Monday, June 30, 2008

Geni - Everyone's Related

After several conversations with Dipu Bhai, Trishna and Alpesh we realized two major opportunities that the internet could be used to bring our family closer.

1. Communication
2. Family tree and history

With the help of Dipu bhai the shahfamilyblog.blogspot.com was born. With over 25 posts ranging from topics of; birthdays, baby annoucements, family trips, family pictures and jokes. With the collaboration from more family members, I'm sure we will all agree that the blog is a fantastic emerging tool for our family to communicate.

While surfing the internet to find a tool that would help us establish a family tree online, we found a website called www.geni.com.
  • Geni.com is a private place for your family to build your family tree, preserve your history and share your lives.
  • Geni, the fast free fun way to create your family tree and stay in touch with your family network.
We recently started a family tree for our family and it has already grown to over 200 people with the help of Dipu Bhai, Trishna and Alpesh. Its been an exciting ride and we would love everyone to join in on the fun.

The website is easy to use and has already proved to be useful when thinking about how certain individuals connect to our family. In the next couple of weeks, you will probably be seeing invites from us (Dipu Bhai, Trishna, Alpesh or myself) and we can all find out how big our family tree really is!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email or comment on this post.

Thanks!

Below is a video on how to get started on Geni.
How to get started on Geni*
* Instead of immediately signing up, I would get an invite from one of the names mentioned above, because we probably already have you in the family tree.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

A Weekend in Venice

For the first long weekend in May, we decided to check out Venice! We figured its not too hot in Italy yet and hopefully not too smelly in Venice either (Rahul and Sahil can tell you all about their smelly experience in Venice!) :)
Venice is a really beautiful and picturesque city -- it looks exactly as you would imagine it to! In case you're curious, check out our photos. Little alleyways everywhere with really cute little footbridges every 50 metres to cross over canals, old buildings line the canals with little boats tied at docks, no cars anywhere, so all public transport is via the waterways.

We had a fantastic time overall and really enjoyed taking ferries up and down the Grand Canal (the real one, not the one at the Venetian) :) and had some delicious Italian food, including some of the best pizzas ever! Harry's Bar is a great place to pop in and enjoy a bellini -- after all, they were invented at this bar in Venice and really, they are the best bellinis we've ever had!
Its the one place in the world that's even more expensive than London (imagine that!), so we'd recommend going once the dollar strengthens against the Euro :) If you're planning to go and would like any tips, just give us a shout.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Baby Sangani...


We heard through the grapevine that Jigna and Satyen are expecting a baby! Congratulations guys! Hope Jigna's health is keeping well -- when is the due date?

Milestone Birthdays This Year!



Can you believe it... this year, in addition to the 3 cousins turning 21, we have four more milestone birthdays in the family! Bhabhi is turning 65 on May 9th; Hansa Kaki is turning 60 on May 14th; Ketubhabhi is going over the hill and turning 40 on October 13th and Priti is turning 45 on October 15th! I am amazed at how wonderful these youthful women in our family are looking at their ripe old age :) Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Deep's Nana

Deep's Nana, Shyamji Kachra Shah, passed away late on Saturday night, April 5th in Moshi, Tanzania, where Deep's mom's entire family is from. Nana woke up late at night to go to the bathroom and felt a bit out of breath and started to perspire. Chandra Mama told him to lay down and rest a bit until he feels better and then they could walk to the bathroom together. Nana laid back down in his bed and never woke up again. He passed away very quickly and peacefully, which is what everyone would have wanted for him. He had been a bit ill off and on for the past couple of months, but it was nothing serious. Overall his health had started to slowly decline after Nani passed away in December 2006.

Seven family members including Mom, Dad, Jyoti Masi, Varsheet Mama and Sejal's family from Brighton all flew out to Moshi on Sunday and made it in time to be part of the funeral on Monday afternoon. Deep's parents will be back in London after a couple of weeks, when we will have a prathna here.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Highlights from trip to Cape Town!


Deep and I visited Cape Town during the recent Easter holidays and had a wonderful time! Here are some photos from our travels. We spent 3 nights and 4 days exploring the entire region including the city, waterfront, Table Mountain, Robben Island, Western coast, up and down the peninsula, Cape Point and the wine country. Cape Town is definitely one of our favourite destinations in the world! The weather is excellent, the natural landscape of the region is so beautiful, the history is of course fascinating, the food is superb and best of all the rand affords you a great time (15 rand to the pound, we were in heaven!) :) Some highlights include:
  • We took a fenicular (cable car) up to the top of Table Mountain and hiked around the top, where there were incredible views of Cape Town!

  • We drove down the East coast of the peninsula down to Cape Point, took a fenicular up to the top for some fantastic views from Cape Point, and then drove back up to Cape Town along the Western coast, which has some of the most breathtaking views! Reminded us of an untouched version of the PCH or Highway 1 in California.
  • Deep had organised a personal helicopter tour of Cape Town and the wine country, which was lots of fun! We even landed in Franschhoek in the wine region to have lunch at a vineyard called Haute Cabriere, which was delicious!

  • We took a ferry to Robben Island to explore the place where Mandela spent most of his years as a political prisoner. The tour given by an ex-politicial prisoner who was at Robben Island during the same time as Mandela was truly fascinating and his stories were both interesting and of course terrifying as well.

We would both highly recommend you all visit and 4 days is a good amount of time to spend, although 5 would have been a little less hectic. If you want any tips, just send us an email! :)

Congratulations Sheel!


