Sunday 13 May 2007

What happened so far...

30th September 2006


Can't find excuses for this silence. Simply been busy with my little one for the last one and a half years.


It is Durga Puja/Dashahra time again. India must be agog with festivities. We also have Puja in Newcastle Mandir today, which we shall attend this evening. Greetings on Puja - let there be peace and health for everyone!


We went to India for three weeks at the stert of this month. Came back last weekend but still being troubled by 4.5 hours jet lag. Missing out dinners and waking up at small hours.
Met lots and lots of people in India. Will write about them and post some pictues soon. Just hang on.



9th October 2005


Hi folks, I am back again! Sorry to be off line for so long!


Lots of stuff happened since I last had a chat with you. Aayush (Rio) was born on 22nd March in Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Rio


Mohua and I really got so absorbed in our new life that we couldn't keep track of time (I hope you buy that!). Today Rio is over six months and Mohua just told me from Kolkata that he has started sitting up! My friends say that it just gets better and better. Fingers crossed!



2nd February 2005


Phew, that was a long pause! Wish you all a fabulous 2005!


Last weekend we had a bright weekend in Newcastle. The sun shone brightly and I ventured out with my camera to the Quayside. Here are some pictures:

Quayside



28th November 2004


Few things happened this week which need mentioning. Gurukul had another successful baithak at its premises on Tuesday! Dr. Rajput showed us his arsenel of musical genius again. And thanks again to Dr. Anand for his wisecracks in between the ragas. I have been using my trusted MD recorder to record the events (doing some basic sound engineering these days). And then there was Gurjeet's Indian food to top it all at the end - yummy! I also took some pictures:

Gurukul

My mom-in-law also joined us in the concert. She has been visiting us from Kolkata.


The Incredibles turned out to be as fabulous as I expected it to be. The Pixar studio guys are nothing short of magicians, when it comes to playing with pixels. A must see for all who love animated movies.



Jayant da (Chakravarty) had his house warming party this week. He has got himself a plush 7th floor apartment in a posh Ranchi neighbourhood. Congrats Jayant da! Missed one more party.


23rd November 2004


Yesterday my friend Mike presented me with a wonderful Diwali greeting card, made by his 6 year old daughter, Eden! I was delighted to see the fantastic imagination of the child translated in to brilliant pastel colours and lovely paper art. Most of all it contained a very special message for me and Mohua! Thanks Eden! I have quickly made a digital copy of the card so that it stays with us for a long time. Click the thumbnail.
Eden's card

11th November 2004


Its the festival of lights again tomorrow! Happy Diwali to all of you!

31st October 2004


On the 17th of October, Gurukul had organised a fabulous concert on Indian classical music at its premises in Gosforth. I must take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Anand for this initiative! Here are some pictures which capture the mood of the event.

Gurukul


30th October 2004


Shubho Bijoya to all bandhus!


Time has been flying for the last few weeks.
The guys on my ISM forum have now settled down to a few posts per week now - the initial momentum is now gone. I hope they get back to their old ways soon. Last heard about Bhindi (Amardeep) from Manoj and Manuj, that he is doing better now.



Started a couple of weblogs myself. rawwool.blogspot.com and dotnetyogi.blogspot.com. I was on an ego trip when I created the second one. Thought it would take care of the geek in me.



Its Arabinda's birthday today! I wish the young man many happy returns of the day. He has hit the important milestone of 40 today!


Ashtami, the 21st October 2004


Many greetings for Ashtami pooja today! Newcastle's Durga pooja is always adjusted according to the weekends, so the
big celebrations start from tomorrow in the Hindu mandir.
Durga: Photo courtesy WahIndia.com

20th October 2004



Thanks to Diptiman, who posted a message im my guest book and woke me up from a long sleep. Been more lazy than busy last couple of months. My web presence was mostly diverted to managing the two e-groups I have created on Yahoo, to bring together my classmates from ISM and Ecole des Mines. Both e-groups are doing well. The old guys have lost none of their charms (and colourful language). I must admit, I am a happy bunny after doing all that.



