A graduation to remember - Jr.' finishes her Masters

Jr’s (we still refer to her as Junior in this blog after 20 years) graduation was a highly anticipated and planned event. My in-laws were going to join us a few days before and there was a trip to Great sand Dunes National park etc. My dad’s passing changed everything. My in-laws did fly here and spend a few days with Jr. while we were performing last rites in India.

We flew in from India the previous evening and I flew out first flight to Irvine the next morning for the gowning ceremony. San drove a good 7+ hours with her parents with jet lag. I was still in a daze from the India visit. My voice was gone. it was like being in a twilight zone not being able to place feelings or facial expressions appropriately. The little one was going to drive two hours from her college right after finishing her last exam to be there for the gowning ceremony. However she got stuck in traffic and did not make it in time. So it was just me and the kid at the department function.

Got to talk to two of her professors. They were resilient given where the country was going with respect to health policy. Health expertise they said was going to be much needed given the times we live in. By the time the ceremony finished the little one joined us and we went to the hotel. San and her parents had also made it.

We got a short break, and went back to the stadium for the big graduation ceremony. It was a circus with parking, seating, everything. It was not easy for my in-laws to walk that much in a rush to make it on time.

Was glad to see the kid walk the stage! Was asking her to do a Ph.D but she smiled and declined politely. Said she wanted to get hands on experience in the real world. We all wished her well.

We were fortunate to have a dinner with my classmate and his family before driving out of UCI. They were her local guardians. We also got blessings from his in-laws who were celebrating their Sadabishegham.

The kids just drove off together. The oldies stayed back in the hotel and drove the next morning to Santa Barbara to show them the little one’s college. She gave us a quick tour and we all drove back. It was our wedding anniversary.

We did have a bittersweet wedding day and Father’s day celebration. The kids declared that “your dad is not there.. ours is right here. so stop moping, smile and come for lunch with us”. My facial expressions were all off that weekend. Looking at the pictures I look like that kathakali artist who could display happiness on one half of his face and sadness on the other.

There were good moments in summer. Just getting to blog about it and clear my iPhone. Next year we hope to celebrate the little one finishing her undergrad!

Here is a video clip (including the one the university sent us at the end of the video)..

Time is a great healer!

Navarathri 2025

This year there was no celebration or festivities in our house for Navarathri as we don’t have any pooja in the house till my dads passing anniversary.

That does not stop us from attending other peoples Navarathri celebrations. We did get to go see a lot of Golus (Kolus), eat some good food (most of my friends had at least one non allergic item for me which was a big plus), sing songs (thanks to my guru who taught me a few songs just to sing for Navarathri in the last two months) and just see happy smiling faces all around.

The ladies were all beautiful as were the kids who dressed up. My friends definitely saw an improvement in my singing year over year. That is all thanks to my teacher. We did do a 15 minute class for Vijayadasami, with me singing in low volume from a hotel room right after I checked in. It was a long day but did not want to miss that class to get an auspicious start to this years learning.

Given the plans to blog a lot of trips, but being very busy at work, the blogs are getting condensed. So have added all the doll displays and unique dolls that caught my eye in just two galleries.. One in portrait format and one in landscape.

and one in landscape format..

As is now customary, did try to match San’s Sari’s with my shirts. She went out of her way to challenge me on some of the unique colors. My Ramarajan collection is diverse, but it has gaps. They will be addressed on the next India trip, whenever that may be!

Saraswati or sacchi paati, my grandmother who passed away two years ago has definitely blessed me this year with plenty of music. This year Jr. finally dusted off her alto saxophone and played a few songs at a friend’s place because he kept bugging her. That was heart warming to listen to.

There were not that many golus this year as a lot of my friends lost family and did not have a celebration to honor the departed. Still we all met each other in the same circles.

Next year hopefully brings us better circumstances and a celebration at home!

The Yoga journey is still on

If you have been reading this blog, it has been going all over the place.. to July 2024, then finally to other things.. There are a few things that don’t get mentioned which are reasons for all the anachronistic posts.

