This year, we had planned to attend the Jagannath Rath Yatra on July 1st, but Jagannath wanted us to meet friends instead :). July and Aug 2022 ended up being months of reunions and it felt really good to meet friends and family after nearly 2.5 years of the pandemic.
July 10 – Pgpmax2013 Delhi NCR Friends
The first reunion was with the Pgpmax Delhi NCR gang on July 10th at Khan Market. Subbu, Akash, Vidur, Sanchita, Raman, JK, Mehraj and I met up. Nearly half the group. We met for lunch at Cafe Delhi Heights. Krishnan and Mehraj’s wife joined us for the lunch.
July 18 – A mini Gurgaon Reunion
As Amit was travelling to Delhi for work, a few of us managed to get together and meet him at Cyber Hub. Met Antony after ages but he came after this picture got clicked :).
July 22 – My cousin Geethu
Well, Geethu was 8 or 9 years old when Krishnan and I got married. Now her daughter is that age. We never got a chance to meet up with her after 1996 when we left Chennai. Couldn’t attend her wedding and then she moved to Canada and life just spiralled forward.
Geethu came over on July 22nd with her parents-in-law, husband and children. Only when you see someone after 25 years you realise that life gallops and doesn’t trot.
July 23 – Sriman
The very next day, my school friend Sriman came over. We forgot to click a pic throughout the day and finally managed to get one the next morning as we were getting ready to drop him back at the airport. Sriman managed to squeeze in a lunch meeting with his team in Gurgaon. We missed meeting Seema by a whisker and Nishi was not in town.
July 26 to 29 – Anu and Keshav
Finally !! The much delayed and many changes later Anu and Keshav finally landed at the Delhi airport on July 26th. This time they have had to make so many changes to their flight that we all thought the trip to Delhi might not even materialise.
The once postponed ticket had to be postponed again to the next day courtesy the airline canceling their flight.
What an awesome time we had together. Just wish the next time it is a longer visit. We have a few places that we want to travel to, together.
Aug 7 – Brunch with our neighbours
On Aug 7th, we walked across to our neighbours on the same floor to have brunch. Absolutely amazing food, mostly made by Kripa and just the sambar made by Mr. Pai. This is probably the only picture of Amma with a plate full of veggies and she is smiling :). Usually Amma makes a face if she is made to eat vegetables…. her face lights up only when its Idli or dosa.
Aug 19 – Vidya and Vish
This was totally a last minute thing ! Vidya and Vish were in Gurgaon to drop Lakshmi at her friends place and called us to see if we could just catch up. We told them that we are living in the living room :):) as our kitchen was being remodelled.
So we met and chatted like always amidst pots and pans, the trusted induction stove coming in handy to make coffee.
Aug 21 – Meeting Neelima, Friends since School
Neelima and Ravi came over on the 20th and we had a nice lunch in our living room as the kitchen was still not ready. It was Sri Jayanti, so I made things that Krishna likes, but healthy treats – Kadamba Satham and for the “meetha” I made OPOS Thiratipaal with badam flour rather than reducing milk forever.
Neelima and I were meeting after 36 years and we just picked up from where we left off in school. Even though we were meeting Ravi for the first time, it just felt so comfortable as though we have been friends for a long time.
On 21st, we met with Neeraj and Abhijeet, the other two KVAFA friends in Delhi NCR. Rachna couldn’t make it. Surprisingly this catch up also was in Cafe Delhi Heights at the DLF mall in Saket. Some karmic connection to Cafe Delhi Heights it seems.
Friends make the world go around and we love spending time with our friends always !
Here’s to meeting more of them as the year goes on :).