May: Mother's Day in the Maldives

Happy Memorial Day, Friends and Family!

We hope you are all spending time today enjoying the kickstart to summer with loved ones as well as remembering those who fought for our country.

On our end, we are working away as the only holidays we have are a few public holidays that often don't get identified until there is a sighting of the moon!  That's okay though because like most countries abroad, we get more vacation days in the UAE than in the US!

We have had yet another busy month full of new experiences!  We started the month off with Mana's 19-year-old cousin brother, Yash, visiting from Mumbai.  He made it clear that his main interest during his visit to Dubai was to smoke shisha.  So with that, we investigated to find the best shisha lounge with a view and took him to Shimmers in front of the Burj Al Arab.  Needless to say, it was the best shisha we have smoked in Dubai!  Between the shisha and a bit of sightseeing over a day and a half, we had a great time together!                                          

Though we were shisha'd out, Mana's friend from business school, Val, was in town for work from Thailand so they met up at Siddhartha Lounge at Grovesner House and caught up on life.  It was the perfect way to unwind during the workweek and wonderful to have a taste of home. She even came over and impressed Myla, our Filipina nanny, with her Tagalog.  Myla was amazed that Mana had Filipina friends in America! Thanks, Val, for helping us score brownie points with our nanny!

We worked away the following week before we headed off to our most anticipated trip of the year: The Maldives!  We had been hoping to visit this magnificent place ever since we got married, but had trouble justifying the distance from the US for the experience.  Finally, we made it happen!

Without a doubt, it was worth the wait!  From the seaplane that landed on the clearest waters we have ever laid our eyes on, to the overwater bungalow experience, this trip could not have been more amazing!

We spent five days indulging in our infiniti pool over the ocean, reading books on the hammock, and spending the most quality time with Naaya as we looked at fishies through the glass floors.  To top it off, Sahil and Naaya were so sweet and bought Mana flowers from the main island to be delivered to Iruveli, the remote island we were on, for her first official Mother's Day!  Between the uninterrupted special time with Naaya and Sahil, pure relaxation, and gorgeous surroundings of the overall holiday, Mana considered it to be the most perfect Mother's Day ever!

The proceeding weekend we had scheduled yet another trip: a visit to Mumbai to see Mana's parents.  We got some really quality time with them.  While we celebrated their 44th anniversary together in person with them, we also celebrated in spirit Sahil's parents anniversary, Sahil's Mom's birthday, and Mother's Day for all 3 moms (including Mana :)).  We celebrated them at Sea Lounge in the Taj Hotel.  Between the extraordinarily tasty food, the gorgeous view, and the perfect ambience with the pianist playing old classics, the five of us had a blast together!  We also learned that Mom and Dad had gone there together on one of their dates early in their marriage so it was perfect that they were returning with their kids and granddaughter! 

We also got to see Sahil's grandmother, Ba, and Naaya was able to spend time with her great grandmother in India for the third time over the last 9 months!  How special! :)

After a whirlwind of a trip to India, we returned only for Mana to get back on a plane a few days later for a work trip to Egypt.  Though it was brutally hard for Mana to be without Naaya overnight for the first time since she was born (Mana cried the whole way to the airport), she had the most rewarding consumer learning experience to date in her professional career.  She spent 4 days in Egyptian homes understanding their needs, struggles, and family environments in ethnographic studies along with the regional team from Singapore and India.  The learning was fascinating and monumental in determining next steps in regards to the direction of her brand strategy work.  During her downtime in Cairo, she also visited the pyramids for a second time (the first being on KWEST with Sahil and some Kellogg friends at the start of business school).

During the time that Mana was away, Sahil had a great few daddy-daughter days with Naaya.  He returned from Saudi one day early so that Naaya did not have a night without one parent at home.  They took full advantage of the day off as they went to the park with our other friends with kids, ate at CPK for lunch, went grocery shopping, and watched videos of Mumma together.  He also had a blast with our friend Ashok, Mana's bschool friend Priya's husband, who was in town.  They went to our friend Ana's birthday party and caught up on the happenings in the Raju world in NY.

