That is a real long time for a life-in post. Interesting times, I forgot that I had a blog to update. Such is the wheel of time. Lets jump right into it
Travel
Kabir workshop at Ooty -
Kanishka and I travelled to Ooty to attend the Kabir workshop. Burn down the house is a new book on Kabir by Shabnam Virmani. Both Shabnam and Linda Heiss were there to take a niche cozy Kabir workshop at Narayana Gurukulam Aashram. It was a great workshop and the experience is something that I would remember for a long time. An intimate setting gave an opportunity to directly interact with both of them along with fellow attendees.
We stayed at the nearby Sterling Fern Hill Resort and that was good too. We did try to stay at the Gurukul but the facilities were too basic for me. The book is great too !
Trip to Nagpur -
Papa, Mummy and I travelled to Nagpur for some real estate business. All ties with Nagpur are now cut. Beyond the business, there was lot of fun things - Maharashtian food was one. But also was watching the movie The Wild Robot. We went to see the movie but due to only three of us, they would not let us buy tickets. I asked him how many people do you need and they said that they need minimum 6 tickets. So, I bought 6 tickets @ 150 INR each and they played the movie for us. A new first for me!
Kannur in December
Kanishka and I travelled to Kannur to do our naturapathy fasting treatment. Before starting we went to Mulbagal Dosa corner in Mysore to taste their new variety of dosa. The dosa was indeed yummy.
Kannur trip was good as always. We played board games (played root), went for walks, went to Chootad beach and this time did the boat cruise on Jan 1 to welcome the new year. All in all, it was a great work-break, and a healthy detox experience as well.
Events
Stargazing camp at Ecoland farms
Kanishka, Kanishka mummy, Aarti and me attended the Stargazing event. Saw Venus, Jupiter, Mars and many many starts. Slept in tent with nice mattress below us. Great experience. Also played foozball next day.
Also visited our farmland - Vrindavan and Shivalik. Trees are small but surviving. Great to see that.
NIFT HSR - Flea market
Did a whole bunch of shopping at NIFT HSR Flea market. Also, met Parul there.
Onam festival lunch at Indian Coffee house, HSR
Anopther get together at Tiger trails restaurant situated inside Royal Orchid. Its ambience is awesome
Wedding anniversary celebration -
We celebrated our wedding anniversary with family at Zen @ Leela. Great social - amazing food, good ambience, bouquet, cake custom made for us.
Kanishka and I travelled to Serai Bandipur to celebrate our anniversary privately. Our first Serai stay (excluding Barefoot at Havelock which is now a Serai property). Stay was good. We also booked a romantic private dinner to make it cheesy!
In 2023, we baked a Christmas cake. At that time, we soaked some dry druits in alcohol and let them be for a year. In 2024, we baked another Christmas cake with soaked raisins from a year ago. It was the best chirsrmas cake ever! The taste of rum was there and it was just the right amount of sweet!
Went for an Indian Ocean concert on Jan 31. Attended an Indian ocean concert after 4-5 years.More nostalgia than enjoyment but enjoyment was also very high!
Attended my first Lavani dance event on Valentine's day - it was awesome. would highly recommend!
Went to Brahma Brews after the dance performance, based on a friend's recommendation. Their Ananas beer was tasty!
Installed a pet door and moved cat litter boxes outside. Taco having fun below -
And here is Puchka being cute -
Baked Madelines as covered here - https://arvindbatra.blogspot.com/2024/12/diwali-ritual-2024.html
Lastly, here is a video to wrap up this post.
