Mindcurv @ 9

Cover picture courtesy: Alexandra Mate

Walking through the beautifully landscaped Infopark campus my shirt was soaked with perspiration. I cursed myself for not having taken a rickshaw from the hotel I was put up. It was my first day at work and I was already in a mess. I decided to hang around the lobby of the World Trade Center to get a grip on myself. The summer sun was punishing even at 9 am in the morning. Barely 2 months back it was here that I met up with my long lost friend Lekha after a decade. I had flown into the city for a day for my final round of interviews. A lot had happened after that visit. Within a span of 30 days I had to literally wrap up my life in Mumbai. I had landed in the maximum city in the middle of a monsoon with just 2 bags and a bunch of dreams.The last month in the city was excruciatingly hectic with a multitude of things to be done within a short span of time .With a heavy heart I left behind the place that I called home for close to 8 years.

after a decade

The pitstop helped me immensely and I was fresh again as I walked into the lobby of my new organisation Mindcurv. I met Venkat at the reception who was assigned to me as a buddy for the day. Being welcomed into the new organisation with so much warmth was quite novel experience for me I should say. It calmed my nerves to a great extent and I was slowly putting myself into ease.There was more on store for the day with my buddy taking me out to lunch at a restaurant which serves north indian cuisine.

Every Time on my way back to Mumbai as the train snaked through the countless tunnels of the scenic Konkan region, peering out of the window into the green vegetation drenched in the monsoon rains had always evoked in me an immense longing to come back to my hometown. As I walked back after work that evening everything felt surreal to me because it was yet to sink in that I was indeed going to be working from God’s own country.

I was initially very skeptical with the job switch primarily because I had spent a lion’s share of my career in the Telecom industry. The e-commerce domain was quite new to me and needless to say it was uncharted territory for me. But my first couple of months with a fantastic team put all my doubts to rest. I was slowly getting into my groove. Even before the dust settled I was asked to get ready for an onsite assignment to Germany. I was astonished with the leap of faith that Mindcurv was taking by entrusting me with a huge responsibility in an ambitious project with one of their biggest clients.Another memorable event* was conducting interviews during a walk in drive organised by Mindcurv to select my team.

*subject of another blog Life has come a full circle(click here)

My first Onam in Kerala in many years was out of the world thanks to the amazing Mindcurv Onam celebrations.The scenic venue and the fervor with  which everyone whole heartedly participated in the event evoked a deep sense of nostalgia in me.There was a whole range of cultural events which included the Mahabali contest(selecting the guy who felt real), Malayalimanka contest(Mr and Ms personality),Group song(Onam songs).This was reminiscent of the Onam celebration* during my Engineering college days in Trivandrum which was ages back.My heart leapt with joy as I got to tick off one more item off my bucket list by taking part in a Thiruvathira** and making a mess of it but it was still great fun.

*subject of another blog Onam Memories(click here)
**Thiruvathirakali is a unique dance performed in Kerala

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

our team in its infancy

Landing in Germany exposed me to a different ball game altogether. First of all I was blown away by our beautiful office in Essen. It was actually a house which was converted into an office space with kick ass surroundings. It reminded me of the palatial mansion named after my grandmother in Kerala where I spent a good part of my childhood.    

My first visit to Europe was special for a variety of reasons. It felt good to be living and working in a foreign country.Rubbing shoulders with the founders of the company Amjad and Naaz was definitely the highlight. Lunchtime conversations at the boardroom with Ross,JP,Maik,Vincent,Timo etc was always engaging. Fiercely played table tennis matches at the basement of our office with Andrea, Jens, Dennis and Warren helped us to switch off momentarily amid the hustle and bustle of our work day. Goofing around with Jens with the toy guns on some Friday afternoons was always fun.Whenever, I felt homesick all I had to do was to walk up to either one of Mani,Shibin,Amal,Shalini,Kannan and speak in Malayalam for a few minutes. Bar hopping with Deepu,Jinoy and Jerald was one of the main activities over the weekend.

Another blog during my time in Germany Rush Hour(click here)

On the work front being the understudy of Sunil was equally challenging as well as rewarding. The kind of efforts he puts into each of his tasks and his constant zeal to understand the nitty gritty of everything made me seriously ponder on every task that I did at that time. During the chillier mornings when we used to grab a piping hot coffee enroute to the client location and the conversations that we had when we travelled to and fro were indeed memorable.

