01-01-2009
Happy New Year and Season's Greetings!
It has been an eventful year with pleasurable time spent with several of you that I and Indira met during our visit to India.
At Delhi, Dinner at Sondhi's place gave a feeling of Diwali gaiety as well as Benco 'togetherness'. It was a pity that we were nearly 2-1/2 hours late for the dinner in spite of our starting very early. Our apologies to Jitendra Sondhi, his wife and GV Mohan who patiently waited that long!
It was not easy to call off the next day's lunch with SKJain and Gautam Dar, but it is better that way rather than getting all schedules screwed up due to the nerve racking holiday crowds at Delhi moving at a snail's pace. Perhaps next time I will make my itinerary not overlap the Indian festivities!
At Chennai, the get-together luncheon for local Bencoites hosted by RVMK Prasad, to say the least, was remarkable with not only delicious homemade recipes but speaks of the efforts put in by Ms Prasad who was short handed by the absence of her otherwise efficient domestic help laid down with flu. Thus, our appreciation is for Ms Prasad's efforts in accommodating the local Benciote families in spite of the inconvenience we gave. We all had a wonderful afternoon in the company of Ramakrishnans, Dhodhies, Guptas in addition to me and Indira as well as the hosts RVMK and his wife. It gave us an opportunity for the afternoon fun time, catching up with memories dating back to 1950s at Benco.
At Hyderabad, the Benco feeling was resplendent with our day long picnic from Hyderabad to Warangal orchestrated by Shankar's family (that included his son, Dr Sirish Kumar MD). It is not common for the next generation pitching in to entertain their parent's class mates of 1/2 century back; and that was exactly what Dr. Sirish Kumar did in taking time off from his Opthalmology practice with Apolo hospitals at Hyderabad to spend a whole day with us at Warrangal - a 2 hour train ride from his home town. Irrespective, the one day trip to Warrangal was in a way reliving the past, when under the stewardship of VRP Rao Benco Telugu Association went for a day's trip to Wyndhyam Falls in 1953. GV Mohan's meticulous planning and organizing with support from Jagdhish Chandra, BV Lu and VRP Rao participating with their spouses, was a day we will all fondly remember. It was an icing on the Cake to visit and get the blessings of the family deities of Shankar's ancestors, where Ms Shankar generously gave clothes in the true Vedic Hindu style to the spouses and Shankar to all of the visiting Bencoites!
Meeting with NVRLN Rao at Amrutha Castle, at Hyderabad, in spite of several attempts, was very heartening. Likewise it was nice to visit and chat with Rajendra Prasad at his place at Guntur. It was nice to have Malladi Kameswara Rao visit us at the Castle!
We have captured for our scrap book and more importantly for the customized web site www.krrao.net several pictures which we will post in a few days and will let you know the web page and link locations at that time.
Yes, in a few days visit it is not always possible to meet every one, so our missing Bulusu Deekshatulu at Hyderabad, Swaminathan at Chennai, SKJain and Gautam Dar at Delhi will perhaps be made up during our next sojourn.
Once again A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES! - KR & Indira Rao (Jan 1, 2009)
prabhatandadish@hotmail.com, krishna.banga@va.gov, kkbanga@cox.net, kvkudva@aol.com, Premindra.sethee@gmail.com, smullick@stny.rr.com, dhiren.rao@sbcglobal.net, ramvij@sbcglobal.net, mipalloy@md3.vsnl.net.in, rajgupta@milesworth.com, rvmkp@yahoo.com, malini_5@hotmail.com, veenabhupi@yahoo.com, vkraizada@gmail.com, jainsk1935@hotmail.com,skm@manglik.com, jtsondhi@gmail.com, darsvk@hotmail.com, gbslddn@sancharnet.in, nikhil_jain_2002@yahoo.com, jagdishayin@gmail.com, bvlu@yahoo.com, deekshatulu@hotmail.com, goschenen@yahoo.com, nvrlnrao@hotmail.com, ecm_hyd@gmail.com, vrprao_ecm@hotmail.com, kameshmalladi@rediffmail.com, shoks1963@yahoo.com, drvsobha@yahoo.com, Silent400@gmail.com, Neil Prasad- coolpiplup@gmail.com, "mipalloy" , "Nikhil Jain" , bvlu37@yahoo.com, "mipalloy" , "NVRLNRAO"
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