Happy Holi - days

Had a terrifically long weekend. Went to Forum on Sat with Akshat after idli-vada for breakfast at Woodys (Shubha did not have a day off so baap beta went all over town by themselves).
Finally saw The Incredibles - I have a suspicion Akshat did not like it tooo much tho I did :)
Bought Akshat tickets (over 3) for the first time.
Went to The Landmark and bought some books and toys - there are some neat books for < 50/- these days so you can buy as many as you like!
Was amazed to see rattle off the names of all the chessment when he saw a chessboard in one of the aisles! He's been doing more at school than he cares to discuss at home :) He's also beginning to get the notion of addition and subtraction in his head!
Saturday was spent celebrating holi in the morning - cleaning up in the afternoon and attending
mu ex bosses' daughter's bday party hosted in Cubbon Park and ending with a toy train ride there! Akshat had lots of fun this weekend.
Saw ShrekII on DVD later. Finally managed to get a DVD of The Wall too.
Sunday was devoted to new apartment plans and posession. The interior work starts and hope it turns out like we plan.
Bangalore's been very well behaved or rather we didnt venture out in the worst traffic. Plus all of Bannerghata Road is paved now :) Upto Arekere at least...

Redwoods ahoy ?

Need to register the new apartment this week for fear of service tax hitting hard come April. Will be a tough week - need to take possession of the apartment as well as get woodwork started.
Friday is a day off so the squeeze is more.
Of course, I hope Incredibles hangs aroung at PVR till Friday - have promised to take Akshat for a movie since Shubha's working.

Akshat went up on stage!

Sat was Akshat's first stage performance for his school's annual day - and it was a very cute evening with chhottus from nursery to grade 2 up on stage for rhymes, daydreaming and even a funky fashion show (which was pretty well done!)
As promised - we went for Pizza later and Akshat was extremely kicked and tired by the time we got home.

Sumana/Krishna hv a daughter!

Sumana and BKM have a brand new daughter - Aarohi - lovely name. We have about 6 weeks to go - am praying its a girl tho 2 brats would be fun too (sometimes, at least)

Bangalore Vacation

The weekend was a days free (cept 840/- in taxes) at the Royal Orchid near the Golf Course with complimentary breakfast thrown in! After a long while - a do-nothing weekend. The room was ok but the food at Limelight was awesome.

Also traded in the old DVD player (philips 729K) for a new one - the disc loader had gone kaput and the new ones are so cheap it makes little sense to get expensive repairs done. At least we know now that our DVDs are ok!

Bangalore, INDIA PhotoBlog

Bangalore, INDIA PhotoBlog

I'm a writer!

Just heard from Chris Scott - a major adventure bike traveller that our writeup about the Ladakh trip ( photos , more ) finally makes it into the next AMH - edition 5 !
Feel inspired to do more trips and write more. Maybe thats what I want to do for a living :)

What next ?

Life has offered many twists - and today I heard that one of my colleagues - he'd become more of a friend than most other people here - hanged himself. K was a great guy - funny and great company. We had common gripes, and he was an equally sentimental guy. I just wish he had a little more courage and had spoken to me or anyone about his problems.
We're all geting a little too stuck in our cubicles, minds, lives, cars. Everyone's a stranger and friendships are superficial, transient, and based on transactions, performance.
Just on Sunday I'd actually looked forward to meeting him in office - had chatted with him in Feb about both our issues at work. I'm still hoping this is all a dream or some elaborate prank.

Hv got specs - started getting used to them. Still wondering about next steps in life. Just when you start worrying about the 'value-adds' something like this happens and makes you think of the more important and taken for granted stuff.

Sent/Got a mail from Doug - old friend from my Sequent days - he's enjoying his time off from work life for now in MN. Wish there was enough cash or goodwill for ppl to meet up when they wished to in any part of the world - but theres passports and visas and airfares and so many other boundaries we have created and now work hard to get past.

The funny thing is - after all this in a weeks time we'll be planning a release/movie/vacation/interiors for the home again.

K - i'll miss you. Wish I could've helped.