Bangalore Rising

“Heyyyyyy Narrasshhhh”, screamed a raspy voice from the other end of the telephone line. I bought time with a long, drawn out “yeeeaasss?”, as I attempted to rapidly process and identify the owner of this loud but not too familiar voice. Mr. Raspy-Voice at the other end did not wait for recognition; he continued “Narraaash, this is Greg calling from the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of California. Thanks brother for helping fellow brothers out last year. Can I put you down for $20 this year as well?” “Aaah”, I said to myself “this guy is selling me charitable contributions …. no ….. not this time dude”. “Ahem, ahem..Greg”, I said, with barely a hint of familiarity. “I would have loved to help out dude, but this year isn’t good…We've had some.....blah blah....”, I explained with some arcane reason for not plonking another $20 down a worthless cause, and quickly put the phone down. I paused for a moment and then thought. Narrraashh! Nushley! Nah-ley-aah! Norris...

I usually don’t write vacation reviews. But this one had to be written. Finally, we did take a holiday! But we had to wait till Dushyant was done with school. Yes..DONE. His senior year at school was stressful – not to him but to Shanthi. Between her incessant travel, she found time and space to fret over D’s school work, his examinations, his college apps, his photography, his fieldwork, his cricket, his…. you get the picture. Dushyant of course, is a cool customer. Nothing ever bothered him – he would do stuff at a leisurely pace, quite unperturbed by a mom who was willing to tear her hair in frustration. He would go to school, get back home to rest, watch his fave movies and shows he downloads from torrent, chat with friends, order in food every once in a while when he gets ‘fed up of your chapatti and rice meal’, and get down to studies once he put his parents to bed! Spotted Deer in the Jungle Hut property Weekends therefore were busier ...