Last summer San and me knew there was a 9 day anniversary trip. Still we had signed up for a 60 day challenge. T-shirts make you do things I guess! For me it was a no brainer. The earlier two week trip in February had made me skip signing up for the Winter 2024 challenge. I haven’t missed a winter challenge in years! So the family knew I will sign up for the summer challenge. Given a 10 day miss for travel, we started doing doubles every day in the hot July summer. The first 22 days saw us do 44 classes.. mostly back to back. San had never done doubles before, so I was really impressed and proud of her effort. Then we went on the trip and came back to finish the challenge ahead of time. It was good we finished it ahead.

Just two days before the challenge end date, my mother called me to show my dad in Apollo ICU in Chennai. The prognosis was that he would’t make it by the time I left here and reached him. It was a timely call as I was booked for a business trip first thing the next morning. Cancelled that trip and flew to India.

By some miracle, my dad went from ICU to general ward and back home in the week I spent there. The doctor’s told me that at this point, his condition is expected to be the same for weeks or months. He was home though. My mom was relieved that he was home. Even though the room became a hospital room, he had pulled through. So with happy tears I flew back. Right after coming back we did attend the 60 day challenge party. It was a great way for me to take my mind off everything. Went right back to the regular yoga routine. I was even more determined and sure that if I did this yoga regularly, there might be a quick and painless death instead of a prolonged debilitating disease. No one knows what is going to happen or when, but one can always do some preventive maintenance.

There was no blog posts .. not just about yoga.. There was simply no mood to write anything for the rest of September and most of October till my dad stabilzed to a new routine. Then we had a planned trip to the grand canyon to hike the south rim and that brought me back to Facebook , blogging and a social routine.

Went back searching for the videos of my speech from that challenge but could only find these two pics.. (one done before my dad ended up in hospital) and another from the challenge party. That was my 15th successful challenge out of 17 attempts.

Then it was January again before we knew it. This time my MIL had informed me that she will visit us from Jan to March just to join me for the 60 day challenge. She wanted to do another challenge (having done it once). The two of us had signed up and I signed up San, given she joins me most days. Initially she was hesitant and did not want to do it. She did not even do the stickers to keep track (I was keeping track for her). When there were only 10 days left and she had to do just a few doubles, she got enticed by Michele to complete. The T-shirts were back! They had the right size too apparently! All three of us finished this challenge.

My goal for this challenge was to do a 1000 classes in trying 60 day challenges. Had already done 900 in the 15 good attempts and in the two failed attempts there was another 93. So by class 7, the goal was done. Still the challenge teaches us something about how to carry on when your brain goes on strike and how to overcome adversity.

We did go to the challenge party this time and got to share the experience. You can see the video highlights reel..

One more T-shirt got added to replace the worn out ones..

After three weeks of not being able to go do Yoga much because of nosebleeds, finally made it last two days. Plan to get back to going everyday. Yoga makes me happy and peaceful. It is a reflective time and a meditative time to let go of things that don’t serve me right. It is a great way to reset.

That said, every day, learn something new. Even this morning in class Michelle tells me “Sundar, nothing should happen with the standing leg. just move the hands and the other leg!”. This was while doing a balancing stick pose where I was instinctively rolling forward on my ankle to compensate for the imbalance. Not doing that made all the difference in the second set. Have to remember that in tomorrows class. As we form good habits, bad habits have a way of creeping up as well. Constant attention to detail with a watchful set of teachers helps me fix them over and over again. To all my teachers at BYSJ, especially Michele, Matt and Sarah, who by now know my every move and even pre-emptively correct me , a heartfelt and sincere thank you!

Thank god for teachers!

The best part of this challenge was doing it with my wife and MIL. Hopefully someday, the kids will do a 60 day challenge. One can always hope.. and screw Parkinson’s disease.. Hope they find a cure for this shit so in case I do end up with it, there is some relief. Even if I cannot avoid the physical eventuality, the Yoga practice will definitely help me handle anything mentally down the road. That much I am sure of!