I am a big movie buff and have loved watching movies since childhood. The film screening was in analogue mode, and the film’s length was in ‘reels’. The size of a movie would vary between fifteen to sixteen ‘reels’, and a movie with twenty reels was scarce. A ten-inch ‘reel’…

We had a considerable challenge in selecting a toilet for a manufacturing organisation employing two hundred persons. We had to choose between three seats: an Indian squat seat, a western seat and a hybrid seat. In the first case, we squat. Squatting is considered healthier for bowel movements, and many Indians…

Sri Venktaramana Rao was a friend of my father who visited us frequently. We called him ‘the teacher from Pottipadu or Ayyavaru’, and he stayed with us for a couple of days during his visits. Ayyavaru was bald and sported glasses. He always had a big smile on his face…

I was in eighth grade, and my grandfather taught me to swim. The summer holidays had just begun, and my grandfather told my parents that he would get me to swim. There was no swimming pool in our village, and a large well on farmland two kilometres away, belonging to…

It was early morning on a Saturday, and I walked to Erlangen Bahnhof. The morning was excellent with a clear sky, except for the noise of an occasional car on the road. My spirits were high, and I looked forward to the day. I was in time for the 5:32…

I landed in Ahmedabad to support the disaster relief work from our organisation. On the tenth day after the event, I proceeded to Bhuj, the epi-centre of the earthquake. The day was hot ad sultry, though it was February. It was my first travel to an earthquake site. The distance…

We decided to visit Datong caves near Beijing after a suggestion from a friend. My colleague Xiu Ping was very gracious in booking our air tickets and the hotel at Datong. We arrived at Datong Yugong airport around 10 am. Datong is a small airport with only two or three…

My grandfather was my history and civics teacher in school. He was very passionate about teaching the subject. He believed in experiential learning, and all of us needed to carry an Atlas to his class. Without an Atlas, there was no entry into the classroom. The class leader had the…

I participated in a three-day meeting in Delhi when I had a corporate job. The focus was on global economic development, and the venue was the Taj palace hotel. After checking in, I went to the registration desk and registered for the event quickly, though there was a long queue…