Day 3 at Pune !

Yes- this is Navratra season in Pune. You can see people doing dandiya (a folk dance with short sticks) under big canopy, by the side of the road late in the night, to slow music, under the indulgent gaze of beautiful idols of various Godesses! While the Mother watches and smiles children dance to Bollywood music! Perfect!

I am staying with JP and his house mates. It brings back memories of living in boys hostel in my medical college days.There are six young IT professionals sharing a nice little flat on the ground floor of a multi-storey building. Each has his own time to go to office (often decided by the client overseas and the IT companies they work for), work, eat, sleep and also sing! Some cook, some dont. They share one broad band by turning one of their laptops into some kind of wireless server. Every now and then, you here some one yelling: Dekh, Dekh, brodband ka jack nikal gaya kya? (Has the broad band cable come loose?!!)

Watching sun rise from the roof of this five storey building is a great experience: Pune is surrounded by a ring of low hills. A haze hanging loose on the city is slowly lit up with changing shades of pink, red, auburn- and suddenly this molten red ball is suspended in the blue sky just above the eastern hills.. reflecting from the glass panes of the high rise buildings in Hinjewadi, behind me.. No time to close your eyes, but to open them and be one with the scene!

Gaurish came, saw his video and then we discussed a few things: Need to accept ourselves with the freckles, wart and all..And how this acceptance radiates as a comfortable feeling when you communicate. Then, he drove us to Rama Krishna Math- other end of the city. I heard the slow vesper chant Khandana bhava-bandhana.. in Dhrupad, after many many years, it seemed.. Then JP bought some inspiring books and we returned.

Yes, I interviewed Nitin, a founding trustee of TISA, on skype before going to bed. He is doing something quite creative: developing a group of freelancing IT professionals (all PWS) who bid for overseas assignments; support each other, work together and challenge themselves to new heights every day.