My Present

What my days..... and so my life, is about today:

• People.....my inner circle...people beyond.....and me
• Keep smiling...even while accepting and handling the curved balls life throws at you
• Listen to your heart
• Chewing the cud time, while still being curious and open to wonder and mystery and learning
• Giving into moments of joy, and fun, and even silliness
• Feel gratitude
• Give attention and energy to everything I do, and if possible, every conversation I have
• Ask Why
• Take those difficult decisions
• Find good things around you, and say it, be generous with those compliments
• Stay aware... mindful, even through the difficult spaces, your growth is somewhere in there
• Keep the bookshelf growing
• Travel...let those horizons expand, be it through books, people, travel...
• Add value wher'ever you can
• Keep your surroundings not just clean, but pretty
• Keep the energy and enthusiasm going
• Feel the love in your heart and let it spread

Hoping to keep adding to the list :)

Two days of nostalgia

A two days that took us all the way back 25 years.

And full kudos to Ashutosh who came down to Hyderabad with that as exclusive purpose. He said the years in hyderabad were the best time of his life, and he wanted to revisit......he wanted two days from me and Lan. 

Initially we weren't sure it would fall in place.....but his excitement was so palpable, his feelings so from the heart that it totally wrapped us in as well.

While we've each been at IDBI for long years, the overlap was 1993 to 1996, just three years when we were part of a gang (Amrutha missing)

Day 1, straight from airport at 7 in the morning we went to Abids Taj.....Pesarettu, Alam pachadi and Coffee he said.

A drive around the city......old haunts, tank bund and the like.

And then to our old office, IDBI.

While we didn't expect to meet any of our colleagues from back then, (we did though) it was a wonderful surprise to meet Srinivas. He was a young lad back then, working as a tea boy, an integral part of day....the cups of chai and coffee....the bonding times. It was so wonderful to see him as Canteen head, a long chat...and the warm feeling when he said "stay and have lunch with me".

Imagining the layout as it was, who sat where, quirky stuff that happened, people who brought out our best, work challenges, bosses who drove us nuts, closing days with irani samosa and chai at 2 in the night, scrabble during breaks, papa toads for egg puffs, mohini for biryani....and that list goes on.

Two incidents that Ashutosh recalled with so much feeling, that they deserve special mention:

When Ashutosh was transferred into Hyd, and was given the most sticky portfolio of PFD Accounts,  I apparently ( I don't recall this) spoke to our GM and said "it's not fair, I'll do half day accounts until he gets the hang of it". And today when he said he just couldn't have done without that......well.... Ashutosh, so touched for making me feel good about it even today :)

Second was his saying how when he heard that Lan was transferred to Indore, and orders were to move within a day, he actually broke down in Lan's cabin.... and how Lan just quietly got up, closed the door to give him that space. Was so touching to hear, also because it reminded me of the quiet tear I shed when I walked him out the doors the next day.

Lunch was beer and biryani. 

Evening started with us visiting his old house on Rd No 12. I sat in the car and watched ....it was his journey, his experience......to see him stand and gaze, zoned out and lost to the world. 

And he had so many stories to recall about his life there.

Next on list was a temple inside the Apollo hospital campus,  apparently a sunday ritual for him and his daughter, who was back then all of 3.

A beautiful temple, quiet, serene......the sanctity and depth becoming a metaphor for the bonding experienced through the two days.  

Dinner was again farmaish....chicken 65 and biryani...and beer ofcourse.

Day 2 started with a walk in KBR, and rest of day was literally spent in Lan's red scorpio. We must have done a 100 kms I think........just driving around.....osmania biscuit at Nimraah in Nampally, irani chai at Charminar, lunch at Ulavacharu, pan at dimmy's, tea at lamakaan.........and lots and lots of catching up of times bygone.....aspirations and attitudes......life in general, right until we dropped him off at the airport late evening.

Ashutosh saying "It's been twenty five years, and I haven't met more interesting or fascinating people than the two of you (how much ever exaggerated, who can resist hearing such stuff huh), and Lan saying "I'm not a talker, I'm known to be quiet......but today......I'm going to need gargling with iodex for the throat". 

When twenty five years drops off like that....guess that's how it can get. Strangely, none of us took even a single picture. So strange, and so sorely missed.

Well, well, Ashutosh very quickly and creatively filled that gap (just from our whats app dps') , plus office and his house ...lovely

Ashutosh, for having created and enabled this experience.......tough to find the right words...so, like Lan said 'let silence speak the rest'.

