Sometimes life throws you a curved ball and I think I have become a specialist at catching them. I know I am perceived to be indomitable, strong and confident. But, honestly, sometimes I just want my ‘mommy’ who unfortunately isn’t with me anymore. When do we stop needing our parents? The answer my friend may be ‘blowing in the wind’, but for sure, my answer is going to be a resounding ‘Never’! I just called a friend of mine, Saritha Hegde and blubbered into the phone about how great her mom and she looked together in the farm oasis they have created together. I remember her visiting Saritha in the city before she moved, and her mom looked unhappy and sick. But now, God bless her, she is striving and thriving, making me think that our parents, especially our moms need us too! The mother-daughter relationship goes through subtle changes, and after a little readjustment and realignment, we find our own spaces and settle in.
In our ooru, though we are very welcoming of newbies and new recruits, we tend to close ranks when it comes to old associations, especially if we went to school or college together or our kids went to the same school. Usually our parents were friends too, which would technically make our children, the third generation of ‘nepo kids’! When we meet the affection is genuine, the stories don’t need a reference to context and our kids like hanging out with us.
This happened when Simran Chandok, her DIL and I met up for lunch in our familiar playground, the 13th Floor at The Barton Centre. The 13th Floor is an institution in itself and serves up Bangalore’s most fave dishes from Indian to pan-Asian. Like all things familiar, the restaurant is a brainchild of the Rajarams, who are also great friends of ours. Now, their son Nakul Rajaram (who incidentally was a classmate of both Simran’s son and mine) runs their chain of restaurants like a professional restaurateur! We reminisced about when our kids were the proverbial ‘bright brats’ during their school years while Nakul gave us the inside scoop of what went on! Slurping on our Khao Sueys, and hot prawns and chicken tikkas washed down with some awesome cocktails, I was in seventh heaven. There is something about being in familiar places, with familiar people that makes our ooru a very special place.
When the ‘Dean Duo’, mother Rupali and daughter Akanksha Dean told me that the Burmese chef GooGoo was going to be doing a pop-up at Conrad Bengaluru, I was raring to go. Firstly, because I love Burmese food and secondly, because I needed to see and interact with GooGoo! Conrad’s speciality restaurant Mikusu, was packed to capacity and I was delighted with the friendly chef who was forthcoming with her culinary expertise. She regaled us with tit-bits of information about the origins of the dishes which had surprisingly familiar tastes. Her green matcha chutney was a hit which we shamelessly walloped as soon as it was replenished on the table. Digvijay Singh, the GM, was an impeccable host and again it was great to see old Bangalore’s familiar faces dining there.
The greatest value of having good people around you is not what you get from them, but the better person you become by being with them.
(The writer's views are personal)