Leaving London

Countdown to the 25th of October, when we board the Jet Airways from Heathrow to Mumbai. The last few weeks have been at once relaxing and hectic.

Relaxing - at work, where I signed off on all my work. I finished on October 15. The last week was totally peaceful, meeting colleagues and saying the goodbyes. The lump in the throat moment was when after the farewell dinner on the 15th, I walked back alone from Bellamy's to the GreenPark Station - realising that this was it - the company Diageo, which had been my home for the last six years was finally over ! Six years previously in August 2001, I had enthusiastically joined the Diageo India business. Over the years, I moved to Singapore and then to London. Work took me to far flung lands - Venezuela to Japan across the different continents. It was just a fantastic chapter in my life.

Hectic at home - packing for one. Mercifully, we did not have any furniture to pack and this time, we were discerning and ruthless in terms of the absolute essentials that we packed. Everything else was junked. But you can never leave the place without a whole host of other paperwork - Council taxes, TV licensing, British Gas, EDF for electricity, Thames Water - etc etc etc. And the clearing of a lot of paperwork - the painstaking shredding of paper, the million visits to the tip to clear the garbage, the cleaning of the house.

The last few days has been dinner out at friend's houses non-stop - every night at a different place - had to eat salads during the day to balance out the heavy food at night. But it has been fun ! and we will miss the Bromley group.

We will miss Peter and Sylvia - who have been the wonderful caretakers at Parkside. We will miss our apartment, where we have spent some wonderful time together as a family and entertaining friends. We will miss the Kelsey Park across the house with the wonderful pond and the water birds. We will miss our car - the Ford Focus LV51 BWU, which served us well and the wonderful holidays that it enabled. We will miss London !

But we carry some tremendous memories and are committed to keep visiting and keeping in touch.

New horizons, new hopes for us as we relocate to India. Amchi Mumbai as they say !!

New Horizons and New Hopes

This is my first blog - in these momentous moments for me ! After more than 5 1/2 years gallivanting around the world, I return to India - truly the prodigal son - home is best ?
I am hoping to capture my thoughts, feelings, images on this blog in a random manner - my white board, my mindspace.

hope you like it !