We are back to normal?

Last year we celebrated Gokulashtami, Krishnas birthday at home. The kid was leaving for college that very weekend but we did a great job with bakshanams, dressing up and the overall mood was upbeat. 

Today was yet another working day Gokulashtami. Monday mornings are always busy. Even though we were both working from home, the fact that the little one is back to school and we have to get ready at the usual time, do a school drop off, disrupted the flow. There was even a doc appointment in the middle of all of this. 

Did make a 100 or so seedai, but put too much butter. The seedai was porous, so I will have to make it again soon, just to make up for the experience. San made some aval payasam. We did a simple celebration. 

A simple treat for Krishna..

and the "I am still a good boy mommy!" picture as I call it.. 

San gets credit for taking this picture! She even cracked a joke for me to smile! 

Next year, will take a day off and do a better job of celebrating!

A festive and exhausting weekend

Started writing this post and somehow it took on too sad a tone. So decided to post about the mornings hike first!

The festival season is officially open. That starts with the Varalakshmi nombu, observed by the women. This year was a muted affair given the pandemic and also because Jr. was leaving for college early the next morning. 

Cooking and packing don't mix. That sums up that. Still San did a great job and got us some goodies and did her pooja. Have said this before a zillion times.. she is always my madisar wearing hottie! She lights me up whenever she dresses up in her wedding saree. 

The weekend had the thread changing ceremony for the guys in our family on Saturday followed by a 1008 time recitation of the Gayathri mantra today! These events have been described in this blog for a good 16 years now.. bottomline, I get to change my thread, meditate for a long time using a mantra for at least that day. On normal days I say it a 108 times in 6 minutes. Every 90 minute hot yoga class is a moving meditation and some classes I just move with the Gayathri mantra going on in my head in an infinite loop and that count would be close a 1008 as well on most days. 

The reason for the sad tone of the post that got scratched? Flight reliability. I have not been on a plane since we landed from Costa Rica on New Years day 2020. As most of you know, my Asia trips came to a halt as did all travel. Since then San has flown once to Seattle and her flight was delayed 5 hours. Jr. came and went from the midwest twice last year and both times she was fortunate to not have more than 30 minute delays. The MIL has come and gone back to India without event. 

This time our luck ran out. Jr. sat in a plane for 2 hours and they aborted the flight for some mechanical issue. So I went back to SFO to get her back home and there was a scramble to book her on the next flight where she could make a connection. A note to parents.. when considering your kids college, think about if it is a direct flight away or if there is a connection. Connections make it incredibly difficult, especially to smaller cities. We had to go back to SFO a third time to drop her off for the red eye. I know Uber drivers do this all day, but they have the practice and experience and their passengers are not anxious children who are worried about making it to campus before school starts Monday.

The idea that she should be here on Nombu day was tricky. We did not anticipate this flight issue. Why planes show up at gates, board all passengers and then find out they have issues is beyond me! This is one issue that seems to have no progress over the years!

She finally made it to campus today. Given the mornings experience, I did not sleep till the flight status changed to show the plane left the runway. It was on the runway for 30 minutes on a red eye! Lets say I didn't sleep last night. 

Was wondering how my parents dealt with it when I left home.  There was no texting, no facetime, no nothing. We left on a train and reached college 42 hours later. There was no feedback loop. Same thing when I came to grad school. Maybe all this technology is making me more anxious than I should be!

Over years of traveling I have had flights canceled, sat in plane and been de boarded, have slept in airport floors over night, but all of these experiences were not a big deal because it was me. Maybe my family had some anxiety but I doubt it. Maybe the lesson in this is for me to let Jr. go through these learning experiences and teach her all my travel tips. 

In the middle of the first and second trips to SFO, I had manged to do the thread changing ceremony! After very little sleep last night and going on a sleep walking hike for 8 miles, came home and did the Gayathri japam this morning.

Given the mental and physical exhaustion, did the only thing I know that can give me that "you are dead and back, nothing can touch you now!" feeling. So went and did yoga to wrap up the day!

Here are some pictures in random order..

It has been a hectic weekend and I need a weekend from this weekend, or so it feels!

Now I have to just contend with Facetiming Jr. for the next few months!

