Friday 21 May 2010

Secret daughter

After an entire year of reading peer reviewed journal articles and academic books and what not I was craving, yes craving, a novel. And I read the Shilpi Gowda's Secret Daughter.

I got through it pretty quickly considering I have a toddler and a husband. Its a good read, almost a must for anyone contemplating adoption. Gowda does a fantastic job of taking the reader through the emotions of the parents and the adopted child, especially when ethnicities and all the little details that is exclusive to the different ethnic groups. I loved the detail. I felt she rambled in parts, probably because I am familiar with some of what Gowda speaks about. Someone totally unfamiliar with Indian culture might appreciate the detail better.

All in all a good read and am onto my favourite now, thanks to hubby dearest for finding Archer's latest for me.

Friday 14 May 2010

Catching up to the past


Facebook has been good and bad in terms of revisiting old times. I have got in touch with loads of old school mates. My number of friends has shot up from somewhere around thirty to over one hundred. The trouble is that I would not classify everyone on my list of friends as 'friends'. Some may misunderstand this. Not that I do not like them, but they are not friends. Do you know what I am saying? They are acquaintances, people we meet on the way to some place in life and I believe we are supposed to leave them where we met them. But now we lug them around on Facebook and suddenly we owe them an explanation on every thing from photographs to random status updates (then again why do status updates? I'll save that for another time).

I have got in touch with people I knew from a very long time ago. It is nice that they remember my crazy ways, my likes, dislikes, capabilities etc., but I cannot for the life of me place their names or faces. They seem to know too much to be pretending. And then there are others I simply do not want in my life anymore. But how do you say it? How do you remove people from your list of friends and not upset them, especially those you are likely to see on a regular basis.

I am contemplating deleting my profile, but then again I will miss out on keeping in touch with my dearest friends and sharing stories about children and families with those that I want to. There was a time I could 'hide' and select my friends, but now they are able to 'find' me. I have deleted and blocked people, but its all getting to be a bit much. It seems like too much hassle. Should I stay or should I go? I knew the bloody internet would some day be the bane of my existence.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Alone

It has been a rough couple of weeks. Things were challenging all through April and then just as it was beginning to ease up we had a nasty accident involving my toddler. I finally have that down time I wanted, only I have to clean the house from top to bottom now and get all the laundry done and think of what we will have for dinner and ... the list goes on.

But I am not motivated to do anything. I finally sorted my garden out and did all the work that I do to get it ready for the summer. Hopefully all my plants will do well and put on a show of colour for us. I just had my coffee, and feel really depressed.

I am wondering why? It could be that I find myself so alone, far away from all my dear friends, or it could be that despite all the hard work I keep getting my school work back, full of comments on how the smart ass professors are not able to 'understand' what it is I am saying. Up until now I have not had serious trouble with my writing skills. Now it looks like I can't write, at least according to my professors. I am not sure about anything right now. Let me see if I can get through some cleaning.