Dilemma! What do I do?

I was in this dilemma when I stated blogging in December 2004. I had one blog for all my different audiences. At that time I also had web pages devoted to different sectors of readers.

There was a clamour amongst my readers of the blog that I was out of tune with them as they were reading many items that they were not interested in as they pertained to my alma maters or something specific to Oulu, etc.

It was then I started breaking up my blogs - besides my primary Blog (Jacob's Blog), I started one on Politics, another related to my association with Cathedral School (Mumbai), another about St. Stephen's College (Delhi), another about finding goods and services in Oulu, etc.

Everybody was happy!

All went well till my recent trip to India, where I stopped all my auxiliary blogs and kept only my main blog going, with just a few very specific entries to my other blogs.

My readership shot up as it appeared that many were interested in all aspects of my trip around India - which I had termed as "Incredible India".

The readership more than doubled at one point. People were referring others to my blog and it just snow-balled into a massive readerfest. Old and young, relatives and friends, school and college mates, Findians, O-Indians, my professional colleagues, past and present, were all tuned in. And many strangers from around the world were liking my style!

Wherever I went I found I needed no introduction as people had been following my blog. As I recorded, at one stage it became highly embarrassing, as people would come up to me and ask whether I knew them!

On returning to Finland, I went back to my old system.

Now I am having a spate of complaints. Many say that I should only blog at one point.

That would be great for me but not fair on my diverse audience. For instance the Cathedral School Alumni Association have especially complimented me on my sustained effort to keep the school spirit at its height by my blogging.

That is definitely not possible as my Seventh Heaven and Kooler Talk Blogs have very specific readerships. And not everyone likes my Politics. To burden all my regular readers with MY political views would be unfair. And my Oulu Best (Worst) Buy Blog is very specific to my Oulu Readers. Who in India or USA wants to read about the price of eggs in Oulu?

Is there any single solution, which is outside my very limited knowledge, which will help keep all my readers happy?

One way is that you could become a "Follower" of a specific blog. Whenever the one you are interested is updated, you will get a message from Google. No infringement of your privacy. You can always stop the "Follower" program whenever you want.

That way, it would stop my having to post important blog entries on my multiple blogs. (Possibly - as I have not yet looked into the ramifications of this alternative.)

If you have any suggestions, please email me or leave me a COMMENT. (Although my blogs are not exactly "Comment" blogs, I do read all the comments and reply them appropriately - also knocking off the spam that does come in.

This entry is being posted on all my major blogs, as it concerns all my readers in all categories.

A tribute to each and every one of you

I do receive many emails from all over the world every day.

Today was a special day as I received an email from the current President of our alumni, Viral Doshi. In a way it is special, no, not to me, but to each of you who have contributed to the enormous success of this web page / blog over the last 14 years.

Yes, it is just under 14 years since I started the Seventh Heaven Web page, thanks to a then very young Cathedralite alumni, Vikram Somaya, son of another adorable 64er Brinda Somaya (née Chinappa). At that time I did not know that Vikram was the son of Brinda, whose family have been friends of our family for many generations, from our Bangalore days together. And Brinda and her husband made a trip to Finland just last year. Annikki and I drove down 600 km from Oulu to spend a couple of hours with them.

Over these last 14 years, this web page / blog has had many ups and downs. At one point we even hit rock bottom because Annikki and I were forthright in our views about happenings in this world.

That down had nothing to do with our school, but it came to a point where I thought I would have to say goodbye to keeping any of our web pages of alive.

However, we survived that because of the perseverance that was imbibed in me by my alma mater. The real fruits of our efforts were seen in the 2009 50th Year Reunion of the Class of 59, which was a tremendous success.

I can see the 64ers, headed by Rajiv Ved, Rustom Dadabhoy and Deepak Deshpande, driving their class team in almost the same direction. They are galloping along to overtake the Mother of All Reunions. Let us see what they come up with!

I do wish them all success as they have started their efforts 6 years ahead of D-Day! As they say "Rome was not built in a day!"

Our School by 59er Hasnain Chinwala

Let us get us back to this email I received:

Dear Jacob:

We are happily, reaching the Gunnery years in the Cathedral Book Project, and there is of course, no better person than you to assist us at this stage.

You have contributed immensely to the sense of community, identity and history of the Cathedral School through 7th heaven and your blog.