I and Mohua went to Gurukul's Baithak last Friday, which turned out to be a well managed Indian classical vocal concert, followed by sumpuous Indian meal (vegeterian). Thanks to Dr. Anand for all that. I wish his Gurukul all the best! Watch out this space, I will shortly post some pictures and audio clips of that concert.


15th August 2004



Happy Independence day!



Anshuman (Jayant da's elder son) has sent in his first digital masterpiece.

Lake District



18th July 2004



Last Sunday went to the Lake district, one of the most picturesque settings in England. We didn't plan for this, so couldn't stop at many places. It was sort of a reconnaissance tour. Took some pictures.

Lake District



Last Friday went to the Tyneside to test out my new camera. Here are some pictures.

Tyneside


30th May 2004



Sanjiv Soni has sent me over some pictures from his new Kodak DX6340. Some of the pictures are from his Vienna visit.

Sonis 2004



Last weekend we visited the National Heritage site of Washington Old Hall, where George Washington's ancestors lived in the 17th century.

Sonis 2004


16th May 2004



Last month I received a bad news from India. Geetika Chopra, the wife of Rajesh Kumar Chopra, passed away in Delhi. She lost her grim battle with cancer. Our hearts go out for Chopra Saheb and their son.



Last week I and Mohua had a chance to make a nostalgic trip to Paris after six years, thanks to Mohua's ability to find deals on internet. We visited all the places which reminded of our last stay there. All the little streets, shops and promenades. We were tourists of a different kind. Voici les images:

Paris 2004


25th April 2004


Today we went to another National Trust site - Allen Banks, which is 30 miles from our place and is a fascinating drive. There are great walks along the banks of a narrow and shallow river called Allen. On both sides there are plenty of forests, wildlifes and
small hills. Here are some pictures.

Allen banks


Had a long chat with Indranil da in Canada on phone. They are doing fine and their younger son in now known as Saptarshi!



Ranajit (Tala) is doing great in Calcutta. So are Arabinda and Manoj in Ranchi. Its was Rahul (Guha) da's marriage anniversary yesterday. Many greetings!



23rd March 2004


I have been very lazy and little busy since my last entry. After Aurobinda's many persuations, I have uploaded
a few sets of photographs here. Lets begin chronologically. The first is that of Rajiv Singh and his wife. Don't they look great in this photoshoot!

The Singhs


Rahul da (Mr Rahul Guha) is a keen amateur photographer besides being a fine gentleman. He has an immaculate taste in life and believes in total perfection. This time around when I was in India, I couldn't help being influenced by him. One of his many hobbies is photgraphy. We had a little slide show in his house, where I managed to photograph some of the transparencies with my digital camera. This experiment turned out to be alright but I couldn't do a lot of justice to the brilliant photos. However, you can get an idea of the how the real slide show went (my apologies to Rahul da for the poor reproduction of his work!)

The Singhs


23rd Feb 2004


India is shining! From the pen of a Pakistani journalist! Read this.

14th Feb 2004



Happy St. Valentine's day to all! We saw a lot of snow for a week, a couple of weeks ago. The
Big Freeze'Big Freeze'
came and went in the UK. Spirit and opportunity are freely roving on the mars! What a time for all those
who are fascinated by the mysteries of things beyond the earth!


22th Jan 2004



I am sure many people have noticed this, but did you know that the Mars rover Spirit also carries a small Indian flag apparently? See this picture! Notice the small tri-color little below Kalpana Chawla's name.


20th Jan 2004



I have been very lazy, the last few weeks. None of the new year resolves really lived even this long.



Congratulations to Manoj and Indro da for their newly born sons!



Here are some pictures from my India sejour finally!
India 2003



1st Jan 2004



Hi Welcome to the 2004! Have a wonderful new year!



Came back from India on the 27th December. Its just about today that I have been able to adjust to the 5 and half hours of time difference. The India visit was great as always. Sometime I feel that I am rather on my UK visit now which lasts nearly a year. The four weeks passed so quickly that I couldn't have as much India as would I have loved to.



