Day Out with Hari and Tenzin

 Hari is Gowri's brother. I met him fist some fifteen years ago. He has had the most interesting life. Mostly I loved the cricketing part of his life. Growing up in Palakkad he was doing well as a cricketer. He was sent to Bangalore to join the Brijesh Patel Academy and they found that he has the stuff to make it big. Encouraged he went (with his father's active support) to Chennai, to pursue his cricket and study 11 and 12. But his uncle with who he was staying staunchly refused his cricketing pursuits. 

Me, Tenzin and Hari

Hari focused on his studies and decided he wanted to study Astro Physics. He was well on the road to becoming one when the all too common Engineering dream was drilled into his head. He wrote the exam and cleared it and then joined an engineering college which he gave up after a year and a half. Then he went about doing his BSc Physics in a local college, played varsity cricket for Calicut University (one spectacular inning he played, unbeaten on 80 in a score of 100 or so is what I remember) and after his graduation, applied for MCA at RES Trichy and got in. Why MCA and why not Astro Physics? His father's business had by then gone into the red and he needed to earn.

From MCA to TCS and a software job that led him to Miami and Los Angeles and he kind of paid of most of his father's debt and quit his job. Hari always had spiritual leanings and was meeting people from ashrams and staying with them. In between he had to seek another job to retire some more debt and that was when I met him circa 2007-08. He got a job in Kochi and after retiring the debt he quit and fully and finally retired to a life in his spiritual quest.

Chilling in the back

Hari had lived in ashrams, travelled to holy places, up North, South, West, East. He has lived for a long time in Thiruvanmalai and it is after they shut down the ashram there that he came to Hyderabad. Now 40 plus, Hari is a rolling stone, still seeking. Our conversation came to this interesting part when we stopped that day. I will add some parts here after I speak to him next. Maybe tomorrow. About what he is seeking? Whether he has found it? If not what has he found? What does he wish to do further? Any material cravings? Purpose etc. He is quite at peace with himself and I have always found him to be so.

Tenzin looked fitter and younger - like a school kid (through he is 29). As always he comes with a box of goodies - green tea which is good for my hyper tension, some stuff for Shobhs and a t shirt for Anjali. As always he gave his massage to Shobhs and this time I insisted that he give me one too and he did. He has now got a house allotted to him at Bylakuppe in the Tibetan settlement and he said we should go there sometime.

Tenzin's discipline amazes me. He will only only this much and only what he wants. No craving of any sort. There are timings and stuff to do and it all follows that. Apparently he went down and played basketball with some kids down below. He is his parents only son and it must be difficult for them to be away - its fifteen years now - but he has the solace of speaking with them now on phone. I hope they get to meet and stay together sometime. He said something about a childhood love who is also studying medicine in Tibet and who wants to wait for him to marry him but he is not sure it will work out. There's incredible fortitude in that small frame, his love for medicine, for helping people is immense. I am glad i know the young man.

That said I am sure he is going to stay here longer so I will call him over so I can spend more time again with him. He shared a poem with me recently. I'll post that tomorrow. For now, some pics.