Aged twelve on the 3rd May
Present shopping
Girls passing on Barbie – tips and skills
Baby time, Radhika’s
The traditional cake sharing
Stepdad
Happy Birthday Kaveri
Tag: Life in India
First move.
Into the new house.
Shifting Manjula’s library to our new house. The team were fab.
Manjula loved the joke
After acknowledging a job well done —— we realised the light switch was trapped behind the shelves.
Celebrating later at home.
Factoid
We opened Manjula’s library after her spirit left for its search.
She’d joked that my constantly bringing books home would lead to her setting up the house as a library when I stop guiding tours at age 75.
So as we never reached there together I set it up in her memory
And now it’s the first bit to establish itself at the new house.
Times-they-are-a-changing
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 …
For details of our new home and things that may become available.
Or contact me with your requests.
Five years ago
A light wavered.
It didn’t go out as she’s very much with me.
Today on the fifth anniversary of losing her —- physically yes —- but not in any other way.
We remember Manjula
A meal is prepared including all her favourite things.
We offer it to her and by praying to her God we help her spirit find her way to the next incarnation.
Butchers 2
Another tree bites the dust without any heavy rain or wind but it’s the one next to it they were proposing to cut down
Here’s evidence, if we needed it:
1 the current team failed to spot which tree would fall next, their approach is random
2 in any case, it’s difficult to predict which trees will fall but it’s impossible without some expertise
3 we need some expert knowledge, supervision and accountability to target which trees are fundamentally weak and stop the unnecessary felling of trees
I have no idea where the railing is there. It’s not managed.
Any ideas why we share our home?
You’d be correct in assuming it’s to celebrate MAnjula and help more people meet her.
It’s also ..
.. because it’s life affirming and fun.
… meeting new lovely lively people,
what’s not to like?
Thank you to our latest new friends from near Barcelona (one of my favourite cities) for spending time here and we getting to know you….
… that’s Martina, Jana, Marta and Angel
Catching up with Kaveri
I’ve missed not seeing her for almost six weeks followed by a flurry
On the drive home she spelt words after giving me a series of drawings, at least one for each week we missed seeing each other.
I’ve visited the school twice already this week. As a ‘family’ visit with scotaussie Ina and to attend the Independence Day celebrations with French Paul.
This weekend we’ve started with skating, she worried that she may have forgotten it, (no chance) a monsoon landing and hilarious walk home
Followed by opening the giant parcel I brought on the plane and Kaveri’s first Lego build.
I was so impressed by Kaveri quickly getting into following and implementing the Lego instructions. She clearly has never experienced anything like it before. I must also admit that I’ve cracked it, and have successfully bought clothes for a nine-year old. We all know it’ll not last.
Ina’s patient tolerance, knows no bounds.
Stories
Mysore Storytellers Network (MSN)
Making space to share creativity.
find MSN on Facebook or here or instagram
Their latest event on 11th July focussed on the monsoon . The event was wonderfully entertaining with participants from throughout India and a rich mix of contributions from storytellers, musicians, lyricists, singers, poets and polemicists.
For what it’s worth here’s my contribution.
I have much experience of rain in the ‘land of grey” as I’m from one of the rainiest parts of England, and even though I moved to live in Mysore I still have little experience of the extremes of the monsoon phenomenon. Life is so easy in so many ways in Mysore
This is unapologetically raising broad challenging questions
…
I can feel it at the end of our noses
It’s no poem
A serious story the message is not hidden.
It’s a wake up late at night.
…
I’ve moved to Mysore in India, its my first time out on my Enfield
I’m new to this.
I wonder why are all the two wheelers stopping under the bridges, or the flyovers or the riders finding shelter at the shops?
Because I’m new to this
but realise why, as the rain falls
It is the monsoon, I’ll know better next time.
Did you feel a spot of rain?
We got our brollies out and opened them just in time
We knew it was the monsoon.
We had torrential rain for weeks
…..
The rains have broken the roads
no one expected the monsoon
the construction site sand has run away after a heavy shower
and escaped down the road blocking the drains
no one expected the monsoon
water seeps into the tarmac cracks and pushes them open
no one expected the monsoon
…..
fires devastated the forests in Australia and California
we didn’t expect that
the heatwave killed people in USA and Canada
we didn’t expect that either
..
Had anyone expected that
or does no one care
We stumble through life being uncertain about what will happen and
how to deal with the challenges we face.
its part of life and how we learn
we hear whispers,
our gut sends messages
its in the papers,
the UN discusses
but do we listen and if we do
can we act?
We knew all about the monsoon, the fires, the heatwave, the pandemic, wave one two and three, so why didn’t we act?
Were we Breathing Lethargy Air?
or
Following the submissive path? Who knows?
Check them out nd join in, as there’s all sorts of different events like celebrating art.
we too…
just so that you know, Meghan and Harry married three days before the ceremony, and it was our choice too.
But no-one asked us about the likely colour of our child because our family and friends don’t care and well, Manjula wasn’t expecting. 😉
I love the shots that reflect our feelings and perhaps Manjula was having second thoughts, in at least one?
Anita’s Attic
Sowbhagya arrived with Dosa for her breakfast. The dining table was converted to one of my four workstations but she managed to find space. She was trapped but I blame her. She did show interest. So I launched into the synopsis of Manjula and my story, written for Anita.
SB was immediately engaged and liked it. We both enthusiastically remembered Manjula: her character, her kindness, her fun. SB could see connections with her and other women’s experiences but also how she was especially adventurous, strong and independent in the face of so many challenges.
I’m encouraged.
Last Saturday was the first session of Anita’s Attic. A programme for writers — yes, that’s me, officially a writer, of sorts — over the next twelve weeks.
There’s ten of us in the online group: taught, facilitated and mentored by Anita Nair.
Anita is a famous writer of English novels, here in India. My own favourite is Ladies Coupe and I hope that our story will feature similar expansive characters to help us discover more of India and wonderful people I’ve been fortunate to meet.
Me and MYCycle 