Meeting Long-lost Relatives

 Ok, not really lost, but meeting some after long! My paternal cousins who grew up in Belgaum area (Nandgad, to be precise) along with my Dad and his brothers, and I have kept in touch. One branch of the family is global, with Hyderabad as a base. And the second, is also global, with Bangalore as a base. So we met the Bangalore branch with a couple of cousins, and their offspring and also the next gen. It was great catching up - some pics.

On the right is Veena, my nephew Pushkar's wife, now settled on the US West Coast. 

Tiyasi, my nephew Rohit's wife, left in pic above, runs an online business at oagh.in, selling sarees from different parts of India, some custom-made for them by weavers. Samples below. You can visit the website for more, if interested. Or their insta page https://www.instagram.com/oaghindia/

My cousin Prabha, on the right above, with her grandson Raghav, who is Veena's son.

My favourite grandkid is Tiya, who is Rohit and Tiyasi's daughter, above.

We last met at her 1st birthday 2 years ago, but that is not a problem in reconnecting. She tries out her painting skills on my hand!

Some Family Time in Pune and Mumbai

 Got to meet a few relatives after a while. In Mumbai and in Pune. Pics-

Uncles and Aunties

 These, as per Indian tradition, need not actually be related to you. An Uncle is an elderly sort of person known to the family, and an Aunty, likewise.

We had several while growing up, and we sometimes watched them play Tennis, Badminton, or Bridge in the Club we were regularly going to. They were invariably nice to us kids, and we were lucky to learn something from the conversations or interactions we had. Some taught us Billiards, or let us watch while they played.

Some were socially connected, and I learnt of the existence of some Marathi detective/mystery novels due to one of them..it was an author called Baburao Arnalkar. Another Uncle was a music fan, and I first saw/heard a stereophonic sound at his place. 

The aunties were hospitable, and fed us non-stop whenever we visited. The kids and we played through our summer holidays, and went for long walks in heat that we cannot tolerate today.

Our real aunts (or Uncles who took us on long walks or to parks) were no less, and we visited them in holidays or at weddings or other events like birthdays. My point is that the multiple aunts/uncles played a part in bringing us up, and we learnt a lot due to them. Sleepovers were common too. As they say, it takes a village to bring up a child. 

Blog Readership Crosses 485000

Some amazing stats for the readership of this blog. (on Feb 9, 2018)   Pageviews today                 415

Pageviews yesterday

878

Pageviews last month

8,772

Pageviews (all time history)

485,084         What's the correlation? It generally has to do with the readership from students past. If something catches their attention, the  readership soars. Of course, there are other readers I have, like current students, former colleagues, friends and relatives. But I suspect the past students outnumber them by a large margin. Anyway, whoever you are, thanks for the motivation. I promise you more of what you have been reading :)

Birthday Wishes

I am now 55...well, almost, starting tomorrow. What do I wish for?

Mostly, peace. For myself, of course, and for others.

I wish people get what they want, and also peace. The opposite, strife, or tension, I have learnt over the years, is not good for you. If you can, you should live your life as you like it. If you can't, smile through the life that you might have to lead.

Cherish all that you have. Wonderful parents, siblings, friends, spouse, relatives - all of them could be irritating at times, but are priceless to keep one going. And we might be irritating to them at times, so that's Ok.

Excellence comes naturally to those who try and do their stuff sincerely, and maybe like the Bhagavad Gita seems to suggest, without actively looking for the reward. Work, hobby, activity of any kind (inactivity too) can be its own reward. Enjoy all phases of life, do not regret anything beyond a point, and look forward instead of back.

That in a nutshell, are my thoughts on the day- actually a day ahead of time, like some wishes I have started getting :)

A Lesson on Earnestness and Its Importance at IIM Indore

I have no idea if Oscar Wilde intended this one to be a pontification on the importance of being earnest in whatever you are doing. Whether it was intended or not, the staging of his play by the name (the Importance of Being Earnest) did prove that it helps-to be earnest.

I am referring of course, to the brilliant performance on campus (IIM Indore) by our students of this play yesterday. Three months of continuous hard work can do wonders, and the enthusiasm with which the cast and support did it bore fruit. It was one of the best possible renditions of this that you could pull off with an almost entirely amateur cast, the director being the experienced hand bringing it all together with great (im)patience-actually needed to drive a project of this kind. Talk about the importance of being Impatient!

The story of this play has a mix of humour- there are one-liners on relatives (aunts in particular), education, Londoners, marriage, high society, social standing, book-writers, and many things in between that would each make you roll on the floor in laughing fits- misunderstandings, suspense and of course, romance. Example of the Wilde humour- "all women become like their mothers-that is their tragedy. No man does-that is his."

The on-screen chemistry was wonderful, adding to the charm. The costumes, make-up and sets matched the 'Victorian' needs of the characters. The dialogue delivery added the needed punch.

Hats off to the cast-Avik, Philip, Shrunga, Jasmine, Sanjana (outstandingly scary as Lady Bracknell),Urvaksh, Ayushi, Siddharth, and of course, Shweta Kushal the director, and the backstage guys (stage, sound, lights, running around) for a memorable show!

Indexes for Personal Life

Indexes like the Stock Market and Wholesale Price/Consumer Price are critical to a man's well-being. But why stop there? I have developed the following indexes (patents pending) for helping measuring your own well-being. No, it's Ok. You don't have to thank me.

Health Index: Inverse of the No. of antibiotics you popped in the last six months, plus inverse of the no. of doc visits in the last six months

Relationships Index: No. of ships of various kinds that you are into, minus those that you are out of

Relative-control Index: (No. of relatives in close proximity with micro-level hyper control syndrome) to the power of 'N', where N is the no. of such relatives

Happiness Index: Average No. of  likes on your last five facebook statuses and/or cover photos, added to the blog viewership of your last ten blog posts, minus no. of real meetings with your friends.

Unhappiness Index: No. of scheming mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, shouting news anchors, experts on TV debates, repairmen of any kind that you encountered in the last 24 hours, all added together. Add 20 points to this if you watched Himesh Reshamiya on the small screen.

Kejriwal Index- Closely related to the above. Number of times you watched Kejriwal's antics on TV. This is independently capable of causing Unhappiness or Mirth depending on how you look at it.

Innovations To Kill Boredom

Here are some neat ideas (95 on a 100 point neatness index) for innovations that can kill boredom in common situations we face.

1. A nodding puppet which nods metronomically, to sit in front of an old relative repeating his/her tales of the past for the nth time, so you can slink away, do your own thing and come back in a while.

2. A smoke-generating toy which can be used to scare people and make a long line disappear in a crowded place - can be used in a bank, amusement park, or in a booking counter for IPL. Just for long enough to give you enough time to get to the front of the line.

3. A joke-telling device- the J-app, which you switch on in the most morose situations- like an airline journey, the most humourless of all. Will tell a joke at the click of a button, but only when electronic devices are allowed to be switched on, by the morose air host. Will make passengers jealous if you laugh too much, though. Use carefully.

4. An animated dancer that performs a dance of your choice on screen while you wait for your page to load on the computer on a slow day in cyberspace. This can also be adapted for your mobile if you have a bad connection.

5. A dialogue programmer where you can program the dialogue you want to hear and play it along with the TV, automatically muting the IPL commentators, or the talkative Arnab Goswami, or the garishly made-up ma-in-laws/daughter-in-laws of the various serials, or the tiresome judges of reality shows on TV. This gives you immense scope to test your creativity, and you may end up writing some masterpieces like 'Kitney Aadmi They'  or ' Phir Bhi Waapas Aaye? Khaali Haath?' from Sholay, one day.