West Coast of the U.S., I mean. We met in Bangalore, then they left for California, and came back to meet us yesterday- June 9, 2026. Pushkar is a nephew, son of my cousin Baby (Prabha), and his wife Veena is from Pune. They have two kids now, and they have grown up. Rajvi and Raghav are in High School and Middle School, respectively. There was a lot of banter, and some food.
A get-together to celebrate our birthdays in September-October and early November. Organised by Prarthana and Pooja at our residence. Pics randomly taken- karaoke was a part of it!
I have so many women in the family that I may have lost count. Cousins, sister, daughters, wife and spouses of cousins, nieces.. you get the picture. Here are some of them, remembered again for Women's Day..
Cousins from two Nargundkar brothers' families gathered for a party after a while. Some of us, including Nargundkar-Pai family and Nargundkar-Paruvus. Pratap, Pramila, Lakshmi, Virendra, Rajendra (me), Hari, Anjali, Madhuri, Shobha, Satish.
I mean the sons and daughters of the film folks. Many first-timers make it in the film industry after a hard struggle. Naturally, they want to make it easier for their kids to enter the industry if they are so inclined. So we have lots of sons and daughters of actors, directors, music directors and lyricists entering the industry, some successfully.
Examples are - Karisma and Kareena, daughters of Babita and Randhir Kapoor
Rishi Kapoor, son of Raj Kapoor
Sunny Deol, son of Dharmendra
Twinkle, daughter of Rajesh Khanna
Anu Malik, son of Sardar Malik
Anand-Milind, sons of Chitragupt
Rahul Dev Burman, son of Sachin Dev Burman (both my favourite composers)
Aamir Khan, son of Tahir Husain the producer.
Some did not succeed, too, like Naseeruddin Shah's son, or Raj Kumar's son.
My father was a cool guy, and we saw lots of Hindi movies together. We drove to the theatre in a Ford Prefect 1955 that my parents had acquired, to the movie hall, since I was 8 or so.. almost any film would do. Jewel Thief is one I remember seeing early when I was a kid.
He was also into photography, and had a folding camera- German make, I think. We have plenty of black and white pics from that period. Some studio pics also, to boot.
Travel was another of his passions, and I have continued, at least till recently when the Coronavirus slowed things down.
He started humbly and grew to be an admin. head of Stores at a coal mining company, so had no airs at all. He also knew how to cook, and made a special recipe of Kashmiri Mutton Curry almost every Sunday. We kids loved it.
We do pick up at least some traits from parents or elders. I did not pick up gardening, which he was passionate about. I remember him planting a variety of plants each year, and used to know some names too.
He loved kids, and we were lucky he was around when our first daughter came home..
I am not into celebrities. I also fail to understand the urge to meet them, when you have nothing in common with them. How does it help? I would rather spend my time with people I know or admire or love from my own life- family, friends, colleagues or, in my case, past students.
And I do, regularly. It's exhilarating, beyond words. Just being with someone you like from your own life, is a joy. Even if you do nothing remarkable, just a shared cup of tea, a conversation, or an exchange of ideas.
Interest groups are another place I would rather be, whether it is music, photography, travel, a sport, or anything else. It is one thing to admire a celebrity from a distance, but what is the point of meeting them? Of course, I fully uphold your right to do so, if you wish to...
The new normal has shown us what a blessing the old normal was. Just to be able to go out, to work, or to school, or to eat, to travel. We used to take these for granted, so God (or nature) decided to teach us a lesson, I suppose.
Now, hopefully, with enough firepower of vaccines and capability to develop more, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. There could be a few scares, but the worst is over. Yet, it did snatch almost 2 years of our lives, with consequences for some. The disruptions are behind us, and we must get back on track quickly.
There are valuable things we missed, like meeting each other-friends or family- and we can try and make up for lost time. Cheers to the possibilities. Zoom out of Zoom, and zoom into the old!
I was used to doing a click with a timer and cable, with the camera on a tripod in the past, when I learnt how to do this. But many years later, the art of the Selfie was something I took a long time to learn. I am still not too comfortable, but then I don't have to click all the time. Some selfies -
Of course, for a teacher, an obvious place to make connections is his/her students. And colleagues. The gang of ex-student friends keeps expanding, in my case, as I have more years under my belt (sometimes, it shows).
But generally speaking, a sport can get you friends, or hobbies can. If you are online, or a blogger, you get invited into communities. I have made quite a few friends from a music group I joined a few years ago. If you write books, you have many readers, some of whom pop up unexpectedly. Ditto, if you write columns etc. Makes you feel like a celebrity at times! I have actually given autographs on my books- not as many as I would like to, though.😀
Travel is another way you get to meet people. I have met friends who are friends of friends, or spouses of friends. Sometimes had long conversations with them too. I also have parents of students who are friends online, though I haven't met all of them. Similarly, daughters/sons of friends too. All of these connections are enriching. I have met New Zealanders, Bangladeshis and Vietnamese in conference travel, and Cambodians, Japanese, and Koreans too, among others-Thais and Britishers, Indonesians for example.
Some friends are also global (USA, France, China, Sri Lanka, Austria, Australia...) and we have connected on fb regularly, and I have a window into their world. I know exactly what they think of Biden., Trump, or Trudeau, for example, and what their kids are up to (if they have kids).
Amazing!