Though all three of us only had one day of overlap this past weekend, we took advantage by catching up on our naps at the same time, walking around the Marina together, meeting Sahil's cousin Darpan for milkshakes with his sweet daughter, Priyana.  After a great day together, we put Naaya to bed and capped it off by renting "This is 40" - HILARIOUS movie which we recommend for a night of unwinding! 

On a professional front for Sahil, he has been having a great run between selling work and delivering on the very different needs of clients in this part of the world. He is also adding richness to his work experiences by focusing on the public sector in Saudi.

As for Naaya, she is growing ridiculously fast! Between clapping on verbal demand, being able to stand alone for moments at a time as well as cruise, saying Da-da for the first time at 9.5 months, continuing to say Mumma, shaking her head no-no-no, eating, eating, and more eating, jumping away in her jumper, and pulling her Mom's hair at any chance she can, she is growing into a big girl so fast!  Her face is also constantly evolving.  Lately, our friends have been saying she looks more and more like Mana.  Here's a photo of Mana as a baby with her Mom while being held by her dad.  As you can see, Sahil put the photo next to Naaya's face to compare Naaya and Baby Manku - now you decide and let us know what you think!

We are excited to share that we are finally in Dubai for this upcoming weekend with fun social engagements.  On Thursday, we are going to Left Bank in Madinat to meet Arif and Tina, friends of Mana's childhood friend, Shilpa and her husband Ripu.  On Friday, we will close out our month by attending the 2nd  birthday party of our friends Sumati and Kaustabh's son, Shiven.  We can't wait to experience a CHILL weekend at home followed by the month of June in Dubai during the Shopping Festival part TWO! :)

April: Family Trip To Fujairah

Hi Everyone!

Guess what? Lil' blogger is back in action!  We have had a fun-filled month full of visitors and excitement and I can't wait to tell you about all of our April adventures!  Before we get into April, we rounded out March with Sanjana Foi and Kalpu Dadi (family on Da-da's side) visiting us for a night.  I only saw them briefly since it was my bedtime, but it was great to meet them finally.

The month of April started with a bang when Raina Mashi, Parag Masha, Nysa Didi, and Krisha Didi (family on Mumma's side) came to visit us during their spring break.  We had tons of fun showing them around.  We went to Old Dubai (Bastakiya), Dubai Marina, the Atlantis (well actually I missed that one since it was past my bedtime again), and all four parents went out on the town one night.  We also went on a big road trip adventure to Fujairah, another Emirate famous for diving (which is Masha and Mashi's favorite sport).  We even got to celebrate Nysa Didi's golden birthday (9th birthday on the 9th), though we missed Anar Mashi on her milestone bday. While it was a hectic few days (Raina Mashi even went to India to see Nana and Nani for a day), it was so great to spend time with the Gandhi clan in Dubai!


As the Gandhis left, Chiku Kaka, Da-da's cousin, arrived the next day for a few days.  He overlapped with Aunty Anne (like the pretzels :)) and Uncle Wei-Lin, Da-da's friends from business school, who came to visit us for the weekend on their around-the-world sabbatical.  They all went to Nassimi Beach for dinner and drinks on the Palm Atlantis and I joined them at Pier Chic the next day for lunch at Al Qasr.  The location of this restaurant is absolutely beautiful against the Arabian Gulf overlooking the Burj Al Arab.  That night the Wongs and Mumma and Da-da went to Barasti, a bar on the beach, where they met Tio Edu and Tia Ana as well.  On the last day with the Wongs we went to the JBR Beach in crazy heat (I had to be covered at all times) after which they went to Desert Safari and the three of us rested from entertaining all our visitors for 10 days straight! :)  We had so much fun with everyone that we needed to recover with a night at home!

