My Village- Nangli Godha

My family originaly hails from a village called Nangli godha in Rewari district about 100 kilometers from Gurgaon/Delhi.. My family has lived there since the 1820s and before that my family lived in the neighbouring village called Palli. My mom has several times called us "Nangli ke Jungli". I visited my village in 2005. Here are a few shots from my gorgeous village.

I have to go

I have to go.
to mingle with the flowers,
to belong to the world,
to fly with the wind,
to sing with the birds.

That’s me in the flowers so pretty,
in the sunshine so bright,
on the mountains high,
In the valleys deep, on the meadows green and in the jungles full of life.

When the feelings are low and the eyes cry;
feel me in everything you know.
When the tears flow,
look at the sky for the star so bright;
That’s me, watching you live
every time of your life.


Sarat, This is for your friend. I wrote it 12 years ago when someone I knew died.

Fruits of Labour

I planted 8 tomato plants 3 months back and after months of taking care of them I got the firt fruit and it was a proud moment. I owe my little garden to John and Nik. Here they are the first harvest, the little beautiful tomatoes, perfect in every way.

Few things from an Indian wedding

My Mom's Garden

My mom loves gardening. Here is a picture of her begunias. They are really pretty, arent they?

From Desk to Desk

I used to study on a small brown desk. It stood in the corner of my room looking splendid and aristocratic, its beautiful teak wood shining through the brown finish. It had two small drawers and a foot rest, the kind you dont see in desks anymore. The desk was built in the 1940s for my dad. My dad studied on it almost all his life and then I inherited it. The desk was my love. It watched me grow, it heard my stories, stayed up with me late at night, woke up early with me, saw me struggle as a writer, student and a human being. It hugged me as I napped on it and stood there always ready for me to dream on it, work on it and fly away on it. It was a magic desk that turned out three engineers in my family. Like a good faithful companion it was there always. My brother inherited the desk from me when I moved to college in 1995. I moved to america five years ago and when I go back home the desk is still there in my old room holding onto my mom's computer on which she chats with me. I bought a desk yesterday from pottery barn. It is a white beautiful desk. It does not know me, my dad or my brother.

Robber Monkey or Lord Hanuman

Several monkeys live in my parents neighbourhood. Two days back a big fat monkey entered the house, opened the fridge and took out a cantaloupe. He then sat down in the guest bedroom to devour his loot, while his wife and children waited outside. Dad shooed him away, the monkey then ran out with the cantaloupe. Dad went outside and shooed him out of the house and brought his precious fruit back. He showed it to mom telling her stories of his bravery. Mom was upset that dad took the fruit away from Lord Hanuman on a tuesday and he was asked to promptly take the fruit back to the monkey who was still waiting on the boundry wall of the house.

Perfecting the art of procarstination

Be it type 0, type 1 or type 2 procarstination is procarstination in any of its form. What is it about procarstination that makes it so attractive?? It is like a bad enjoyable habit that is absoulutely hard to give up.

My mind wonders like a little restless bird and goes in every direction except the one it should really be going in as I sit infornt of my work in the cube farm at work.How do I control the restlessness and how do I possibly stop it from reading the news or checking the india pakistan score card. I blame my procarstination on the evils of mankind. The internet, the TV and the other distractions.

Are there really any new ideas?

Is the world a reuse of the ideas that exist or are there truly new ideas? Is creativity a reuse of old ideas or coming up with new ideas which are essentially a reinterpretation of the old ideas. It's confusing isnt it?

Shiva - The Destroyer

We believe in Brahma as the eternal God. We all know of the Trinity formed by the Creator, Preserver and the Destroyer. Shiva, the destroyer features in the trinity since destruction is the first step of recreation. I never really looked at it that way. Destruction can be quite liberating in an abstract sense, for it gives "new" a chance.