Midterms.........

............. one more night without sleeping!  You have to be a bit old to catch the resemblance of that line to a song from the 50's, Green Door.

Or, how about Johnny Cash singing, "I hear the brain a hummin"?

Oh the songs running through my mind as I invigilated midterm exams!

Yes, it is already midterm.  Accountability time for the students and the realization that we are on the downward side of the term.  So much left to learn; so little time!

What would be a week in Chandigarh be without a meal from Ninni's kitchen!

But we were able to repay the hospitality later in the week with an outing with the Anand family to Flamme Bois Bistro.  This was our first visit this year to sample the continental cuisine of one of our many favourite restaurants.


The evening included a stop at Satbir's office.

Simlee Ma'am, our loyal UFV staffer!

Dressed beautifully for the day of work, and then armed for combat as she is about to take on the streets of Chandigarh on her scooter.

An absolute highlight of the week was attending the Inter School Business Quiz at Vivek Highschool.

Mushtaq Sir is usually our quiet Faculty Head at UFV with whom we share an office.  Well, it turns out that he is quite a performer--and a great organizer of this large business competition.

Competitors came from highschools around the region.  We were invited to attend the final round in which six team of three competitors each were challenged with questions from Mushtaq.  The competition went on for almost two hours with various types of questions like identifying logos, music from ads, names in the news.........

Can you see the connection between between the four photos on the right?

Do you know which is the most honest city in the world?

We had the honour of presenting all certificates and trophies to the finalists.

The competition was won by Bhavan Vidyalaya Chandigarh.

Mrs. Renu Puri is the very competent Vice Principal of Vivek Highschool, and she presented us with flowers and gifts.

She also presented Mushtaq with a traditional scarf to thank him for his commitment to this event.

He is a true hero at Vivek Highschool where he taught Accounting and headed the Commerce Department for 20 years before making the move to UFV.

The entire Commerce Department has been involved in the competition planning for several months.

Every time we visit a school in India, we are so impressed with the student hosts that greet us on arrival and are right by our side throughout the day to help in any way.

These were two of the many students who were proud to represent Vivek Highschool.

Just when we were wondering why we hadn't had any visits from friends in India, some arrived today.

Hardeep Jawanda stopped by with one of his students.  Hardeep is Head of Computer Engineering at Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic College in Ludhiana.  We look forward to meeting his students, and seeing his family again, at the end of this month.

Avtar Gill, son of the Punjab, citizen of Abbotsford, BC, Canada, arrived next.

Avtar is a character!  There is not much more one can say!

With Avtar was his very beautiful niece, newly married.  She will soon be on her way to live in Canada with her new husband.

One of Avtar's interests is providing television stories for a South Asian station in Canada.  So, members of his entourage set up the camera and he did an interview with George.

And we continue into another week enjoying the sights, sounds, fragrances and adventures in beautiful India!