The last two weekends have been much more low-key.  Mumma and Da-da went to dinner last Thurs with Akshay Uncle and Shailey Aunty (BCG friends) in JBR.  On Friday, Mumma, Da-da, and I went to Dubai Mall to get my crib bumpered up since I'm much more active these days and they were a bit nervous.  I finally got moved to my own room and as a result am sleeping more or less through the night without being disturbed by my party-animal-parents! HOORAY!  We also got swim gear for all three of us since we spent a lot of last weekend swimming laps in our building pool! On Saturday, we all went to Bur Dubai with Shweta Aunty and Vinit Uncle (General Mills friends) and ate at our favorite South Indian hole-in-the-wall restaurant - Venus.  Nana would LOVE the dosas there! :)  We also got our Indian groceries from there so that Myla could make some yummy bhinda and cauliflower shaaks during the week!  

This weekend Mumma and Da-da went out with their friends Ingrid and Nick  (whom Mommy met through Gramps Rob from work) to Indigo by Vineet at the Grovesner House.  It is the first Michelin-rated Indian restaurant they had ever eaten at and Da-da was very impressed!  You all should try it when you're in Dubai if you're into fancy Indian food (personally, I prefer Venus Idlis :)).  On Friday, the three of us headed to Bab Al Shams, a resort in the middle of the desert, 45km outside Dubai, to celebrate my 9-month birthday!  It was a beautiful place and I saw a camel up close (though he was STINKY!), but it was rainy so I couldn't swim for too long in the pools.  We eventually made our way back and today I had my doctor's appt.

According to Dr.Karle, my pediatrician in Dubai, I am doing well and meeting all the right milestones. I crawl, stand, clap, squeal in delight, giggle my head off, scream in excitement, and kiss Mumma and Da-da nonstop.  Oh, and every now and then, I throw my head back to test my boundaries, and then get in trouble so I'm still deciding if it's worth continuing that behavior.  All in all, life is busy but awesome!

Lucky for me, since Mumma's big work change this month has been that General Mills is moving from Jebel Ali to JLT (MUCH closer to our home), they are all currently in temporary offices.  This means Mumma gets to work from home a few days a week which is GREAT for me!  I get milk from the source instead of the bottle. :)  Ain't nothin' better than that!  As far as other work developments for Mumma, all I know is that I hear her from my room, driving projects with the US at night and listen to her when she tells Da-da about the challenges and exciting aspects of her brand positioning strategic projects and consumer research studies.

Da-da's big development is that he is planning on going to Saudi Arabia for work soon!  I heard him weighing his options and discussing it with Mumma, ultimately deciding that it was best for his career to take the opportunity while here.  Mumma is going to make Da-da do some live consumer research in market for her (since she can't go to Saudi very easily as a woman)!  Mumma and I will miss him, but again, it will make our weekends that much more special. 

That's about it for April.  Next month we have some exciting trips planned to the Maldives and to India to see Nani and Nana so stay tuned!

March: Off to Oman

And we're back!

March has been busy, but fun-filled with visitors, our first regional trip, and further exploration of Dubai during our downtime. 

The month started with a bang when we finally received our shipments from the US (though 2 months later than expected)!  As a result, we have been enjoying every item shipped, especially Naaya's Jumper which Mana insisted we put together immediately before she got too old to play in it!

Our first friends from home arrived within week one of March!  Mana's NYU friend, Neha, and her husband Vinnie came to Dubai for a few days and we had a blast with them!  While they were sightseeing during the work week, we took full advantage of enjoying our weekend with them.  On our first night together, we had dinner at Mango Tree overlooking the Dubai Fountains, visited the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, and experienced Dubai nightlife at Calabar in downtown Dubai.

