Family vacation - something for everyone - Day 1 Istanbul

Our trips for the year are usually planned by end of January.. at least till Thanksgiving. The kids rarely commit for family trips. This year we planned a trip to Istanbul for Labor day. My college mates had done a mini reunion in Istanbul that I could not attend earlier. To make up for it, wanted to see the city with family. San has been going nuts watching Turkish soap operas since Covid and has also been craving a visit. I also wanted to see Kapadokya. The kids were not so keen. As an appeasement move we combined to different wish lists. Spend half the vacation in Turkey, and the other half in the Amalfi coast in Italy. Our friends had visited recently and gave the place rave reviews. The kids being interested in cuisine wanted to do this leg. Not that we had an issue.

After a lot of haggling, we planned the Turkey leg and they planned the Italy leg.

Original plan was to take the four remaining days of long weekend and go. Thanks to some flight timing changes between the time we booked and the actual trip, had to take the Friday off as well and go to the airport by Noon. Turkish airlines is excellent and we had a direct flight from SFO to Istanbul. The car ride to our hotel (an excellent place to stay in old town) called Carina Gold Hotel was a long one. We also ended up waiting 45 minutes to get our Taxi at the airport. By the time we reached the hotel we were tired. After some turkish tea, we decided to go sightseeing. This hotel is walking distance from most of the sights in old town area.

We were told by the hotel staff that the Grand Bazaar would be closed the next day.. so we were in luck to visit the bazaar for an hour and a half. The day also happened to be some special holiday in Istanbul, which explained the crowds everywhere and the traffic to reach the hotel.

My grad school buddy Sedat, who is now a professor in Gebsi in Istanbul was constantly in my mind. Had told the family so many stories of our time together that they wanted to meet him and his family. However we missed each other on the coms (we were both trekkies and would sit and watch Simpsons and Star Trek with our third buddy Indra, who is also a Professor). At that time I also wanted to be a professor, but my dream wavered. He must have got the hiccups when i was thinking of him. If I wasn’t the shops reminded me.

We saw shops as far as the eye could see, bought some stuff, took some cheesy pictures and were off to our next stop.

The grand Cistern. This underground water storage place with giant pillars had an audio visual show for 20 mintues. We enjoyed it thoroghly.

We saw this cat feeding station. You can pay and the cats get food! There were cats everywhere. The kids were happy. I was immediately concerned about allergies!

After that we went for a walk around the market in Sultanahmet mosque area. After some ice cream and window shopping we got a feel for the city. Then we went to find dinner at a rooftop restaurant. It was a lot of climbing to the fifth floor but worth it. They had vegetarian food. After a nice dinner we walked back to the hotel.

There were happy smiling faces so far. The next day was going to be a lot of sight seeing.

A video highlights reel..

will pick up the blog where this leaves off tomorrow..

Summer 2025 Bikram Yoga 60 day challenge

After the India trip and father’s day, had still not gone to the Yoga studio for a few days. I really did not want to face the string of condolence hugs. Then came International day of yoga.

We went there to smiling faces. Bikram Yoga San Jose has been home for me for 15 years now. Was not going to miss this. Got to pose with my poster to everyone’s amusement.

Then came July 1st. Was sitting there before class and was reminded that the challenge started. In spite of San giving me the look, signed up. There were conditions. No skipping hikes or other duties. No complaining of any kind as far as time constraints go.

Started on 1st and finished the challenge 5 days early. Felt good to be back in the hot room regularly. It was the best therapy I could ask for. Wanted to do all the 60 classes in my usual corner spot. Managed to do almost 90% of the classes in that spot. Everyone asks me why I pick that spot. There is a back story. BYSJ’s first manager was a wonderful man named Chris Cannavero. He left us too young. He always used to goad me into doing things with his sarcastic wit. When BYSJ moved into the new studio in 2012, he set up thermometers in different parts of the hot room and asked a few of us to keep watching the temperature through the class and report the temperature range. I was in the corner spot and it went to 112 F and for the most part stayed at 108 F. He claimed after that exercise that the corner spot was the hottest.

A few days later I went back a few spots and he called me a wuss for chickening out of being in the hottest spot. After he passed away, I just go to that spot in hopes he is giving me energy when I am about to collapse in a heap or when my brain tells my body to sit down. It may be my imagination, but my % of sitting out poses has become negligible over the years. Just will myself to do it. Now I can add my dad to the list of folks giving me energy every time I put my palms out facing the ceiling.

Every challenge is different, every class is different, every set is different, every side is different. Yoga is something that works on me at glacial pace. It works though!

There was a lot of clutter in my head and yoga helped me still my monkey mind, at least 90 minutes at a time.

A video clip..

A heartfelt thanks to Michelle and all my teachers, fellow students, friends and family for continuing to support me on this yoga journey!

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!