A very happy Deepavali to every one

2020 is the year of staying at home. Deepavali is a stay at home festival for the morning but in the evening, you go see all your friends and relatives and join them in the firecracker fun.. 

This year it has been a muted affair. The gatherings are smaller and we meet only people in "our bubble" which is a good thing.

We did have new clothes, great eats and some sparklers! San and me teamed up to make a lot of sweets and savories (and she got some guidance from our neighbor on some sweets and they reminded me of my grandma cooking with her aunt Ambulu when we were kids.. they would spend days planning before the cooking started!). We did go solo on some items..

She sparkles better than those sparklers..It was a good thing I adjusted an almost underexposed shot and realized this was actually a good thing!

This is the first Diwali without jr. being present at home. That was constantly in the back of my head and I am not sure how many years it will take for me to realize that you cannot expect to see kids for Diwali or take that for granted anymore! Given every now and then I manage to go to India to celebrate with my parents, know that the kids will come back home after they grow up to celebrate.. maybe more often than I did.

The little one knows of my secret plan to keep her closer to home and continues to roll her eyes everytime I suggest colleges within a 20 mile radius. 

Life comes full circle.. What I did to my parents, my kids will do to me. Good news is that I am already in the "brace" position. 

It is my sincere wish that we get over COVID soon in the coming year! People are still dying and folks are still denying the truth and reality. Diwali or Deepavali is literally the triump of truth over lies, light over darkness.. knowledge is the true illuminator! 

May knowledge and facts make a comeback after this Diwali !! 

For someone who is staying at home, we have done a good job dressing up at every opportunity.. 

Still don't know how my wife is able to handle Jr.'s being away so calmly compared to me. Either she is made of different stuff or she is faking it really well. Have some things to learn and understand.

Once again, wishing you all a wonderful Deepavali/ Diwali!!

A first time for everything...

While the rest of the US is going nuts over the elections, yours truly has been extremly happy and stayed away from most coverage.

Bikram Yoga San Jose opened its doors for Hot Yoga classes. . . Hot being the keyword.. and I have been drenched in glorious sweat every day and my sanity is on a different track. 

The little coverage that leaked through thanks to my family and walking buddies did keep me amused. Sooner or later, someone will win. Hopefully sanity will return.. The country has already gone past a point of no return in 2016 and has had a massive heart attack. It is living on borrowed time. There is only hope left.

No one in my company has gone anywhere on vacation given COVID and we have all been working pretty much round the clock since March. There was a policy change where if you exceed PTO, you take it or lose it. 

So every three weeks, taking a Friday off. The last such day off saw me go up to Hunters point and get a view of the silicon valley from the south west side. 

Today it was a much more ambitious plan to go up Mission peak in Fremont. Even though I average 7.5 miles of walking a day, it is mostly on flat terrain around the block. Don't like steep climbs as it makes my ankle swell. 

My wife encouraged me a lot to climb this by reminding me of my glory days of climbing with a 30 lbs camera bag on my back in what seems just a year ago in truth, but a decade ago in my memory. 

Off we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Took us exactly 2 and a half hours to go up and come down from the parking lot. Some pictures..

We got a great view from the top..

The views enroute were beautiful..

For the most part San walked ahead of me.. she cannot stop on an uphill climb or she finds it difficult to start again..I cannot stop downhill or I get stuck! So we had an interesting arrangement.. 

we walked with her leading up and me leading down but with stops to catch up.. and take selfies! We met maybe a total of 10 people on either way.. had our masks in our hand and had to wear it only when we saw anyone in the other direction. That made things easier!

We got drenched on the way back with an unexpected downpour. That made this an adventure of sort, running down in rain watching the city lights..

It has taken me at least the last few hours to get my warmth back and get back to normal after what has defintiely been some exercise outside the yoga mat! 

Still prefer walks on flat terrain compared to a non stop slope, but walking with San is something that I have missed for a long time.. Just realized that today!

That grin on my face says it all !!!

A very different navarathri

If you read my blog or see my posts regularly, you know that this blog has documented every bay area golu we visit during Navarathri for what.. 15 years running?! 

This year, I did not get invited to any Golus. San did.. as it was a ladies only timed event at most houses to avoid people from different social bubbles interacting. 

Save for my next door neighbor, I did not get to do the usual golugraphy. It is also a passion of mine to capture any new dolls in the display or anything unique year on year that folks come up with. 

The only golu from this year..

