Came back from work after picking up my daughter at daycare.. tired after long, odd working hours for the past few days. Wife had already come home 15 minutes ahead of us and was watching TV.
To my amazement, a Tamizh Movie "Run" was on. Asked her what the special occasion was and she says "today is Ganesh Chaturthi".. I try to find a correlation between Ganesh Chaturthi (the indian elephant god's birthday which is usually celebrated with prayer, sweet dumplings - great eats and a visit to the local temple) and the movie that was playing ("Run" is a violent movie where guy and his love are on the run from her gangster brother!). . My brain started aching and I said "oops, we forgot to celebrate". All of us showered real quick, put on some nice clothes and celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, American style.
Told my daughter that it was "pulliyar ummachi's birthday" (her slang for god ganesha a.k.a pulliyar). We lit the traditional indian lamp instead of a candle and sang :
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to pulliyar ummachi
happy birthday to you.
we clapped, sang some songs in praise of the god and enjoyed our usual dinner..
we will throw you a better party next year pulliyar ummachi !!