I drove around the city one day, snapping a few pictures here and there. This is just a small taste of wht Dhaka is looking like and does not do complete justice if you do not see her at night resplendent in all her twinkling lights and decorations.

To truly feel feel the spirit, passion and excitement you had to be there.

Yes, she is growing up. I can’t keep her the baba’s little girl forever.

As I type this on the tiny virtual keyboard on my phone, I look forward to continue to be a part of her life as she grows up.

I will try to be the best father I can.

I will try my best to

- trust her
- get to know her
- be honest with her
- encourage her
- support her
- be a parent as well as a friend to her
- share what I know with her
- be grateful for my relationship with her

The Pebble
by Zara Kazi

I am a pebble.
Not a shiny smooth stone
That glitters beautifully by the sun’s surface.
Or the biggest boulder
That is respected by its greatness.
Nor am I a magnificent mountain
That can reach up and kiss the clouds.
No, I am simply a pebble.

I get tossed around playfully by the ocean currents.
Sometimes I bounce all the way up to the surface and see a glimpse of the lands beyond.
Then as fast as I come up I go down, down to the coral reefs next to many other pebbles.

I get roused around by that tricky flounder that hides under me.
The waves get heavy above me and the current is nagging at me.
Now I hear the loud crashes of the waves and the sharp crack of the lightning.

Then WHOOSH! I rise up… up… up.
I am tumbling in the foamy mouth of the ocean.
Tiny pieces fly from me.
I go under the water, spinning, twirling, spinning and twirling.
Then I feel my self scraping the bottom of the sandy beach.
I feel the crisp air against my surface.
I feel myself hugged in the sand.
Peace in the ocean once again.

Yes, I have sold my soul to The Google.

It took me years to finally use my Gmail account. I have my own domain and was using my own server for mails for over a decade, but now it’s all routed to Gmail.

Through in all the Google Apps – docs, Picassa, calendering et al – my need to stay tethered to my laptop made less and less of sense. Now when my NAS drive died a horrible death and I almost lost some precious data – the decision was obvious.

I bought some extra cloud storage and all my digital items are living on the cloud. And the big G can guarantee better security and backup than I can.

Privacy?

Well they know all about me anyway or it is just a subpoena away.

Now I have ubiquitous access to all content – with ‘net access being almost ubiquitous, I am good.

I am also an iPhone owner as is my better half.

My daughter usually ends of borrowing one of our devices while we are waiting for something or the other (restaurant table, dentists office …).

There is a very nice post at An Educated Choice that has a great list of iPhone apps that are age-appropriate, fun and perhaps even a bit educational.

In the 90s, you know the olden days, did you have cell phones?