Between Then and Now!!

 

Date: 21^st November 2025

Between Then and Now!!

Covid – a tiny invisible virus had made the world realize the uncertainty of human existence. Many had lost their lives out of complications and secondary infections, not mentioning the wrong medications prescribed by the medical fraternity the world over. The lurking unknown fear had made everybody realize how fragile each one of us were.

All of us pressed the rest buttons and started all over again but this time with a desire to not go back to the rate race of the yester years, but savour the days ahead at a pace we were comfortable with. Little did we think that a year down the line post recovery, we would pick up speed and start running faster as if there was no tomorrow!

We seem to have forgotten the wows each of us personally took to lead a better life post covid by pacing ourselves appropriately and keep our priorities simple and doable.

In the midst of the covid confusion, we the 1981 batch from REC Trichy decided not to meet in 2021 marking 40^th year of graduation. Instead, we met in 2024 at Ooty and called it the 42^nd Year Re-Union, although numerically it was 43^rd Year. It was primarily managed by our own Start-Up champion B V Ramanan, ably supported by a few other batchmates. The dates – 4^th to 7^th January 2024 and venue Ootacamund. Since it is within 6 to 7 hours of driving distance from Bengaluru, my wife and I decided to take our Honda Amaze. It was nice that another batchmate, V Kannan settled in the US decided to join us on the drive from Bengaluru. We started at 6 AM, picked up Kannan from Konanakunte Cross and then proceeded to Ooty via Mysuru. We reached the venue, Sterling Resorts around 11:30 AM and straightaway joined the others gathered in a hall doing the introductions. The three-day program was a resounding success and all of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. While a large number of our folks were in favour of the 45^th Year Re-Union, our hitherto Champion Lead was firm on handing the baton to the next volunteer. Also, the popular demand was to move away from the Southern cities which had become a bit of a tradition. Mohanty, a prominent businessman in Bhubaneshwar offered to Lead the Re-Union with support from other members who had been associated in the past Re-Unions.

It was collectively decided to hold the 45^th Re-Union at Puri – abode of Lord Jagannath. Dates were fixed and so was the organizing committee. So, here we are just a month and half away from the event unfolding at Sterling Resorts, Puri with its property adjacent to Lord Jagannath’s home.

This note of mine wasn’t about recalling the Re-Union 42 or giving glimpses of Re-Union 45. It is about the changes that each of us have seen in the last 2 years. Its about taking stock of what drastic changes we would have gone through in our personal lives and talk about it, or should I say write?

Sometime back, I had proposed that all those attending can send a write-up of their 45 years of professional and personal growth and that would make a very interesting read and it would give our subsequent generations an insight about who we are! But somewhere down the days and months the initial enthusiasm of acceptance turned into a ‘may-be’ and later given it a miss! Some were not wanting to make an attempt at writing and some felt it was far too long a story to write in a condensed format. It doesn’t have to be a ball-by-ball account…think of it as a 2-hour Harry Potter movie captured from J K Rowling’s book of 500 or so pages. An attempt to pick a few major turning points in our life and piecing them together would have come out as a excellent read! Just, my thoughts…you may certainly wish to differ.

But, honestly for all of us the last 2 years would have brought serious changes both professionally and at a personal level when compared to the last 42 years. No of retired people would have significantly gone up and so should have been the elevation to grandparents’ level. From being engaged at work 24/7 to not being employed 24/7 is a sea change indeed! Losing a parent or a sibling  would have been an earth shattering change leaving us sad and a feeling of loneliness.

For me retiring from active work life happened very early in the year 2011. But, I was urged by my CEO to remain associated with the organization till December 2018. Since then, I have chosen to be a handy man at home and I have enjoyed this status although it may have irked my sons and daughters-in-law at times. I have said this with a lot of pride that we are a joint family – all seven of us living under one roof. Until just after the last Re-Union when my elder son and daughter-in-law announced that they would be moving to a different house within walking distance of my grandson’s school. It took a long time to reconcile but we took extra care to keep the relationship intact. What we, my wife and I thought had broken has actually remained intact and brought about a sea change in our outlook towards them. We only look at the positives and have let go of all the negatives…at least this is what we would like to believe. We haven’t ventured into asking for an opinion or their thoughts. What we sorely miss is the company of the grandchild…its so special and cannot be described in words.

