23 July
2023
22 July
2023
A moment of rich irony
The band started a new song. It was from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
Predictably, they came to the all-too-familiar chorus line.
The stage and the audience roared up with “Hey Teacher! Leave us kids alone.”
Precisely at that moment, the one teacher we had in our table – Anannya – decided to get up, join them and proceeded to cut a rug!
22 July
2023
QuadRoys at a Speak Easy
22 July
2023
QuadRoys on the lake. Quadro Sinko?
21 July
2023
The QuadRoys
21 July
2023
Is it something I did?
16 July
2023
Spending a quiet evening together
14 July
2023
Have you seen anything like this before?
Do you see anything interesting in the top picture?
We were sitting in one of those benches around The Green in Alpharetta Downtown when a bunch of Indian folks – seemed like a couple of families – caught my attention. It was the way the men were dressed. They looked like they were wearing “veshtis“. (My South Indian folks will understand). The other thing is that I had crossed a couple of them while walking Jay Jay a few minutes earlier and they had the pronounced mark of “vibhuti” on their forehead. Fairly religious person, I had concluded then.
They gathered as a group next to Curry Up Now. This is what I would have expected. A couple of Indian families walking up to Alpharetta Downtown to get some Indian food from Curry Up Now and making the most of the evening – that is fairly par for the course. It was a pair of large boxes they were carrying that had my curiosity piqued. They could not have hauled their Indian dinners from home to eat in front of the Indian restaurant – right?
Well, without ordering any food – in fact, they did not even go inside – they sat down on the green and then without any apparent provocation, started singing. From the way the ladies were giving the “taala” with their right hands, my guess was they were singing some Carnatic songs. What is more – I could hear the sound of “dhol” (kind of drum) and “khanjani” (hand held metal percussion instrument) wafting thru the light breeze. In fact, I could see the young kid on the “dhol” and two of the men playing the “khanjani”.
People were walking by curiously. As did I (that is how I got the lower picture). Turned out they were singing religious songs.
This is what I would expect to see in any random street corner in India on a nice evening. Never expected that in Alpharetta Downtown!!!
After about 45 minutes, they simply packed up and left. As suddenly as they had come. Did not get a chance to walk up to them and find out what were they up to.
11 July
2023
My classmate who never left my hometown
I had just about enough energy left in myself to create one more intersection point. Decided to go with this friend who I have not seen for 38 years. And even that, she has more vivid memories of that last meeting in her house than I do. Which is not very common. What is remarkable about Aditi – my friend in question – is that she finished all her studies in Durgapur and then started teaching in her high school. This means she is the rare person in my friend list who has never left Durgapur for studies or for work!!
Finding her place was a bit of a hassle – I had the address but we got misguided not once, not twice but thrice by walkers-by in the street. Ironically, we asked the first gentleman for directions while literally standing in front of her building. He duly send us down the wrong path!!
It was great to see her and catch up on her life story after these many years!!
11 July
2023
A chance meeting
My brother was driving from out uncle’s house to my mother-in-law’s house. We had just turned around the corner from Kanishka road when he asked – “Isn’t this where Buku has set up his food stall?” I let him know that was my impression too. We snooped around not exactly sure what were looking for – other than it would be a structure dispensing food of some sort.
I asked my brother to pull up closer to what looked like a food truck. I could see a few people inside – cooking and all that, but their faces were not visible. My brother was sure one of them was Buku. I had doubts.
We got out of the car and walked up. I could now see that there were three people inside – what must have felt like a heat chamber. There was one portly built guy with a head cover cooking some hakka noodles. He looked at us expecting us to place an order and immediately exclaimed “Arrey! Bachchuda? Pinanda?”
And that is how we found our friend with who we had spent many an evening playing soccer or cricket from 1979 Dec thru 1983 July. I left home after that. He was a great athlete and used go be our star player. He and his brother “Piku” – were also my mom’s favorite students in class. We grew up literally about 20 yards from each other.
Later in life, he started his fast food stall business. I knew the rough location of where he normally opened his truck. And that knowledge was good enough to meet this overjoyed gentleman, who thought nothing of ignoring his customers for a few minutes to relive our old days!!
