When Tarun announced he was getting married, we were living in Lake Gardens, in the flat made famous by The Cantankerous Cat. This was the ground floor apartment where we dealt with Nosy Neighbours, Peeping Toms and performed Midnight Cooking Rituals to the consternation of our neighbours. Yes, that one. Tarun was in…
This was my second ( or third, if you include the Nepal adventure ) foreign trip and I had much on my mind. This was my second trip to North America and the first hadn't exactly been a carefree and joyous one, if you remember. I don't think it is easy to describe…
Actually, the notes are not early. They're late. Late by about 19 years now, will be exactly 19 years late on the 2nd of June 2016. Yes, you are very correct in your maths. I arrived in the great country of Canada on the 2nd of June, 1997. ( Sorry. I wrote this when…
I think you all know by now, or should, that I moved countries. In fact, I moved continents. Not physically, no. No, not literally! That's impossible! I moved myself from one continent to the other nearly 2 decades ago. Whew! I'm glad we got that sorted out. Well, I had a request to…
My stay in Chennai was not a very happy one. I was already well-short of being gruntled. ( see history in Part 1 ) I found the ultra-conservative nature of the locals disconcerting. Every light switch, every fan, fan regulator, every keyboard, monitor and tape was (more…)
I once worked for a very large IT / computer company. This job led to some very strange experiences. A lot of it was due to my inexperience with the world and my lack of communication skills. ( Which continue to plague me to this day... :) ) As a newly wed, I was often…
We spent a brief year in the little flat in Lake Gardens. You have met this flat ( apartment, if American ) before. This is the same flat that saw us beat off the Cantankerous Cat. You know also, by now, that we had to contend with Peeping Toms. And, of course there…
It's funny how words have more than one meaning. It's funny how that one fact can give rise to some very funny situations. Here is one I remember from an earlier time. Regular readers will remember that once upon a time I was a young man living in Calcutta. This is a story…
I spent 8.5 years in DBPC, or to give it its full name Don Bosco, Park Circus. My last day there was the 17th of March, 1978, and I well remember rushing down the stairs after the last ISC-12 exam, excited at finally finishing with school. But I’ve also never forgotten my first day there.
Shortly after I came to Calcutta, chronicled here, I was told that (more…)
Just over 4 years ago, I had a nose job. Why, you ask? Wasn't your old nose good enough for you? The short answer is, No. It wasn't good enough to perform its primary purpose. From a purely external aesthetic standpoint, it was perfect, or as near as perfect as one could want,…