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So Pranav wanted to have Nani and us over for lunch at his place. He even came and picked up Mom, Dad and Nani in the morning (as we had to go and meet BD and Sucharita).

Ninaad with Sucharita

Earlier in the morning we had gotten a second test drive for a Fiat Linea (something we hope to buy soon).

We proceeded to meet Sucharita and BD (which was fun) at Cuppa, post which we headed to Pranav’s place for lunch. It was fun, and we returned home around 4:30. The rest of the Saturday was spent lazing around.

I’m currently wrapping up Shor in the City (a pretty good watch) and will then read an e-book or watch some Fringe. Peace out!

The last 2 days have been so much fun. Family, Ninaad and Shruti, all in the same place at the same time. Dhanteras went really well with a small pooja. Ninaad and Shruti dressed up, and we went for a quick spin in our car afterwards.

Today being Diwali, we woke up, messaged all of our close friends and then called a lot of our family. Got calls from Anil Valji (blast from the past) as well as some other friends I hadn’t spoken to in years. Biswanath (BD) showed up in the flesh and enjoyed some photo time with Ninaad, and also took this family portrait for us:

Ninaad's expression, priceless!

Shruti and I took Ninaad for a drive after BD left, and we came home. I played a bit of Counter Strike (mohurat playing).

Now I’m watching Dexter while they sleep. Will hit the sack in a bit as well. All in all, a great Diwali!

I bought this book on a whim, and while it was slightly boring in it’s writing style and also looked like an information mashup (instead of a well flowing read), I liked it for various reasons. It is the first book that I’ve read on Tendulkar, having never followed him seriously yet having always been a fan.

Somethings I learnt about Tendulkar from the book:

• He is a cricking God. Period. [Bradman comes a close second.. not a close first, the way I see it]
• He doesn’t believe in gift(s). He believes in hard work, day in and day out. Practice makes perfect, and more practice makes more perfect.
• He follows the principle of silence is golden, words are silver. Hence he prefers to keep his words to himself, than to be embroiled in controversy and name-calling.
• He lets his bat do the talking on the field, and his silence and calm demeanor do the talking off the field.
• He keeps his friends really close.
• Everyone respects him, even his enemies (that is a feat).
• He has the ability to concentrate beyond concentration itself!
• He has the backing of a billion people. Hard to see someone else make that claim!
• He is a cricking God. Period.

So this weekend was all about family (outside the swimming episode, but I digress).

Saturday was spent with Ninaad, Shruti and Dad. We went shopping to Fab India for Ninaad’s dresses for Diwali, post which we went to Mr. Bean for some coffee and sandwich love. Post that we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

The next morning was up a 3:30AM to pick up Mom and Nani coming in from Canada. They slept through most of the day. Ninaad, Shruti and I went off to Bangalore Central to do grocery shopping. We had a cuppa as well as some garlic bread, before heading home.

Nani got to play with Ninaad in the evening and he was enjoying all the attention. All in all, a good weekend.

Ninaad being curious

Shruti and Ninaad, along with Shenaz, were visiting the Bangalore Central @ JP Nagar today afternoon. I’d asked Shruti to drop in to the office so that we could go home together.

She did, along with Ninaad. It was fun to see the folks at office take to Ninaad very well. Arpita was fairly excited, as were Shailendra & Megha. The others were too, but most of them were quite confused on how to react.

They spent about an hour while I wrapped up some tasks. We then headed home for the evening.

Here is a photo of Shruti and Ninaad (in the pram, out of sight) on the office’s terrace:

Ninaad and Shruti on the office terrace

I decided to surprise Shruti & Ninaad with a trip to Mysore for  3 days at the weekend. We woke up on Friday morning and I informed her that we had to leave, pronto, for a trip to the city of palaces! You should have seen the look on Shruti’s face.. ok, well, there was no look as she was still brushing.. so no gushing jubiliation!

Day 1:

It took us around 4 hours to get to Mysore, thanks to a stop along the way and then losing the way inside the city. We took some rest and decided to check out at least one of the attractions the city has to offer: St. Philomena’s Church. It was quite serene, and very pretty in it’s own right. We had dinner at Green Leaf which was so so, compared to the rave reviews it has on many websites.

Day 2:

We left the hotel by 9 and headed to Chamundi Hills. The plan was to see the temple as well as Nandi, both of which reside on the hill. The temple isn’t very inspiring, but is at a good location and does radiate peace. The Nandi statue, on the other hand, was quite nice.

We were back in town by around 10:30 or 11:00. At this point we decided to hit the Mysore Zoo, and spent another 2 hours there, walking the whole 2.9 kms of their fixed path zoo tour. A tip to the Zoo: have exit paths at different points in the path!!! With Ninaad, we had a tough time circumnagivating the whole 2.9 kms without worrying.

