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24-01-1973 to 24-01-2003
Madras
Tirupathi visit during agitation
Honeymoon - Walk on the track, Pony ride & protecting ourselves with a knife at Ooty : film in Trivandrum : dinner with Pattabhi in Madurai : walk for lunch at Kodai Journey to Solapur
Solapur
Wedding party (Menon’s khatori )
‘Simple’ living
First idli (Patil)
First (Kini)
Buying old Lambretta scooter
First scooter ride
Zanjeer & other films
Walk to Lakshmi Market
Visit to Pandharpur & Tuljapur (20 litre ‘kafi’)
Visit to Bombay ('GORAM' by Sneh)
Strike days
Visiting mills
Watching jalebi-eating
Visit to Ramnad
Watching the rain from portico
Farewell party by staff
Persons - Dole, Bhatnagar, Hiremath, Mahadevans, & others
Vijayawada
Milk at 1 Re. per litre
Travels by carriage (Venkat Rao)
‘Shocked’ safaiwali
Too hot for my mother to wash
Visit by your parents & Shri Chakravarthy
Visits to Rajahmundhry, Gadiyam, Waltair etc.
Temple visits
Aavakkai in hotel
Secunderabad
Visits to Hyderabad zoo and Public Gardens
Visits to Salar ‘Junk’ Museum
‘kodukkapuli’ with Raghu
Laughing on
Films with Raghu & Sridhar
Playing cards (teen pathi & Rummy)
Cycle rikshaw travel
Raghu on telephone
Triple rides on scooter
Visits of relatives & Photos
Visit by Sneh
Neighbours’ children
Monda market
Hussain Sagar lake and the cloth mill nearby
Visits to Gol Gumbaz (Viswanathan’s butter mania!), Aurangabad, Ajanta, Ellora
Foreign tourists in Ajanta
Yadgir (Panaga Narasimhar)
Walking from Hotel Swagat to beach two days before Harish’s birth (in Madras)
Birth of Harish (in Madras)
Santhanam’s wedding
Buying woolens for Harish
Biscuits and mango jelly
Persons - Raghavans, Vasudevans, Sudhir Mathur, Pandurangam and his family, Rajasekharan, Your father’s cousins and many more
Chittaranjan
Getting down from train at Bhuvaneswar
Stay at Bhuvaneswar
Howrah station
Winter in Chittaranjan – Harish in lawn after Johnson’s baby oil
'Stereo' Thunders in Sunset Avenue
Visit by Vanaja and others
Visit to Calcutta – sleeping inside Planetarium
Tamil magazine club
Get-togethers of Tamil officers
Night shows of films
Dinners in hotel – Others enjoying ‘oosal’ sambhar
Harish’s first birthday (Cooking with stove by my mother & you)
Visit to Gaya & Varanasi with my parents
Harish’s enjoyment of tonga ride in Gaya
P.C.Sorcar’s magic show
Rama Navami & Avani Avittam
Tamil Drama & ‘Dialogue’
Purchase of Vijay scooter
Attending Sneh’s wedding at Lucknow
First tape-recording
First record player
Sleeping inside rajai in winter
‘Machine grinding’ by Krishnamurthy’s parents
Journey’s to Madras
Visit by your father
Visit by Kannan & Chooda and their travel with Banerjee
Bengali wedding
Bengali ‘Bhajan’
Krishnamurthy’s ‘teen aur to’
Probationers’ visits
Visit to Delhi – Viji’s record gift
First journey by Rajdhani Express
First day of school of Harish
Snakes
Travels to Madras, Salem & Trivandrum with my parents
Persons - Subramanian, Krishnamurthys, Mohan Das, Krishnamurthys (Mangalam), Raman, Deb, Janakiramans, Ramanathans and many more
Bombay
Journey from Chittaranjan – luggage, Krishnamurthy in Allahabad
Days in Rest house in V.T. and house in Dadar
Visit of Pushpa’s family
Purchase of vegetables from Byculla
Harish’s watching of trains from the window
Letters (daily!) from Hyderabad and Bombay
Harish’s study in International school
Birth (and death) of child in Madras
Kota
Growing wheat and rice
Shuttle
Visits to Chambal Garden & temple – Dal bhati & Churma
Club dinners, films & other programmes
Qawwali by Mrs. Mathur
Harish’s birthdays – Qawwali party, but ‘no parade’
Birthday parties of children in colony (I want idli)
Recordings of all of us
Raghu’s wedding
First visit to Taj Mahal
By carriage to many places
Bharatpur bird sanctuary
With Santhanam in Delhi (Rail Museum, Republic Day Parade & Beating Retreat, ‘petrol’ in train)
Visits to Ajmer & Bombay
Visit by Santhanam & Kausalya
Receiving Vanaja in Bina at midnight
Picnic to Amjar Palace
My mother’s visit to Kota Barrage (Harish’s comment)
Feeding of Harish in school
Soundarya lahari classes (Your ‘ghoshti’ & Mrs. Kutty)
Harish taking 50 injections
