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Update 9/16/2006

Hello, dear friends and family!  I just wanted to pass along the newest pictures of our sweetie.  Suhani is now two-and-a-half months old, and she is an absolute delight.  She holds her head up for long periods of time and has started "talking" -- it's too cute!

Hope to hear from you all.  Lots of love to you all; write soon!

Always,
Ekta :>

Update 7/18/2006

Hello, Mr. Gregory!  I just wanted to update you and everyone else on the arrival of our baby.  We had a little girl on June 24, and her name is Suhani (it's pronounced just like it looks except the "a" takes an "ah" sound.)  She was 7 lbs. 8 oz., 20 and 1/4 inches long, and came after 15 hours of labor and an unexpected but uneventful C-section.  We're all doing well and getting settled in nicely at home; in fact we're close now to her being a month old already.  I didn't know time flies so fast with a little one at home!

I'm attaching a few photos of Suhani in her first few days of life.  As we take more pictures, I'll be sure to send them along.  Hope all is well there at school and that preparations are going smoothly for a new year this fall.

Thanks for posting these and our little update.  More to come soon.

Take care,

Ekta :>

P.S. In the photo marked "proud grandparents," Suhani is pictured with my mom and Anuj's dad about a half-hour after she was born.

Update 1/27/2006

Hello, Mr. Gregory!  I was browsing the Calvary alumni pages when I realized that it had been quite a while since I'd updated my own page.  I thought I'd do that now when I have a few spare minutes.

We're still living just outside Portland, Oregon.  My husband, Anuj, is in the middle of his third year of internal medicine residency.  He was chosen by the faculty and administration in his program to be a chief resident, so when he finishes his residency this June he'll take on that new position.  A chief is someone who oversees administrative duties for the other residents in the program -- scheduling, concerns or questions, mediation between faculty and residents and students -- and Anuj will be sharing this honor with two other residents from June 2006 to June 2007.  We're very excited about this new phase of his residency and are humbled by the recognition bestowed upon him by the faculty and (in particular) the program director.

I've also started working part-time.  I was hired in November by a local publication company as the editor of a medical newspaper put out by the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland.  The Scribe, as the paper is called, relates local medical news and goes to physicians at home (so they actually have a few spare minutes to read it!)  I manage all parts of the paper from choosing the stories that go in each issue to writing/reporting some of those stories and assigning stories to freelancers to the layout of each issue.  The Scribe comes out twice a month, and it's been an absolute delight to work here.  I'm also the editor on several special projects put out by the company, which is called Community Newspapers.  Overall it's been a fantastic experience, really putting me through my paces and making me recall everything that I worked so hard for when I went to Northwestern for my master's degree.

On a more personal front, we're expecting our first baby this summer!  The VIP is scheduled to arrive on June 19, and we find out soon if it's a boy or a girl.  Regardless, you can be sure the little tyke will learn to be a Patriot fan no matter where we live!

My sister, Natasha, who was a 2003 CCS alumna, is in her third year of college in the USC business school and trying to decide if she wants to go on for her own master's.  My parents are still in Surfside and enjoying the new phase of their life where they are part-time parents and soon-to-be full-time grandparents.

I hope all is well at CCS.  I think of my years and all of you with only the greatest fondness.  I would love to see news posted on the site of "alumni teachers" -- that is, those teachers who used to be at Calvary but have since retired (people like Mr. Hernandez, Mr. and Mrs. Gore, Mrs. Boggs -- even what Mr. and Mrs. Weeks are up to.)  Even if you don't have room on the site for them, would you mind passing along the latest news on them to me?

Thanks so much for taking the time out to read my email; if you or any of the other Calvary family members are in the Portland area, please do let me know.  I'd love to see you!

Have a great day,

Ekta

Pictures from Ekta Rawal Garg and Dr. Anuj Garg's first anniversary, January 2004:

Letter from Ekta: December 2003

Just for my own little update, I am now Ekta Rawal Garg. I got married on January 29, 2003 in New Delhi, India, to Dr. Anuj Garg. We're living in Tualatin, OR, which is just outside of Portland. Anuj is in his first year of internal medicine residency here and is working very hard.

I graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina in 2001 with my B.A. in broadcast journalism and completed my M.S. in magazine publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Dec. 2002.

My real love, though, is creative fiction, and I am now in the slow process of trying to get some of my work published. No positive leads yet, but I'm not going to give up until I hear some good news. Aside from that I am immersing myself in the new role of housewife, which is a lot harder than some people realize. But it's great and I'm really loving it. Tualatin is a little farther from home than I'd like to be, but Anuj takes such good care of me that it's okay. And every time I start to miss my family and Myrtle Beach too much, I just think of the fact that I haven't been separated from my family -- I've helped to double it.

I do think of my days at Calvary often, however, particularly now after getting married. Having an arranged marriage is a great way to draw out memories from a person -- in sharing my past with Anuj through stories and pictures, I've recollected instances that I'd forgotten before. After so many years I can honestly say that no matter where I am or how far I go from South Carolina, Calvary will always represent some of the best years of my life.


My e-mail address is ER0201@aol.com