2014, the year of the horse gallops away into our memories

2014 is done and dusted before we could even realise it! Every year it seems the years go by faster than the year before - is it because I'm on the wrong side of the fifties that I feel its galloping by? Not so say my younger friends who all think 2014 went by faster than any year before!
The year began with some of us from my old school feeling the heat of the upcoming Centenary of our alma mater! There was so much to do before the big day in July and there were so many folks from so many countries planning to be there in that beautiful old valley in the hills of south India. During a business trip down under in March an alumnae in Melbourne asked me 'how are you guys going to manage the hundreds of alumni who are going to be there in school for the big one?' That was when it hit home that there was so much organising to do inspite of us having started preparations for the centenary three years ago!!

As with most things this year the centenary was upon us before we knew it. We had to get our Centenary Coffee Table Book out in time for the arrival of the masses in the valley! We had to get the Centenary walkway complete with granite wall tiles featuring names of those who wanted their names on the walkway. Then there was the bronze bust of the Founder-Principal of the school, Rev John Breeden, to be put in place for unveiling on the big day! There was also the Centenary memorabilia to be put up for sale! Thanks to the humongous support of so many Old Georgians all of that and more were in place for the big event! But the weather Gods did not play along with us - it rained for all four of the Centenary celebration days! But then again the weather did not seem to bother a single one of the 600+ Georgians that descended on the campus! They were all about the campus, taking in the beautiful surroundings and reminiscing with friends they had not seen for 20, 30 or even 40 years! It was a sight to behold - it was most satisfying to see that everybody who travelled from 13 countries across the globe enjoyed every moment of the centenary celebrations. The emails and letters we received after the centenary from so many Georgians were such a treat to read. Then after it was all over and done with somebody asked me ' What are you and Sudha going to do with your time now that the centenary is over?' Indeed, for a while there was this feeling that there was so much time hanging heavy on my hands! But then work has this amazing way of filling up all available time!

The bronze bust of Rev J Breeden is unvieled

 Henry Marriott releasing the Centenary Coffee Table Book with Nimmi

On the family front life has treated us well. Our son Ashwin is now a qualified Nuclear Reactor Specialist and has joined the crew of India's only operational nuclear submarine, INS Chakra. That is both good and bad news for his mother and wife! It means that while he is among the handful of people in India with that qualification it also means that when he does set sail in INS Chakra he will do so for very long periods - nuclear submarines don't need to surface for months together! Ashwin's wife Devika is slowly getting the hang of being a Navy wife! She has adjusted well to the new life in the Navy. It certainly helps that she has a job that allows her to work out of home. Our daughter Ammu in Bangalore is busier than the Prime Minister of the country - she has a job she loves but keeps rather long hours! Even so she manages to keep home, hearth, in-laws and dog going! Arun, Ammu's husband, is doing good and inspite of their busy schedules the two of them manage to travel a bit with dog and all!

 Ammu and Arun in Bangalore

Mousse all grown up!

Ashwin and Devika at home in Vizag

Sudha too had her hands full in the first half of the year with all the Centenary stuff that was hers to do. The highlight of the centenary celebrations for her and some of her OG friends was the Lungi dance that they put up on the Mega night. It was certainly very well appreciated even though her own kids were most embarrassed to hear that their 50+ mum was going on stage to do a dance performance! But post-centenary she has been traveling a fair bit to Kerala to catch up with her Mum and to some other parts to catch up with old friends! Back in Chennai she has this bunch of OG and non-OG friends that keep her busy as ever.

 Sudha at the Sigiriya Rock Fort in Dambulla, Sri Lanka

 Sudha with friends from Chennai

Sudha with childhood friends from Bombay in Coorg

In October this year Sudha and I got around to travel a bit in Sri Lanka. It was a great trip for all the sights we saw and the experiences we had. I actually climbed to the top of the Sigiriya Fort while a lot of folks around me gave up on the effort! Then there was the Horton Plains National Park that we trekked through - it was really a tough one - we both lost our soles to the National Park! Yes, our shoe soles gave up on us because of the rocky terrain we had to trek through!

                                        World's End in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka                                     

 

Panoramic view of Adam's Peak from the Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka

Professionally, 2014 has been very good for me and the team I work with out of India and Australia. We were able to demonstrate to the world that it is possible to grow our algae in hyper-saline conditions, harvest the algae in our patented harvester then process the algae in our patented sub-critical water reactor to produce crude oil that is identical to the crude oil that people drill below the ocean floor for. This is a world first and our project is now entering the pre-commercial stage down under in the town of Whyalla in South Australia. It’s been almost 10 years in the making and I feel vindicated that what we set out to do has been achieved and the BioFuel Digest rates our project as one among the top 40 Agrobioeconomy projects in the world. For me this project gets me closer to a personal goal that I have set, to contribute in some small way to making this world a better place than I found it.

 Thats a bird's eye view of our Whyalla Algal Biofuels facility

Biocrude oil produced from processing harvested hyper-saline algae grown in Whyalla