The morning after the reception.
Timings are followed exactly (9.00 to 9.30 am) unlike the night before when things hadn’t started almost two hours after the advertised time.
The knot is tied and I’ve poured milk, gently thrown rice and had tiffin.
Behind the scenes in the choultry or wedding hall is the sort of place where Manjula started working.
My friends in India often ask what things are like in the U.K. so here’s My granddaughter’s school.
I’m here to collect her at the end of the school day.
It’s probably a school from the 19th century when ‘board’ schools were introduced.
I love the old building and it has a great feel.
It’s managed by the local government
Here’s one or two great additions to help improve safety.
Manny is overseeing the renovation work at the school.
I’ve stayed with Poppy and her parents Ben and Alice in north London.
There are signs everywhere of the man-made environmental damage resulting from not anticipating the consequences, concentrating on short term gains and our lack of care.
Even seas go missing. Due to all the above combined with local and global pressures.
All around the world, including in our backyard in Karnataka with the Kaveri river, there’s conflicts about water being taken from rivers and little being left for the communities further down.
Today’s panic was that I’d misplaced shirts, shorts and especially trousers.
I fly to the U.K. next week, my first trip for over two years. Here I wear shorts and T shirts unless I’m formal when I wear kurta and pyjama.
As it will be variable weather and much cooler moving to really cold in the U.K. I need shirts and trousers but I couldn’t find them. We’ll know I have.
Next shoes.
A first cycle tour after a loooong gap and what a lovely couple Diana and Josia, from Mexico and the US respectively, currently working in Chennai.
In my attempts to be the wise owl I passed on the two key pieces of advice of the many things I’ve learned from Manjula.
Be there for your partner, we’ve heard so much about presence there’s a risk of overkill but when I read this (see below) it seemed so pertinent. Our love means we should be present for the other.
The second piece of advice is to prepare for the end. In terms of helping each other plan and as part of that decide if you want to be resuscitated. It doesn’t matter how old you are.
Article here about older people and their plans for ‘letting them die.’ How young is too young?
An insight from earlier this year.
Preparing to take Ganesh and his mum Gowri to the river.
So where’s the Ganesh we bought last week?
The Ganesh we first bought and fell in love with has been added to the extensive home collection.
Here’s more details from five years ago
We’re big on Ganesh throughout the year and found a workshop carving wooden statues from three years ago.
Even a wo… mannekin should be sensitive to social norms.
A boutique close to home provided a blanket to ensure discretion.
We’re traditional in mysore.
The old man has managed to send money from his bank account to pay for a book by something called UPI should I be proud or ashamed?
Maybe the shave helped.
It’s taken ages and I mean months to work it out. I think I need a lie down before I advance to QR Code.
It’s the month before the BIG (reduced due to the pandemic) Mysore event of the year.
So it’s time to gently fix the roads, with broken bricks, making sure the repairs will not last beyond the event itself.
Then we’ll blame the monsoon.
I’m now coming to the end of draft three of our story. There’s still a loooong way to go but thought I’d share something.
As a Hindu Manjula believed in reincarnation so it’s one area I’ve researched and found incredibly interesting.
For more details from me you’ll need to wait for the book or in the meantime check some of the resources I’ve listed here. The books are available in Manjula’s library.
There’s a great series on NETFLIX
Or check out this podcast
One of the many effects of finding and temporarily losing Manjula is to push me to reflect, and learn with an open heart. Thanks Manj.
Me and MYCycle 