Some things never change...

Jr. and the little one cannot be left alone for more than 60 seconds before a fight breaks out.

Somehow this has become the norm in the house these days. They go to different schools now and interact a lot less on a daily basis, but when they do.. all hell breaks in the house.. well, physically things are breaking during their fights.

There is also a competition of sorts for anything and everything.. 

Was wondering if things were always like this and got the answer during our bedtime "baby photos" session..

Yes! 

Some things have not changed much! 

Finally on stage

The little one, had figured out that doing any extracurricular activity like music, dance etc. is a lot of hard work and the rewards for going on stage are not proportional to the work. She could throw a tantrum for not being tall enough to get on the Harry Potter ride and get a game console. Compare that to working for a whole year and getting on some annual day program for which you get a new pencil or eraser.. it was no contest!

She pretty much said "No" without a second thought to any classes that invovled the word "practice". 

Recently though, her close friends were all roped in to do a school performance for the International festival. A fun looking Dandiya dance.. so we convinced her to go. In spite of missing many sessions with her flu, she made up for it by doing a nice job of dancing on stage. More than that, we now know the girl has moves. We did not know she could shake her hips like that or have such expressions.. 

Here is a picture taken by her teacher. We are truly blessed to live in a place where an International festival is organized where kids show culture and dancing from across the globe to their classmates. There were Kung fu demos by little kids that were simply amazing, Gangnam style dancing, Japanese dancing, Chinese dance, Persian songs, Bengali poetry.. it was refreshing to see this!

Now that she has been on stage, we told her "You are going to dance class" and before we finished the sentence the answer was "NO!".

A busy day in the life of Jr.

It was a case of bad planning. Daddy committing to take Jr. to a parade in Los Gatos with the school band without knowing that her dance school annual day program was on the same day!

She insisted on going to the parade inspite of the rain. Really didn't want to take a chance with the rain and get sick again, but you cannot deny a 10 year old when she begs. So off we went, and got wet in the rain and I had the added pleasure of walking back a mile and a half with a camera and saxophone hanging from my neck!

She thought it was worth it!

 This position of neck down and playing an alto-sax within a poncho had consequences for the second part of the day..

 The place was colorful and it was nice for folks who were sitting in shelter watching the parade.. not so for the kids or parents running alongside taking pictures!

 Came back home and had exactly one hour to get ready for her dance performance. We had a lot of help in the dressing up from our family friend and the end result was ?

Daddy tearing up seeing Jr. all grown up. This is the first time she is wearing the traditional dance dress instead of a paavaadai!

Had to rotate the picture by 15 degrees to make her look straight. She could not hold her neck straight..

She looked great. Just had to dance well..

She did all the steps well. The hands were good. The feet did their job, but...

She went through the motions. There was simply no smile. Even hindi movie heroines who are forced to dance in front of villains before the climax have better smiles than Jr.'s and that got her to face mommy's wrath for a good hour!

and daddy's advice session as well.. Daddy learnt early on in his ballroom dancing days that even if you falter with your footwork, a smile goes a long way with the judges! Granted this was not a competition and there were no judges but when your parents and extended family get to watch it in photos and video... there has to be a smile!

Next year, there will be a calendar system in the house that avoids such conflicts and doesn't push the kids to such extremes.. 

and we will have a smile before, at and after the performance! 

Sometimes I think we push our kids too much but then again, we got a lot more excercise compared to Jr. and the little one because we played outdoors all the time instead of sit in front of an iPad.

All said and done.. she did break our heart being sooo cute.

Dancing shadows - Photoblog

This one came out almost looking like a Sepia tone.. the power of the setting sun!

.

Viennese Waltz revisited

One of the most glorious sights and my all time favorite in the Kabali temple utsavam is the way the gods dance into the temple, just before sunrise on the Rishabam (White or Silver bull, Rishabam is the sign Taurus). They time it just right and the way they rock the god to 3 beats per bar is amazing!

The last time I saw this was almost two decades ago. At that time the strange draw to this dance was not understood. During my foray into ballroom dancing in the mid nineties, the Viennese waltz was a favorite and I never realized why. This year standing there listening to the drum beats and the band as the god started dancing, I closed my eyes to savor the music for a second and there was this sudden urge to do a viennese waltz in the middle of the Rishabam watching crowd.

My mind said "cut cut cut.. we are in the middle of a very eastern ritual here and you suddently want to waltz with the videocamera in hand?", but the body was swaying to what was definitely, ballroom music of the highest quality.

Lord Kapali was indeed doing his dance to waltz timing and the note they played was a very western note too(you can hear it in the video). Finally after so many years, it felt like a giant jigsaw puzzle clicked into place!

Will always cherish this memory for a long long time to come. Lore has it that watching the god enter the temple just prior to sunrise is equivalent to watching him ascend Mount Kailas or heaven.

This time I got goosebumps watching the dance. (Probably got goosebumps watching it 20 years ago as well, but do not remember it)

Now for the photos...

The silver Rishabam

The golden Rishabam for Karpagambaal

The golden peacock for Subramanya (still remember how my brother and me were always scared of the peacock because of the snake in its mouth)

The morning started so perfectly that day, as we (my mum and me) walked slowly in search of an autorickshaw. The large crowd has dispersed within a few minutes after the procession ended and there was a silence all round the temple tank. Decided to take stitch photos from the tank. This is the best stitch I could get of the 3 mada veedhis (3 sides of the temple tank)

The old Rishabam was a hand painted bull that resembled the tigers and lions. Looks like the Taurus has received a massive upgrade. This one is just awesome! You take one look into its eyes and it transports you to a magical realm.

What more can I say?

Kapali rocks!

.