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Good morning hyderabad

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Good morning hyderabad

This came free, with todays morning newspaper.
101 percent guarantee to get benefits within 31 hours

Incredible India has space for everyone

Regards
Deepak

is it a train, is it a duck ?

At eat street, hyderabad

Counting a la jaadoo

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 21. 22. 26. 27. 28. 20-ten.

The man. Spider man

Regards
Deepak

Mehr becoming a woman from a girl

In a typical calcutta saree

At home, this guy

Twenty going on 21

Move over, sound of music as jaadoo completes his essay upto 20

'tis is all over Hyderabad; view from office

This is the view from my office- here in Hyderabad, it is YSR all over......

in brazil, its hardly a dog's life

Scene at Rio, Copacabana as a little doggy enjoys a shoulder view of the beach

Dogs are being increasingly considered a viable, less expensive, more managable alternative to children for many in Brazil: Sao Paulo has the world's largest pet population and an important segment of the economy which revolves around dogs and cats. From saloons to supermarkets and shoes to pyjaymas, its all there for our four legged friends

La petit provincial

Papa. French textbook in school at Simla and Chandigarh. The story is called 'La petit provincial' (not sure of the spellings).

its a simple story- Child doesn't drink milk. child's mother gets her a cup, with a glassy reflector at the bottom of the cup. The incentive for the child is that she will get to see herself if she consumes the milk. Inspired, the child goes on and gulps milk down.

And now. Circa 2009. The circle of life. Times repeat. Just the actors change.
The cup is one with a small cow toy inside. Is from Switzerland- gifted by Claudia in 2001. At Chandigarh, Papa tells Jaadoo the same story. Modifies it by saying it is a cow inside. And voila ! Jaadoo takes a concrete step towards abandoning the feeding bottle for the cup. Long live Pedia Sure !
:-)

Seventeen years on....

24-aug-2009, on board DXB to GRU
From an enclosed coupe, up in the sky
Its seventeen years to the day today, almost to this very hour, that a journey began. On platform No. 8, Howrah station, Rajdhani Express, 1630 hours IST. And yes, it has been an exciting ride. Like most other exciting rides, this has been full of thrils and spills, of joys and sorrows, of exuberance and despair. Also, like most other exciting rides, its been full of trains and planes, of catamarans and vans, of buses and boats, of bicycles and rickshaws, of walks and a lot of talk.
When i look at it all as a 40000 feet view, literally in this case, and of course, metaphorically, there is an overwhelming sense of feel-good, of positivism. Most importantly the realisation that i continue to be loved and cared for, and in whichever way it was, i have made a positive difference to lives that i have touched along on the way. Maybe a fleeting difference, but for that moment, fulfiling.
These 17 years have been half a lifetime and have seen several transitions:- from someone who lives with his parents to someone who lives as a parent- from someone blissfully ignorant of the world beyond home to someone who is almost always out of home- from someone who is unmarried- from someone who is not from a pedigree institution- from someone who is a student- from someone who has never been on a plane- from someone who thinks India is 'superior' to all other countries- from someone who is unsocial- from someone who is quiet, shy and reserved- from someone who plays good cricket and pitches it up straight- from someone who can pass a Class XII examination- from someone who can't travel alone, can't even cross the road on his own
several others, since that fateful day....
While with the transitions, there are a few things that have remained the same- the sheer fulfilement and purpose in being loved and enjoying the affection of so many. Cliched it sounds, but there's nothing bigger than being loved.
And since i have the advantage of a 40000 feet view, with nothing but the blue waters of the Atlantic down below and a view peppere with tiny clouds somewhere in between, is there anything i want today. No, no..let me rephrase it. What all do i want today....let me put down my wish list, in the order in which it comes to mind-
- to be with the ones i love and the ones who love me- to be a good father, a good son, a good spouse, a good friend, a good sibling- to be famous- to see myself on the TV and in the papers- to hear the applause- to wirte a book (if its a bestseller, the better ;-) )- to do some genuinely meaningful work that impacts the less privileged- to travel a lot more: Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, Antarctica, Everest base camp, Trans- siberian railway, Amazonia, and also see the Taj Mahal- to be into public life in India- to bat at the Eden gardens (if a few people can watch, the better. if i can hit a six, still better)- to be a student again, in the company of interesting and capable people- to bring together all my friends- from school, college, work, otherwise, on to a common platform and to have a mega get together (not on the net, though)- to ask meaningful questions and to enrich the debate on fundamental, existential questions
Hey, hello....stop stop.. dont repeat the camel and the Arab story...
-

Ronaldo is back, with corinthians

Modern day ganesh ji

With his laptop, Ganesh ji does an alt control del to All worries and evils

Ganesh ji on the road.

Hyderabad. Amerpet. Eve of Ganesh chaturthi. Revealed just a portion of the
famous and lovable Indian God.

Is he also the cutest ? I think that is a very tough one, with my top two
being hanuman ji and Ganesh ji. Baby Krishna comes a creditable third. But
if I were to indeed take a call, Ganesh ji would get silver, the gold medal
going to the irrepressible hanuman !

Grand parents on a grand board. Little jaadoo learns to write

School ad in Sunday newspaper

And I am yet to find a school which says we want to make good human beings

There is another hardik in town

There is a new hardik in town

Comparing jaadoo and meher

Life on the road: chandigarh

In india's highest density of women on wheels city, helmets are a strict
no-no, and style rules

On top of the car

Our identities !

A camel ride through the bylanes of hyderabad, and suddenly remember:
jaadoo needs to be at a birthday party. His classmate, yochana's.
I avcompanied jaadoo as his driver, and ipsita as
His caregiver.

After quite a bit of dilemma on whether to go in, finally do. And meet
several others in the same boat. Parents. Each one of them defined by their
child.
Parth's father, khushi's mother, kira maye's mother, harshita's father
and so on.
I had heard an old anecdote about the bachchan's : amitabh and
Harivanshrai, son and father, both stalwarts in their own right . Earlier,
when people saw amitabh, they would say, look there is harivanshrai's son.
Some years later, people would refer to harivanshrai as amitabh's father...
Got the first time feeling of something similar this afternoon.
Felt good to know that jaadoo, known as hardik to his schoolmates ,
mattered a fair bit to several of the children out there and occupied a
good portion of their mindspace. It also signalled to me, probably,
something which would have been on for quite sometime now: children
beginning to form their own world, their own networks. And, a break from
their parents shadow.
Some of my best friends are from school, and they and their families
connect at so many levels to ours now. In some cases, it was just
serendipity, like being made to sit next to a certain Harish khare at
kendriya vidyalaya baliganj, calcutta. And later in life, getting married
to one ipsita Basu, who, though in the same class at school, was one I had
rarely interacted with.

Life brings with it its unique set of surprises, and therefore, it is fun
to ponder the possibilities of where our interactions take us. So, keep
going, and a little bit of magic could just be round the corner

What else does one need

Lower Back pain remedies

One more journey begins

Chinese people liberation army in hyderabad

Commander jaadoo on an inspection visit to esperanza school

Back to trains, and an unenduring love

8th may. Jaadoo starts off in a taxi to hyderabad airport. Then a plane to
coimbatore. Then taxi again to Arunkadu. Then walk. Then bus to ooty. Then
auto. Then boat. Then toy train. Then horse. Auto again. And now, writing
this from the UNesco world heritage nilgiri railway from ooty to coonoor.
For more on journeys, watch this space