India business trip : Aug-17

 In August, I visited India again for business.  This time to the north side of the country, the Panja province and a town called Nahba.    I stayed in the GSK guesthouse this time and although expecting a less comfortable standard than the hotel, I must say it exceeded my expectation.  This guest house was donated by the King of Nabha in the past to GSK and was very well maintained by GSK in providing a peaceful and pleasant environment to the visiting guests.  There was even a few person serving the guests, cooking meals and housekeeping the rooms!

The IT host also took good care of me by bringing me to visit the biggest Sheikh temple in the nearby town, the temple was very impressive, even more was their strong community spirit in maintaining fairness among women and men.  This was something which I felt very lacking in India and it was no surprise that people especially women were inclined to join this religion.

The highlight of the trip was my good fortune to be able to come back on time before a riot occurred the next day in that area, due to a prosecution of a religion leader called Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.  It was a good example on how people could be misled by a wrong religious leader causing social disharmony.  The place which I visited was subsequently on curfew for  the next 3 days, and I was glad i was not trapped there.

Olla full month celebration : Aug-17

It was a joyous occasion and another chance for the direct and extended family to come together and celebrate Olla’s full month.

Study room renovation : Aug-17

This was the biggest renovation project since moving to this house for more than 15 years!

Our study room was always my biggest headache when packing was concerned.  As our family members multiplied and grew up, their things naturally increased along with them.  The situation was so bad that it did not make much difference despite whatever effort and time incurred to pack the room.

Study room before renovation

I finally decided that we should just bite the bullet and do a major overhaul to this room.  Thus, I contacted an interior design cum constructor company which i saw on the TV and engaged their service after agreeing to a design which they proposed.

The renovation did not take long to complete, the exact work was just a few days.  However, what was horrifying was the preparation and post-renovation packing process.  Despite throwing tons of rubbish away, we still had piles of books and things which we had accumulated over the years.  It was a pretty amazing scene when we temporarily parked our things at mama and papa place and realised how much things we had!

Preparation for renovation, Packing

Room almost cleared for renovation

Stuffs stored at parent's place

The overall outcome of the renovation was more than satisfactory, I was very happy that the room was now neat and tidy and best of all, removed from my constant trouble and failure in packing this room.

Unpacking in progress 

Final outcome

Cousins gathering : Aug-17

Inevitably as the kids grew up, parting and reunion occurred more frequently.   Our family gathered at Ben’s place for a combination of both, a farewell of Xintong and a reunion with Misaki coming from Japan. It was a brief few hours gathering, nevertheless an important opportunity to cultivate family value and enhance our bonding.