(Dec 27, 8:49pm)

My Happy Birthday on 1st January... and no preparation to celebrate it.. sigh.. For the first time probably!

2012 birthday was particularly great.. Had thrown a big lunch and get-together at my place..

And I myself had just returned to Patna after a week's holidaying at Srinagar a few days before my b'de on Jan 1st, 2012..

XXX

Went out for case studies for my first story... yesterday interviewed a noted academician and expert on conflict issues.. Prof Gul Wani..

The piece is about the deplorable condition of ex-militants who were lured into returning to India..

Hope it turns out well, and hope I do enough justice to a piece of such great human interest...

XXX

Oh, between... tomorrow I am meeting somebody over lunch.. ***a, the fiancee of the Kashmiri ex-brother..

She is trying her best to agree me to allowing the Kashmiri ex-brother in the lunch too.. But I'm not relenting..

XXX