NGO work at the government school

We went to serve lunch to the kids at the Government school near the Cisco campus and played with the kids.

Derek coaching basketball

Derek ran a basketball training camp for 5 of the Cisco kids while he was on holiday (and bored out of his mind). It was a way to get out of the house and to make some money which he appreciated when he went to visit Danesh in Pune.

Derek playing tennis at Epsilon Jan 2009

Derek came to visit over Chinese New Years. His tennis improved dramatically. We paired up to play with two neighbors Naresh and Pavan and we were a great team!

Emily w BFF Theo in Pleasanton CA

We met up with Theo's family to have dinner at Macaroni Grill. It was great for the two to catch up after not seeing each for nearly a year!

Brunch with the Jourets

We had brunch at Chef Chu's with Guido's family and had a great time. All three girls love the BBQ buns and Moo Shu chicken with pancakes!

At Chandra's house

Fisher Middle School

Here's another school we looked at.

Redwood Middle School

I took the girls to check out Redwood Middle School. The school was ok but the staff at the front office was a bit rude.

Chandra and Aakash in CA

We met up with Chandra and Aakash for Mexican dinner and I took all three to see a movie. Chandra stayed with us at the Embassy Suites and the two girls played all day at the hotel while I worked. Aakash came over later and I took them to In and Out Burger and to shop.

With cousins and grandma

We met Tim's family at a Thai restaurant near Tysons Corner. Madison and Riley are both growing up so fast!

Visiting my college roommates Barb and Pam in VA

Kodi's Bday party

Kodi our puppy turned one year old on Nov 18, 2008 and Emily organized a party with her friends and a whole bunch of dogs!

Derek playing tears in heaven 2007

CXO Power Mile

My first race-CXO Power mile

Nov 30, 2008, I was drafted at the Thanksgiving dinner at the Hoda's the night before as I was distributing Cisco shirts to the runners. This race was intended to be a fun run with the CXOs around Bangalore. As with any race, most people tried their best. With no training, no proper shoes, no running shorts (I wore my tennis skirt), I gave it my best shot! This photos was taken by the Times of India photographer and was in the News Paper on December 1! I also finished first in the Women category. As you can see, there weren't many women running! But I did finish 5th overall so not bad for a tennis player with no training huh! The big race is the Bangalore Mid Night Marathon on December 13, 2008 which Cisco has now become an official sponsor! I will particpate on the relay team - will run my first 5K on that day!

Community Service - Parikrma School & Ashwini

We brought 30 kids from the Parikrma School (in green) and Ashwini (in red) to the Cisco campus for a full day of career training workshop. About 30 volunteers worked together to create the content and led the workshop. It was a great way to teach these kids how to find jobs, how to build their resume, how to interview, how to dress for success and basically how to compete with kids from the main stream.

It was very helpful and eye opening for all involved. We are making some improvements to the process and content and will get more volunteers involved to roll this workshop out to more kids who might benefit from this. A big hit for the workshop was getting them to introduce themselves over Telepresence. For many, it was the first time for them to use Telepresence and they got a big kick out of it!

Community Service-Indira Ganhdi School

One of our team member's wife owns a restaurant and his family catered lunch for 250 people! Normally these kids have a very basic meal of rice and beans and today they had all they can eat curry chicken, yogurt with cucumbers, curry lamb, Paneer with spinach, two kids of dal, chappati and Roti. Also they had an unlimited supply of these really sweet ball which the little ones loved. They just ate and ate!! We joined them and it was really satisfying to see them enjoy the food so much! Emily who normally is very picky had some chapati and roti and dipped a bit into my curry chicken.

These kids are so polite and behaved so well. I only wish that they can get a decent education and one day return home to their families. I encourage all of them to learn English as I believe they can get better jobs if they can speak Tamil and English.

This school is also in diring need of English teachers. Two of the people who came with us (Arjun and Kusong) have decided to volunteer a few days a week to teach them English. All in all, it was a really good day and my involvement with this school (like with Ashwini and the Parikrma School) will be on-going as I'm supporting Lakshmi Gopinath who is Gopi's wife and she's completely drawn to helping these kids. I feel the little contribution I make can be put to good use because I trust that Lakshmi will make maximum use of whatever I raise for this school.

I'm also so pleased that Emily has been involved with me with each of these charities. I want Emily to grow up knowing that we have a responsibility to help those in need and a little bit of our efforts can go a long way.