🌿 Discover Farming, Friendship, and Freshness at Vihara Community Farm Have you ever dreamt of owning farmland or growing your own food, but weren’t sure where to begin? You’re not alone. That itch to connect with the soil, escape the city grind, and try your hand at something real is shared by many. That’s exactly why we started the Vihara Community Farm — a space just over an hour from Hyderabad, where that dream can be lived, explored, and shaped together. đźšś What is Vihara Community Farm? Nestled in the peaceful village of Jameelapet, about 74 km along the ORR […]
musings
100 posts
The fear of dogs-and the routine calls for them to be muzzled inside society premises-is, frankly, a symptom of a certain kind of urban detachment. I say this not out of cynicism but from repeated experience. Step into an elevator with your dog in most apartment complexes, and you’ll witness a familiar scene: residents gasp, recoil, and exclaim, “Oh my God!” as if the animal should’ve somehow folded itself into a handbag or taken the service lift like a condemned appliance. They often refuse to enter, even when I say, “It’s okay. He’ll stay calm if you stay calm.” But […]
Since I was a kid I have known about this flower courtesy my mother. She was and still is, in my eyes, the foremost authority on anything and everything to do with farming. We lived in a huge house, my father was a high ranking government servant who managed to get transferred within the same city over the course of our stay in Lucknow. The house was surrounded by around 2 acres of land. From the time I was 5 years old till I was 19 I have worked on those lands along with my brothers and of course my […]
Stray Dogs: Understanding, Compassion, and Friendship For much of my life, I was neither a dog lover nor someone with a strong aversion to stray dogs. Our relationship was built on a cautious distance—a mutual “you do you” understanding. So much so that sometimes when the number of strays in the vicinity increased I have even raised a request with GHMC to take corrective measures. However, everything changed a few months ago when we adopted a rescued puppy. That experience opened my eyes to the world of stray dogs and led to a fundamental shift in my perspective. Taking a […]
Friday, after picking up the kids from school we went to walk Baggu at Neopolis. As we were walking back after a nice long walk a family was walking towards us. I shortened Baggus leash and kept walking. As we got close the child lunged to pet and cuddle the “cute puppy”. I pulled back the dog and quickly told the parents “he’s teething, he might nip and bite”. They reeled in the kid, smiled and moved on. I know this is quite unlike the usual daro mat daro mat yeh kaatata nahin hai… (don’t worry he does not bite)… […]
We were recently in Georgia, for the summer vacations. One thing that hit me the moment we landed at the airport was the smell of cigarette smoke in the air. That stayed for the duration of the stay. Everyone smokes, freely and without guilt. The second thing I noticed driving through the city from the airport and then all through our stay in the country, multiple cities, was dogs. The country is overrun by dogs. All dogs on the street that are not pets have yellow colored tabs on their ears signifying that they are vaccinated and safe. The dogs […]
around 20+ years ago, when we were not yet married, we used to pass by this fancy Chinese restaurant by the name of Lings Pavilion while walking around town. Just out of school we were on our first jobs making little to almost negligible monthly salaries. We didn’t really have the courage to go in and eat at that place. I have always been the risk taking, let’s go jump off the cliff and see where we land sort of person, and Sonali has always been the “yes lets, whatever happens we’re in it together” sort of person. So one […]
the reason why all our lives most humans continue to chase success and happiness and never really decisively attain it is because we never take the time to disconnect and workshop success/happiness… defining what constitutes happiness/success for you is what is most important… because attaining a goal you have clearly defined is a very simple task… but first clearly defining the ask is key… As a result you keep chasing after definitions that the world around you has set… and the world around you keeps changing as you keep arriving at every new stage of life… the next big car […]
somewhere between being confused teens and responsible 40 somethings we forgot why we do what we do… we became the nasty competitive, people who do everything to score… we run so that we can tell others that we ran not because it makes us feel good we debate to win not to understand a topic better we support winners for the BIRG(basking in reflected glory) it affords us we no longer believe in siding with the underdog heck we wouldn’t help a grandma cross the street anymore without making a tiktok of the pious event… we meditate not for inner […]