Seeing ‘Gandhi’ film
Snakes, monkeys and pea-cocks
Jyotianna’s lunch (with wife and 5 children)
Persons - Varadarajans, Jayaramans, Madnanis, Bedekar, Singrus, Srinivasans, Swamis, Ahuja, Kunwar, Mataporekar (karchi), Dr. Tandon, Dr. Joshi, Gunasekaran and many others
Vadodara
Journey by passenger train from Kota (carriage)
Living in Rest House and visiting the garage every day
Arranging military truck for Harish’s trip to school (Sridhar)
Living in New hostel (Krishnamoorthy as neighbour)
Parties at home for trainees
Visit by Geoff Motley and Jim Caple (Harish talking in English with them)
Our visit to Kota
My visit abroad (photos taken by Devinder Rai before the trip)
Purchase of Bajaj Super scooter
Aarthi’s birth – Looking for anasthetist
Visit of Chitra (her narration of moped running into Bhikki)
Ear-piercing & Namakaran of Aarthi (cradle from sofa and two types of lunches)
Garba dance by you & other ladies
Dandiya by Bhappi & Harish
Visit to Dwaraka with my parents (goat in Khanalus station)
Visits to Anand (my father’s reaction at raw milk)
Urmila’s wedding
Visit to Madras (forgetting feeding bottle in cooker)
Weekly visits to Khande Rao Market and sorting the vegetables with the balance
Foundation days of RSC
New Year Eve partiies
Pooled dinners by Tamilian officers
Arranging staff college vehicle for Harish’s trip to school
Fall of plaster on Harish’s cot
Gopalan’ visit & the cyclone (m@z
Visits by your parents, Kannan (Prasad attending my classes), Sampath & many others
Aarthi’s talk (Pq`cf, t[`y[f?)
Birthday parties of Harish, Aarthi, Aparna & others
Soap & shampoo making
No petrol in scooter & leaving it with soap vendor
Visits to Goa, Udaipur (escaping from accident in auto, cBkfK mrmf ?)
Aarthi’s first day to school (Shreyas)
Your introduction to crosswords
Our first TV (Buniyaad and other serials)
Aarthi winning a prize in RSC
Chitra’s wedding
Visits to Dakor, Ajwa Gardens, Sayajibagh and other places
Persons - Krishnamoorthys, Chawlas, Ramasubramanians, Jhas, Christians, Satyamurthys, Nagarajans, Ramanujam, Singrus, Manikkuttys ( Baap
ka bhanaya!), Gokhales, Sinhas, Col. Balaram, Sakharam (forgotten suit-case, stainless steel vessels), Bhikki, Natwar and many more.
Mumbai – Anushakti Nagar
Unloading luggage from truck
Seeing films on Kannan’s VCR
Aarthi’s schools
Aarthi refusing to go on picnic
Going to Vadodara for Subha’s wedding (garland)
Programs in Shanmukhananda Hall
Shopping at Chembur
Introduction to Afternoon & Midday
Suicide in Shanti Niketan
Visit to Jaslok Hospital (Shankara Narayanan)
Visits to Chedda Nagar temple
Visits by Vanaja, my chithi & others
Dinner in Dr. P.K Iyengar’s house
Visits to Kalpakkam, Gauribidanur & Bangalore
Dr. Chidambaram’s visit to Tiruvanmiyur
Purchase of Spectrum
Our first voting
Tarapur – Republic Day Parade & discussions with Varadarajan about P.S High School
My visit to U.K. and phone conversations
Falling down from scooter
Purchase of house in Bangalore (your noble act of giving up all jewellery)
3 months’ leave in 89-90
Commuting to VT with tiffin
Persons - Venkatachalam, Raghavans, Chellappas. Ramkumar (concrete sleeper) and many more
Mumbai – Juhu
Seeing films on Kannan’s VCR – (Chinna ‘gown-dar’)
Aarthi’s comment about house – ‘black’
Renovation of house (Harish’s selection of fittings)
Hitting the TV to make it work
‘Chamatkar’ on TV
Buniyaad and other serials
Travels to Nasik, Shirdi & & Raghu’s grahapravesam
Harish’s admissions to Bhawan’s College and Fergusson college
Purchase of PC solitaire (Aarthis reaction to her record being broken), freecell
Aarthi’s school (Your father’s favourite - Darshana)
Papillon, Crunchy Munchy & theatres
Visits by relatives – Taking some to Borivli National Park & KVIC’s centre in Borivli,
Your mother’s reaction to cleaning up store-room
Krishnaswamy’s (Kicha) & Radha’s father-in-law’s visit
Sundar’s stay on transfer
Ilaya Raja’s programme
Dahanu – walk and bath in the sea & motor boat ride
Visits to Salem, Tiruchengode, Ooty etc. (Going to Yercaud with Hema)
Visit to Tiruchendur, Rameswaram, Kodai etc. ( Aarthi’s ride on moped, car driver (Rajnkant kuppai sir) etc.)