It was indeed a pleasure meeting you at your reunion, which I must say was very spirited and informative. Events like this are an impetus to do more and more for the school we are so privileged to be part of.

Jacob, we wonder if you might help us in two ways:

1. We request your kind permission, to use your website and blog as source material for the book. We will of course give a hefty acknowledgement in 'Acknowledgements'.

2. Also, we would like to write about the FACT OF THIS SUSTAINED EFFORT TO MAINTAIN A WEBSITE, which knits together a community of "Cathedral believers" and students. So we would like to chat with you about that. We were possibly the first Indian school to have an unofficial alumni website, ( a tribute to you) long before the official one, or indeed the school website was launched.

3. We would like to speak to you about your reminiscences. How do you suggest we go about this? a)Phone? b)email questionnaire? c) would you like to just write out your recollections in a "stream of consciousness" style that we could draw on? For the last we could send you some nudging questions. And also if you would have any priceless photographs of the 40s or 50s that you would feel will add value to the book...teachers, school building, boxing in action, school social etc. it would be marvellous.

Look forward to hearing from you, Jacob, and for your collaboration on this project

Warm regards

Mridula & Viral

I hope my reply was appropriate.

Dear Mridula & Viral,

Do you really have to ask this?

For me, it is taken for granted!

What I have done is for my dear friends. What I have done is for a school which allowed me to enjoy a second life.

Is there anything more I can do, within my very limited capabilities, for the school. That is what I ask myself, daily!

And what a reunion we 59ers had!!!

Annikki and I have launched a new project which should result in a Coffee Table Book by the time of the 150th Year reunion. I have just announced it today on my blog and things are rolling in faster than I thought. There are prizes to be won!!!

I suffer from mild form of dementia, so a telephonic contact would result in chaos. Email is the best and that way I can link several information sources from around the world who are the many many real people quietly behind the Seventh Heaven Blog. 49ers Yezad Kapadia and Naval and Armaity Patel, William Shiri, 54ers Gracie Hayeem & Sadhana Shah, 56er H. S. Uberoi, 57er Tony Jaitly, 59er Hasnain Chinwala, 64ers Deepak Deshpande, Rajiv Ved and Rustom Dadabhoy, and many more.

I have to also thank many wonderful friends as Vikram Somaya, Rohit Tolani, (most of whom I have never met) and one computer whizz kid whose name I cannot even remember, when Rohit was planning the original alumni web site.

I was prepared to hand over Seventh Heaven then, but sadly or maybe for the best, it did not happen!

I will send you the final version of the 59ers Coffee Table Book when it is off the press shortly. The one I gave you was the prepublication version.

Regards

Jacob

Remember, your submission of your "Most Poignant Moment" associated with Cathedral School will reach every Cathedralite who takes part in celebrating the 150 years history of Our School. Get cracking to send those notes to Annikki or me - and win some fabulous prizes. (Annikki is already on the hunt for some really great stuff.)

And thank you Mridula & Viral for that very lovely email.

Cathedralite Poignant Moment Contest

The Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog is the foremost Blog for our school. It is meant for Cathedralites living all around the Universe.

What we do today, others copy tomorrow.

So here is another first for our Blog.

Cathedral Detention Centre for Delinquents. Photograph and caption by 59er Hasnain Chinwala, Toronto, Canada, 2006.

We have started a "Cathedralite Poignant Moment Content".

The submissions that we casually asked for of your most Cathedralite Poignant Moment have started to come in. Some of the submissions are really great.

As a result of this response, Annikki and I have instituted a set of three prizes for the three best poignant moments of your relationship with our school submitted to the Seventh Heaven Blog by March 31st 2010.

You can submit as many entries as you like. Try to keep the submissions to less than 3000 words, if possible.

The Judges will be chosen from our Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog Readers and will cover 7 decades of Cathedralites. We are not announcing the names of the Judges so that everyone has the right to take part. The Judges will be chosen from our panel of really "great" Cathedralites who are regular readers of this blog.

There will be three prizes.

We are now working out what they will be. We promise you that they will all be wonderful as Annikki hunts around for some things which are truly truly unique.

No entry fee.