Skating in local park

As part of spending time locally, another activity suggested by a friend was ice skating in Central park in Santa Clara. We did not know that they had set up this small rink so close to home. 

The kids had a lot of fun skating!

We were happy that those skating classes they took earlier this year were being put to good use! 

It is great to have local parks set up rinks like this! There was nice music in the background and the whole festive atmosphere can be felt, thanks to the smiling faces of everyone around, especially the kids!

This rink will be there till Jan 3rd. If you have time to spend with kids who can skate, definitely worth it!

Festival season is here

Last week we celebrated a few things. Friday was Varalakshmi pooja for San, and the weekend was the thread changing ceremony for me. 

The idea behind the Varalakshmi pooja is that the women pray to the goddess for their husbands long life with the tacit assumption that a long life for the hubby is a good thing for the entire family. What really happens actually in those 24 hours, on the day of the pooja would put any Jack Bauer season to shame, given the amount of twists and turns that happen during the event.

This year the camera never came out to take pictures of the kids after the function. We should have them dress up tomorrow and take a picture to add to this collection. Also this year, for the first time in a long time, I was hale and healthy during August. August has never been good to me for unknown reasons. My parents used to dread the month because as a child I had maybe 1 or 2 normal days in August. This year my health has seen a welcome change!

The day after Varalakshmi pooja, the plan was for me to go do Yoga early, come back to take a shower and do the thread changing ceremony. That did not work out as planned, as we had slept late the previous night after all the festivities and I snored away till 6 AM.  A little over three hours later, finished the thread changing and completed repeating the Gayathri manthra a 1008 times. This year, I did it in the backyard, because it was very pleasant outside. Was almost in a trance and was very calm and serene. Went to yoga class right after that and it made quite a difference. If you sit and meditate for 2 hours and then go do yoga, the breathing comes easy! Unfortunately that cannot be repeated on a daily basis given the usual work and home schedule. 

The work week rolled past quickly and yesterday was Gokulashtami. A birthday celebration for Krishna. Wife and kids did the usual welcome by drawing baby feet that come into the house and take Krishna right to the treats.

For Christian friends who read this blog, this is the desi equivalent to keeping cookies and milk for Santa and posting a sign near the chimney that says "this way to cookies". Our kids didn't have any doubts of Santa coming down to eat cookies and leaving them gifts when they were young. Think of Gokulashtami as Krishmas. In Krishmas, the gift is the FOOD! 

When I walked into the house, my first thought was "Looks like Krishna is developing an arch support problem and needs to do more awkward pose.".  My criticism of the feet was received poorly by the three girls.

We made some sweets and savories for the little god (and our two little gods) to enjoy. This year, I took some shortcuts and made rava seedai instead of the regular ones and some Thattai. Went mild on the salt and chilli so the kids can eat. Apparently they like it "a little more spicier than this".

The little one said "the look, texture and crispiness is all fine, but it needs more spice". In short she gave me a B+ at best. 

We have ten more days to go before celebrating the elephant god's brithday with a different genre of sweets. Just thinking of that is making my mouth water. Travel does kill a lot of the festival season fun and it is going to be no different this year.

For now, it is time to finish off the current stock of sweets and savories before the next bunch comes in. The kids have come to the conclusion that all these celebrations of god birthdays back to back in August/September is just an excuse for families to get together and make different specialty foods at least once a year. Told them "yep, that is pretty much it".

Next year, I am going to make sure they know how to make some of this stuff themselves.

Navarathri 2013

It has been a busy 10 days. Catching up on life after recovering from the tooth mainly involved ploughing through work, getting back to yoga at least once in three days and being on the chirpy side with the kids!

The weekend came and went and it was a blur. Partly because we visited golu after golu, and I managed to finish reading all three books by Amish Tripathi called the Shiva trilogy. The kids were just amazed by my ability to finish up 1400+ pages in two days. 

As usual the girls posed for photos before venturing out to visit the golus. 

Last year same time we did an experiment in merging their photos. To commemorate that, we did it again this year!

Last year it took me 6 hours to merge three photos. This year it took me 15 minutes. Practice makes perfect... or at the least practice makes you faster.

The golus continue till this weekend. Will post the actual doll display photos early next week.

Love the festivities. When the girls are happy, they leave you alone to read books and that, is a good thing!