In my last week in Germany I was also lucky enough to be part of the amazing Christmas celebrations of our Essen office where we had a great party with our families in attendance. Ozghur in his Santa Claus attire distributing gifts to the children made me miss my family back home. This was also a great opportunity for me to socialise with a number of my colleagues from other office locations like Cologne and Utrecht who had congregated at Essen for the big party. It was a night of fun and frolic and everyone enjoyed it to the core.

Picture courtesy: Vincent de jong

Picture courtesy: Terri Tu

Being back in Cochin gave me bragging rights over my time in Germany. Our team was finally taken a shape and we started off in the right earnest just before the new year. Soon everyone was keenly anticipating the annual event of Mindcurv which was scheduled towards the end of January. I had observed that many a times my colleagues used to go ga ga and with great fondness recollect the previous annual events. I was also eager to know as to what was the big deal about this event. 

I wasn’t disappointed to say the least, the event was held at the Grand Hyatt Bolgatty, a 5 star Luxury Hotel in Cochin. The day started with a sumptuous breakfast buffet followed by the official ceremony accompanied by cultural events performed by our very own colleagues. I was dumbstruck by the energy levels of my younger colleagues as they performed on stage. A good number of our colleagues had also flown in from different countries for the event. The entire Leadership team was in full attendance to take part in the annual gala event. The highlight of the day was definitely the cruise arranged in the Vembanad lake in the evening with a live musical performance on board.

 *briefly mentioned in another blog Work,wife,balance(click here)

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Dusk was falling,the waves were lashing against the cruise vessel the party was getting into the mood. The musician was playing the song “Welcome to Hotel California”.Deep in thought I stared into the horizon on board ‘The Nefertiti’ . Exactly 1 year back when I was slogging in Bombay never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that in the near future I will be partying with my colleagues aboard a ship in the scenic waters of the Vembanad lake that too after wrapping up my successful maiden assignment in Germany. Fact is often stranger than fiction. I truly consider myself as blessed to be working for a wonderful company like Mindcurv.

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Memories #15-Jose Dale-Amsterdam

Amsterdam is one of the central characters of the book “Hippie” by Paulo Coelho. It is a city which stays on top of your mind if you have a decent understanding of World Affairs.Moreover, as a kid I happened to read about this city for the first from the Journal of my father who had visited here as part of his European trip at the tender age of 17 as part of a tour organized by the Young Men’s Christan Association(YMCA). At that age all I was worried about was my upcoming 12th boards and the subsequent Medical/Engineering exams. That was the very same age of my younger brother when he got himself enrolled in the iconic Government Law College,Bombay. The scene where the wiry old boy barely out of his teens waiting for me at the Terminal as I deboarded my flight from Delhi is still imprinted in my mind with vivid detail.

Gateway of India,Jun 09 

My first visit to  Mumbai never knew that I will land up there after 2 years and call it my home for about a third of my life

When I landed up in Essen,Germany I was thrilled to know that Amsterdam was nearby. To reach Amsterdam you had to first take a train from Dusseldorf to Arnhem Central in the Netherlands.On weekends you could make use of your monthly train pass which you use for your office travel to reach there.Next you had to purchase a round trip ticket to Amsterdam Centraal. This was a novel experience for me to hop between countries and that too in trains/buses. For the record Holland was the third country that I visited after Hong Kong and Germany which made it all the more special.

As I walked out of the underground station to the open air sometime around mid day what hit me most was the sight of the teeming crowds bustling past me. For some odd reason it reminded me of Bombay, a place where I called home for one third of my life. My fascination didn’t end there right outside the station you could get a glimpse of the renowned canal system of the city. I promptly purchased a day pass for the boat and hopped into one of these boats. I was in awe as I travelled through the canal transversing the length and breadth of the city. After a while I disembarked and decided to explore the city on foot. The first thing that hits you that is way different from what you are used to is the dedicated cycle track. Boy I would love to have something like this back home it made me nostalgic about my cycle*.Being a Saturday and since it was lunch time all the restaurants were full I was looking for a seat overlooking one of the canals. I decided to walk around a bit more, the Hard Rock cafe was quite inviting but I didn’t want to go indoors during such fine weather. I came across a couple of quite impressive street performers and was surprised to know that these folks tour the world to make a living out of it.  