The new doll this year that captured our attention .. 

we did do the Saraswati poojai at home ..

San took this photo of me to send to my mom.. one of her best clicks in recent times..

This year given we dont get a chance to wear new clothes.. that is an understatement.. have not even worn formal pants for more than a few hours since March! It has been T-shirts and track suits and sitting and attending meetings or doing yoga on the same mat all day.. 

So every festival gets a new shirt.. this one was purchased last December during the India trip. 

The little one gets the photo credit. San is her usual lovely self and puts my age in perspective and stark contrast just within the 2020 photo sets..

Last year I decided to match shirt colors with San's saree color and went around for Golus.. this year has been different.. of the 9 days, she dressed up only on 4 and went to select friends houses with fixed time slots. 

Navarathri has understandably been a muted affair for 2020. It was my sincere prayer to the godess of learning that folks learn that wearing a mask and social distancing and washing their hands can save lives and the lives of people who are elderly, have other health conditions are as valuable as their own! 

No one needs to die because someone decides to be irresponsible.. the whole "in pursuit of my own happiness at all costs" attitude has a fundamental flaw that is glaringly obvious, thanks to a small virus!

This last year has been good for learning.. hope the coming year brings more knowledge to me and everyone around me.

Wishing everyone a happy Dushera/Navarathri/Durga pooja/Saraswati pooja/Vijayadasami/ Ayuda pooja.. and whatever other name you celebrate this festival by.. 

Devils slide - an afternoon trip

Given the last 7 months, we decided to take another short ride to a place within an hour radius that has not been visited in the last 20 years.. San found just the place in Devils slide near Pacifica. 

The weather was pleasant and we drove almost an hour to the parking lot there. Then there was a hike that was 3 miles back and forth from one parking lot to the other and back. This is a beautiful bike and walkway that goes around the mountainside overlooking the pacific ocean. 

There were 6 whales there breaching, but we could not catch it. 

We had great visibiilty while we walked one way and it started raining on our way back. For some reason we were just happy to be there and didn't care. 

We met an interesting old man called "Uncle Ericson" who was an 84 year old retired plastic surgeon who walks this path every day. we got to chat with him in the drizzle on the way back and he told us some stories about the place. That made the return walk interesting! He told us about this Jeep that was rolled down the slope by theives and how it has been there since 1999 and now trees are growing through it!

Got to take some pictures with both the iPhone and the Canon this time. 

It is all mixed and matched here (some of the iPhone photos adjusted in snapseed as well)

 a slideshow of the rest of the pictures..

Loved the place and the walk.. we were both happy to walk together someplace after a long time!

Hope we find more local gems like this!

The birds must be crazy

Yesterday, during my yoga class at home (done with a teachers voice recording for instruction) there were a lot of banging noises at regular intervals. Thought someone was throwing stones on my window or a tennis ball.. was already on the floor series and wiped out, so it was easy to ignore and keep going with the class.

This morning was a different story. As soon as the class started there was a thud. Then I saw this bird come and fly full force against the window and hit the glass..

It did it again. . . and again.. so I had to pause the audio, take a 15 minute break to film this angry bird that was distracting me from yoga. 

Bird 1: Sundar 0 

it doesnt take much to beat me.. any small distraction could ruin my focus. so it is a miracle that I can go through any class.

Even took a slow mo video of it. It is a very determined bird.. the way it preps on the edge of the fence in the same location and launches itself at the window. We never furnished the guest room after finishing construction 4 years ago.. so it just has this Dhoti on push pins for a curtain. maybe that is giving it a very strong reflection? Don't know. Have never seen any bird behave like this before. 

I have seen a bird fight with its reflection on our Prius side mirror and go shit all over the window..

but this one is weird! 

After resuming the class I just got used to the bang and thud every 2 minutes.. 

This bird made at least 40 attempts that I counted over a 90 minute period. If only my focus and determination to ignore this noise and keep doing yoga matched that of the bird's to come hit the window!!!

Then again on a positive note, it is end of September and we still have 3 months to go in 2020.. but my yoga attendance has been great as there is no travel!

the birds are all back.. including the hummingbird family. Hope to get some pictures over the weekend just sitting down in one place in the backyard, camera in hand.. it is a meditation of sorts. Keep focusing on one place hoping the hummingbird will come to that flower again! 

In spite of all the antics, the bird made me go outside and watch it post class for 30 minutes and I realized it was not one bird.. there were two taking turns!!

It must be some kind of game..