We had lunch at Rasoi Magic, which was quite good. Post that we went back to the hotel. Shruti went for a Spa appointment while I played with Ninaad and watched some Castle episodes. Around 4:30 I realised that the Mysore Palace innards were on display only till 5:30PM. We headed there pronto and checked out the palace as well as the innards. I found it to be a great place to go and relax. Loved the garden, the cleanliness and the well kept palace grounds and the various temples in it.

We were back around 6:30PM at which point I was kinda done for the day. We spent some time watching TV, and then put Ninaad to sleep. I slept around 1:00AM after uploading some photos we took with Shruti’s new camera, the Canon S95.

Oh two tragedies on this day (1) Shruti lost her chappals at the Mysore Palace. We bought replacements at Rs. 80 and (2) Shruti dropped her brand new 1 day old camera at the Mysore Zoo. Luckily nothing broke and it works fine!

Day 3:

We decided to head back to Bangalore, but wanted to see Somnathpur Keshava Temple along the way. It was a wise decision. The temple, which is almost 900 years old, was simply serene. I enjoyed sitting there in peace on a Sunday morning for about 10 minutes, without much din or too many people. It’s surprising how an awesome piece of architecture doesn’t attract many people.. the place was almost empty!

As we left the temple, we decided to head back to the other parallel highway to head to Bangalore. Bad choice.. the connecting road was narrow, and took us over an hour to travel 3o kms on it. We finally hit the highway, and stopped at Kamat for lunch.

We arrived back in Bangalore around 4:00PM. A vacation well spent!

I don’t know about all of you (those 1.3 readers that I have), but turning 30 means a lot of things to me. Lots of memories, achievements (and a fair share of failures), and ofcourse, Ninaad!

Things I think I managed to do well in these 30 years:

• Grow up (duh!)
• Read a lot of books (I would like to think I’ve read over 300 books, and counting..)
• Study up to Graduate School (not sure if that an achievement or a loss of time )
• Make some wonderful friends
• Traveled to some great places around the world
• Learned things on and off the job

Things I managed not to do so well in these 30 years:

• Didn’t utilise time efficiently at IIT Kharagpur.. could have done more than I did.
• Lost some good friends over minor/major issues
• Didn’t party hard enough (tough luck)

I couldn’t have come this far without the love and support of my wife Shruti, my parents, and Manish. Ninaad is a whole new world for me, and gives me immense hope

After over 5 years (the last time being JK’s wedding), the RPCFE gang met up in Bangalore. We should actually say 8 years as on the occasion of JK’s wedding he himself was barely available.

It was a fun time, with lots of catching up, new stories exchanged, old stories relived, ‘status’ updates, relationship updates, and general camaraderie taking center stage.

Ninaad got to meet his many Kakas and one Kaki.

Some interesting moments (captured so that they could be relived at the next reunion):

• [Som] TDGI (The Dada Ghosh Incident). ‘nough said! ROTFLMAO.
• [Gmukh] On massive copying in Bihar, a supervisor tells a girl: “Tum chori do dhang se karo.. yeh kya naam likha hai tumne answer script par? Ramesh Kumar??” [At least be dishonest in the right way! What name have you written on your answer script? Ramesh Kumar (name of the boy she was copying from)]
• [JK & GMukh] On possible traffic on the way home: “Main woh inside road se aya tha.. kaafi patli gali hai woh.. “. Response: “Haan yeh bhi theek hai. Tab tu akela aya tha na, ab jaate waqt hum 3 log tere saath bhi to hai“

It was a fun day at the mall followed by some good chai (thanks JK) and awesome conversation. Even Shruti missed the gang after they left

So Ninaad is settling well into Bangalore and his new environs. It’s a pleasure to see my son grow up, and to see Shruti being the best Mom I know. She is so involved in Ninaad’s minute by minute activities.

Work life balance is also going well. I try to be at work by 9:15AM and leave by 5:00PM or so.

This weekend is something I’m looking forward to, as Som, a very close friend, is visiting Bangalore for the next few weeks. Should be fun catching up over wine, coffee and whatnot. The wifeys (Shruti & Neha) will also get a chance to get acquainted.

All said and done, life is good. There is a long way to go.

Song for moment: Life sahi hai from Pyaar ka Punchnama.

The weekend is already over, and it’s been a good one.

Ninaad got himself a new playgym (which he hasn’t tried yet), dressed up for Janmashtmi and also went out shopping! Saturday was spent shopping for him, and Sunday was spent shopping for his Grandmom’s trip to Canada for his aunt Dolly’s wedding.

He is growing up fast, and also celebrated his 3rd month birthday on Friday past!

I utilised the weekend to spend time with Shruti and Ninaad, and also finished read Mavericks at Work. It was a fairly interesting read, and I’ll summarise it in a separate post.

I’m really looking forward to the following week as Som and Neha come into time for close to a month, and we all shall meet after ages! That reminds me to invite Gaurav to come over the following weekend or the one after that, so we can all meet!

This is all going to be LEGEN-wait for it-DARY!!