It has snowed last night and its all white all around our house. Its lovely and cold (8 degrees below zero). I shall be posting a lot of pictures soon. Watch out!


7th Nov 2003



Yesterday evening I had a unique experience of 'Go Carting'. I loved it for the sheer excitement it causes and shoots up the adrenalin level. I didn't do too bad in a group of sixteen Sage racers. I wanted to take some pictures but couldn't as my camera battery went dead! Take a look at the following race results:

Results


Going to India finally, thanks to Mou's patience in ploughing her way through the endless maze of websites and getting us somewhat affordable tickets. Looking forward to it really! Twenty days to go!



29th October 2003



Diwali came and went. For us it was just another day, being so far away from home and family and the pooja ambience. Diwali is surprisingly, very popular in the Indian community in UK. The news bulletin told us how a Diwali rocket penetrated someone's roof and burnt down thousands of pounds' worth of HIFI equipment. The radio phone-ins told us how the pets (especially the dogs) had been petrified while the crackers were going off all over the place. We managed to do a little pooja in our home (and also managed to burn a little hole in the carpet!)
We went to the local Hindu temple during the Durga pooja.
Jedburg



Indro da and Chumki bou-di are expecting their second child in January! That's the hottest news for the time being. Yes, Rajesh Jaiswal is doing well too, in Canada. Got a hot new job!



Its Arabinda's birthday tomorrow! We have all the greetings in the world for him! There will surely be celebrations in his lovely home (the penthouse) tomorrow, not to forget the 'laddoo club' thing in RI3! How I am missing it all!

My mate Arabinda is as good a friend as one can ever ask for (Why I am not calling him Cheema?). I am sure half the population in Ranchi, one fifth in Calcutta, one third in Hazaribagh and all in CMPDI would agree. Others simply don't know him. Happy birthday, guru!



Ranajit has sent me this link for a pooja in
Chicago.




Indranil da has sent in another of his recitations! Click here.



2nd October 2003



This is Puja time. The whole of eastern India must be deep into the celebration of Durga Puja and the northern and the western India in the celebration of Dushehra. I and Mohua wish our friends a very happy Puja!


28th September 2003



Few things happened this week. Soma's papa has responded well to the pacemaker and is on his way to recovery now!

I and Mohua went to Jedburgh (Scotland) for a short trip. I took some pictures.
Jedburg


Indranil da has sent me a piece of his recitation. Its worth listening to. Click here.



20th September 2003



Didn't happen much in my life since my last posting. The weather is getting colder now in Newcastle. Our summer plants have started to perish. I did some gardening stuff. Painted the shade....



Indraneel da is doing fine in Canada. Do chat with him every now and then. Manoj and Swati are only 3 months away from a spectacular event! Arabinda and Soma are well but are very worried about Soma's father who has taken ill In Kolkata. We wish him a very speedy recovery. Its Soma's birthday today! I am sure she'll cast aside her worries for a while to have a little nice time with her family and friends. I and Mohua wish her all the best!



26th August 2003



For a few moments I thought I was in the Katchery grounds of Ranchi in the midst of a colorful mela! Newcastle Mela is arranged for the asian population of Newcastle in particular and UK in general. There were shops, shops and games. There were sweets, chaats, onion bhajis, kebabs, tikkas and what not! The English love Indian food and as expected, flocked the food stalls. Chicken Tikka Masala is their first choice perhaps closely followed by the Onion Bhajis. There was BBC around too, to capture the ambience.
I tried my taste buds on a packetful of onion bhajis. It was delicious with some kind of dahi mix sprinkled on top.
There were a couple of concerts in Panjabi mostly. On the whole it was a good fun. Missed India a lot though!
Newcastle Mela



25th August 2003



This is bank holiday weekend. Lots of time passed since my last entry. Nothing much happened though. Lost another match and we are sure to be going down to division 3. Went bowling last thursday and it was fun except one of my collegues slipped and broke her wrist. Went to the Tynemouth on Saturday and took some pictures.Tynemouth


8th August 2003



Another weekend! Newcastle is now as hot as Ranchi in March. While the English love the sun, I really hate it. I have seen enough heat in life. I wish I had the Indian monsoon here for a while.