Submissions should be sent to either

jmatthan at gmail.com

or

jmatthana at gmail.com

where

" at " should be replaced by @. (In Finnish we refer to this sign as "MUIKKU MAUKKU")

We are writing our email address like this so that those robots which harvest email addresses on the internet and which then either attack the email address or put the email address onto a spam generating CDs does not take these addresses.

If you prefer, you can also send your entries by snail mail to

Annikki & Jacob Matthan
Vesaisentie 11 A
FIN-90160 Oulu
FINLAND

Our intention is to prepare a lovely Coffee Table Book, like the one we produced for the 59ers 50th Year Reunion with the collection of the best of the great inputs.

This will be in time for the 150th Year Founders' Day celebration in November 2010.

So get to work on recording your favourite memories of our school!

And to make this universal - Please spread the word amongst all your Cathedralite friends.

Most poignant moment of memories of School

Annikki and I started a programme amongst our own Seventh Heaven Google Group for 59er Cathedralites to ask them to record the most poignant moment of their historic 50th Year Reunion.

We have several non-59ers who are observers on that Google Group.

I have received requests from quite a few of them whether I could put up a request on this blog, which is read by Cathedralites from 1945 up to 2010, for submission of the most poignant moment of their individual year reunions, or even more possibly, the most poignant moment of their life in relationship to our school.

For instance, it could be the depth of feeling you had being appointed as school captain, or getting an unexpected first class in the final exam, or winning a coveted medal, or award from or on behalf of the school, or your grandchild taking part in an event of the school!

I know it will be hard work for Annikki and me to sift through such submissions that come, as we will not personally know many of you who make them. So it may appear out of context for us. However, we decided to entertain such submissions, which will then be published on this our Seventh Heaven Blog. You can email it to either Annikki or me. (jmatthan at gmail.com or jmatthana at email.com)

Probably all of you will think that the moment I opened my eyes after being resuscitated by Mr. Arthur Morecroft on the sandy beach on the banks of Vasind river was my most poignant moment of my entire life. Good guess...

But, let me assure you, there are competing moments, such as the most embarrassing moment of my life at the school opera, or even the most poignant very personal moment of our experience at our 50th Year Reunion, which is yet to be recorded.

Do let us have your submissions. I think it will be fun to read them. I think it will provide an important link between Cathedralites of all ages.

Mother of All Reunions

This is a highly controversial subject, as every class believes that its reunion was the best.

However, having been a helper for many reunions, the one organised by the 59ers in November 2009 took the cake.

Largest turnout ever for the Founders' Day Service
by a 50th Year Reunion Group.

For that we can thank many people, those who hosted the events, those who turned up in great numbers, the spouses of the participants who took part as if they were also part of the crowd and not just there because they needed to be, the variety of the events, the absolutely breathtaking backdrops to many of the events, the depth of feeling for those who were not there, the mementos and publications that were developed for the reunion, etc.,.


Girls from 1959 who took part in their 50th Year Reunion.


Boys from 1959 (most) who took part in their 50th Year Reunion.

On all fronts, the 59ers have set standards which any other year will have a hard time to reach.

This is not a competition, but it is the atmosphere that is created and achieved which is what is important.

The 59ers spent almost 5 years discussing and planning what their reunion should be like. They held mini-reunions and discussions online on their own Google Group set up to reach every 59er. People saved up for two years to be able to take part in the event. Teachers flew in from Toronto and London to take part.

Imagine your Class Teacher of 50 years ago flying in to take part in this event!

The atmosphere build up was electric, and there was no let down at the event, as it was all it was billed as.

For this one had to have a strong leader who held the group together.

We were faced with Cyclone warnings which ground Mumbai to a standstill. Government offices and schools closed. But, the 59ers carried on regardless. There were dire warnings of choppy seas when we were to be bound for Alibaug by ferry, but the 59ers went on regardless.

The Mumbai organisers certainly deverve a tremendous amount of credit for making sure everything was perfect. Annikki and I dropped in from Finland, and thanks to the tremendous back up advice and support by all the localites, the event that we hosted was just wonderful.

In all this there is one person who stood out as "Our Captain".



Vijay and his first mate, Suchita.

That is Vijay Shivdasani, who, like the ships he has sailed on, held us altogether and drove us to a most amazing reunion which has touched the hearts of all us 59ers and many more. the taste still lingers on today, 7000 km away and 2 months after the event.

