A Wedding Party in Nagpur

Went to her wedding and met Abha Kulkarni, a former student (of IMT), for the first time there- I was the bride's guest. Must have happened for the first time. Thanks to Facebook, though, I feel that I know her pretty well. She's been a winner of some of my awards on fb. Anyway, the feeling of meeting someone in person (and seeing the radiant smile in this case) is much more than a facebook friendship. I highly recommend meeting some fb friends regularly when you can, and multiplying your joy. I try my best to meet one per visit to any city, at least. My own alumni meets of sorts.

In this case, of course, I was accompanied by my ex-colleagues Vijayakumar and Anant Ram who had taught her at IMT and told me she was a great student. It was a coincidence that her husband Rohan is from Nagpur, and enabled me to be here for the event. Found out from chatting with her parents that they have lived in Bangalore for many years. I am a fan of Nagpuri stuff like Oranges, and I also like its clean roads in the newer parts. Of course, the speedy Metro construction is causing some traffic issues, but they won't last long, as construction is progressing at 'Gadkari speed'- defined as 20 times the average Indian speed. If he'd been in charge of the economy in the 1960s, we'd never have had to face the "Hindu rate of growth".

I was also happy it wasn't too cold- I am not a fan of sardi-Dilli ki ya aur kahin ki. Just the right medicine for ending the year- Food, Friends and Thums Up, as the old ad said. Thumb's up, totally.

Bucket List 2012- Part One

Every year now, after entering 'wan' prastha (the modern equivalent of the ancient Indian word) when one tends to become wan, and gets an attack of the blues, it's good to make a bucket list to keep your hopes alive.

What can the bucket contain? Basic stuff like the Thums Up ad once summarised beautifully- Food, friends and Thums Up. I am not a fan of the fizzy, however, so I might substitute non-fizzy things for THAT.

Spending quality time with friends comes out tops, along with family. Reading good books comes second. I read some good ones, but after the move from Nagpur, the average number of books read has come down somewhat.

Third, maybe watching some good films- TV shows generally don't qualify for the adjective, so they are left out. And, visit some nice places where the travel time is no more than 3-4 hours if I am flying, and overnight if I am on a train/bus.

Fourth, writing- I find blogging extremely therapeutic and fun, so will indulge. You, dear readers are at the receiving end, and can always put "stop reading this idiotic blog" on YOUR bucket list.

Fifth, doing anything useful in life. Not sure what that might be. I like to believe that one can do useful things, but what they are has so far eluded me. Maybe I'll modify that to 'think about doing useful things in life.' I will think of the remaining five later, as I have done my 200 words for the day, and am running out of ideas!

Maybe avoiding branded products will come sixth, but let me think a little more about that.