Things remained steady until I suddenly was down with an upset tummy that eventually turned out to be a heart attack in disguise in the month of February 2025. I have written a blog on the condition and how my folks at home took it on themselves to get me back on my feet! There was one 100% block in the main artery and a stent had to be placed after angioplasty. I got a new lease of life in this process but with a lot of food restrictions. There was a blanket ban on whatever I liked and the only concession was I could indulge on those restricted foods just once a month. It was tough, but habits can be changed once the mind gets tough.

Covid in the year 2020/21 had brought in a new learning. It was Jabby Ramesh who called and asked if I would like to learn Rudram and I immediately pounced at the opportunity. Four of us, Tram, Bala, Senthil and myself enrolled and learnt all the basic shlokas before embarking on the journey to learn Shree Rudram. Ramesh is a fine teacher and he had the patience to make sure that we pronounced the Sanskrit words correctly. In 2024 July when Geetha Parivar opened a sen session for learning Bhagwad Geetha online both Ramesh and Tram urged me to enrol and I did. It took a year and half to learn all the 18 chapters. I officially completed the session in mid-October 2025. I have been reciting 4 chapters a day and once a cycle is completed, I start all over again. Geetha Parivar also commenced online teaching of Vishnu Sahsranamam and it took just under two months to complete. I continue to recite Vishnu Sahsranamam every evening. I owe a big thanks to both Ramesh for initiating me into learning the Vedas, although we have just skimmed the surface and to Tram for pushing me to join Vishnu Sahsranamam class. Now it is up to us to expand our horizons into this wide subject.

I also discovered that I was good at making wooden toys. It was an ask from my grandson to make a bridge and a tunnel to begin with. I made it for him to make his toy cars, typically the Hotwheels variety to go on the bridge and through the tunnel. To make it educational I named the bridge as Bogibheel Bridge and the Tunnel as Jojhila Tunnel, since both these were making headlines those days. I graduated to making finer wooden toys namely a car, a low bed truck, Wind Mill, Bucket excavator and all of them are working model as desired by my grandson. Wooden toys with wheels make a lot of rickety noise on the floor. To make it softer, I used an old rubber tube of a cycle to wrap it around the wheels and stick it with araldite. For the axles I used either a cycle spoke or a mobike spoke. More recently I’ve made a variety of planes for him. The most recent one is a propeller craft also called a Bi-Plane. You will find these on Captain W E Johns “Biggles” series of books. Just a few days back I started on PSLV Model. Its taking time as it involves a lot of grinding work.

Finally, 15^th November 2025 was a special day for my wife and myself as we completed 40 years of togetherness. It was my wife’s idea that all seven of us should spend a couple of days in a resort and spend time in each other’s company. It was indeed brilliant…we travelled to a home stay “The Coffee Bean in Chikkamagalur. It is a 100 acre coffee plantation farm run and managed by the 6^th generation of a family. With just 12 rooms, it was personalized hospitality with excellent home cooked food. With a pool neatly tucked between the building both my sons and grandson had a whale of time in the pool. What was additionally attractive were the 4 dachshund dogs, two coffee brown and two jet black. This breed of dogs are extremely friendly, have short legs and seldom bark. They love to be petted, especially the belly rub. There was a Doberman too and contrary to what I thought this dog too was friendly and kept coming to us to be petted. Perhaps they’ve got used to the guests coming and petting them. Noting spectacular about the food, but it was tastefully prepared and served very well. I loved the large spacious room with huge balcony overseeing the plantation and the forests beyond.

We even got some time to go on a jungle safari near Bhadra reserve forests. We didn’t spot any of the rare species, but got to see the deer, bison and giant lizard (understand it is called monitor lizard) in its natural surroundings. There were a wide variety of birds. There is a sunset point and one can go to that position by a 4-wheel drive Willy’s jeep only. We made it to that point exactly at 5:30 PM to see the natural phenomenon in its complete glory.

 We look forward to catching up in the first week of 2026 and only wish more of our batchmates had joined to make it one large family get together. We will never get to know what stopped a few from enrolling. Was it the timing or was it the choice of venue or was it purely on health grounds? But if you ask me, I don’t think we will get such an opportunity…5 years from this get together, we will be in our 7^th decade…but let’s hope we do meet and boost each other on a life well lived!