What's In My Backpack?

Location: BMT Room, Hospital, Pune As I promised earlier I am here with my backpack. If you rummage it here is what you will find:

• Books - of various kinds and sizes. Here is a sampler: Three Men In a Boat (Jerome K. Jerome), To the Ends of the Earth (Paul Theroux), Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell) and POJOs in Action (Chris Richardson).
• iPod Nano stacked with devotional and film songs. Unfortunately I couldn't upload any podcasts in it.
• Laptop with a network card - an absolute lifesaver. Thanks to my wonderful company which made this possible.
• A sketch book - though plans of what I will doodle are still, well, sketchy.
• A Webcam - the third visitor who is duly welcomed to my isolated room. No disinfecting required.
• A notepad - sometimes the slowness of writing with a pen is more blissful than a computer keyboard.

Well, then you would wonder, why is my backpack so heavy and full? It's because it's filled with:

• Tons of memory:
• Maa beside our little mandir perpetually praying for me.
• Smell of the agarbatti after morning's puja.
• Smell of my home.
• View of trees from my bedroom window.
• Mahy running all around the house, imploring Surbhi and me to join as well.
• Our visitor cat coming for her daily dose of milk, brushing herself across any surface she comes close to as she makes her way to the kitchen.
• Pictures of canopy of mayflowers outside my office and those wonderful arches of trees on Range Hills Road and Prabhat Road.
• Sandeep's antics at the office.
• Discussions on just about any topic at the office with my wonderful colleagues.
• Countless blessings and good wishes of my family and friends.
• Kilos of optimism.
• Liters of humor.
• Yards of faith in doctors.
• Heaps of courage.

I wish my backpack was a little bigger. There was so much that I wanted to carry.