Sujatha’s & visits from Calcutta
Thane & Andheri Bomb blasts
Trip to Gujarat with Kannan’s family & Hema (Aarthi’s thanni dal) and to Rajasthan and Delhi with Hema (sitting on camel, journey in desert, sand dunes, my outburst at the driver)
Premiere show of Lamhe
Your writing in Kalki
Hema coming home at midnight
Visiting Ramgopal, Sundar and others
Gatherings on terrace & New Year Eve in office ( Aarthi winning in Housie)
Car journey to your brother’s place in the rain (Prasad’s departure to USA)
Srivatsan’s arrival with a small bag
Radha’s wedding
1994- an unforgettable year for travel– Kathmandu & Pokhra (Hema’s ‘shake’, Prasad’s anger, word games, dahi at Motihari), Jammu & Vaishno Devi, Badri Nath, Kedar Nath & Gangotri, (Aarthi on Kandi, cold in Kedarnath), Delhi (First flight for you, Harish & Aarthi), Mahabhaleshwar,
Commuting to Churchgate
Mohan’s wedding & visit to Nandi Hills with Radha & Ravi
Persons - Kesavan, Gupta, Ponniah Pillai, Mohan Rao, Babu, Roy (Hodish), Chaudhury, Arya (cartoon) & many others
Mumbai – Badhwar Park
Moving luggage from Juhu
Travel for Madhu’s wedding and phone from Dhond
Raghu’s visit & the bandicoot
Choodamani’s death and our visit to Calcutta
Sampath’s death
Visit to Ranathambore & Kota
Usha’s arrival
My departure for Tinsukia
Daily phone talks from Tinsukia
Your visit in summer of ’96 by flight (Landing in Chabua)
Army canteen, Digboy, Kitply factory, Miao etc.
Travel by carriage, motor trolley, visit to accident site etc.
Journey to Chennai
Admission in Perambur hospital & in special ward (cards)
Journey to Mumbai after discharge from hospital
Payments to Pune house (with Hema’s help)
Your visit during Deepavali 1996 - Your travel by First AC for the first time, Namdapha, Kaziranga, Scouts Rally at home, Club parties etc.
Your father’s 80th birthday
Your visit in Summer 1997 – Aarthi’s drawing & Tabla classes, EL TV, ‘trip’, Hum Paanch, Freecell etc.
My visit – ‘Chachi 420’ with Usha
Visit by you, Harish, Aarthi, Kannan, Chooda & Hema – Brahmaputra ( jeep on boat, driver losing the key), Namdapha (Holock gibbon), Kaziranga (elephant ride), Shillong, Cheerapunji, Guwahati (stay in carriage, pilot ‘jick’), etc.
Sale of Bangalore house & purchase of jewellery
Transfer to Central Railway
My father’s death
My mother’s stay in Mumbai (thayakattai)
Daily surfing & e-mails from Naunet
Making of my home page
Ramesh’s wedding at Vellore (night show & Shoba’s reaction)
NCPA membership – plays, concerts, dance etc.
Getting Aarthi ready in the mornings for coaching classes
Both of us doing crossword
Our visit to Europe ( Club class travel, in the snow on top of Mt. Titlis, on top of Eiffel Tower, return from Eiffel Tower, Berlin hotel, Potsdam visit, Bus journey from Zurich and Berlin, Eating dosa and onion bajji in Paris and many more)
Your brother’s 60th birthday
Aarthi standing first in 10th standard and our reactions
Harish clearing MCA with First Class
Aarthi’s admission to Xavier’s
Deepu & Sriram’s stay with us and their death
Mukund’s wedding
Face-lift of the quarters
Homam in the Pune house (Expressway, Kerala Vadyar)
Harish’s first job and change of job
Visit to Vadodara & Nasik
Transfer to Western Railway
Theatres & hotels in South Mumbai
Visits to Jaipur (Choki Dani), Ujjain etc.
Aarthi’s entrance test at Srishti & admission
Visit to Bangalore, Ussoor (ISKCON temple, Harish’s comment in Ussoor, , playing cards in candle light, monkey) & Chennai (Neha’s talks)
Aarthi’s awrd for being first in Chemistry
Watching the International Fleet Review and the Air show from our balcony
CEG Alumni Association meetings (Gauri Rao Mehta & others)
Visits to Bhopal, Gwalior, Jhansi, Khajuraho, Solapur (farewell, temples), Pune, Jabalpur (Kanha – seeing the tiger from the elephant)
Jatin-Lalit Nite
Visit to Chennai (New Year’s day of 2002 at Marina beach)
Farewell in Mumbai
Transfer to Chennai (daily talks & visits)
Your father’s death
Packing & loading of luggage
Travel to Chennai by carriage (reaching the station late)
Persons - Muralidharans, Acharyas, Rajamanis, Viswanathan (doll=making), Ramdasi & his parents (Ayyappo, ‘ghoda’, badi badi aankhen), Ratnam, Arun, Jaya, Atul Mohan, A Ramasubramanians, Ranjanesh Sahai, & many others
Chennai
Get-together in June
Early morning walk & shuttle
Films, hotels, TV (special Raja Geetham) & concert (Aruna Sayeeram)
Visits by Harish, Aarthi, Raghu, Hema and others (visits to beach)
Articles for the Newsletter
Visit to Tirupathi and introduction to Spider Solitaire
Visits to GH
Winning Housie regularly
(Next instalment in 2023 or 2033)
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