*subject of another blog-The cycle

It was around 3:30 when I finally found a seat overlooking the canals with a burger and beer. It felt good to be sipping on a Heineken not far from where it was actually brewed. I decided to roam around a little and walk back to Centraal via Dam square(It all started for the protagonists with a little meet-cute at this very place in ‘Hippie’). As I walked back I could very much feel the vibe of the young and restless crowd which was enchanting. This fueled the fire of desire in me to come back again. It was a no brainer for me to fathom as to why there was an entire page dedicated to Amsterdam in my father’s journ. Our visits to the city might have happened 50 years apart but the feeling was pretty much the same.

When the plan for the big fat Jose Dale meet up was hatched I was particularly happy that I could get to visit the Dutch capital again. After we pushed off from the Bulldog outlet we decided to go to a good place for dinner. Aaron and Adrian armed with google maps were leading the party. Our destination was a restaurant somewhere in the vicinity. You could feel the nip in the air, everyone covered their heads and the gloves came out. It was a bit windier than usual. There was a ferry just about to leave and we were directed to get in quickly. All of us scampered in just in time before the anchor was raised. All of us were in pretty high spirits by that time. The party had just started the ferry docked out and we disembarked. The moment I set foot on the place I knew that something was amiss ‘we were lost’, this looked like a deserted island of sorts. We realised our folly for letting those casanovas lead. I took control of the situation and ushered the party back into the ferry which was now returning back. No complaints though it is good that we could squeeze in a ferry in Amsterdam that too in the night;  one item off the bucket list . 

getting lost

the casanovas

an unexpected boat ride

We were famished by the time we got back and promptly entered the first Döner Kebab that we came across. Aarti was tiring out fast, being on the road since the previous night was taking a toll on her and she decided to call it a night.She had to catch a flight back to London the next morning.We implored her to delay her departure by a day but since she was flying back home to Australia the next weekend she had her hands full.With a heavy heart we bid adieu to the gang and left.I rued the fact that I had met her after a decade, next time I wish it could happen much sooner.

Dinner

The pitstop had definitely satiated our hunger a wee bit and we were up and kicking again,the night was still young.We decided to find another comfortable place where we could all fit in chill and spend some time together.The search finally took us to the coffee shop named after Popeye I guess. The move paid rich dividends because of the fact that it was getting pretty cold by then and we needed to keep ourselves warm.Close to midnight we decided to call it a day with the promise of meeting the next day.

The next morning close to mid day with great difficulty thanks to the late night partying we assembled at Julia’s cafe at the Centraal station. This place had by now become a defacto meeting point for us. It was Adrian’s birthday and the big sister wanted to drag him to church.  All of us tagged along and we began walking in the direction of the dam square. After  a bit of walking we felt  that Google maps had yet again pulled a fast one on us when it took us to a Mcdonald restaurant instead of a church. But thankfully we found the church in the midst of the din and fury of the busy shopping street. Our next stop was the Heineken beer museum,it was getting colder as the time progressed.The sun was playing hide and seek because of which everyone wanted to get indoors. The Heineken beer museum was totally worth it .All along while sipping beer we never knew that there was a painstaking process behind the creation of beer. We had a lot of fun over there, the icing of the cake was the complimentary beer at the end of the tour . It was like drinking Heineken inside Heineken.

picture courtesy: Kavita Jayakumar

I almost got hit by a speeding bicycle as we left the place, the reason being we are not used to looking out for cycles back in India. The rest of the day we spent roaming and were very tired by the end of it. Aaron took the bus back to Stuttgart the very night because he had to go to work on Monday.The third day dawned to us and it was time to bid adieu to each other the thought as to when we are going to meet again was weighing down heavily on everyone’s heart.As usual we met up for breakfast and it was a solemn offer to see each other off. I took my train to Arnhem,Meena took  a train to Hague,Teenu took a flight to London, Kavita took a flight to Budapest for the onward journey to India, Adrian stayed back in Amsterdam for a couple of days before his flight back home. 

