Manya Learns to Roar - play

I'm going to come back next year with A Post A Day again, but meanwhile - just wanted to drop in to say that my book Manya Learns to Roar (https://amazon.in/Manya-Learns-Roar-Children-First/dp/9383331577) is being staged as a play this weekend.

Details here: http://www.jagrititheatre.com/manya-learns-to-roar

Some more about the play in today's Hindu Metroplus -
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/defying-the-odds/article25730521.ece

Spring Break Itinerary

This spring break, I saw something I'd wanted to see for decades - the Grand Canyon. Along with it, we saw some other canyons too - it was a pretty efficient itinerary, though it was more touristy than hiker-friendly. Yet, this is all the time we had this time around, so no regrets.

Anyway, for anybody interested in doing this tour, here's our itinerary.

Day 1

- Flew from San Jose to Las Vegas
- Rented car at the airport, drove from Las Vegas to vacation rental at Glendale, Utah. On the way, we passed through Zion National Park.

Day 2

- Drove to Bryce Canyon. Did a hike, drove back to Glendale. (To eat - Ruby's Inn is great)

Day 3

- Drove to Zion. Did a hike, drove back to Glendale (Food - lots of options in Springdale.)

Day 4

- Checked out of vacation rental, drove to Page, Arizona.
- Took the Upper Antelope Canyon tour (Tickets have to be booked weeks in advance.).
- Also took the Antelope Canyon Boat tour.
- Drove to vacation rental at Williams, AZ

Day 5

- Drove to Grand Canyon, and back to Williams. (RP's Stage Stop in Tusayan - great sandwiches)

Day 6

- Saw the sunrise at GC
- Checked out of the rental, drove to LV
- Stopped at Hoover dam on the way
- Flew from Las Vegas back to San Jose

So that was it.

Most of these places need more time to really soak it up and enjoy it. But this was pretty good too if your intention is to see them all.

Plus the landscapes of Utah are stunning, so driving is not monotonous.

Stay tuned for details and pictures.

Up close and personal with the bay

One of the nicest things about chaperoning on your child's field trip is that you get to learn cool new things.

Yesterday, I went with my daughter's class on a research vessel on the SF Bay, and the kids got to learn about the ecology and life of the bay. They used fancy-schmancy equipment to fish and touch and observe the creatures they caught, they touched and explored the benthos (the organisms that live in the bottom layer of a body of water), they observed plankton under a microscope (blew my mind), and measured the temperature and salinity of water of the bay.

Until now, the bay for me was just a patch of water near which we live. After yesterday, I see the bay as a living, pulsating, precious, delicate universe!

Music and memories

The problem with having a blog for ages is that you forget whether you've written about something or not. I guess it is similar to old people (and some young people too) repeating stories and anecdotes over and over as if they've never narrated it before.

Well, in blog years (12 I think) my blog is as old as can be, and so my blog is going to take advantage of its extreme age and repeat itself and you youngsters can nod indulgently and forgive it. Ok? Ok.

I am listening to Sonu Nigam's Deewana album (don't ask why) and it immediately took me back 19 or 20 years to college, when we went on a field trip to, among other places, Darjeeling. So our jeep driver Jojo played this on his stereo when ferrying us up and down. I loved those songs and that, combined with the vistas and the hills and the valleys, it created a very pretty picture in my head.

So, whenever I listen to Deewana, I just don't hear the songs. I see hills, and valleys. I feel the emotions (friendship and independence and excitement) and the resultant effect on my mind and body is much greater than for somebody who just listens to the album for just its musical worth.

And what surprises me is that even after 20 years, that feeling hasn't faded.

A related story: After I got back home, I begged my friend (who said she had the Deewana cassette at home) to lend it to me.

She kept forgetting, and I kept asking every day.

Finally, on my birthday, I asked her again. "I really really want to listen to it again. Did you bring it today at least?"

She said, "Sort of."

I said, "What kind of an answer is that?"

She said, "Please wait."

"It's my birthday," I whined.

In a few minutes, my other friends landed up, and all three of them ceremoniously gave me my birthday present. A neatly wrapped Deewana cassette.

I wore out the tape in a decade. Right now, YouTube is doing the honours.