I draw special emphasis today on his sterling leadership because he celebrates his birthday. I can think of no more an appropriate forum than this Seventh Heaven Blog for publicly wishing him on his birthday and thanking him for all that he has done for us 59ers.

Hip Hip Hurrah - and have a great birthday, Vijay (Shivi to many of us).

Integration Council members

I read today in the Indian Telegraph about the new "Minority boost to integration council".

Here are the names of people that may be on that council:

The Telegraph has learnt that the proposed names include those of Justice A.M. Ahmadi, Omar Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, Syed Shahabuddin, Asaduddin Owaisi, Shahid Lateef, Shabnam Hashmi, John Dayal, Ramdas M. Pai (president and chancellor, Manipal University), Valsan Thampu (St Stephen’s College principal), Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent M.C. Concessao, Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Recognise some names in that list?

Shahid Lateef is the wife of 62er Stephanian Sarwar Lateef. John Dayal is a Stephanian, as also present Principal of the College, Rev. Valsan Thampu. Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Rahul Bajaj, is both a 58er Stephanian and also a 54er Cathedralite. Ratan Tata was a Cathedralite for a part of his education. I have not had the good fortune to meet him personally, although his younger brother, Jimmy, was a close friend and my hockey mate.

During my recent visit to Delhi I did meet John, Valsan and Rahul.

John broke protocol and came to see me the day I was leaving. He had just got back from Orissa and he came over that morning just to spend a few minutes over breakfast. And I did say a short prayer, holding hands with him, for his devoted work for the people of India. Maybe this is where I show him the meaning for that prayer.

I met Thambu at the St. Stephen's Founder's Day celebration on Monday 7th December, where I took part in the Holy Communion Service in the College Chapel, and then at the proceedings in the College Assembly Hall where former Indian President Abdul Kalam was the Chief Guest.

Sadly I do not see Valsan as a man with much vision at this moment of time. Hopefully God will lead him in the right direction if he gives up his ways of playing politics for power!

And Rahul paid me the greatest tribute by staying on a extra day in Delhi to be present at an event organised by Delhi Cathedrtalite to meet with Annikki and me. Having led an industry to the zenith, he now has a wondeful opportunity to show his fellow men that he has the vision to lead minorities to the centre of Indian society as equals.

Sadly, I did not learn till later that Sarwar and Shahid were in Delhi, as otherwise I would certainly have met up with this very dear couple. Shahid has always been at the forefront of the women's movement as well as a powerful spokesperson for uplifting of Muslim women.

I do hope this Council will stop beating about the bush and get a move on, not on the antiquated model of reservation of seats for the minorities in schools, colleges and jobs, but by uplifting the hearts and minds of these people labelled as minorities, into them thinking that they can compete on equal terms with the best of the world. They are not second class citizens of the world, so let us stop treating them as such.

You treat people as weak and they will be weak. You treat them as human beings and they can outstrip the very best.

Look at the fantastic performance of the black community in sports in the USA and UK (and also Kenya, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Canada, France, etc., etc.). They do not need to be treated as weak and powerless minorities. Given the right role models, they will bring in performances that are better than the best of their more fortunate brothers and sisters.

That itself is the tonic for success, not reservations, which is the sure tonic for failure!

I remember the words of my friend, former Ambassador Niranjan Desai, while we were having lunch together at the International Centre just a few weeks ago. He said that by treating the minorities as we do presently, we will not achieve any improvement in their standards.

I fully agree with his reasoning. This Integration Council should start looking at other ways to uplift the ethnic minorities in India than stupid and unrealistic reservation policies!

Recognise inherent cultural and ethnic talents. Build on successes. Do not force people into streams where they are doomed to fail.

In short, I hope this council will bring forward a new vision to the way we handle the integration of minorities into mainstream society!

A special person

64er Rajiv Svedberg, a ZMac enthusiast, like me.

I have made lots and lots of friends of all years from our school.

Of the 59ers, Arvind, Noel, Naubir, Ooky, Ramesh, Shivi, Vijay, Viney, and our late Ashok, have been especially close over the last 55 years. More recently, thanks to the internet, Anil, Armeane, Ellis, Jack, Hasnain, Narayan, Percy, Peter, Ratan and Trevor have become very dear friends.

