A YIndian, Yorkshire by birth and Indian by marriage. Originally from the UK, I've now lived in Mysore, South India for over ten years with my beautiful wife Manjula. MeandMycycle is about the ups, downs and ups of our life in Mysore and our creations: Mysore Bed and Breakfast and MyCycle Tours.
It’s May and we’ve just celebrated Kaveri’ birthday.
She’s now 11 and she is a star
The past month’s activities included: seaside holiday, skating, swimming coaching and summer camp.
KaverI is now at her mother’s and we hit the uncertainty of whether Chandrika, her mother, will change her school. Kaliyuvamane the alternative residential school she’s attended for two years has helped her grow socially, intellectually and physically.
We can make either options work but the residential school has had the continuity that her home will not provide.
I worry that it maybe beyond Chandrika’s ability if Kaveri is shifted to the day school but we’ll do our best.
Meanwhile
I’m relaxing in Manjula’s Memorial Garden and toying with the idea of revisiting our memoir.
Mysore is a connecting place, social entrepreneurs, community animateurs are forever initiating new ideas to bring us together.
Sriranjini Simha kindly invited me to experience mysore. Well I have been doing that for twenty years, initially on holidays and now as resident with our own business. But joking aside this was an invite to a new initiative that is actually called ‘Experience Mysuru’ and I’m so pleased I checked it out.
I’ve always thought that the Mysore city feels more like a village, by that I mean : it has an intimacy, interactivity, on a human scale. Well ‘Experience Mysuru’ reflects exactly that. Mysore has a well deserved reputation as a cultural capital that was fantastically represented last night..
The ‘showcase’ was curated to reveal through the senses of taste, hearing, smell, touch and sight and included: yoga and meditation, ancient board games, percussion, storytelling, dance, music and singing. To be more precise — Chande: the pulse of Karavali, Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music and Kamsale— come find out for yourselves what it is.
I can’t say performers, yes they shared, their skills, they entertained but it went beyond that. Each person introduced their activity to ‘get beneath the skin’ they fitted all this in to just 120 minutes and it was not crammed. It was exactly right, the timing, the diversity, the interactive-ness, the rich content, their expertise, I’ve got to know Mysore a bit over the years but this brought me to so many new layers and levels.
Well done team, we’re rightly proud of our heritage and this was a great way to share with young and old, local and not so local, and I’ll be back..
Who is this guy, who pops up everywhere? An active entrepreneur who’s become a good friend. Great to catch up with established and meet new friends.
Thank you Kim Kanchana Ganga, Tanushri SN, Shrimathi and her team, Pranav Athrey’s-Pranav Athreya, Suraksha Dixit, Tejashri Murphy, Pushpa and her team… plus the managers and organisers behind the scenes that put it all together and made it go so smoothly…..
Stomach Churning HandWeaving LighthouseRight Next To the beach Chera RocksFortress En route
I’m away with Kaveri for a few days with Naveen and his mum Sowbaghya.
Manjula’s Mysore supports their education and now we’re on holiday together.
At Chera Rocks FabNewActivity Splashy Chera RocksShabaz, our wonderful friend always on hand to make it a great success. Time to go home Who does the washing? Where have you been?
A new summer school holiday activity — Button Masala.
Incredible creativity and innovative design from cloth, button and rubber band!
A great addition to the swimming, summer camp, reading, storytelling, crafts, skating, seaside, badminton, cycling, TV and phone that’s become a staple of Kaveri’s school holiday
A really cool event presented by the creator of Button Masala —Amuj Sharma and supported by Sri Vidya MR of the Anubhuti Trust.
What then is love? Not much, not much; I come back to this idea. Sensitivity, imagination, fatigue, and this effort to depend on another; the taste for the mystery of the other and the need to admire… What is worthwhile, is friendship… this profound mutual confidence between [two people], and this joy of knowing that the other exists.
“The ancient Greeks, in their pioneering effort to order the chaos of the cosmos, neatly taxonomized them into filial love (the kind we feel for siblings, children, parents, and friends), eros (the love of lovers), and agape(the deepest, purest, most impersonal and spiritual love).”
I decided that we would continue Manjula’s sunshine goodness, sharing her love, through events and activities for young people.
The most obvious example is our continuing support for Kaveri.
Kaveri’s most recent art from this weeks summer camp She also leaves me little messages.
Billet Doux, it’s hard, there’s no respite. Squeaking Kits, half the time biting instead of sucking, I keep nipping out for a break.
I’ve explained how it happened and to ensure it’ll not happen again she needs to stay home until the kittens are weaned and she can then have the op.
She’s managed wonderfully looking after the six
Instinct and what she learned from mum has worked. But she’s not got how it happened and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Am I expecting too much? My English not clear?
I’ve started restricting her so she can’t get out of the yard. Or so I thought. Today, second day running she’s legged it again. It must have taken her a nano second when my back was turned.
This is not good.
So new tack
Less of a prison ….
Next I’m going to change garage into a Palace for a Queen (within reason) and as the kits get older, only allow supervised access to the yard. Makes it sound like a prison?
Step Father and teenage son are having a conversation. They’ve recently come together as the guy married his mum.
They’re bonding. Talking about how the father tries to manage challenges himself and not let them in to help.
He doesn’t want to feel a burden to them but it has the opposite effect as they then worry about him.
That’s a trigger for me.
That rings bells.
I’m too independent and realise I could have shared more with MAnjula, that in turn that helped me miss that she did want to be a burden through her illness and all it entailed.
I’m sorry MAnjula. You were never a burden. I love you and would manage anything for you.
I freaked out at you for not taking your tablets. That was about my worries, stress feeling powerless to not be able to help you from deterioration.
There’s so much I would and should have done differently.
Me and MYCycle 