Achintya Rao’s Now Page

As of 19 August 2026.

N.B. I am writing this update while on sick leave because of severe back pain. The pain came on suddenly on Saturday, and necessitated a visit to urgent care, who ruled out any problems with my kidneys and lungs. I then fell down the stairs on Sunday morning, whilst clutching my back in agony and not holding the bannister on my way down, which led to me injuring my rear. Which led to me sitting awkwardly for most of the last few days. Which led to the back pain returning with a vengeance this morning.

Love in Protest ✊

Last year, The Bristol Cable featured Jenni and me in an article on queer immigrants in the city. A few months ago, I was contacted by the journalist who wrote the piece, asking if I would like to feature in a video a film maker was putting together for this year’s Bristol Pride. This video is the result. I will let it speak for itself (with a small note that some of the closed captions are not accurate…).

A new place to call home 🪹

Our time in Bristol came to an end in June. We had to say good-bye to our flat at the end of our year-long tenancy, and had asked Jenni’s parents if we could stay with them in Loughborough for a couple of months while we figured out the next steps in life. However, it turned out that our stay in the town will be long-term, as Jenni will be starting a PhD in engineering (working with renewables for heavy machinery) at Lboro Uni next month. We’ll soon be looking for a place of our own.

Moving was harder, both emotionally and physically, than I imagined, and we would not have managed it without Jenni’s parents driving down to Bristol to take care of quite a bit of the packing and loading before returning to Loughborough and unloading our boxes (in storage and in their home). I am going to miss Bristol, my friends, the Bedminster Cricket Club, Heartwood Chorus, Oscar the cat and much more, but I am also looking forward to discovering more about the part of the UK where Jenni grew up.

First trip to the nail bar 💅

For my birthday this year, Jenni’s parents sent me money towards getting my nails professionally done. I have never had a manicure, and didn’t know where to go and what to get. After moving to Loughborough, I finally decided to use my birthday present, in time for Jenni’s graduation in Bristol last month. It was a relaxing experience, and I think I will be going back – after cricket training wraps up for the year.

Cycling again 🚲️

Despite having bought a lovely electric road bike shortly after moving to the UK, I rarely rode it in the last four years, since it was stored not at home but in my friend’s bike shed. When Jenni’s parents moved our things over to Loughborough, her father also pumped air into my tyres and charged the battery before we got there ourselves. So when I arrived, I had a cycle all ready to go! In just six weeks or so, I have used it far more than I had done in recent years, taking it out at least once if not twice weekly, for everything from leisurely rides to visits to the library. Jenni’s father and I even rode to a neighbouring village one evening to escort Jenni back home after a tunes session!

A garden, a hammock and several cats 🪻

Jenni’s parents’s garden is a wonderful place to spend time in, the lack of rain this summer notwithstanding. And yes, I am aware how hypocritical it sounds after all my grumblings about the correlation between Britain’s obsession with personal gardens (and general dislike of their neighbours) and the appalling state of their public-transport infrastructure. Nevertheless, I have been taking full advantage of living in a home with a garden after a long time. I have had breakfast in the garden, shared meals with Jenni’s family in the garden, read in the garden and slept overnight in a hammock in the garden. In fact, that night on the hammock was when I had a face-to-face encounter with a badger! One evening, Jenni also set up her old tent outside so I could experience the joys of camping while being just metres away from functional plumbing.

The garden has also been a place to meet creatures other than badgers. The pond has little newt babies in it (called efts), there have been goldfinches feasting on thistle seeds, we spotted a newly emerged dragonfly dry its wings before flying off for the first time, and there have been butterflies, crickets, swifts, house martins, buzzards and woodpeckers nearby. The motion-sensor camera Jenni’s father has set up has also captured foxes (and badgers, obviously) visiting at night.

And, of course, the garden is part of a highway for the neighbourbood’s many, many cats! A chocolate ragdoll called Lionel was the first to visit, a fella Jenni’s father had recently befriended. But we have also met a female Bengal I have nicknamed Princess, her presumed housemate, a black-and-white shaggy boy we call Scrappy and a cat that reminds me so very much of my own Otto, and whom we have informally christened Otto II. There are also some other skittish ones that have only been spotted occasionally in person but whose meanders have been captured more often at night with motion-sensor camera. I am so glad there are so many cats in my life!

Priddy Folk Festival 🎶

As I mentioned earlier, Jenni graduated last month. Jenni’s parents and the two of us drove down to Bristol on Thursday for Friday’s ceremony. That Saturday, Heartwood Chorus had two gigs at the Priddy Folk Festival, so all four of us went to the tiny village for the day. One of our gigs was in a free-to-attend area, and it was nice that Jenni’s parents could see us sing with Heartwood one final time. Jenni and I met at Heartwood, and it was an emotional day for me.

Banana bread 🍞

Many years ago, my partner at the time suggested that instead of being sad and mourning my father on his birthday I do something to celebrate his life. So, we made banana bread. It quickly became a tradition, ignoring the fact that my diabetic father would have eaten neither the quantity of bananas I used nor the copious amount of sugar I put into the dish. Some years, the tradition was ignored, as I struggled with my own mental health. This year, though, I made it a point to make banana bread on Appa’s birthday regardless of how I felt. I am really pleased that I did.

Umpiring opportunities ☝️

Speaking of mental health, I had mentioned in a previous update that I had taken a break from playing cricket. I did continue umpiring, though, and have now been looking for opportunities to umpire in the East Midlands, thanks to being part of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s Female Umpire Development Programme. This coming Sunday will be my first go as a neutral umpire since moving to the UK, at the finals day of the East Midlands Women’s Cricket League’s Softball Cup 2026. Time to dig out my umpiring kit from storage!

Visa frustrations 📆

One of my personal frustrations about being an Indian national living in Europe is having to beg countries to allow you to travel to them, after 17 years living on the continent, getting two degrees here, working at top organisations, paying taxes, and never getting into trouble with the law. Going back to the Schengen Area – where I lived for 10.5 years – is proving particularly painful.

This summer was supposed to involve a trip to Geneva to be on the jury for CineGlobe. That did not happen because the Swiss visa-application centre had literally no slots available for me to make an application. My friend Alex, who had invited me to be on the CineGlobe jury, then suggested Jenni and I visit him and his family in France in August. He did all the expensive paperwork at his end to ensure I had a formal invitation in hand in time to make the application. Guess what? There were no appointment slots available. I checked multiple times a day for several days.

Now, Juli has invited Jenni and me to visit her and Layla in Berlin in November. We will see if I can even apply for a visa in time.

Pursuits 💭

(I will keep this section largely unchanged – unless the pursuits have been achieved! – as a reminder to myself.)

For what feels like forever, I have been helping Amanda with her English translation of an old and famous Finnish text. The translation has been complete for a while, and I intend to finish editing it sometime soon, before starting work on formatting the final piece for various platforms.