Category: meeting friends

Maïlis has become a great friend

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After staying with us in 2025 and 2026 

Initially here for yoga conference she soon branched out to all sorts of activities — stone carving, chanting, Kannada and Sanskrit — she returns to France next month to continue her studies to become a doctor. 

She’s a great example of why we do this. Making new friends from India and around the world and together doing good in our community. 

She’s joined our ‘family’ in so many ways. Probably the most important is how she helps us with Kaveri. 

Kaveri is one of the young people we support in the community. She stays with us alternate weeks and Maïlis has been her chaperone this year. Ensuring that each evening and night there’s a woman available also staying who can guide, support Kaveri and generally available to help ensure she’s happy and safe. 

We’re asking our women friends if they can help us and become a chaperone, like Maïlis.  That’s being here and staying overnight when Kaveri does. It doesn’t pay but there’s somewhere to stay and sometimes a meal to share, most importantly you’re making an important contribution. 

You can get involved as little or as much as you can. 

Want to find out more?  Help us broaden Kaveri’s horizons through the diverse people she meets.

Fruit Thali

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It seemed a little hectic this morning. Malis staying with us but not to be seen — yet. Cats fighting in the house in the middle of the night. Kaveri doing last minute revision (maybe) and off to school early for yoga and exam with sports after school.

Yesterday planning the cycle route to school

Kaveri and I had planned to cycle to school this week but that’s delayed to Thursday —- we can’t have too many changes in one day!

Sowbhagya still holding us all together — has now left to do home cooking for her business and will return later.

…

Last night we attended a great new event, it’s where we got a thali of fruit… fab!

Great venue, we met the owner and an old friend Sham Sunder the environmental sustainability head of Crest at NIE – National Institute of Engineering who I first met — on a great cycle ride that he arranged — shortly after arriving in Mysore

Held at the Nityotsava Convention Centre

New Year’s Day

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Thank you Hema for arranging the young generation to join me on a mycycle tour.

Hema has already joined both a Srirangapatnam and Mysore Tour. I obviously hadn’t messed up as she returned with more of the family.

Fab!

Great to meet and spend time together … Harsh, Mitali and
Joshua.

A lovely mix of US and India

Times-they-are-a-changing

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I’ll be reducing the clutter.

By next season (October 2026 onwards) we will be in a new home.

It’ll prove to be challenging — leaving the home that I shared with MAnjula, that we created together. But it’s a positive change and MAnjula would approve.

We’ll continue to share our home with our community from around the world and new friends who find us.

A first step will be to reduce the ‘clutter’ here at home.

Already friends have been eager to pick souvenirs from our home. Furniture, paintings, and Knickknacks as their mementoes.

We continue to invite our community of guests and visitors to spot things they’d like.

Soon I’ll start posting specific things that are available to buy.

So …

Watch this space.

For details of our new home and things that may become available.

Or contact me with your requests.

Birthday happening

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Well if ‘last’ years birthday is anything to go by I’ve fully localised.

31st December can seem a weird day for a birthday. Or maybe not.

Endings and beginnings

There’s always multiple celebrations

It was wonderful.

A steady stream of lovely friends making it a day to remember.

Plus my girls were here (kaveri and Radhika) having missed Christmas together, we shifted Christmas to the morning and began my birthday at noon 12.35 sharp 🤭

and Rinkal and Sheetal are seriously becoming an integral part of the team. Welcome to you.

and I became Pinocchio, it was my alternative to being fed cake… repeatedly.

Next morning

Radhika borrows one of Kaveri’s Christmas presents They are ‘sisters’, you’ll understand.
Lucie prepares to go to the vets.

Happy New Year.

Awards

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Everyone who visits Mysore Bed and Breakfast deserves an award, partly because they’ve tolerated me and also missed MAnjula.

Some people go above and beyond such as …

Ina visited every year and became our biggest and closest friend. Here she’s sharing memories about MAnjula.

Her award is for constantly reminding me of the wonderfulness of MAnjula, visiting us each year and being a solid support after ‘losing’ MAnjula.

Please meet Ina

Tom and Amy, also became wonderful supportive friends being part of our life, through many visits and helping me in so many ways including at short notice, visiting to support me after MAnjula died.

To MAnjula for filling up my life.

She adapted the ‘glass half full’ saying to full full.

Florian a good friend who recently returned to Mysore from Germany for some bizarre reason has read the blog site. He’s commended for fighting his way through that jungle.

Scary

Kaveri for being my adopted granddaughter who miraculously popped into my life and with her fab character reminds me so much of MAnjula. She could have been our daughter. Here’s a video taken shortly after we met.

… and a thank you to the many people who’ve found us via the net and just said hello in the street, at a hotel, or visited us, particularly those who attend our reflective space event or come to stay in our home.

We couldn’t, of course, forget Lucie and Billet-Doux.

or Sowbaghya (aka SB) who

manages everything

Seen here with Ina

The very first reward was given fourteen years ago and still hangs in Manjula’s Library.

The T shirt was a later addition after I knew we’d fallen in love