For the Manjula’s Mysore team who helped create the event on Manjula’s Birthday
And a reunion of our holiday in Kannur













And our chance to celebrate MAnjula together.


For the Manjula’s Mysore team who helped create the event on Manjula’s Birthday
And a reunion of our holiday in Kannur













And our chance to celebrate MAnjula together.


STOP PRESS CHECK THE VIDEO
Manjula’s Mysore is now the name of the new business. and we’ve already done a few things…
A fun day of activities for forty young visually impaired women on what would have been Manjula’s 49th birthday. Please Check the video created by Faizan.
We’ll always do something on her birthday
Created a garden in the park opposite.
A holiday in Kannur for our extended team
Reopened mysore bed and breakfast and mycycle tours. This month the MCC : Mysore City Corporation issued a business licence and so we’ve officially welcomed our first guests.


The new business has allowed Stephen to get a business visa, to continue to stay in India. So far he’s not been able to get an OCI (overseas citizen of india) and most importantly it’s another way to celebrate MAnjula

Manjula’s Mysore is a three year project to do good as MAnjula would have wanted
I ordered a chai on Lucie and my first walk of the day.
The guy put sugar in the glass, carefully pouring onto it, hot milk. Then hot water in a steel ‘glass’
How’s that my chai?
He promptly threw the milk onto the ground followed by the water and thankfully just about missing Lucie.

I’m guessing it’s a first thing in the morning ritual. I can find out no more, at this stage, given my sophisticated knowledge (don’t ask) of the local Kannada language and the hotel owners grunts.

Another connection with the caribbean. In their case before you take a sip of your rum give a little to the ground.
It’s now back home to finish preparing breakfast for todays lovely guests Eli and James from England
Originally written in March 2021 but lost in the ether
I’m officially confirmed as a writer and here’s the evidence.
I have a blank page and pen. I also have a passion, here it is, at the top of the blank page.

I’ve submitted for a competition and got absolutely nowhere, so that’s the ‘rejection’ box ticked.
I‘ve got the writer’s block down to a fine art.. To be fair I think it’s proximity to the ‘wound’ or the trauma that makes it extra difficult. This month creates extra challenges as there’s a pile-up of anniversaries, our weddings and Manjula’s death, but that’s an expected part of this particular journey.
I’m reading lots of fiction, including children’s, non fiction and insights into how to write. How much is being held by this decaying brain is another matter.
I’m inadvertently following famous writers such as Paul Auster and now my writer of the moment, who I’ve only just discovered wrote ‘Stardust’ my favourite film Neil Gaiman
I must admit to liking young people’s story books. I like the pace, find them interesting and I more easily remember what I’ve read.
As the ‘passion’ would say “let’s see.”
First update
It feels like it’s been weeks since I added to our story so I plan to have a different approach, set up my writing place, establish a routine and treat it as a ‘job.’
Second update
It’s written but as I’m a writer I’ll follow a norm and declare it just ain’t good enough
Third update
It’s going to be completely revised and restructured. I’ll break the memoir rules but I just don’t care.
Fourth update 2022 and I’m yet to start. I’ve slipped into a ‘can’t quite get my act-together phase’ I told you I was a writer.
In between the enormous gaps.







Please note I was attending with Ina, (guest from Australia) she wasn’t dancing.
… when the warriors ask the gods to bless their weapons
In our case the scooter, Enfield and Ambassador

Carefully washed beforehand, so that’s at least once a year.



In the midst of the puja, horned beasts invaded, we have no weapons and in any case they are goddesses . So we peacefully asked them to move along.

On completing the puja, my role was to ride each vehicle to squash the limes, the goddesses returned to eat the offerings.








All the local traders (Hindus anyway) and neighbours got in on the act.


This morning

My brain was missing again
I let Lucie out the front door
There was the bag of kittens on legs waiting for me
Poor billet-doux was in shock. Ran away but was stuck
Trying to get through the gate to escape the black monster.

The bag of kittens squeezed through. I only hope there’s no long term damage.
She’s due within days.
On Manjula’s death anniversary in March and at this time of year we especially remember MAnjula and feed her spirit. Others will remember their own relatives.

It’s the equivalent of All Hallows’ or the Mexican Day of the Dead. Here’s a bit about the Hindu version.
Close friends who could fit it in amongst their own rituals helped by preparing food and joining the puja.








Vasanth and his family and Satish together with Sowbaghya made all the preparations: the food and puja.

Then waited outside to give her time and space to enter the house and feed.

Making plenty of noise as we re-entered so she could quietly retreat.



Only then could we eat with our Special guests Ina, Rhadika and Kaveri.
Then it was time to relax and remember, sharing Manjula’s trademark happiness.




This year we celebrated Manjula’s with an event for forty young women. Have you seen the wonderful video by Faizan.









Well it’s time for a team gathering again to celebrate MAnjula.
Somewhere to stop, read, reflect and remember.





The opportunities are not only in the library itself, but every space in and around our house offers a place for quiet reflection or when it’s not so quiet, meeting old and making new friends.






Join our family, including the birds attracted to the greenery bursting from our house, our pets… Lucie, billet-doux and
…. our garden.





Originally in pots on our roof, it’s now shifted to the park opposite with granite benches or hammocks available from the house.
Please come and enjoy.
Have we got it right? As in this article on how to nurture a personal library, “according to Cicero, if you have a library and a garden, you have everything you need.”