Letter from Papaji

My Dear Vivek,

Based on my experience and as your well wisher I would like to give you some advice

1. Arrange health Insurance policies separately both for yourself and your wife
2. Take a life Insurance policy on your life. Consult Vijay about a reliable Life Insurance company in US
3. Make Wills. Both you and your wife should consult a lawyer who can draft the will for both of you. Lawyer can be in your company, otherwise get assistance from your company about a good lawyer. It is obligatory to name an executive of the will. Executor can be Rohit/Vikas or other members of
   the family.
4. You are getting a good salary. How much salary are you saving and where are you investing your savings. Banks in USA are giving a very little interest on FD and savings account. Pls consult Vijay for a sound Mutual Fund which you can invest in and get good return. Pls remember that safety of savings is
   more important than return I am sure you must be avoiding wasteful expenditure. 
5. As a young student, after my matriculation, I joined DAV College Lahore , now in Pakistan. At the inaugural speech to fresh students who had joined college in the first year, the Principal advised that before you incurring expenditure on any thing, ask yourself if you can do without that thing which you propose to buy

I have not forgotten this advice even after 80 years

At the end, I hope you are enjoying good health.

With lots of love and good wishes

Day 28

I'm almost 34.. aahhh! March --> May is filled with birthdays of people dear to me; both family and friends. And as I listen to Ellie Goulding's version of Elton's John's 'Your Song' on We Are Hunted, I've already spoken to Delhi and Biji sounds better. Her voice is stronger and grows stronger as the days have passed since I've returned,here, to the US. Papaji will have been (Thank you Douglas Adams) 98 in ~ 5 weeks time. Biji will turn 92 a week after. Her Heart Rate is still below 70 and stable. What isn't, is her capacity to regulate her bowel movement. Its funny to think about it. As adults we don't worry too much about those kinds of things. In children,and in the elderly, that's a serious issue. Resilience, lost as we age. What happens when someone wants to rush to the loo? Dodgy hip, dodgy eyesight and still resilient enough to want to hobble their way over. What happens if one were to trip? The logistics of that misshapen step keep me awake at night sometimes.

(Papaji - Kirori Mal) = ~ 97 Yrs "Somebody that I used to know..." - Goyte (http://maximegalon.wah.fm) I think I developed a taste for Cider after I spent a two, summer, weeks in London while my school friend was in LSE. Cider and Stout, a strange combination. I wonder how one develops that sort of preference? I've spent that last few hours trying to cure an Iron Skillet post rusting (I let it soak in the sink with water - don't ask me why I did that). I remember once I was visiting my uncle in the US and Biji had come with us. I remember playing pool in the basement and being called upstairs to 'help' clean the Tawa with a brick. I was thinking to myself, why A) we are we using a brick and B) why we were relying on my not so substantial muscle power to do so. Of course the answer lay in the fact that Biji had called me by virtue of being a person that she relied on. It occurred to me later, that, that was the case. Why we were using a brick / stone and how we got one in the US, at that time, remained a mystery to me. Of course, when I want to clean my Tawa, which btw I have three of, meticulously collected from Delhi (Thanks Vineet) /Bangalore, I will be the first one to run to either Home Depot or Lowe's, running around looking for 'a Brick' - just to not make a fool of myself, I probably will buy a whole bunch of them, you know, doing some garden face lifting. My connection to Delhi now has turned into me cooking Indian food. I'm becoming quite good actually. Recently someone close mentioned that if my current job (Program Manager, BioInnovation, no less) doesn't work out.. not to worry. I have a back up. I could open an Indian restaurant. Mmm Jack of all trades, all over again! My favorite Biji story, I think, is one where she admitted to me that Bhang Pakoras were very tasty. So Bhang = weed, which is a weed in Himanchal. And by weed, I mean its a weed in the botanical sense. When it rains, the fields become green, according to our 'driver' / man friday Raju... another Rajinder Kumar. Raju has been with us since I was one. He's been with us, minus a stint as a taxt driver, working for someone else for a few years, for 33 years. That's a long time. That's my lifetime. Coming back to weed... Weed, Cannabis Indica, is a natural cure for Poison Ivy. In fact, I believe, that in nature, they are found growing next to each other. I have yet to confirm this via wikipedia. But more interestingly, (I've been to Santosh Cottage, and I've seen how 'green' things get) is that no local actually does anything with it (Apart from the Babas who smoke the hash etc...) but... the crazy foreigners who "keep running around trying to smoke the stuff". I have to admit, that Indians have a very curious relationship with White 'Hippy' people. It sort of is like old timey ppl (A Mr Wilson if you will) sitting on main street watching things run by (Denis the Menace perhaps?). I find it odd that ppl come to India to find themselves. Here I am, not in India, finding myself ? So anyway, for those that are looking for tasty bhang pakoras, its actually the seeds, not the leaves, that are used. So quaint. It would have been nice to live a few months during the time that my grandparents were younger, as in 12 - 16. I wonder what they did? I wonder if they did they same dumb things that I did. I wonder...