Renu ka Blog

I was determined to start gymming in the new year. In 2010, I promptly signed up for a month at a nearby gym. It is brand new and everything -- from the floor to the new age machines -- is shining, all metal and steel. Uptil now, it has been quite fun. The one-hour consists of some conditioning, some time on the treadmill, the cross-trainer, cycling and then some more push-ups, sit-ups and stretching. The first day I was dawdling over the cross-trainer, which I found a bit strenuous. I saw somebody coming. I thought it was one of the instructors and started pedalling faster till I realised it was an old former colleague from nine years ago. Then I slowed down the cycling. The guy and his wife have been gymming for the past two months at the same gym. Later, I wondered why I had to pedal faster, even if it was the gym instructor!

About 60 Bangaloreans from different parts of the city descended on a place in Bangalore because they were all alumni from St Xaviers, Bokaro Steel City. Schools, and particularly St Xavier's Bokaro, have that ability -- to draw old students from everywhere. The reunion of the Bokaro Old Xaverians' Association (BOXA) on Sunday, January 10 2010, was for everyone who had studied at St Xavier's Bokaro and not limited to any batch. I was there at about 6pm. Including me, there were three people from my batch. Though I could recognise the teachers very well, I was unsure who the others were. It was the same with them I guess. They did not know who I was. So though we had studied at the same school, it was much like meeting a new set of people. Yet, there was a thread of commonness and nobody felt uncomfortable. Nobody pretended to be what they were not. I think that happens when you know you are part of the same past.

On January 7, I happened to meet Rev Otis Moss. I had not heard of him until January first week. When I discussed the meeting with someone else, he said the name reminded him of a brand of lifts. Anyway, the meeting, I thought, was memorable because I was able to hear Moss, who speaks so well. To meet Moss, who, I learnt, is a member on the Advisory Council to President Obama on "faith-based partnerships", I drove to the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), along with a photographer. When we reached the auditorium, Moss was already speaking. He is what he is described as -- an eloquent speaker. After his talk, I got a chance to chat with him for about 10 minutes. When I asked him what brought him to India, he said he had for long wanted to visit "the land of Gandhi", that he was visiting India "for the first time in person but many times in spirit". I thought that was a rather lyrical answer. Of course, that is only part of what he spoke about. ...

Hi, I have been thinking for long about starting a blog. Two reasons in particular led me to start this blog. One, 2010 -- with a new year beginning, I thought now is a good time to convince myself to start blogging. Two, the year started with some fodder for sharing -- a meeting with Rajmohan Gandhi and Rev Otis Moss in the first fortnight of 2010. So the fuel for the blog was ready. I found and deleted two existing blogs of mine -- earlier attempts at blogging that went nowhere. Now I hope this blog, begun in earnest, will fare better. The idea is to record and share whatever comes to my mind, meeting people and different thoughts. I think some of the content on the blog will be about the people I meet and talk to as part of my work of gathering news. I also hope to post some photos that I take from time to time. -Renu