Arrived in office to find out that it was Bijay Sahoo’s (who is our CPO) birthday.

As it is with most people and big shots, we trooped up to wish him. It was the first time in my year at Reliance that I have been formally introduced to the man, inspite of seeing him on a number of occasions.

We later went up for some yummy cake.

After a relatively relaxed time at work, I had quite a day. Anuradha, Shemina & myself headed to Crawford Market to pick up stationary for a group of under privileged children who are taken care of by the residents of Raheja Park, Vikhroli.

Went to my regular shop and he gave us a good deal on the stationary. Shem picked by a lovely handbag from the place next door and I indulged in a lovely clutch. Headed for the paper lane to pick up odds and ends. We were hungry by this time and so Anu treated us to falooda at Badshah’s. I topped that with a big glass of fresh lime juice.

We went to Mangaldas Market to have a look at the material. I picked up a lovely piece in white embroidered chiffon to make an Anarkali styled suit.

We cudn’t resist the temptation of walking through the fruit bazaar where the girls picked up some mangoes.

It was a short walk back to the station and a train that wud take me to Bandra and them to Andheri. I sure enjoyed the time spent with my IT colleagues , this was the first of its kind.

I had previously agreed to meet Priyanka for dinner. She picked me up and we headed to hill road to do a bit of shopping and finally to Lucky for dinner. It was her first time there and she wanted to sample the food.

We tucked into the assortment of food we ordered – sweet corn chicken soup and masala papad for me, plain chicken soup for her and a main course of reshmi kabab and tandoori pomfret. We had a nice time catching up.

Took a 56 and reached home by about 10:30. I was really tired as the Crawford trip was unexpected and I did not have the right footwear for a tramp through Crawford. – stilettos even if they are only and inch high can leave your feet hurting like crazy.

Had a lousy end of the day. But that is a story that my heart refuses to share here.

It has been 7 years to the date that I lost a very dear friend. As the cliché saying goes , time has indeed dulled the pain.

The memories of the years we were friends stays alive and they never fail to bring a smile to my face as I remember all the delinquency and happy times we had though our years in school.

Slept in late but was rudely awakened by my sister and Rixon who woke me up to tell me some shocking news. Since it had been ages since Rixon has even come home, Mum insisted that he stay for breakfast. Ruth cooked up a lovely breakfast of omlette, friend tomatoes and steaming coffee. I had plans to meet Ajay in the evening but had to scrap them.

Headed instead to the Worli sea face to clear my head. Ruth , Shristi, Rixon and Maria tagged along.

Inspite of the sea face being so close to home, I rarely go as it is invariably crowded and to add to the chaos the work on the Worli – Bandra link is in full swing. We plopped ourselves on the parapet and treated ourselves to roasted corn.

Headed home by around 8 as Ruth, Shristhi and Nani were off to Goa on the night train. Had dinner, did a bit of reading and went off to sleep. It seemed like a looooooooooooooong tiring day.

I had to go to SRM as I has a few interviews scheduled for the automation team. Got my work done and headed home quickly . I had to go for evening mass as it was the youth’s turn to do the liturgy. Ajay and I had planned to go for mass and then have dinner with my Nani.

As is usually the case with these events, Vaibhav called to say he would be held up so that left Ajay to help with the readings. We reached church to discover that everyone had gone for the wedding mass and so there wud be no one to even sing! It has been ages since I have sung with a choir let alone sung alone over the microphone.

Ajay very bravely agreed to join the 2 person “choir”, I was pretty impressed with his oration and I secretly think so was the priest. We managed to do a pretty good job of the mass What say?

Headed home and discovered that Ajay developed a horrible headache. I don’t think even I realized how bad it was. Anyway we kept our date with Gran who as usual had a lovely spread for us. Thank You Nani

We completed our first year at RRL. To celebrate Michelle, Chetna and myself  headed to gondolas for dinner. We spent a nice evening reminiscing about the year that had gone by and the journey from university. Later we went to 5Spice for a sinful chocolate dessert. Since it was already late and we had work the next day we called it a night and headed home. I’m grateful for all the experience and the people I’ve met during the year.

Since it is official, I have the permission to proclaim it!

Li’l Joel has been accepted to join the Jesuits. So in another 12 years or so, I’ll have another friend who is a priest.

All the best Joel. May God bless you always!

I’m currently doing a distance education management course from SCDL to keep in touch with the studying.  I had been having exams every Sunday and today was the last of the semester one series. I’m sure glad they are over

Full Monty, Li’l Bro, Ruth and myself decided to catch a movie in town and since 27 Dresses was at a convenient time we agreed to go for it. Not wanting to be disappointed like the last time we tried getting current tickets, we went an hour early. Picked up the tickets and headed to Fab India who was supposedly on sale. Ruth picked up a couple of garments. We treated ourselves to road side treats - Chaat and Nimbu paani! and headed to Regal for the movie.

I didn’t expect too much from the movie and so wasn’t disappointed. The eye candy was worth the money! We took a short walk down causeway and decided to drop dinner plans and head home as the next day was a working day. All in all an evening well spent

For as long as I can remember I have always being going for the Easter Vigil - which is the 4 part service on the eve of Easter Sunday. These are “The Service of the Light”, “The Service of the Word of God”, “Renewal of Baptismal Promises” and “The Eucharist”. While the service is very meaningful, it gets rather long winded and in my opinion that is when the ‘rituals’ take away from the prayerfulness of the service. Hence, this year my sis and I decided to go for morning mass.

When we were little, my Grandma used to hard boil eggs and get my sister and me to decorate the egg shells before breakfast. It was a lot of fun. Pity I don’t have any photographic evidence of the same

Tanya and Joshua came over with easter eggs and bunnies. How I love those kiddos. They are a joy to be around.

Lunch was a mish mash of fantastic Manglorean cooking (courtesy my Dad) - Pepper Pork & Pork Vindaloo, Chinese - Chicken in hot garlic sauce and Hakka noodles, and the all time tried and tested vegetable pulao!

I promised to cook dinner for some very ’starved’ potential Jesuits and so made some extra Chinese and took that over in the evening to Vinalaya. Spent a quiet evening with Joel and met some other Jesuits too.

I’ve always loved the peace, serenity and lushness of the Jesuit campus at Andheri, and this time was no different. Spent some time in silence at the foot of the Grotto of Our Lady and reminisced about how much my life has changed since the first time I visited the place. All I can say is that I have been blessed immensely.

you agreeing to help us with the project

the multicolour checked shirt

the black jeans

the floaters

me trying to impress you with my ‘knowledge of power point’

you sprawled on the floor of A’s living room

you trying to connect the CD writer to the system and realizing that it was not going to be possible and you would have to do it at home

you promising to have it ready by the next morning and me being paranoid that you wouldn’t have it ready

me asking you to give me a lift to the bus stop

the suggestion that maybe you should burn the CD and give it to me before I went home

the ride to your home

the introduction to your mum

the actual job we went there to do

your concern about how I’d get home

the bumpy bike ride to the station

the long conversation we had

me trying to con you into dropping me home

the exchange of email addresses

the promise to keep in touch

the email I sent you when I got home

4 years and 1 month of memories to the date!