until we meet again

It was curtains down to a memorable trip which will be etched deeply in our hearts for the rest of our lives. We are going to repeat this story to our kids day in and day out until they are going to get tired of hearing it. Somewhere Ambrose Jose Dcruz and Lilly Dcruz (our grandparents) the architects of Jose Dale would be happy with the fact that we have kept alive their tradition of coming together. Reminiscent of the four brothers scattered across the world coming together once in a blue moon to their home in Tangy,we the next generation have taken this homecoming to another level.Next time when I go to Jose Dale I am going to frame one these pictures and hang it on a wall over there to remind everyone of our wonderful trip to the Dutch capital.They need to know that Jose Dale is not a physical entity but rather a feeling of oneness in the hearts of everyone who has inhabited the house at one point or another no matter which part of the world we live in. 

blast from the past

all smiles

Click here for Part 1

Memories #14-Jose Dale reunion @ Amsterdam

Quilon, Kerala, India

Four brothers with the same acronyms denoting their names lived in the picturesque seaside village of Tangasseri. The place was popular for its lighthouse which came into existence early in 1902.Another interesting feature was that remains of both the Dutch and Portuguese forts can be still found there.The four brothers all had P.B D’Cruz as their abbreviated names,when expanded P and B denoted different names. Each of them went on to carve different careers for themselves in their lives. The eldest one went on to become a successful Teaching Professional to helm one of the well known schools in Dubai. The second one cracked the Indian Civil Services at the young age of 22 barely out of college; subsequently joined the Indian Police Service(I.P.S) and got posted to the Northern part of the country right in the midst of the badlands of Chambal. One of them built a career and a life down under(Australia) and made a name for himself as a Senior Executive in one of the biggest Telecom companies of the world. The youngest of the lot, a passionate educationist still continues his vocation of moulding young minds.He was the one who was lucky enough to be still based out of the place where he is born

Jose Dale

Essen,Germany

A few days into my first business visit to Europe as part of Mindcurv, one fine morning I receive the following broadcast message from one of my cousins.The youngest brother among my father’s siblings was visiting down under for the very first time to spend some time with his elder brother. 

“Tomorrow is our Uncle's birthday. Please take a couple of minutes to give him a call or message him. Remember that he is in Australia which is 5 and a half hours ahead of India, 8 hours ahead of Poland,10 hours ahead of Germany and 11 hours ahead of London”

Just to put things into perspective this message was sent to the children of the very four brothers. 

Reading the message gave me goosebumps. Come to think of it our grandparents would be super proud to know that their clan is scattered all across the world from east to west. Reading the message detailing on how we should wish our paternal uncle according to the timezones left me speechless. I have never seen my grandfather because he passed away a few years before my birth. As far as I know my grandmother was a very focussed and driven woman. She knew exactly where / what she wanted her children to be. But never would they have thought of how small the globe would become with their children/ grandchildren spread out like this.

This entire episode got us thinking of actually meeting each other since most of us were in Europe at that point of time. The fact of the matter was that I had not met my eldest cousin sister for almost a decade. The last I met her was for her marriage, I was the best man and one of my cousin sisters was the bridesmaid. Incidentally both of them are based out of London. Another cousin brother of mine was in the midst of a business visit to Krakow,Poland. It would be a coup d'etat if we could make the meeting happen. We chose Amsterdam for the big fat Jose dale meet up and started planning with great earnest. I was wary in the beginning because most often such grandiose plans never materialise.  

Picture courtesy:Dannilla Donald Correya

Amsterdam,Netherlands

Finally, on the first weekend of December I reached Amsterdam after hopping a couple of trains. Aarti, originally from Australia had reached there first.We agreed to meet up just outside the Amsterdam Centraal station. By then I had already grabbed some breakfast and met up with Aaron one of Teenu’s cousin who had traveled overnight from Stuttgart. I had met this bloke when he was a kid along with his twin brother more than 2 decades back. We were just roaming around the streets around the station when Aarti called informing us that she had reached the station.

We rushed back to find her reading a book. All the offsprings of the 4 brothers were voracious readers thanks to their genes . Each of the brothers had a personal library of their own so it was a no brainer that the kids picked up the habit. After the warm customary hug I realised that it had been quite a long time since I had indeed seen her. She was now an IT professional and a part time musician hopping planes from the UK in the middle of a Friday night to meet her elder cousins.

Dam Square

Teenu had also called us to inform us that her flight had landed but preferred to wait for her younger brother whose flight was scheduled to land sometime later. Meanwhile,all 3 of us were roaming around the place in an effort to kill time and understandably we had a lot to catch up because we hadn’t met each other in ages.The weather was a bit colder than usual but manageable since it was December .


