Ved

It was an impatient wait, despite the awareness that there was no perceivable risk involved. It was one of those rare moments when the mind displays it's innate ability to singly focus all it's attention on the point of concern. In our case the point of concern was my sister's delivery of her first child. After what seemed an eternity a nurse covered in his green overalls, broke out of the OT and announced the arrival of Ved(as in Veda).
So on a bright sunny June morning, Ved Menon was born in good health(with a stable weight of 3.2 kgs) amongst close family. The elders have waited 18 years for this moment, the first heir of the family has arrived. While it is indeed a loss that his Muthachan(a man of towering character that he was) is not around anymore, he will not grow unguarded. He will play, he will fall, he will learn under the shadow of his uncle.
Ved Menon, Born: 8 Jun 2007

Bangalore today!

After a 2 year hiatus, I am back living a life in Bangalore. A few notes:

• Definitely more crowded.
• Not that the pedestrian enjoyed great respect earlier, but his condition has gotten worse. You could be hanging your clothes on your terrace for all you cared; if it happened to provide a motorist with a shorter accessible route, he'd run you down on your terrace and curse you for coming in his way.
• If you take a new mobile connection, chances are high that it's a recycled number. Within a day of taking mine and sharing it with only family and close friends, I began receiving calls from unknown numbers by the dozen. Each one enquired for a certain Mr.Manjunath instead of me.
• ATM's no longer stand for Any Time Money, at peak hours you could stand upto half an hour to gain access to one.
• Getting into town to head to your favourite pub for a nice cold beer, is now an effort. The thought of the traffic, the search for parking space and the futile wait for a table at the pub makes mum's mint juice more refreshing.
• Cab/auto drivers are everywhere to offer you a ride. You could come out of the airport arrival lounge driving the latest Audi, I reckon they'd still stop you and ask "Sir, auto bekaa?"
• Many concerts this year, went for the Aerosmith show, only because we had free passes. The good thing about big concerts, you could leave in between and no one would notice. Steve Tyler, now is he a drag queen or a rock star???