First Day at School and the H1N1 Scare

This was a far different experience from last year. Rushil was a bit nervous in the morning, he was afraid that 1st grade would be too hard and his teachers would yell at him, institutionalized teaching of any sort makes him anxious. Rushil was disappointed that I would not drop him off in the morning, my driver was a bit late in the morning as I forgot to tell him to come early and Prasad is in the US so I had no option but to send them by bus. At the bus stop, I felt a bit guilty as some of the other moms met the teachers on Saturday and with Rushil's food allergies I should be more diligent. My plan was to go to work but instead I decided to make a trip to the school and meet with the teachers. Some of you may wonder why this is a big deal but the children's school is 40 minutes from our home so it's quite a long drive and not like in Fremont where we were just 2 minutes away from the school. I was thrilled that one of Rushil's PrepII (kindergarten) teachers is his 1st grade teacher so I knew he was in good hands. When he saw me, he hugged me, said goodbye and walked off with his arms around his buddies, it was too cute! When I walked into Sindhu's class, I knew immediately that she would be disappointed, there were more boys than girls and only one of her friends was in her class, her good friends were scattered in other classes. She seems to be ok today and will hopefully adjust to her new environment in a few days.

The big issue is the H1N1 virus, it's spreading rapidly across the country. Although we haven't had any scares at work, there are multiple schools in Bangalore that are shutting down for a week as a few of their students reported having the flu. It's the main discussion topic in the newspapers, news channels and at work. They are screening all the children at S & R's school for a few days but given the huge number of children that were abroad over the summer, I'm worred they will not be able to contain it. Sindhu is scared, one of her friends told her that anyone could die from it and all the children were discussing it on the playground, in the elevators, and just about everywhere. It's very worrisome and unfortunately overshadowed their first week.