Besan Ka Halwa

Days UnderCloud  #21 19th Nov '19 When your birthday clashes with the Innovation Day at the Academy, you realise that a whole lot of free time in between classes can be utilised 'innovatively' in clicking photos- to send back to your Mother who isn't really sure if anyone's wishing her son on his special day- so much so that she gets a cake parcelled- which creates a supply pressure on the birthday boy to create demand from consumers around him. But she doesn't know that the number of incredible friends that he has made in Mussoorie make him feel like home. They shower him with best wishes, hugs, Gifts and cream and cake...lots of cake! And he sends her the pictures from the day, to which she replies: "Brush kiya na sone se pehle?" Days UnderCloud  #22 23rd-24th Nov '19 India Day. A celebration of culture, cuisine and colours of the country. An opportunity for me to take out the Kashmiri Pheran and Patha

Days UnderCloud  #9 The Himalayan Trek. The second week of October has a lot in store for a group of high spirited officer trainees. On the very first day, their trek is all about sitting in a bus and singing along to the evergreen tunes of 'Dil Chahta Hai'. They clearly have no idea that their call for 'Kabhi na beetein Chamkeele Din' will go unheard by the tall daunting mountains of Uttarakhand. The mighty peaks will try to crush their bonhomie but they all will emerge stronger...at least stronger than this evening game of 'Mafia' (photo) they played on the first day which was full of deception and betrayal in the village that goes to sleep time and again. Days UnderCloud  #10 9th October '19 It's when you smell the air and hear the wind; and taste the hail; and feel the leaves of grass- that you see yourself melting away. You realise that five senses aren't enough to gauge the depth of the moment that seizes

Days UnderCloud  #1 24th August '19: Urvi, Reyna and Navo present me this vibrantly festooned page of Bengali Matrimonial with 'Surkhiyaan' written on top. The trio also finally signed 'Batman: The Killing Joke' graphic novel that they had gifted me on my 20th birthday almost 3 years ago. (Faraz still hasn't signed it). I had to leave their company early to complete the shopping list for lbsnaa, Mussoorie where I'd be spending about hundred days under clouds...clouds of more water vapour and less smoke. We met for the first time in dozens of months. Underground days had come to an end (for the time being). Days UnderCloud  #2 August '19 I have been witnessing a daily tsunami of 'customary Bandhgala photos' being taken by my batchmates in front of the academy's "Sheelam Param Bhushanam". I haven't got one this week. Little do I know that I won't have one till the last week of the Foundation Co