And at our 50th Year Reunion I felt a deep bond develop with all my other classmates.

But even more than these my classmates, there is one person from our school who is absolutely special.

A couple of years ago he called me up from New Delhi and spoke to me at length. We discussed many things. From the very first words, it was as if we had known each other for years.

From then on he has been a constant source of joy, because, not only is he easy going but also delightful company, over the phone and in person.

I really enjoyed my quality time with him when I visited his office while I was in Delhi. He is one of the very few people that I actually took time to visit.

The 64er Reunion in November 2009 / © Rajiv Ved)

A 64er, he has driven that year to become a lively group like our 59ers. He does feel sometimes that all of his classmates are not yet on the same wicket all of the time. But he does have some wonderful classmates, to that I can vouch.

Today is his birthday.

It is just before 10:00 am in New Delhi. In a short while I will ring him to wish him.

He has made my world a delight. We have so many cross connections, that is as if I have known him all my life.

For fear of embarrassing him, I do not intend to name him here, as he knows who he is. All I say with all the deepest sentiment in my heart, is "Happy Birthday, dear friend".

Commonality in Reunions

During my recent trip to India to attend the 50th Year Reunion of our Class of 59, I joined several year groups with whom I have built up a bond of friendship over the years. The 49ers, the 54ers, the 55ers, the 56ers, the 57ers, the 58ers, the 60er, the 64ers, the 67ers, the 69ers, to name just a few of the years who went out of their way to greet me and comment on this blog which they have found to be "interesting".

All the time I thought to myself: "Do I have anything in common with all these people who have become my friends?"

So many of them sent us gifts!! The Alumni Association gave me the new alumni tie! Hasnain gave me something Annikki and I love - an art glass piece representing Canadian Indian culture, Sadhana gave me an engraved keychain and Annikki a gift voucher, Prakash sent us a variety of things, the Delhi Cathedralites gave us a beautiful collection of books (photograph featuered in another blog entry).

Some were so thoughtful and considerate enough to give gifts that we would consume and enjoy while in India and not have to cart them back to Finland. Several of them got names for easy identification by Annikki, as the humourous "Head scratcher", a collection of dry fruits and nuts by "Nutty"! :-)

There are literally thousands of others who correspond with me regularly and irregularly. I do not know their faces. I know nothing about their individual lives. Some have inspired me. Others have caused a variety of feelings deep inside me by their brutal honesty. Some do not like my politics, others love it.

But in the main, I learnt that all of them hold this blog in great respect mainly because I have not gone on a rampage against anyone. If I dislike something, I say so, but try to do it in a way that is a sort of constructive criticism.

I may have failed on several occasions, but I have been forgiven.

But let us come to my classmates and teachers - the 59ers. Only very few of them read this blog as they are used to seeing me in my Google Group which I have set up for them. But meeting them all in person, many of them after 50 years sent a thrilling feeling down my spine.

It was a warm glow. It was a feeling that I used to experience when I drank my first glass of rum on a lonely evening sitting in a village about 80 km from Bangalore, faraway from my family. (Considering I do not now drink alcohol and have not touched it for 27 years, it is strange that I still remember that feeling!)

(Photo courtesy 64er Rajiv Ved.)

Seeing Bill Shiri (my physics teacher), Joe D'Souza (my history teacher), John Billington (my class teacher in XIA and English teacher), Armeane, David, Hasnain, Indarjeet, Jangoo, Khurshed, Peter, Robert, Venkat, Vikram, after a space of 50 years, was a feeling that caused me to think - "Do I have anything in common with this crowd?" Especially meeting so many of the girls from our class I had not known while I was in school, was yet another surprising feeling!

It so happens, we all had so much in common. We were genuinely interested in each other. Even those who were indifferent at the start of our reunion became endeared by me by the end.

Did I get to talk about their families and their lives in the intervening years? Actually - NO! There was so much about the present to discuss that even a week together did not get us past the last decade!

many of them asked me to cvisit them. unfortunately that was not possible, simply because the number of invitations far far exceeded the days available!

We all spent a great deal of time and money taking part in this reunion. I sort of thought "Was it well spent?"

The answer was simple - YES!

If you are planning a reunion, not just your 50th Year Reunion, but any reunion, focus on just the present, and the past will look after itself!