Mina Fai informed us that Sheel has been accepted to attend UC Berkeley this fall, which was his number one choice in colleges. Congratulations Sheel!

Its exciting to see what a lineage of graduates our family has from Berkeley including Manoj, Jigna, Trishna, Vinod (MBA), Tarak, Reema and now Sheel! Go Bears!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Welcome Shalini M. Khiani


Anjali, Darshana, and Manoj Khiani are very happy to announce the arrival of Shalini M. Khiani, born on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. She arrived at 12:29 p.m. and weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs. 2 oz. and measured at 21 inches.



Everyone is doing great!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Anaya Lakhani

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the wonderful calls to congratulate us and wish us well.  It's so nice to hear from everyone.  I'm sorry if I haven't had a chance to return calls.  It's been a rough start, but I'm pleased to say that things are going really well now.

Anaya had a bad case of Jaundice, and had to stay back a couple days at the hospital.  She is home now and has recovered incredibly well.  We feel very blessed to have her, and even more so that she is healthy and safe.  She is very cute and sweet, and reminds us of when both the girls were born.  It's really an incredible an amazing experience to go through, even a third time!

Yes, it's hard even for me to believe that I have 3 kids!!!  Everywhere I go, I keep thinking I have to take 3 of them now.  

We've  posted a few pictures online that I'd love to share.  You can check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/lakhanimeera15/AnayaFirstWeek

Again thank you for all your well wishes!  We hope to see you soon.

Love,
The Lakhanis

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Memories of Kenya


Navinkaka sent a really neat site that has pictures from old Kenya. Hopefully they will reach some settlement and not destroy the country

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/Kenya/Kenya.htm

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Job Description for Parents

Here's something funny to lighten up your Sunday...

POSITION: Mom, Mommy, Mama, MaDad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop

JOB DESCRIPTION: Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES: The rest of your life.

  • Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.
  • Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
  • Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
  • Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.
  • Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
  • Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
  • Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
  • Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
  • Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.
  • Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION: None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION: Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered, this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love, and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right..

FOOTNOTE: THERE IS NO RETIREMENT -- EVER!!!
** If you are fortunate enough you will become grandparents!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

3 Cousins Celebrating 21st Birthdays in 2008!



Three of our cousins will be ringing in the big 2-1 this year! Sahil just celebrated his on Feb 4th, Reina will be celebrating on April 14th and Hersh will be celebrating on June 1st. Happy 21st Birthday guys!

Tarak Ran a Half-Marathon on Feb 3rd!

For those of you who didn't know, Tarak ran a half-marathon on Feb 3rd to raise money for a great cause -- congrats on finishing ahead of your goal Turk! Here's a note he sent out after the race...

Dear friends and family,
Thank you so much for all of your support in helping me meet my fundraising goal for the 1/2 marathon I ran! The race was this past Saturday (the 3rd), and luckily the weather wasn't as nasty as it could have been (it had been raining pretty hard the day before, but on race day there were just a few brief showers and a short stretch of rather intense wind and hard rain). I was able to finish a little ahead of my goal time, finishing in 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 53 seconds, and with all of your help I raised almost a dollar a mile to support great volunteer projects around the Bay Area. Thank you so much for your support and kind words while I was training! I've stopped feeling sore from the long run, so if any of you want to go out for a little run any time, give me a call!
Oh, Also: Happy New Year!
-Tarak

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Who can view the blog?

A quick question.. The blog is currently publicly viewable. Should we close it up and make sure that it can only be viewed by authorized users? Please comment soon, and I will make the necessary changes. Also, I am looking for others to help administer the blog site. Any volunteers.. Sahil, Alpesh, Vikash :-)

Friday, February 01, 2008

December in Cambodia and Vietnam...

As many of you know, we travelled with Deep's parents this past December to Vietnam and Cambodia for 2 weeks. It was a fabulous trip and we would highly recommend visiting soon, before it become overrun by tourists like other parts of the region (ie. Thailand). We spent 3 days in Siem Riep, Cambodia exploring the Angkor temple complex. From there we flew to Hanoi where we spent time in town and also did a day trip to Ha Long Bay. After that we flew to Nha Trang, where we spent 5 days relaxing on a beautiful beach. Once we had recovered, we went to Hoi An for 2 days, which is a World Heritage town on the coast that has lots of character. Our final stop was 3 days in Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City after the North beat the South in the war), which is the most cosmopolitan city in Vietnam

If you'd like to see some photos from our trip, check out this web album. We had three photographers on the trip (Deep, his Dad and me) so you can imagine it took forever to screen through thousands of photos to come up with this selection :)

we've moved

We've moved. The new address is:

1220 Mills Avenue, #5M
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Home: (650) 391-9329
Satyen's Mobile: (415) 215-5872
Jigna's Mobile: (310) 699-6448

We look forward to your all visiting soon!

Satyen & Jigna

DiskSpace Restrictions on Images

Hi everyone,

I just found out that there is a 1GB limitation of space to store images on our blog. Please make sure that you reduce your image size before you upload them. Microsoft has a great free utility called ImageResizer that you can download at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Look in the right hand column for "ImageResizer.exe", download it and install it. Once installed, you can right click on your image, and click "Resize Image". The 640x480 option works really well. Your original image will not be overwritten. A new image will be created in the same folder that is much more efficient for web publishing. Let me know if you have any questions.

Dipak

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Bharati,Reema and Raagini in Vienna

Our house in the background.
Rashmi

Looking forward to actively use blog

Hi Everyone,
Beginning to learn how to use this site.Will post pictures later.
Rashmi