Kaakaa pochu Anil vandhudhu dum dum dum dum..

The crows (காக்கா) are gone and the squirrels (அணில்) are in..

A young family (dad, mom, 3 babies) are everywhere in our backyard.

Was sick last two days. Was either sleeping or throwing up yesterday. Finally after multiple hospital visits, CT scans the solution was to reboot me instead of putting me in hibernate mode.

A few painkillers and sedatives that had me knocked out for a few hours this afternoon and voila all lightning strikes and flickering lights inside the head were gone.

Going to take it easy for a few days and that means less blogging, less staring at this monitor...

When I woke up this evening and starred out of the window, this is the sight that greeted me! An invasion of Anil's!

The babies were unsupervised and they came close to us and they have not figured out yet that they have to run when the USM motor in the zoom moves!

In other news, the eyes and brain have to be in tip top shape for Friday night!

We have tickets to go see superstar on the big screen!

Until then...

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Grandma Tales

When you are always walking around with a camera in your hand and have made your sick dad's bedside your temporary headquarters and your biggest admirer and chamcha is your adorable 2 1/2 year old nephew, you have many things going for you at the same time.

1. you have to distract nephew from your dad. i.e., given a choice he should jump on your chest instead of your dads.

2. given a choice he should go tinker with something other than your camera

3. he should be engaged so that you get to hold on to the Numero Uno status he gives you as the most favorite relative and keeps saying "perippa dhan romba pidikkum"

Luckily for you, you lie on the bed and adjust your zoom and what do you see?

A lead into chee Chee indha pazham pulickum (Loosely translated into english as "yuk yuk, this fruit is sour", the story of the fox calling the grapes sour)

After we have analyzed the Kulla Nari who cries "sour grapes" a dozen times, periappa and nephew got bored and switched Nari's alias to Jackal (yeah, we know Nari is Fox, but Jackal adds a certain level of mystery to it) and the grapes to unripe Mangoes and of course, changed the ending.

The Jackal's mommy gives him a beating for crying sour grapes and giving up. He gets the tall stool from the kitchen, puts it under the tree and gets the mango and promises never to give up again without trying everything in his power. My mom and SIL were alarmed that periappa teaching the little kid all these alternate endings might get him a fail grade in story time when he goes to first grade. But that, is another story in itself!

Then what do we see, but two lovely crows and their nest on the adjacent Badam (almond) tree and the crows swoop down to a wooden plank on the kitchen window, designed and approved by the local Vastu experts. They eat rice that is offered, prior to any humans eating it. There is a sincere belief that our dead ancestors come in the form of crows and eat the rice first to bless us.

I am not a fan of Vastu, and do not know if the crows are our ancestors, but definitely love the concept of feeding the crows before we eat!

1. It keeps our respect for animals, birds alive.

2. It teaches kids to love our fellow creatures.

3. If crows, cows, chickens are all gods, ancestors and vehicular transport for gods (see all those Kapali Utsavam photos in last weeks posts and you will know what we are talking about here) it helps keep vegetarian kids vegetarian. (does not work all the time, but definitely improves the odds)

4. It is a ton of fun to race your brother with a karandi-full (ladle) of just boiled rice, go to the terrace and shout "kaa kaa" and claim the first one that attracts the crow to the rice to be winner!

My nephew is missing out on that, with the wooden stand two feet away from the stove! Again, we digress..

So, we talk about the crow stealing the roti, vadai, etc. from various grandmas for the next couple of days. Usually start the story with, "oru oorla, kauaa kauaa-nu oru kaaka irundhudan" (In a town, there was a crow whose name was Kauaa). The name was repeated twice for emphasis and when I quizzed the kid "what was the name of the crow?" he would say "kauaa kauaa". It was soo sweet.

This story had no happy twist. The crow always lost the food it stole to "Jackal".

It is easier to rerun grandma tales in India than it is in the USA because somehow the Dora's, Boot's and Princess'es come in and spoil the thread. When you stick to simple trees, nests, crows and fruits, there is less distraction.

There is always one of my favorites which deviates from this rustic theme, "Anipullai america pona kadhai" (the story of how the local squirrel went to America), which my grandma spun for me. This anipullai did come to America, and is now finding it difficult to keep that story alive.

Maybe this blog will have that story, with full color illustrations some day...

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Kaakaas and Kuruvis..

Kaakaa is crow and Kuruvi is sparrow in Tamizh.

We did not see those, but the local flora and fauna of California and we went to some really scenic places to see them.

Mono Lake and Yosemite.

Travelling with small kids is highly over rated. Especially if not to Disneyland, Lego Land, Sea World etc. If Half dome were to wear a costume or the Tufa towers had a mascot with a DVD franchise, things would have been a lot better.

We learnt a valuable lesson over this weekend. Do not take kids to see nature, especially if it means

1. they sit in a carseat
2. we are driving in 95 degree heat with the AC on full blast
3. We travel for 4 hours, open the doors and say "ta da. Behold Mono Lake!"
4. and the kids go "you dragged me here to see these plants, animals, flies and this lake ?!?! You could have taken me to the local park in Cupertino!!"

So, if you are a parent out there, planning a trip to Mono Lake (which is definitely a star attraction in the top 10, for a nature lover, but is going to be on the bottom 10 list for your kids), go without your kids, if that is possible.

That said, the pictures did turn out nicely..

Finally, this post answers the question "What has physical fitness got to do with Photography ?". The answer is "Everything!! especially if you are trying to take pictures like the one below."

I am way out of shape. I had 10 seconds to run down from the tripod and make it to the group. It was probably 10 meters max including two leaps across wooden barricades. But NO! I could not make it on the first try.

The second lesson that came from this trip is that I should take better care of my health! (I was defending the position that I had misjudged 10 seconds and started towards the camera rather slowly, but the entire group told me that, it was not my problem).

The scenic shots, the panoramas, stitch photos will probably hit this blog tomorrow or day after.

Until then, ta ta..