An Early Morning Drive

One of those spontaneous and lovely things that just happen.

I was all set to go off on my morning walk, when Diksha says "I'm in a mood for a drive, want to come?".  And we went, directionless at first, with maybe unsaid objective of getting out of city.

That in itself took us close to an hour....something that used to take me twenty minutes....ten, no... more like fifteen years ago. Was nice though. On way we hit gandipet, where we took a little break.

While the regular access to Gandipet was cordoned off, this was a chance discovery

Other side of the lake

We decided to walk down to the lake

A nesting crane. It was amazing how many birds there were....warblers, egrets, kingfishers, ducks, cormorants.....so many

Another view of the lake

With me

That's Bruce up there (diksha's car), looking so cute..so like a hotwheels

Drive back

It was beautiful...some good music, some shared moments... a little break by Gandipet. Very nice.

28 Days

I picked the movie because it was a Sandra Bullock, pretty much expecting her usual high energy rom coms. Was I surprised. 

It's a movie in a rehab, overcoming alcoholism and addiction. No easy space.

She's a columnist for a New York magazine, drunk and wild at any time of day. There's some major drama and an accident, and she has to chose jail or rehab. She's a reluctant admit.... there to complete the 28 day term, and get back to her life and boyfriend.

Through the rehab she dumps both....and a lot more.

Comes through in a complex relationship she has with her sister, where it starts with her sister saying "you make it so difficult for me to love you"....change happens, and it changes to "it's impossible not to love you".

Watchable. And for Sandra Bullock, definitely watchable.

Happy, Proud Moment

Dhruva's certificate from the 16th IFF Jaipur International Film Festival:

Congratulations Kanna...sure is a happy, proud moment !

All About Attitude !

Diksha and I are in process of planning a visit to Hawaii, in July. We had just about got our Visas through, and were to book tickets.......when Kilauea erupted.

May 6, five days back, saw the eruption of the volcano, Kilauea. It's a force so primordial, that just watching the video footage has me mesmerized. Like they said in the news "there's no point having firefighters, this is an unstoppable force".

The eruption saw flying boulders and ash plumes 200 feet into the air. Several fissures opening up around the area, spewing lava continuously.

The lava has flowed through forest and into residential areas, taking in its stride trees, houses, cars, telephone poles.....consuming everything in it's path, all disappearing into  the flowing molten rock. It's fascinating to watch how it moves, fiery...fearsome..... slow....almost grotesque. And the sound is said to be so thunderous that you can feel it in the pits of your stomach.

The volcanic eruptions triggered off a flurry of earthquakes, over a hundred, with the severest being a 6.9 on the richter.

People have been asked to evacuate areas that have been effected. And what's unique about a volcano, unlike other natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, cyclones and such is that with these, people can go back and reclaim their land, rebuild, but a volcano alters the very landscape. Also that other calamities have an end point..and here we're hearing the US Geological Survey say that this could go on for weeks, months or even years.

While all this is news available everywhere, at a more personal level, the earthquake caused a crack in kamlesh aunty's house. She lives 40 miles north of the volcano.

It's as fascinating as it is scary.

I was quite naturally unsure about booking tickets. So I talk to her, fully expecting her to say they were planning on moving back to their Chicago home, and instead what I hear is "they're calling it destruction, but this is actually creation...this is how Hawaii was formed. It is just so so beautiful, you must absolutely come"

I was so stumped, I could only laugh (in nervousness I think). End of ten minutes she's like 'so? are you coming?', and I found myself saying "yes aunty, coming" ....... all well meaning advise and fear and caution flying out the window.

That's inspiration from sheer attitude !

Look at some of these pictures:

The eruptions from the fissures

Lava flow onto the roads

Through the forest

Spreading into the residential areas

Roads cracking up

As it flows

The lava lake in the crater before the eruption

The lava lake that's receded in by 900 feet. And it's the pressure caused by the receding lava, that is now surfacing through fissures miles around the place.

A picture from yesterday, toxic gases, predominantly sulphuric acid, which breathed in, is fatal to man

Fissures across roads

A video that gives a feel of it



I haven't followed news as closely as I am Kilauea.....a word I didn't know how to pronounce until a few days back.

You're right aunty.....this is indeed, creation !

Dare to Disagree

An interesting perspective......