After walking a bit we decided to rest a bit by mid day. There was still no sign of the brother sister duo. We lounged at one of the cafes overlooking the innumerable canals and grabbed a beer. I felt old when I said cheers to my baby sister, she had not even crossed the legal drinking age the last time I met her for Teenu’s wedding. She retorted with gutso that I needed to take a chill pill now that she was an adult. We were joined by another friend of Aaron, Meena who had come from Hague. We again called up Teenu wondering as to what was going on. Adrian, being adrian had discounted the timezone difference and wrongly told his sister about his ETA. Teenu was hardly complaining because that gave her ample time to delve into a book, a rarity these days courtesy being a mother of two boys.He finally landed by afternoon.and they were on their way to meet us from Schipol airport.

Lunch together

As soon as they got down at the intersection ahead of our location Aaron spotted the distinctive blue jacket from a distance and concluded that it was Teenu. She had not changed a bit from the last time I met her. The quorum was now complete with Kavita who had accompanied them. Boy, we were a noisy lot and famished to the core because literally all of us had traveled quite a bit in the last few hours. As starters we grabbed some hot dogs and some onion rings from a food truck. Till date Teenu maintains that it was the best food she ate during our entire time over there. Post that we decided to grab something for lunch before heading to our respective hotels to settle down and then regroup towards the evening.

Its the time to party

Now this is when the actual fun starts with everyone well rested and settled down we were all in our elements when we met again somewhere around dusk. There was a nip in the air since the temperature had slipped to single digits. We were still outdoors walking around looking for a place where all of us could fit in, our options were limited because of the large group size. Finally, found a Bulldog outlet which with a couple of benches outside. As mentioned earlier it was getting very cold but nonetheless we settled in. I wasn’t complaining much because I was coming from a place which had recorded sub zero temperatures the previous week. The entire group slowly was getting into the mood. Eventhough, we were all related it definitely took quite some time to warm up to each other. The last time when all of us met we were only boys and girls but today we were all battle hardened adults who had gone through a bloody lot in their lives. Being scattered all across the globe also didn’t further our cause any less.

After feasting on space cake topped up with some freshly baked homemade cake(courtesy: Teenu) and loads of caffeine we decided to finally push off. As we walked through the streets of Amsterdam looking for a good place for dinner I couldn’t help being reminiscent. I turned quite nostalgic when I thought about the 4 brothers during their growing up years chilling at their backyard in good old Tangy. During one of those evenings I don't think that even in their wildest dreams would they have imagined that their kids would one day hold a reunion of sorts in the Dutch capital. Undoubtedly, this evening filled with fun and frolic was going to leave an indelible mark in the rest of our lives.

[To be continued….]

Click here for part 2

A journal entry from the diary of a toddler #1

Epilogue Today I am trying to attempt something different from my usual fare. I am trying to write a journal entry from the viewpoint of my son Ethan.There are three parts to the piece today: Epilogue, Main topic and Prologue. Like the title suggests the main topic of this post is the recollection of a day by a 2 year old toddler. The other 2 parts are intended for the reader to understand the context of the piece in its entirety.It has to be noted that kids this age will try to apply linear logic to everything they come across. There are instances in the story where we can see that they tend to quickly jump to conclusions based on whatever they are observing. At that age causation is a correlation for anything and everything

A play day with Elsa My name is Ethan and I am two years old. Today I am going to tell you about a day I spent with my cousin sister Elsa who is older than me. Being a saturday my dadda has a holiday, I always look forward to this day because he does not have to work today and I get to see him more. Last week he had promised me to take Elsa's house so that I can play with her. The first thing we did today was set up a toy house for Elsa. This was gifted by her Godmother in Bombay for her birthday. I was the only one from outside with my parents present for her birthday about 2 weeks back .I have also lived in Bombay for a year when my parents were working there. Now we have come back to Kerala where both my parents grew up.

I helped dadda in unpacking the tent which was in a box. There were a good number of plastic sticks in the box. These sticks are white in colour .This is going to be the basic frame of the toy house then there are also some joints to hold this house together. Dadda starts to build the house I and Elsa are helping him out . Dadda is building the house looking at the paper that was inside the box with the sticks. He first asks Elsa to write ‘A’, ‘B’,’C’,’D’,’E’,’F’ in different sheets of paper the alphabets are very big. My mamma has taught me ‘A’ is for apple ‘B’ is for ball. ‘C’ is for my favourite cat,’D’ is for dog I am scared for dogs,’E’ is for elephant which is very big and ‘F’ is for fan.

