Serendipity

Recently a casual chat with a close friend led me to walk through the golden days; those days which were spent more care free than now and because of this, their memory is etched in my mind forever. Those of you who are around my age would easily relate to the times when out of many houses in the lane, only a handful of one had a TV. Luckily our house was one of those. The ‘Chitrahaar’ on Wednesday evenings and the ‘movie’ on Sunday evenings on ‘Doordarshan’ used to be a grand affair. I still recollect the max. count of 19 neighbours on a Wednesday and 23 on a Sunday, in the drawing room of our modest two-room flat in Delhi. For us, organizing such a gathering used to be a privilege as well as a treat! While we (I & my younger brother) enjoyed this privilege, we suddenly found ourselves a little wanting when one of our ‘foreign-returned’ neighbours brought with them a ‘coloured TV’. For our friends, the sleek SONY was fast becoming a popular attraction than our voluminous...

How do you define a long drive in a country like India where the distances are as vast as Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) - 3617 kms and Kutch (Gujarat) to Kumki (Arunachal Pradesh)- 3494 kms? My experience tells me that any single drive beyond 500 kms is a long drive; if not by distance, definitely by the time consumed in traversing this distance! Long Drive is one of my passions and since 1994, I’ve done many such long trips, in different states, on different road conditions, in different cars. Over the years, the road and associated infrastructure has tremendously improved however the traffic increase has kept pace with it, maintaining the criteria of defining a Long Drive intact. In the recent years, I’ve had many occasions to drive to & fro Mumbai-Ahmedabad. Today, going by the road conditions, it would be one of the best 600km Long Drives (home-to-home) you can aspire to have. With newly-built flyovers all along the way and with an exceptio...

What’s the best alternative to swimming? Once, during an assessment of my routine medical report, a cardiologist told me that the athletes, especially who walk and run a lot, have the healthiest of the hearts. While on my short vacation to Amdavad (Ahmedabad), as I couldn’t get a good swimming option, I took to morning walk. I recollected a spot which had maintained its attractiveness for avid walkers by not giving-in to the pressures of modernization. I was delighted to find it as untouched as it was a couple of years back. Only the enthusiasts, who would like to utilize such a rare facility, had increased in number. I’m talking about the campus of the ‘Sardar Patel Institute of Economic & Social Research’ located at the junction of Drive-in road and SG Highway. The natural beauty on both sides of the entrance road is the first welcoming sign which sets in your mood for a good walk. The gradient of the climb is so perfect that it puts enough pressure on your legs, so a...

There goes a popular saying “Everything happens for a reason.” I am a firm believer in this so naturally I relate to it quite often. This episode very much fits the bill. Well it so happened that many years back when I was working in Delhi and was about to visit Mumbai for an official meeting, my team member, who was posted at Mumbai as part of company orientation, expressed his keen desire to have me attend his final project presentation, which was the most important part of culmination of the orientation program. I couldn’t praise more his sense of timing. And I confirmed my availability. I flew to Mumbai early morning and found it all wet in the month of July. I headed straight to my office in Kalwa and completed a very successful meeting in the first half. In an upbeat mood, I started for Kharghar where the project presentation was to be held. My driver asked me whether I would go by Thane-Belapur road or I would prefer Palm Beach road instead. Although I had been to Mumbai seve...

In a typical Indian scenario, a parent, especially a father, would be wary of certain events when his son is reaching age where he can flirt. In my case it was different. My son taught me flirting. I know that reading this; you all are raising your eye brows. Calm down. He taught me how to flirt with the swimming pool! It all began when we shifted from Nerul to Kharghar (both in Navi Mumbai). We had landed in a brand new society which had just been occupied by a few families. Out of all the things which caught my attention the most was the swimming pool; clean, full of water, with brand new blue tiles, reflecting the azure sky. It was almost mesmerizing. Being a water zodiac, I was naturally attracted towards it. Having born & brought-up in Delhi, somehow I had never got a chance to have the luxury of a decent swimming pool. Also, the weather of Delhi did not allow continuous swimming throughout the year. So when we shifted to Mumbai, swimming was one thing on top of my mind...