Lost another match on Thursday, not forgetting the one lost on Monday. That's roughly ten on the trot! Got another on Monday. The last of the season. Then we are sure to br demoted to the division 3. On the 31st August got a match between Regent Centre Sage & Benton Park Sage. In Ian's words, "At least this time the Sage is sure to win!".



31st July 2003



Its the birthday of one of my dearest friends and one of the finest human beings I have known in my life. His name is Manoj Sanwal. He lives in Ranchi with his wife Swati and his parents. Manoj has recently shifted to his new apartment with a great terrace which extends towards the lake. A great place for partying! He has currently more reasons for partying as the couple are expecting their first offstring in December! I wish him many happy returns of the day!


Manoj

23rd July 2003


Cricket



Yesterday played cricket for Sage and lost (again). The game had a clinching finish, but the result was invariably the same. After having lost some unpardonable number of times, we are on the verge of relegation from our division (Ouch!). I bowl for the team and bat a little during the slog overs. For those who have seen me batting would have a smile on their face. Nonetheless, I do contribute off and on. Wish us luck for the next few matches! I'll try to put some pictures next time. Watch out for it!


The lovely Raos



I met Rahul (Rao) in December 2001 in an Orange shop in the Newcastle city centre. I remember it was heavily snowing outside and I and Mohua were stranded inside, pretending to browse the mobile phones. Anjali (Rahul's wife) spotted us from the other side of the shop. Normally the Indians are shy (some might protest). She, however, came up to Mohua and started a conversation. That lead to a very good friendship between the Raos and us eventually. We had a really good time in Newcastle, particularly when Rahul used to drive us to nice places in his fine car or when Anjali used to invite us for those lovely dinners or when we used to sit at our place watching a movie at our hometheatre! Raos went back to India at the start of this year. I and Mohua miss them for their affection and care.


The Raos


The Raos are coming back! Only for few months though. They shall be living in London and we hope to meet them once in a while.
Here is a day spent with them in the lovely greens of Stocksfield.





18 July 2003



Added a new section called 'Kya baat hai'. This has some funny links you may enjoy following. Links should be updated (by me) fairly regularly. So go ahead and click.



16 July 2003


I have added a recipe for the massively popular (in UK) Onion Bhaji (to the Hobbies section), which my wife Mohua has been using. I haven't found anyone who doesn't like this mouth watering Indian side dish.



bhaji3_small.jpg


15 July 2003


Received the shocking news of Suresh Mishra's demise in a car accident near Silli, Ranchi. It happened probably yesterday. He was a collegue of mine during my mine planning & design days.



13 July 2003


Went to the beautiful Cagside National Park. It was a bright sunny day, but too hot for my taste.



thumb_20031713 Cragside 025 (1K)


11 July 2003


Added some more pictures.


Rajen's son Ankit has got the fifth position in the Math-Olympiad. Bravo!.



8 July 2003


I ventured out last weekend to a couple of very nice tourist sites of northern England, Keilder water and Alnwick Castle. Click here.



6 July 2003


Its our Chilly's birthday today! Had she still been with us, she'd have been 11 years old. We will always cherish our memories with her.



July move


Our work place at Sage underwent some changes under the effect of gravity. We moved from floor 3 to floor 2. I tried to capture some moments and this is the best I came up with...


20030627 034 small (17K)

2 July 2003



Its Ma and Papa's marriage anniversary today! I and Mou wish them all our love and best wishes. Had a little chat over phone with them this morning. Soma and Aurobinda visited them this morning. What a day! Here are some of their old black and white photographs.


29 June 2003


Hi friends, I always wanted to have a website dedicated to my
memories. My memories involve the people I loved, appreciated and who,
to a varying extent, influenced me. I hope you will enjoy spending little time here.


At present, I have no idea how I shall go ahead from here. It looks like a challenging task, but
I shall try. Please do come back off and on to see if something has changed and do give me
a piece of your mind, if you feel like.