Seventh Heaven Google Group takes a dramatic turn

Just a few days ago, on this Blog, I mused that we should maybe use the Seventh Heaven Google Group for Cathedralite 59ers for something else since the 50th Year Reunion is over.

I did not speak out of context or too soon, as suddenly we have a wonderful set of posts on a variety of subjects - Indians as philanthropists, Secularism in the Indian Army, Dalai Lama, Buddhism, and what the English may have taught us.

Brilliant minds have started to use this as a discussion forum on subjects of interest to us over 65ers, as many of us have time to chew the cud on these topics.

Many thanks to Chinnie, Piloo, Shivi, Indrajit, John, Ubi, Peter - for your wonderful start up contributions, which has raised our Google Group to a level that others can now aspire for in their groups. I hope other will jump in on these conversations. Sarcasm and wit are encouraged, but remember, try to keep civility, even in disagreement.

As usual, the 59ers are again at the forefront.

Keep up the good work, which Annikki and me, as Moderators are really enjoying.

If you are not a 59er but want to take part in this Group, either as a passive participant or an active one, do email me with your private email address, and I will let you in!

Has it been that long?

It seemed just yesterday I blogged the story about my friend being hacked. His hotmail account is still spewing out virus emails.

But what I realised is that when I am blogging at several places, it sometimes is that some blogs get overlooked if there is not some hot news to report.

I was busy blogging my views about the incompetent Finnish Police force after that incident at the shopping centre in Espoo. I was also busy blogging about the incompetent bank called ICICI.

So it was natural with such hot stories, one forgets that I have a world of readers on my other blogs.

Today, for instance, I blogged (Jacob's Politics) what is probably a minority of 1 opinion that the Yemen / Somali push by US and UK is to gain a military foothold in the narrowest entry point into the Arabian Sea - strategically very important, if you want to be the world's policeman!

So obviously, my Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog was sort of forgotten, but not any of you my dear friends.

I exchanged a couple of wonderful emails from Joan, who is an inspiration to everyone that comes in contact with her.

I had Christmas and New Year greetings from every corner of the world from Cathedralites.

I cannot forget for a moment that I am a Cathedralite and that I am in touch with over a couple of thousand of you located around the world. My Inbox speaks it daily!

I am putting up one picture from our 59er 50th Year Reunion which was taken outside the St. Thomas Cathedral just before our Founders'Day Service.

Hasnain Chinwala, Vijay Shividasani, Jacob Matthan, William Shiri (Physics teacher), Ramesh Mirchandani, Viney Sethi (at back), Noel Ezekiel (front), Ooky Elijah Elias, David Colaco. The Ladies: Gita Simoes, Anjula Mansukhani, Asha Agarwal, Harmo Malik, Sheryn Mulla, Parvin Surti, Seeta Nayyar, Saroj Malkani. The Men behind the ladies: Anil Ruia, Vikram Savara, Naubir Mohindar, Peter Miovic, Adi Cooper, Arvind Thadhani, Atul Kapadia, Venkat Kurma, Ratan Singara, Khurshed Balsara, Vinay Dabholkar, Robert Tyabji, Arun Sethi and Jangoo Moos.

A few who attended various parts of our reuion and are missing from this photograph are John Billington (Class Teacher XI A and English Teacher), Joe D'Souza (History teacher), Armeane Choksi, Ashok Ruia, Bashir Currimjee, Ellis Hayeem, Farhana Poonawala, Indrajit Shah, Ketty Kapadia, Percy Mistri, Piloo Tata, Renuka Batliwala, Vijay Nayar, Vikram Kamdar, Zarine Taraporewala, Zenobia Mehta. (Anyone forgotten?)

There is another development going on. The Cathedralite Google Group for 59ers is taking a new twist and turn, now that the Reunion is over. There are some articles being posted and some very interesting comments and discussions.

The present discussion centres around philanthrophy and our industrial corporations. I was amazed to read that 60+% 0f Tata's profits finds its way into charitable work in one form or another. Do any of our IT companies reach anywhere near that value!

Will that Group become a more serious forum for 59ers?

Let us hope so.

In the meantime, do prod me if you find I am neglecting this blog! I am not facing writer's block, as previously. My trip to India has sharpened my senses and many more nostalgic memories have flooded through my brain, waiting to be released onto this unsuspecting readership. :-)