Category: Read about my escapades!

I have seen 3 generations of birthday parties and how they have changed!! So, my birthday parties were all held in Manchester. We used to call about 15-20 friends to the house and we would play pass the parcel, musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey and a few other such games. If the…

A few lesser known facts about the New year.  The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions has been around for thousands of years, and its origins can be traced back to ancient Babylon. The Babylonians celebrated the new year with a 12-day festival called Akitu. During this festival, people would: Plant crops.Pledge allegiance to the reigning…

As the year 2024 comes to an end I was just thinking about what has happened over the year and I must say that in my case it has ben quite a roller coaster! I lost four relatives who were all very dear to me. At the beginning of the year Vinay’s Chachaji passed away……

During this time last year we were talking to friends and Vinay blithely and with great authority announced that I had been on  8 holidays in the year. I didn’t say anything at the time but in my mind I thought it was a slight exaggeration and of course me being me couldn’t sleep that…

When my sister Suman was young she would not eat a meal without tomato ketchup. Whenever we used to go to a restaurant my mother would quietly look around to locate where the bottles were kept so that she could just get up and fetch it herself rather than have to ask for one. My…

Bhimshankar Ruia or Uncle Bhim as I called him was my eldest Chacha and he suddenly passed away this morning. Although I had learnt of his illness just a couple of weeks ago one never imagined that he would leave so soon. It came as a huge shock and great sadness but I suppose the…

Over Diwali one tends to over indulge in most things be it going to parties to eating heavy food to over drinking and to gorging on delicious mithais. What does one do when faced with such temptations? So when my daughter Rashi suggested we go for a detox to Atmantan I agreed with great alacrity…

Despite living in England my parents always made it a point to celebrate our Indian religious festivals every year and Diwali was always on the top of the list. My mother was a cleanliness freak and she would start feverishly cleaning the whole house, the cupboards and sorting through our clothes to remove anything that…

The Maldives is a nation of islands in the Indian Ocean, that spans across the equator. The country is comprised of 1192 islands. Only 200 of the islands are inhabited, and a select few on each of the atolls are resorts and some of the islands are used for industry and agriculture. The beauty of…

It was a tradition in the Goenka family that everyone from the family be they living in Kolkata, Mumbai, Assam or wherever travelled to our family home in Laxmangarh in  Rajasthan during the Puja holidays. We used to have a huge family reunion and this extended to three generations from Vinay’s grandmother to his uncles,…