This was my first time as a mentor teaching a group of people how to start running. I was one of the two mentors conducting the c25k (couch to 5K) program for the Hyderabad Runners Society at our location. It started with a call from Shuvendu while I was having lunch with the family. I picked up he said “this is Shuvendu” I said “sorry I did not recognize you but how may I help you?” and immediately got a jab in the ribs, the missus knew how obnoxiously rude and demeaning this problem of mine is. I can never […]
It started on the day before we were scheduled to leave Goa…I called up the information office for Dr. Salim Ali bird sanctuary to ask about the boat ride and they gave me another number. I called up that number they gave me another number, I called there and the person said that a Judge and his family are coming later today so there might be a problem but if you come by 4:30PM which is high tide time we can do the boat ride. I said great and we drove out. 25km, 40 minutes not an unattainable feat. Got […]
From the beautifully manicured garden that I have built for myself in the balcony of the spacious and comfortable 21st floor apartment that I stay in I looked out and saw this scene laid out in front of me… In the far off distance was this all glass monstrosity that architects in India nowadays feel “looks so wonderful”. For them happiness is the money they make for building these stupid ass edifices that will be testaments to the stupidity of Indian architecture in the 21st century. Buildings that house the IT warriors of the nation, warriors who are forced to […]
Race Day — well more like a Fun Run Last session Shuvendu and Shekhar had clearly explained that we should aim to be at the parking lot by 5AM latest by 5:15. Of course!! We left the main gates at precisely 5:22. As a result we ended up parking 1.57km away from the starting point and then walking all that way. It was ok the weather was nice the vibe was truly energetic, active. The 21K runners were on loop number one and by the time we reached the grounds at around 6AM the first lot of the 10K runners […]
The advent of AI technology is rapidly changing the way we live and work. ChatGPT, an NLP AI model developed by OpenAI, is just one example of how this technology is disrupting industries and transforming the way we interact with machines. I had previously predicted that we would have a decade to adapt to this technology, but the speed at which AI is advancing has proven that we have much less time than that. The recent layoffs at big tech companies are a sign of this disruption. OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT is a prime example of how this technology is […]
The inherent goodness and generosity of those who have “not much” is often times seen at the farmers market. Today while out for a walk we noticed the farmers market was on… After having purchased two heads of cauliflower for a princely sum of 60 bucks we were moving towards the vendor with nice looking oranges. On the way I noticed a sad looking guy sitting with a lot of greens. Walking past his patch I wondered “why the long face”? I saw nice looking scallions and walked back and picked up two bunches (will make Uncle Roger approved egg […]
There never was an oxymoron more stark and definitive… Business by it’s very definition is unethical. When you are providing a commodity/service you charge a premium based upon the demand-supply gap. This margin is what is counted as profit. The purpose of a business is to solve a problem in the most profitable way possible for the business owner. Over the centuries we moved from the barter system which was the purest form of equitable pricing to a mad race to the bottom of the bottomless pit that is profiteering. Business has moved from solving problems to creating them instead! […]
Six years back we moved to a new house with a sea view. Something that is aspirational in most books you would think, we did too. While we were shortlisting houses to move to a lot of people commented that this would be noisy as hell. We also got to hear the oohs and aahs of friends who couldn’t believe how lucky we were going to be with such a beautiful view to have on tap. All the rooms faced the sea and the kitchen faced the hills at a distance. Not paying heed to the naysayers we moved in […]
After 45 years of living I seem to have come up with the explanation to that line. Every single time in every single endeavour… begin with the end in mind!. If you can see it with your minds eye you can achieve it. Case in point, actually I’ll give you two examples. 1. coffee earlier today — We were done with the awesome stuff from Great Value and it was time to move over to the beans from Trader Joes. Typically any new coffee tends to take a couple of mugs before it grows on you. Today though I approached […]