we went to the doctor’s the day before we were due to go but the doctor was quite confident he would be fine. And he was – it was a long coach journey and in the evening we had a raas garba and dinner – though hectic it was nice as was the wedding the day after. Bhavini, Aasha and Nikhil had returned back to England after Ricky’s wedding as they had preparations for university.
After all this it was time to say bye to everyone who was returning back to Mombasa – we were going to Zanzibar for a few days before going back to England – Zanzibar was beautiful – the hotel was excellent – like a sultan’s palace and it was really relaxing.
We finally arrived home after a 4 week break (5 weeks for Hitesh) -On the home front, Arjun had coped really well without us. But my dad was getting progressively worse after returning home – he just could not eat anything –he kept going back and forth to the doctors who kept changing his medication. Finally he got to see a consultant who immediately referred him to another specialist who immediately put him in hospital and operated on him. By this time, he’d lost around 4 stones! Turns out he has stomach cancer and whilst the operation was successful, they have still found traces of cancer cells. So currently he is recuperating at home post operation and trying to put on weight. He spent 3 weeks in hospital – luckily Niru my sister from America had come over (initially just for a visit) but then extended her stay – so she’s been going back and forth from hospital. Also currently Raju , my nephew (who recently had a baby boy – so I’m now a great aunt) and Manu her husband are also here. So kaka is enjoying having so much of his family at home – today we’re planning a bhajan session with the whole family which Kaka and Ba particularly enjoy.
After coming back from Kenya we took Nikhil to Bristol – he loves it there although he is finding the Maths course challenging. He’s made lots of new friends and is playing squash for the first team. He also has to cycle regularly everywhere as it is not a campus university so he’s getting really fit. At the end of term he went skiing with the university – all 580 of them – an invasion of Tignes by Bristol uni!
Hitesh is busy with his coaching – he also recently gave a talk on his Kilimanjaro climb at a friend’s house – he really enjoyed the climb and is hoping others take up the challenge.
I have been busier at work than ever – somehow the financial turmoil has translated into yet more regulation and more and more enhanced reporting – not sure what good it does but it keeps me in a job which is kind of critical at the moment. Also I have been busy with Sansaar – this year we had a couple of navratri events as well as 4 shows of Masti Maja – a new pantomime over one weekend . – so it was hectic but went really well.
Arjun can’t wait to get to uni- he’s applied to do maths and Economics. He’s currently got offers from Nottingham and Warwick and is waiting to hear from Bristol and LSe. He’d also applied to Oxford on Nikhil’s insistence and had a 4 day stay there for a couple of interviews – he absolutely loved the place and made lots of friends but just got his rejection letter today
Recently he took part in the under 18 Herts championships and won the doubles and mixed and came runners up in the singles. He’s also playing squash for the Harrow men’s league at number 1.
As I mentioned last year I started writing my parents biography. Unfortunately this did not get finished before I went back to work and this year I’ve been too busy to make progress on this. As we wind down for xmas and the New Year, I’m trying to spend more time with family and especially my parents and hopefully complete this biography soon.
Wishing you all a wonderful Xmas and peaceful New Year – hope that 2009 is a successful year for you and you achieve everything that you plan to do. Spend time with your family especially your parents.
Hasmita Shah 