Dadda asks me to keep these papers in different chairs. Elsa has written these letters very big. After I keep the letters on the chair dadda places the white sticks on different chairs. Some sticks are big while some sticks are small. The joints are also different 1 is red and the other is blue. Looking at the paper dadda builds the house. I get bored and go play with building blocks. We were given grapes and lime juice to drink. I like eating grapes.

Sometime later I come back and I see that only the walls of the house are built dadda is trying hard to build the roof. Dadda does not know how to build houses. He is good at computers; he spends the entire day in front of the computer when he is working. At times he is talking to someone in the computer .Dadda had been helping Elsa set up her classroom with a computer at home, she has just joined her first standard. I am also looking forward to join School. 

Dadda calls up Elsa’s dadda for help in building the roof. Renju uncle is dadda’s best friend and is very good at building houses. After talking to Renju uncle in video dadda finishes the roof. We were all very happy once the house was completed. Elsa has kept a fridge and also many other things inside her house. I don’t like going inside the tent because it is very dark. I like to sit at the door and play.

Now it is time for lunch. Usually someone helps me while I am eating. But today after seeing Elsa eat on her own I also want to eat on my own. I don’t allow Dadda to feed me but he puts some fish in my plate. I like eating fish very much. After eating rice Elsa’s grandmother gives us all ‘Payasam’. I like payasam because it is very sweet. She says she has made payasam because today is the feast of St Anthony.  

Dadda is very tired now he reads to us a story from the book we gifted Elsa for her birthday “The little mermaid”. Elsa and Dadda are asleep but I cannot sleep I miss mamma. I want to see her. I wake up dadda and we talk to mamma in video. Mamma asks me to go and sleep for sometime. We come back to sleep again. Dadda is already snoring, today he called me by the name ‘Ambrose’ who is my Godfather. The same happened with Elsa, her grandfather called her ‘Pinchu’ which is the name of her godmother. I think it is normal to call us by the name of our Godparents.

In the evening we talked to Elsa’s parents on video .After that we played ball and were very tired. As we were resting at the balcony, Elsa’s grandmother gave us milk and biscuits. I see that Elsa is dipping the biscuits in the milk and eating. I have never seen anyone doing it but seeing her I also do it. It feels really good I will do it again.

After that Elsa puts a song in dadda’s mobile and starts dancing. I also join her but I don’t know how to dance. I should tell dadda to teach me to dance. Mamma always says dadda dances well. Dadda shows me a big mango tree but there are no mangoes in it, mango is my favourite fruit.It was now time to go home. I say bye to Elsa. I am very happy today. I should tell dadda to bring me here again.

Prologue

Close to three decades back a few days after my father’s death I was slouching in the corner of a staircase. This was in a huge residence in Trivandrum,Kerala reigned over by the matriarch from my maternal side . This environment was totally new to me due to the fact that until then I had spent almost my entire life in Madhya Pradesh. Seeing my predicament my grandmother on whose name the palatial house was built sent Renju and Johnny with a glass of lime juice to me. They patted me on my shoulder and led me out of the house in midst of a lot of greenery. I can recollect this scene with great detail since it has imprinted itself strongly in my mind.The seeds to our life long friendship were sowed at that very moment. Cousins are our first best friends in our lives; it was no different for me. All 3 of us playing cricket at our grandmother’s place all day long during the summer holidays is something that all of us would cherish for the rest of our lives. Our friendship grew by leaps and bounds which ultimately blossomed during our college days. We were partners in crime for a lot of things during one of the most beautiful epochs in our lives.

Adulthood took us into varied professions and we all ended up in different countries across the world. Being based out of Bombay for quite a long time ensured that I met these folks only sparingly in our later years. Our kids have hardly met or spent time with each other all this while.Today as I was building a toy house for Elsa, I was struggling a bit. Reminiscent of our growing up years I picked up the phone and called Renju to bail me out of the situation.For the record Renju is a Mechanical engineer by profession while I work as an IT Manager. For me it was quite natural in this context to cry out for help to him when I was stuck.It is a dejavu moment for me when I see my toddler bonding with his cousin sister,without any iota of doubt I can say that the warmth and bonhomie on display is testimony to the fact that the friendship has indeed transcended generations.