Freedom... We always had it and will always have it

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Nancy in France , for Easter

Drove 2000 kms , Amsterdam-Paris-Nancy and back in 3 days.

Myself , Prerna and Kamayini met Julie, Benjamin, Her parents (Nicolas and Catherine), her sis & boy friend ( Justine & Laurent Poly) And her younger sis with her friends ( Victorine Lutin & y & y)

Day 1, reached in the evening. Had some welcome drinks and cakes by the fireplace at home. Then went out for some drinks in the city. Diner was an elaborate affair with 4 courses, for me the key highlight was ratatouille and the family table of 10 people.

Day 2, got up early and went for a jog with Lorro and benjamin. Was beautiful weather,ran thru the city and saw the 3 city gates, city Centre, park and a beautiful canal. Had a French breakfast of coffee, baget and cheese. Went to Church for the mass. Some coffee at a French cafe 'pinnochio'. Walked through the city and saw the 'most beautiful place in the world' ( main city Square - x?)  Home for some Easter egg hunting in the back garden, was fun. Easter lunch a 4 hour affair with Champagne.  Post lunch played a French board game where nos 1-9 had to be closed by rolling a dice. Went for a walk in the evening with Ben, mamon and sis to the Top
of a nearby hill. Saw the city of Nancy and spoke snots its history and the economy. Then we went for drinks to a nice restaurant , I had a local specialty kir (white wine, juice of small local  black berrie and some plum syrup, was nice.). Then went to the fun fair and played some games, wow I won some poker chips in a shooting game, played horse racing etc, was sport fun. The back home all tired for some dinner. Was awake till mid-night. Was a wonder ful day with a wonder ful family, and my first and best easter.

Day 3- woke up at 5 , and drive back through some beautiful French country side. Region of Champagne. Back to Ams by evening.

Q2 2009 – 1 Apr to 30 Jun

Things done this quarter

 

1        Trip to Tons for rafting

2        Visit by Nishtha

3        Sadabhishekam & Visit by anna poorni perrima ?

4        Chandran chitapa

5        Duathlon (before june 15^th weekend)

6        Sunfeast 10 K (may end , 27^th ? )

·        Support mohan Rs 500/- CRY

7        Race to Nandi (Cycling)

8        Dancing the 5 rhtyms

9        Wine tasting session by Tullehoo (20^th june) @ three quarter chinese

10     Prerna Bday and friends home for cake cutting

11     Prerna joining Runners High & Few training runs (date ? , Q2 / Q3 ?)

12     Visit by Chitti

·        Malika chitti & poo (July beginning? , coinciding with Appa)

·        Sarada Chitti & Sandhya

·         

13     Other

·        Met Anbu

·        Met harsh @ Ahmedabad

·        Met Arpita & went home for Dinner

14     Events

·        Bought my first shares, mahindra holidays  (16^th July)

·        New camera

·        CV Prerna (June)

·        Kiliminjaro research & rejection.

15     Project & life of travel & Separation as a consultant (apr onwards)

·        Cutover & Change

·        New friends & Acquantances (e.g. Andrew,  Justin & Chris , nitin, gopal , satya etc. )

·        Happening life in Ahm (basky & rest)

·        Large project experience

·        IBCA season 1 (May mid end IPL T20) & 2 (june mid, WC 20-20) , making money on the pot and on Pakistan

Q1 2009 – Not a bad quarter after all

Bangalore and Life on a Roll….

This is the first quarter of 2009 and in an attempt to capture the different activites in life, I am making this attempt of recording the same.
Yeh , you guessed it right.. I am not in the habbit of maintaining a diary and hope to use this tool (i.e blog) to record the key events / travels / experiences for posterity.

January
1. Vienna (Till 10th Jan 09). – Post the New year celebrations in Austria (Vienna) I quickly completed the project for the client and got myself back to India before I froze. But before coming back I did get enough time to roam around the city of Vienna and explore the various sections of the town. Touristy and otherwise. The nights went to temperature below -10C, at this time most of the exploration was at the kitchen and on the internet.
2. Pongal ( 15 Jan 2009) – Amma & Appa were at Bangalore starting work on their JP Nagar Home. We celebrated Pongal at home by doing a small Pooja.

