Balaram’s juggernaut

In the life story of Indian Moments Balaram is a continuous subplot. Long ago he has retired. He is safely in his home in Thulla Pokhara of Nepal.

He got what he wanted, to spend a good part of his life in caring his wife. This is exactly the reason he had to leave his career in Indian Moments. It was a wonderful career of togetherness, shared emotions and shared struggles. We were together in our job preceding the founding of Indian Moments. Those were the times when we used to together spend our lunchtime, our free time and our time reminiscing about our aims and struggles. Being a Nepalese he was agile, swift and fearless. He would climb the thorny gooseberry tree in seconds. He was keen to earn a better life for himself and his family back home. For this he was willing to work the hardest. We parted ways when I went to found Indian Moments but interesting turn of fate brought us together again when he soon joined me for the excitement of new prospects. For years he worked like magic.

His biggest achievement was making our Gurgaon Transit House functional from the scratch till the beautiful way it is now. I remember, initially, he had nothing provided by me to even make a tea, in a still to be completed locality which completely lacked security in those times. He was our first person to begin cooking to my specifications which with time went on to become Indian Moments style of gourmet vegetarian cooking, a highly appreciated food culture of our places in Pushkar, Mukundgarh and Gurgaon. Our memories together are all of great fun and fulfilment. We even travelled together in some remarkable trips, especially the one to Laccadive Islands. We kept on needing more and more people though our works demanded people of similar capabilities, reliability and diligence. Balaram helped with bringing nice peoples from his village and around. So many; Hari, Vishnu, Nitya, Chudamani, Kishan, Gopal and Bhimlal to name a few. While he still occasionally talks, his legacy survives and thrives in Indian Moments. I’ve never been to Thulla Pokhara in Nepal yet, but I’m told everyone there knows me.