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Showing posts from January, 2025

LEH

LADAKH CALLING – A MEMOIR The year was 1984. I had just about two years of service, and was still just a ‘learner’ in my profession. One day, on a cold September morning, while supervising an ‘outdoor’ training for my juniors, my boss landed there. Naturally, the first feeling was of a stress – how to explain and brief the proceedings of the day. To my relief, he seemed preoccupied with some other matter. He went around the training area, and gave the much-cherished comment – Good. Then he took a seat and offered one to me. His opening words were – have you read your horoscope this week? Frankly speaking, at my age (then), such matters were the last to figure. I, even now, rarely glance over such write-ups. Obviously, my answer was a bewildered ‘No’. No further queries were thrown and no explanation give. I was ordered to go and meet ‘his boss’ in the evening. All I could mutter was Yes Sir. After that he left. That evening, a confused youngster reached the super boss’s place with a no...

ODISHA

DRIVING: ODISHA – INDIA’S BEST KEPT SECRET Destiny was kind to us, by giving us (a much dreamed of) comprehensive tour of Northern Odisha – driving around at our chosen pace. This region of India had been flashing as ‘unvisited’ on our must visit list for quite some time. We had a very ‘boxed’ kind of imagination about this magnificent region – thankfully it was shattered within a day. Having spent quite some time in The NCR – I too had developed a false image of this eastern Indian state. Bhubaneswar is a fairly well spread-out city – clean and well catered for.  The roads are wide and well maintained with a smooth flow of traffic. This impromptu tour of ours began a few days before Christmas of 2025. The air fare between Delhi and Ranchi (why Ranchi! Well, continue reading) had sky-rocketed to a level, which seemed a bit ‘too much’ for us – so we opted for an overnight journey on The Ranchi Rajdhani Express. Must admit, the train staff pleasantly surprised us with their good serv...