Happy Deepavali 2018
A year dedicated to health and fitness and a year of enjoying small things
2018 has been a most transformative year for Agastya. He started middle-school and suddenly metamorphosed from a sweet little kid into a total pre-teen. He grew physically, emotionally, and intellectually. We can see him developing a strong personality and a viewpoint of his own. He joined the Boy Scouts this year and went for a week-long Kayak camp where he floated a kayak that he built. He also went to NYC with Ashish for a weekend to celebrate their major birthdays – Agastya’s 10th and Ashish’s 45th.
Swati turned sixteen. This is her junior year, and she is extremely busy with school, tennis, theater, social life, and academics. College admissions in the US are very opaque, which makes the entire junior class overtly stressed out and overly busy.
After his sabbatical at Stripe, Ashish is back at Stanford, completely focused on his research. One of the papers that he co-wrote a few years back (on Google’s ad auction) won a “Test of Time” award. He also got a private pilot license and has been gallivanting all over California with his instructor and friends in a small Cessna.
Ruchi seriously got into Indian batik and treated the family to many fusion tie-dye + batik shirts. After ten years of planning, Ashish and Ruchi finally went to Napa for a nice dinner and a 30-mile bike ride, sans kids. Ruchi also went to India for a week and took her Mom and Dad on a temple tour.
Our family trips this year were short. We took a 4 day trip to Alaska in the winter but had no luck with the Northern Lights. It was a bone-chilling experience to be there in such cold weather. Agastya completed his 7th continent as we went to Australia and Bali in the spring. The highlights of that trip were Sydney, Indonesian food, and Komodo dragons. In the summers, we finally took a 4 day trip to Banff for an encore trip. We had gone there when Swati was 2 and had fallen in love with the place, vowing to come back when the kids were older. We could do many of the longer hikes this time.
We continue to enjoy our wooded property with family and friends and look forward to the coming year with excitement. We wish you all a very happy Deepavali and a wonderful new year ahead.
With Love,
Agastya, Swati, Ruchi & Ashish.
November 7th, 2018
November 7th, 2018
