My (adoptive) parents & my maternal grandmother (who raised me).
My maternal grandmother and I. She was the MOST IMPORTANT person in my life. She brought me up. I called her ‘Ambili Amma‘ (Moon Mother). First words I spoke. Changed my life.
You can get a glimpse of my father’s large library through the French windows. My mother, an expert cake maker made these 3D cakes. This wasn’t her fanciest.
The sign on the bike says ’60’ (I think). That is my mother’s youngest sister, who lived with us — as did my grandmother. You can see our ‘Borgward’ in the car porch
As I have already spoken about & POSTED, I got an Epson FastFoto 680W so I could start digitizing my childhood pictures (or what I still have left). I already posted the 1st batch from 1953. These were the very first COLOR photos. I think they are from 1960 — judging from sign on the bike and the candles on the cake. I could, as ever, be wrong. Could be BOTH 1959 + 1960. C’est la vie.
What the album, probably from the 1960s, looks like.
I have two albums, i.e., ‘Kodak‘ yellow, handed down from my adoptive parents (– yes, I was a genuine hospital MIX-UP). Since I was born in 1953, they contain pictures from 1953 to about 1956. I hadn’t looked at these two albums in years. I happen to, mainly by accident, come across them recently. Occured to me that I should try and preserve them — not for I but for posterity.
I looked at some options & quickly worked out that getting an Epson FastFoto 680W was going to be my best bet. Got one. VERY IMPRESSED so far. Does exactly as promised.
All the pictures shown have been AUTOMATICALLY enhanced by the Epson software as they are being scanned. The enhancements are REAL. After the first batch I just told the software NOT to even bother saving the original. Just give me the enhanced images.
This is the tip of the iceberg. I have hundreds and hundreds to scan. Many more albums though all the others are NOT as old.
Definitely a QUIRKY comedy. You have to be into SUBTITLED Indian-movies & have a slightly offbeat (e.g., ‘British‘) sense of humor. I enjoyed it. Not a fall-about-laughing comedy. More nuanced.
Great study of 2022 Indian society & the ‘Bangkok’ boom-boom sex/tourist trade.
My MAIN TAKEAWAY from this movie: eat a LOT of raw onions!
The crazy thing is that I do eat a fair amount of onions which MIGHT explain why I am still the ENVY of a couple of my male cousins. I will have to tell them to start eating more raw onions.
My adoptive parents, as part of my adoptive father’s job at UNESCO, lived for many years at a time, in ‘New Delhi’, India & ‘Bangkok’, Thailand, between 1969 and 1979. Since I was in school & university till Sept. 1974, I would spend my summers with them — first in India & then in Thailand. But, that was a long time ago. Both countries have changed much — the last time I was in Bangkok, albeit just for half-a-day during a business trip to the Philippines was in 1995. So, the scenes from this entertaining movie were an eye opener.
Check the YouTube trailer (above). If it even vaguely piques your interest go for it. It is not a bad movie. I am sure many of you will get a kick from it. Enjoy.
I am NOT sentimental. While I celebrate the birthdays of my closest, closest family, I do NOT celebrate my own. {Smile} That I am NOT 100% sure as to my birthday might have something to do with it. I know I was born in September 1953, but I cannot be sure, 100% as to on what day it was. {Smile} It transpires I was a hospital mix-up. They gave my parents the wrong (bloody) baby. I am so sorry for them. They sure deserved better. Hence why I refer to them now as my ‘adoptive parents’. As far as I can tell that is the BEST I can do. There is no word or phrase, as far as I can see, for parents of mix-ups. NO. I do NOT know who my biological parents are other than that my biological father was a ‘GAMBLER’! Now, doesn’t that explain it all.
IF you know me (& to be fair a very, very, very few do) you will see that I had to be the son of a gambler. How else could you explain me, this reprobate.
Anywho. My adoptive parents were married on August 27, 1952. That was a Wednesday. Don’t ask me why. It was most likely a date set my an astrologer. The right auspices time. Well, even then they were duped. Looked what happened just 13-14 months down the road. They got me — the SON of a GAMBLER. LoL.
So, that was the initial significance of August 27. My adoptive parents’ anniversary.
My adoptive father liked grand gestures. So, when we were to leave Ceylon in 1967 (for what I now realize was a self-imposed EXILE by my adoptive father) he chose August 27.
As such, I left Ceylon on August 27, 1976 — 55-years ago.
I did NOT want to leave. I had no choice. I wish I had never left. But, you can’t change time.
August 27, 1974, was indeed a pivotal day in my (rather sorry) life. My 1st day at IBM (Hursley). My very first day of working. Prior to that I had not worked a day — for pay.
But, nearly 18-months earlier, IBM had given me, unsolicited, an unconditional job offer — open-ended (i.e., no end date). I was given a name. Mrs. McKraken. She was in H.R. I just had to contact her if & when I wanted to come & work for IBM.
I wanted to be a game warden in Africa!
I spent 9-months trying to get a job in Africa as a game warden.
Then, in the Summer of 1974, while we were in Bangkok, Thailand, my then girlfriend said that I really should get a proper job so that we could get married. She reminded me that I had an open job offer from that FILTHY, U.S. CAPITALIST COMPANY IBM. I didn’t want to work for IBM. I wanted to be a game warden. But, she convinced me. So, I sent a telegram to Mrs. McKraken. I gave her the last Monday in August 1967 as my start day. I was in Bangkok. I did not realize that it was a Bank Holiday in the U.K.
IBM was COOL. I went onto ADORE IBM. I loved working for IBM. I went onto be known as ‘Mr. IBM’. My entire professional life, for the next 40-years, revolved around IBM. I would not be here, writing this, if not for IBM.
Mrs. McKraken telegrammed me back. Said August 26, 1974 would INDEED be my official start date at IBM, BUT since it was a holiday, they will see me, in Hursley, on the next day, August 27, 1974. That was the start of my WORKING LIFE. I got paid for my 1st day of work — though I never worked it. It was a holiday.
I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. I have never seen it like this from the air, but I know this ‘Rock Fortress’ well. During my time in Ceylon, viz., 1953 to 1967, I was lucky enough to visit it quite a few times. We, i.e., my adoptive parents & I, even took a three- or four-day holiday there — there being a ‘Rest House’ within quarter of a mile of it. During that stay, I climbed it, from top to bottom, multiple times, four times in one day. I think admission was free in those days (i.e., mid-1960s) or I had some exemption. (My adoptive father, a BIG muckety-muck in the government, was always on ‘official duty’ (even if we were on holiday) & I, as his adoptive son, got the official concessions.
My last time there, when I climbed it so many times, in the mid-1960s, was before the last (sad) vandalism of the lovely, historic fresco of the topless beauties. There were no cages or glass. You could crawl in there & enjoy it at eye-level.