During the next day, we took them around the Dubai Marina for lunch at Nandos, then walked over to Jetty Lounge, now a favorite spot of ours, for drinks on the beach.  From there, we were waiting to get on a boat across to 101 for more drinks and fun when we were stopped because "VIP" was coming through.  As it turned out, his highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was strolling through with his posse.  Sahil was totally starstruck after having seen his images all over the government buildings when going through the process to sponsor Myla!  After the excitement settled, we got on the boat, had a blast on the Palm, and eventually made our way home in time for Neha and Vinnie to take a flight back to the US!

With only a few days to recover, we got right back to hosting when we had more visitors!  One of Mana's closest friends from Kellogg, Sarah (a.k.a. Clabby), came to Dubai for a work trip and extended it to spend time with us!  It turned out that the same time she was arriving at our place, Sahil's cousin Darpan was also in town dropping by, as were Mana's parents' very close friends from India, Darshana Aunty and Rashmi Uncle.  We had an impromptu happy hour on our balcony to kick off the weekend with all of them!

We then headed out to Jumeirah Beach Hotel where we had dinner at Villa Beach, a restaurant on the beach against the Burj Al Arab.  It was a beautiful dinner in terms of food, service, view, and most importantly, company!  We finished dinner by walking along the beach and then hitting a bar called 360 (similar to the 360 in Istanbul).

The next day, we hung out with Naaya, celebrated Kellogg spirit since the ladies were all sporting the same gear, and then went to Bubblicious Brunch at the Westin.  While we were hoping to explore the Petting Zoo, we were too caught up in eating to see the animals and in the end, just spent the day in the sun, with drinks and shisha at Le Meridien overlooking the water. 

We had a blast with Clabbs, bid her farewell, and look forward to seeing her and her boyfriend Ryan again soon enough!

After two weekends of fun with with friends from the US, we took a trip to Oman with our friends Edu and Ana.  Proceeding a 6 hour road trip to Muscat full of more security/immigration checkpoints than you could ever imagine, we finally made it to the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa.  The hotel was beautifully situated in the cliffs of the mountains over the water.  At the hotel we relaxed down the lazy river, took Naaya swimming for the first time (SHE LOVED IT!), and spent some time on the beach.  When Mana was pregnant with Naaya we had written Naaya in the sandy beaches of Hawaii, so we took the opportunity this time with Naaya to do it again with her outside Mana!

We explored the city of Muscat where we went to the Souk, walked around the Corniche, saw the Forts, and visited the beautiful Chedi hotel for drinks.  We fell in love with this gorgoeus, modern hotel and decided if we ever came back to Muscat, we would stay there next time! 

Overall we were very impressed with Oman between the beautiful layout of the city of Muscat and the friendliness of the Omani people! 

 With a jam-packed March for the most part, we were happy to slow down during this Easter weekend.  After seeing Side Effects in theatres at the beginning of our weekend, we spent Friday at the beach watching the helicopter take off and land on the Burj Al Arab.  A funny encounter we had that day was running into the Kellogg GIM trip in the middle east who stopped us because Mana happened to be wearing a Kellogg shirt.  Small world, and exciting to see fellow Kelloggians across the globe!

On Saturday, we went to Bur Dubai (little India) for lunch and then explored the Gold Souk, took a ferry across the creek, and enjoyed dinner at The Terrace of the Park Hyatt in Deira, overlooking the creek over sunset.

 With all this excitement on the personal front, work is going well! Sahil successfully completed a 4 week project in Abu Dhabi.  We're definitely excited to have him return home during the week for now!  Mana is busy immersing herself in consumer research focused on Arab housewives and their cooking habits in Saudi Arabia and Egypt during the day, and driving new product launches with the US team at night.  Naaya has evolved from downward dog yoga poses to crawling slowly but surely!  She also eats like a total champion, and stands on her own against the coffee table.  Her personality is shining brighter each day with increasing laughter and giggles as well as her continued habit that she started at five months of shouting "Mumma" whenever she gets frustrated! 

All in all, things are good!  Stay tuned for April when we venture out to Fujairah with our family visiting!