It was more than 6 years ago we moved out of the Indian silicon valley, Bangalore,  having made enough money for the rest of our lives 😀 Read here

How's it going ? 

In summary, B3 project is going pretty well, we have found new avenues to spend our time and this life suits us pretty well. Off course there will be hiccups in any project.  Overall we're good, hanging on to dear life. We had a measure of the fury of nature in the form of floods and landslides and the greatest of them all covid19 virus, we're reasonably healthy without any major events till now.. financially sound still.. and for our kind of lifestyle, this place suits us well.

Money in the bag is pretty safe and still growing.. so no worries on that front.

We started buying Kodagu wild honey from a honey forager almost 10 years ago. We buy it in bulk and give it off to friends and families.. For us, honey is a sugar substitute for most cases But then the chap got a job as a forest guard (elephant chasing team), so we had to buy from the market. 

Kodagu Honey from the market by Honey Society Virajpet is not really Kodagu honey, they get cheap honey and process it and sell it as Coorg Honey.

This was an unusually long rainy season with heavy rains till  late October because of the vagaries of the weather. But it turned out to be a good planting year for us - over a 1000 perennial plants planted in addition to the yearly and seasonal vegetables and roots. 

We have 2 small estates 20km apart with a weather profile that is vastly different.

Though my mother had couple of dogs as pets, I became curious about dogs only after watching the program Dog Whisperer by Caesar Milan on National Geographic.  While on a business trip in Beijing where the city had  poor air quality, my colleagues told me to stay back in the Hotel. I chanced upon Caesar Milan's show while channel surfing the TV. It was quite interesting how he transformed even old dogs which were aggressive or fearful.

I have always claimed to be very apolitical at work and otherwise.. But now I am not so sure.. or may be I was political.

For some reason, my first boss in my career didn't like me when I thought I was the smartest programmer, rather Software Engineer, in the group. First bust up happened when he asked me to do some copy paste work - but I was smarter than he thought. I wrote a program to do his job. I thought he would be excited and congratulate me. But he didn't like it.

Published in The Hindu OpenPage onlile - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/the-estate-life/article20222694.ece

Ph.D.’ here is short for ‘post hole diggers’. A small round hole is dug with a tool straight down into the earth, to place a fence pole or a signpost. The term is borrowed from a song by country artist Aaron Tippon where he sings about having pride for working hard for a living.

I stopped celebrating all anniversaries birthdays and other days. Every day is an independence day, is a mother's and father's day. Every day is a new birthday. This emanated from some of the techniques I learnt  to get out of my clinical depressions. Sometimes you have to celebrate every minute or an hour of your life. The thought that I am able to survive the last hour gave hope for the next hour. As things improve, hour becomes a day and a week and so on.
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Published in the Hindu Online - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/some-hair-raising-thoughts/article19481318.ece

Hair on your body, especially on your head and face needs to be cut - so we've been told. But the girls are allowed to grow it. For a naturally lazy person like me, this is an unnecessary work just to fit in, fit in to the social pressure, traditions, business etiquette etc. etc.

My father had very little hair, he was bald except for some strands in the back.

While everybody realizes the need to get physically fit, mental health is taken for granted unless you are hit by a mental health problem. It hit me badly when I was just three months into my first job - but I survived, survived many in the next 26 years and lived to write this!

It hit me just 3 months into my first job - something that made my mind stop working or slowed down badly.
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After two weeks in Ammathi, feels like a long time . Everything is going smooth. well ahead of the plan according to the CEO of the move - haa, you know how the CEOs are, they don't want any hindrance to the plans even if there are :) What about the others ?

Daughter has taken it like a fish to water - no problems till now and enjoying the farm visits and the night sky(amazing indeed!) on clear nights.
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