Last night as I was going to bed, I got this picture from Kallol Nandi who further added that he felt very proud of her. My instinctive reaction was that he meant to send it to somebody else. On second thoughts, I looked closely at the picture.

I was still not sure why I was looking at a magazine. Then I saw the boats in the cover picture. I realized that this might be Sharmila’s painting. The boats looked familiar in style. She paints a lot of boats which always gives me a sinking feeling because she would invariably ask me for suggestions for names. Apparently, “Boat – 1”, “Boat – 2” … is not very artistic.

I forwarded that picture to her asking if it was her painting. She is roaming around in London and Paris with Nikita. I am told that is what self-respecting artists do. (roam in London and Paris – not necessarily with Nikita).

Anyways, this morning I woke up to a confirmation from her. I am glad she did not berate me for missing her signature completely!

Thank you Kallol for pointing me to this.

Does anybody know how can I get a physical copy? (Atlanta Journal Constitution is still showing the Fall copy)

Seems to tolerate all my bad jokes better than other family members. Tuey is very friendly and full of gratitude. You can see his rather pronounced level of thankfulness when I offered him a treat Sharmila had sent from Atlanta.

This brings to mind an old Mark Twain quote: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

My mother-in-law is the only living parent Sharmila and I have. We went from full count of four to merely one in literally two and a half years.

Kudos to Sharmila for taking the younger one – Nikita – to visit her grandmother and her great-grandmother last year. She took up the cudgels on behalf of generational bonding one more time and is now taking the elder one – Natasha – to meet her only surviving grandparent.

Being a person who went to see his parents every single quarter for over 13 years (we are talking 33 hours one way here), I cannot but feel proud that human beings are getting together with human beings that mean something to them.

More power to the Ghose family!! I hope my father in law is watching from the Heavens. Of all the four parents, he is the one who I bonded with the most!!!

Watching my mother in law graduate from getting mortified by the iPad changing its orientation as she turned it to sending me pictures of roses on my birthday has been nothing short of a marvel.

For such a person, I have to believe, nothing can bring more pride than watching their progeny flourish. I cannot wait to see some pictures of Natasha and my mother in law together.

To up and above!! (Sharmila and Natasha are wheels up as we speak)

She is growing up so fast!!!

If you can find another one like this in downtown Alpharetta, you will know how I got this. It was gifted by the manager of that place. Hint: I often write about their incredible staff there!!

It is an intriguing drawing of the Alpharetta/Milton area. It is not drawn to scale or even to a map. But you will find most all the old establishments, shops, roads, restaurants etc in this picture.

I always marvel that every time I study the picture, I find yet another familiar place.

This was created by an artist called Sharon L Beamish (if I am reading the handwriting correctly).

Remember the mosaic we got from that place in Jordan where the artists are all physically challenged? Well, four months later it is finally up on the wall. Needed a lot of thought and ideation from Sharmila. That thing is very very heavy. Looks like finally she was able to put a few accoutrements together and the handyman fixed it up!