Aras diary: R2I-Goa June 2009

aras · Post by **aras** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:30 pm

Hi Guys,
Aras back on R2I forum after 1.5 years of successful R2I. I thought I would be one of those people who would post after R2I as well but reality was different. Then I thought, maybe I would post every 3 months - again did not happen. Well now I have switched to - whenever I can post and perhaps that will work :)

It has now been 1.5 years after R2I and I feel now all of us have truly settled down. I definitely feel this has been a good decision so far.
The tough time was the few months before my hubby came back since the kids missed him a lot, my son was very rebellious during that period and my daughter would not let go of him when he would be in India for a visit. But I don't think I would have done it any differently.

The challenging time for my hubby after R2I was getting used to being an entreprenuer. Having flexible hours meant having to deal with the kids and parents a lot more intensely. He finally decided he likes working better so we are back to the 2 job hectic lifestlye.

Lots more to share - fingers crossed I will keep posting more often now.

A special Hi to MV, Boca and MyRoots, Dutyful, DBS. I have always thouhgt of you guys in the past one year, wondering what you may have posted that I missed :)

boca · Post by **boca** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:50 pm

aras;362779A special Hi to MV, Boca and MyRoots, Dutyful, DBS. I have always thouhgt of you guys in the past one year, wondering what you may have posted that I missed :)

Hi Aras,

Good to see you back! How has Goa been?

Fingers crossed...we will await your posting. :)

Best Regards

dbs · Post by **dbs** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:15 pm

Congratulations, Aras.
Nice to hear that you have happily settled and your hubby is back in the bosom of the family.
Did you meet Pratibha when she was there. We saw a picture of her in the papers enjoying the beauties.
Sadly the photographers were prosecuted (?) for taking the photos.

My Roots · Post by **My Roots** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:23 pm

Aras, welcome back and so good to hear that you all have settled down.
Thanks for remembering me :)

anwesha · Post by **anwesha** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:26 pm

aras;362779Hi Guys,
Aras back on R2I forum after 1.5 years of successful R2I.

The long silence was a hint of your successful R2I. Good to see you back on the forum. :)

aras · Post by **aras** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 1:18 pm

Thanks Anwesha, Boca, dbs ji :)

So here goes for the update so far:

Driving: It was quite a task in the beginning to drive. So I took some driving lessons. Had a driver for about 5 months. During that time, we got an Automatic, which made navigating the roads a lot easier. After a couple months of driving an automatic, I was comfortable driving a stick shift.

Household help: We went through a patch of 2-3 months when there was no-one to help with the house-work. Luckily during that time, we still had one lady who would sweep and mop the house. Luckily after that, we have had a good run with 3 reliable ladies who are assigned various tasks and are told that they will have to do the other tasks if one of them is off for the day.

Challenges of not being a nuclear family: None so far. My in-laws are worth their weight in gold, so living together has been blissfully peaceful.
School: Happy with the school my kids go to. But since it is expensive, all the kids are rich kids. We feel it is great for kids to grow up with a mixed income group. Not so much of a problem with young kids but think about this with the future in mind and whether hanging out with rich kids tends to put the focus on materialistic stuff. But maybe this can be tempered at home. Your thoughts?
More on this to come from me - so watch this space :)

aras · Post by **aras** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 1:08 pm

I had a whole thing written on the school stuff but maybe another day

Benefit of R2I - Definitely managed to read a lot more books

Thing that did not happen - Was planning on having quite a few dates with my husband: went for a couple of movies but drinks/lunch/dinner together still in the works

@Boca: - Goa is great, a lot has changed but some things are still the same - it takes some getting used to seeing signs in Russian - my quest for a good Mojito in the restaurants out here still continues but no other complaints, food is great and a lot more choices in cuisine is definitely interesting

Was planning to post on the Chinese mother superior/ inferior stuff here and realized there is a discussion out there already, so will read, Boca's, MV's comments out there

My take on it: As long as you have your child's welfare at heart and there are no disabilities, no matter what style you choose, kids will do fine.

Pls feel free to post your thoughts here, inspite of it being an R2I diary.

aras · Post by **aras** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:50 pm

How am I ever going to get a chance to read all the threads and keep on top of them?:cry:

mn_op · Post by **mn_op** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:20 pm

aras;363447How am I ever going to get a chance to read all the threads and keep on top of them?:cry:

We don't really want you to reqad all these threads...but please write.

aras · Post by **aras** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:55 pm

Thanks mn_op :)

Read very briefly about your r2i and colorful stories you heard.

Will read some more and then write.

What I miss the most is being on the H&B threads