Living in a Houseboat

Houseboats on Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir

This is a continuation of the post on Kashmir. How can I leave out houseboats when doing a post on Srinagar?


Anu on a shikara, wooden boats (Srinagar’s equivalent to Venice’s gondolas) – this is the only way to travel around / across Dal Lake


Our houseboat attendant in typical Kashmir attire

Baby named Ong

Baby's due in less than 1 month's time and the only name we're certain he'll get now is ...Ong. We've talked about it. We've suggested a few names. We've both put in our 'criteria' for the names. Anu's criterion is that the name should be short (...Ong is short) and it should have a nice western sounding name. My criterion is that it has to reflect his heritage i.e. one Western (Christian) name, one Indian (Hindu) name, a Chinese name and Ong.

At the moment we're calling him baby. Baby's kicking his momma all over the place now. ...Men are just luckier huh?

Oh, I found a picture with somewhat of a baby bump, for those who've been asking to see it.


Anu at the Fairlawn Hotel, New Market, Kolkata

Autumn in Kashmir

Below the Chinar trees, Nishat Bagh, Srinagar, Kashmir

I have decided to fill up the blog with pictures of our holidays. I think it will be deadly boring for others to see these pictures, but what the heck, I don’t think many people are onto blogs nowadays. I seem to feel that most of the people have migrated over to …Facebook or Twitter (whatever that is). Call me old school, but blogging is at the moment good enough for me.

Plus, posting pictures takes less effort than thinking up a whole paragraph of words, or more like fun and interesting words. My sense of humour has kinda dried up. I am serious (especially at work) and full of myself (unfortunately). Sometimes I sit around wondering why I’m all grumpy with the less than satisfactory (according to me) output of my staff. Am I turning into a heartless boss (like what all bosses are supposed to be, same shit different buckets as they put it)? Am I becoming OLD? What the heck, we’ll get there sooner or later. Am I crossing over to the …dark side? Hope not, but may the force be with me, and with all of you.

Here’re the pictures as said. These are of Kashmir, the den of terrorism of India (according to many), but it was serene and peaceful both the times I visited. These are taken 2 years back.


Tranquil Dal Lake in front of Nishat Bagh


Shalimar Bagh (Bagh means garden in Hindi / Urdu and related languages)




More scenes from Nishat Bagh


Gulmarg, i.e. Meadow of Flowers, without the flowers (coz it was autumn). In winter it becomes a ski resort. Unfortunately there was only brown grass when we were there.