Life in the West

I suppose I have to start writing some kind of post script? Things snappped into normal yesterday when the kids started the fall semester in school. Esbjörn took the step from pre-school to elementary school. Usually he is rather AVVAKTANDE in new environments but that day he surprised us all by being unusally happy and social. The children sat in a ring stating their names one by one. Most of them were very shy, and one girl even cried. But when it was Esbjörn's turn he exclaimed that he would not state his name but his nick-name "Racer-Max", and everybody started to laugh. I have no idea why he said that. Racer-Max is a character in a children's movie called "Spy Kids Game Over". After that the teachers asked the children about their summer activities and Esbjörn said that he had been to India and stayed at a luxury hotel. So that will be his story. Alice went to football practice yesterday. They have a game on Saturday. She did not seem to have any problem getting back together with her friends.

Thupten emailed me from Bangalore as he had returned early from Germany. "Nothing much to do after staying one month there. Everybody's going on with their own work. That is life in west", he wrote. Yes, it's probably true and this is perhaps one of the things that we will miss from India.