Another collage of thoughts!

(a) Hello again after 19 years!
On my evening walk today, I was pleasantly surprised and thrilled to be greeted by Colonel Ashok and Pradnya Amre. They were with us at the Staff College in Wellington, Ooty and our immediate neighbours at Gorkha Hill, where we were during 1991-‘92. When Lekha had taken ill and had to return home, it was people like them who’d taken me under their wings and looked after me during my long session of living by myself. They were quite thrilled that I remembered their names and have promised to meet up with us over the coming weekend! They’ve two children – their daughter is doing the third year degree course and the son is in class IX – unfortunately, I don’t remember their names and I did not want to disappoint them with this aspect of my ignorance. But while meeting them today, I could feel time melting away and reiterate the strength of our friendship that has indeed withstood the test of time!

(b) A piece of good news
Lt Cdr Sooraj and Capt Aradhana are a young couple that we had befriended a couple of years back, while he was doing his post graduation in Naval Architecture at the IIT out here. Actually, they are related to us through my sister Rema’s husband, Padmakumar. The young lady had a problem on her spine for which she’d undergone a surgery and had recuperated only to be told that she had an added problem of ‘hypothyroidism’ and was on medication ever since. Well, they’ve been able to put their difficult days behind them and have been blessed with a baby girl, through Caesarian section – they’ve already decided on the little one’s name, Ananya and had asked us for our endorsement. Both Lekha and I felt nice about the whole affair and to us, the name sounded really nice and we said as much. The mother and child are progressing well at Asvini, as the parents are posted at Bombay. Should look them up when I visit Bombay, next time on temporary duty.