Passing on some of our childhood memories

Saturday evenings make for great parties, movie plans or catching up with friends.
But this Saturday before catching up with friends I accompanied my sister and niece to the swimming pool at the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) for an early evening swim.

While my sister was busy teaching my niece the basics of swimming, I couldn't help but notice that for every adult in the pool there must have been at least 4 adolescents.

And it got me wondering, what kind of water games does this Generation Y (or Z, or whatever we are calling them now) play in the pool?
They've moved from lagori (7 tiles) to tablets, pakda pakdi (catch catch) to whatsapp messaging and cricket and football under the mid day sun to cricket and football under the air conditioner on the XBox/PS3.

So I listened and watched.

A group of 4-5 twelve year olds formed a straight line on the diving board and jumped one after the other into the pool screaming out incoherent war cries.

A girl tossed a shiny 2 rupee coin into the deep end of the pool as her brother dived in and swam to the bottom to retrieve it.

While in the shallow end 3 six year old girls were paddling after each other in their version of pakda pakdi.

"Mamu!!" - my niece's voice reminded me of my uncle duties and as I swam up to her I was glad to know that while the times have changed, at least some of the games that my sister and me grew up playing in the swimming pool would be handed down to my niece to enjoy too.

Remembering JFK on his 100th Birthday

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12 Must have Apps for Expats In India

So you’re an expat and a guest in our country? Welcome and I hope you have an enjoyable time. But let’s face it, this country of 1.3 billion people isn’t the easiest to navigate and takes some getting used to. Let technology come to your rescue and help you get what you want quickly, easily & cheaply (in most cases). So here’s a list of 12 must have Apps for Expats that makes life easier for them here in India. (I’ve given links to their websites – depending on the phone that you are using you can either download the apps by searching in the App Store or Google Play or be redirected from their websites.) 1) Ola / Uber Need to hail a cab? Conveniently log onto the Uber app or the Ola app. Both apps allow you to pay using credit cards though Ola also lets you pay cash (I’ve been told that Uber also accepts cash in India). Both apps also accept payment via mobile wallets like PayTM & MobiKwik (digital wallets – details below). ...

The 2016 Olympics are here - Time to brush up on some sports trivia

The world’s biggest sporting extravaganza is on top of us again. The 31 st edition of the Olympics is being held on the South American continent for the very 1 st time . The Games will run from 5 th to 21 st August 2016 in Brazil. 11,239 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees , including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part. With 306 sets of medals , the games will feature 28 Olympic sports . These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city of Rio de Janeiro & at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil's largest city), Belo Horizonte , Salvador , Brasília (Brazil's capital), and Manaus . While the Indian media has extensively covered the Indian contingent participating in Rio, this week’s GK nugget – while wishing the team all the very best – will focus on some trivia about the Olympics as a whole. Here’s goes: The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world ...

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