So our first day back in the office, and I started playing this game with Hanan that she is entirely unconscious of, in which I try to deal with her emails faster than she sends me new ones. It's like running in quicksand. Just as I was surfacing for air, my parents and sister called from the Italian place downstairs. The highlight of that lunch (other than the pasta) was that my sister Anouchka told them about her new boyfriend. Just the word 'boyfriend' was a relief to my mother after my atrocious news of 13 years ago, until my sister pretended he was black, and my mother protested that that was like 'the Hanan situation.' 'Is Hanan black?' I asked my dad, but he was busy asking if Anouchka would consider eloping (the cost of weddings runs high, I guess). Back to work, while fielding calls from the kids:
'Can I watch TV?'
'Have you done your homework?'
'Sort of'.
'What does that mean?'
'Kind of'
'No TV.'
And then off to an early dinner with Hanan's father and the kids. It is illegal to be from any Arab country and not order enough food for a wedding banquet. I wished my sister and the boyfriend would show up as we could have thrown the reception right there. Anyway, it would have been rude not to eat it, right? So now I am typing furiously to work off those extra calories. My fingers definitely look thinner...

A different meal on 'The World Unseen' set. From left, clockwise: Nandana Sen, Sheetal Sheth, Natalie Becker, Lisa Ray, me, Brigid (co-producer), Hanan, and Leonie Casanova. My sister's boyfriend in the back ;)