3. Prerna to Delhi (26 jan , weekend)– Prerna was off to Delhi for a weekend. Her first trip home after the wedding. Some shopping and time well spent with dadaji , pearl , dude etc..

4. Doddamakali (30th jan 09 , weekend) – A long weekend with colleagues from office. It was an offsite of sorts with 50% being sponsored by office. But it came as a pleasant surprise with a 100% sponsorship of the trip, announced later. I was one of the Marketers of the Trip and made a presentation in the office and circulated it to the greater team. This was a great team building / bonding experience in KPMG as all the spouses were also invited.
There was a 13 member gang against a planned 19. The people who came were:
· Me (Ram ) + Prerna
· Shalini
· Anand
· Anshuman + wife
· Rajaji + Archana + daughter
· Lokesh + Jaya
· Sishir
· Sanjeev
· Saurav (now transferred to Kolkata office)

FEBRUARY '09
5. Auroville Marathon & Valentines day @ Pondicherry (14th Feb Weekend) – This was big events of sorts. Both me and prerna like to be a part of nature and this was an opportunity to participate in a longish run. I took part in the 21 Km Half Marathon and she in the 10.5Km Quarter Marathon. Both personal landmarks for us.
This was a nice trip with some old friends. Sankar was the chief architect of the occasion convincing all the novices to join in. Murali, Syed, Mohan and Shahabid (syeds bro) dove down from Chennai.
On 14th we got some time to spend in Pondy, we saw the mothers ashram and took a walk through the sea side bylanes.
This description will be incomplete without a description of Auroville and its philosophy. They are a community created at around the time the French left Pondicherry. The community primarily consists of Europeans settled down along with decent Indian working class representation. Here all people work on equal wages. i.e Rs 5000. Out of this Rs 2500/- as cash and the rest as Credit which they can spend within their territory. And additional revenue had to be generated from Entrepreneurship. We met a Spanish lady who was settled here and has lived here for the past 14 years. She was selling bread and peanut butter at the finish line.
The night @ Auroville was spent in a large private room. J A computer room in the local school. We were given the entire room to ourselves

MARCH '09
6. Shashtiabdapoorthi i.e 60th Birthday of Appa @ Rajamundary (28 Feb to 3 Mar) – This is probably the biggest and most planned event this quarter. It was my appa’s 60th birthday, during this both appa & amma have a kind of 2nd marriage. Which is kinda big, really big. Both me and Ravi also brought out a note on their lives.
The whole event spread across 2 days , where all the relatives attend, involved considerable planning and resources. The Vadiyar coudnt make it from Chennai. The Bhadrachalam trip on a boat that followed. Seeing Vageesh in a much bigger state were all the highlights of this event. Also involved the loss of the prised D-SLR.
(One family pic - From Poo's CD)

7. Appa’s trip to Bangaore and House Building (Mid March) – Appa was here for a short 10 days but had a packed schedule in front of him. Haggling with Sanath, deciding the designs for the house are some memories. We had dinner at Samarkhand to celebrate the completion of the major chunk of the home and to ceebrate Manni’s coming first in her college and 2nd in Punjab University.

8. Birthday (21st March 2009) – Well I turned 27th , having just completed one of the more event full years. Actually in the last 13 months, everyone in the family has got married, starting from Ravi + Manni to Me+Prerna then Amma & Appa. Prerna and the gang from Bangalore (GD, Karan, Ankit, Punitha, Gautam, Natasha, Sid), cut the cake at Mid night. Felt nice to have a group of friends around me. Many calls including a call from Preethi , which stretched late into the night.

9. Go Karting with friends (22nd March) – We went for a great evening out this Sunday to do go karting. This was a long due desire for me and I had a ball of a time. Did 3 circuits of 6 laps each (Rs 150/- each circuit) and was trying to get a great time. Don’t thing I did too bad with a best lap of around 40seconds. The rain & pakodas there were heavenly. Prerna did only one circuit, she get more excitement out of running the Swift through the city.

10. Mysore & Waynad with Prerna’s Parents – This was the first experience of them coming to our home after the wedding. This along with the fact that Pearl had completed her board exams made it an important occasion for all. It was a fabulous trip. Where the whole family was together continuously for the 2 days. I guess you don’t get that type of interaction and face time event if you are under one roof. Both the Mysore Palace & the watery Wayanad was well worth the effort.

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