Some journeys are just not meant to be. Vipassana turned out to be one such journey for me. Sujata had to leave to take care of her parents a day before I was supposed to leave for vipassana so I stayed back with the kids. Between taking care of the kids, completing long pending errands and reorganizing the house, the time really flew. I want even sure if I could do the India trip at all but Suj came back Friday morning and I took the evening flight out. Since tiger airways has no refund policy, I still had to come in via Bangalore instead of directly flying into Delhi, but that turned out to be a good decision.
I was back in the city probably after a seven year period. My last experience was that of horrible traffic jams which had made me cancel a few meetings, and despite all the infrastructure progress it felt like city traffic had grown faster than the infrastructure and filled all available space. The airport was new, nice and shiny but way too far from the center of the city, where
Kavita and Manish lived, who had generously agreed to host me in Bangalore. Manish, or tiger as he is known among friends, is easily one of the most well read person I know, and both are passionate about education. Unfortunately, the other thing he likes is horse riding for which you have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. I had no desire to burden the poor animal with my heavy weight but it seemed like a good opportunity to practice some early morning photography. Dhruv, their 10 year old son not only shares his passion in horseriding, but he had been equally passionate about drawing horse figure. He had seen the horse figure I had done in blank ink many years ago and was keen for me to spend some time giving him some sketching tips. Now I never really learned sketching, but past experience a have taught me that giving kids even very little tips, but lots of encouragement and practice usually have the right learning effect.
A birthday party in the afternoon and a pizza party at home in the evening were perfect recipes for a sumptuous Saturday, made better only by a chance meeting with Ashok, who happened to be my roommate asking with Tiger in or first year of college. Dhruv wanted me to watch war horse, and from what little I saw and read on Rohan's blog about the movie, it certainly was worth watching except that I was too jet lagged by now. At least for me, those many houses in a day was enough.
I had a reasonably early flight on Sunday to Delhi but we did manage to find time for some roller blading on a dead end road near the lovely Vidhan Sauda building and sumptuous breakfast at the Oberoi. I was worried that the legendary Bangalore traffic may cause me to miss the flight but luckily it was a Sunday morning and driver knew how to avoid any roads with potential traffic problems.
The flight was uneventful and my cousin Neel came to pick me up at the airport. By this time India was facing another humiliating loss to Australia in cricket.after meeting every body at home, Neel suggested we go and see the hockey Olympic qualifier final between India and France. India had not even qualified to play in the last Olympics. The organization was poor even by India's usually abysmal standards, but Indian team made up for it and mauled France 8-1. It was a great result for my first ever live hockey match and a good way to end a perfect little weekend in India.
Location : Kachnar Marg, DLF City Phase I, Sector 26, Gurgaon, Haryana,
Prashant
Location : Kachnar Marg, DLF City Phase I, Sector 26, Gurgaon, Haryana,
Prashant
Location : Kachnar Marg, DLF City Phase I, Sector 26, Gurgaon, Haryana,
Prashant
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