Kittamama

Diwali it is and I’m so lucky to be at AJ this year. Though most of the family is not here, I did want to get those positive light vibes in the house. Appa and I got the diyas out and lit them up like we’ve usually done during the years past. Brought back so many fond memories of celebrating the festival when we were kids. Starting right at 04:00 with Kitta Mama’s 1000 Walla, Appa and Amma’s push to get us that pre-dawn morning shower, the house bustling with activity as sweets and savories are consumed quicker than they’re made, neighbors drifting in and out exchanging wishes and gifts, kids bragging on the volume of firecracker purchase, bursting crackers near oblivious strangers in the colony, smoke of various hues of green and orange bellowing from that ‘snake’ firecracker, appa bursting the ‘lakshmi bomb’ using a pair of tongs, and amma -oh looking so beautiful- cautiously lighting the ‘sparkler’ while keeping an eye on all of us. ...

About two decades ago, I chanced upon a small collection of stamps from my Dad. Thanks to friends who were also into stamps then, an amazing mail-man who’d collect and pass-on stamps from other countries over to me and not to forget Kitta Mama - our then neighbor; Over the next few years, I was able to increase the collection quite a lot. During one of my visits to India in 2018, I digitized my stamps and uploaded them over to my personal home server. Today, while looking for something else, I came across them and decided to organize them in a gallery. I really like how it’s turned out and it’s sort of re-kindled my interest in philately! Here’s the digitized collection sorted by country. ...

A relaxing evening game with Miss Me. Always reminds me of Kitta mama, the grand old man with a fiery purpose who introduced us to this game and almost all other board games we’ve played as kids during the scorching summer breaks.