It has been some time since a post came to the blog. Life has been busy .. but with plenty of happenings!
There was the Diwali that came and went during a weekday, and was celebrated over the weekend.
There was a special Yoga class last weekend.. More on that later.
But this post is to wish everyone on the blog space a belated Deepavali . . . Facebook takes over these posts now and then.
The photo below is a compilation of Deepavali (Diwali) celebrations over the years. We did not do fireworks in the early days for fear of smoke alarms.. a kid or two later and we go "bah!"
There used to be no sparklers or the entire family posing around one single sparkler in the garage!
There were years where we just cozied up and did not celebrate, or celebrated with the birth of a new baby!
The one year this was celebrated in India!
Click to enlarge the image. . .
Got happy tears just looking at old photos and compiling this one!
It has been 25 years since I was in India for a Deepavali ! You can celebrate all you want in the US of A with family and friends, but somehow nothing comes close to being in India on Deepavali day!
On a whim, got last minute tickets to go to India straight from my business trip and spent the weekend in Chennai. I have spent 3 days with my parents in the last two years and made a promise that will go see them even if it was a solo trip without wife and kids and even if it was only for a weekend. Glad that I made it.
San got me tickets on Air Asia. That was an interesting thing in itself. These guys take the Airbus flying quite literally. It is like a local "bus" ride in the "Air". They take this "low cost airline" concept to an all new level. An unnecessary security check within their own gates to throw out my water bottle and then charge for water on the flight! It was an all time low on my flying experience list. Once I reached Chennai and got a bear hug from my niece, that was temporarily forgotten.
Then I got to see my dad, which was one main reason for going. He has tremors now and is conscious of it. So he doesn't come to the phone or skype often. That said, he manages it pretty well. He knows when he cannot talk and stays silent and is very meditative. When the tremors subside, he is normal and goes about his usual activities.
I taught my nephew how to hold an oothubaththi to a Kuruvi vedi and that experience alone was priceless. The poor kid had fractured his arm and was just out of his cast, but was so hyped up that he was running around the terrace with me in all that excitement.
He reminded me of someone all the time... me!
My niece did my hair and make up as part of Diwali and I sat through it patiently thinking "my sister used to comb my hair for hours, then my kids did it.. you are probably the last one to get the experience of combing my hair as there is not much left to comb these days!"
Fireworks are not the same anymore from when we were kids.. They sell these fireworks where each piece is like a long tube and they are like 4th of July fireworks, expensive and fancy. 500 rupees for just one piece but very nice. The entire city was lit up with these things! It was non stop from every roof top. Just an amazing sight to watch. The smiles on the kids faces.. it is something to see when every kid you walk by is just all smiles!
Here is a video composite of the whole fireworks experience.. this doesn't even come close to being there!
(WARNING : the background noise in this video is very high !)
Then there was the sweets and savories. My mom made sure that 177 yoga classes for the year were nullified in 177 minutes. To summarize "she kept me well fed" for the three days. By day two, I started saying "enough" before she even put anything on my plate, because she would continue to pile it on my plate for a good two seconds after my saying stop! Some things never change. Had just told my brother to lose weight and go do some yoga and he gave me a look and a smile that said "if you live with mom in the house, no amount of yoga is going to get your weight down". He was right. Have put on a good 5 lbs in 3 days!
If you are wondering how come I have eyes only for San.. look no further.. think there is a gene for that which gets passed on..
It has been one hectic but memorable trip!
Heartfelt wishes, belated as they may be, for everyone's lives to be filled with light and happiness!
On our recent India trip, we were in Chennai going from Mylapore to West Mambalam when the little one kept saying "I think I just saw Jr.'s photo on a big banner ad for fireworks store".
Given the noise level in the auto rickshaw and traffic and also given the improbable odds of something like that, we promptly ignored the little one.
Today BB sent us a photo saying "we were driving through Doraisawamy subway when we saw a picture of a girl who looks just like Jr. in a fireworks ad! Wanted to share it with you".
Guess what?! It is Junior bursting fire crackers and it is a photo from this blog that someone copied without asking for permission! At least sending us some free fireworks would have been a decent gesture.
Now here is the irony. The original photo is of Jr. celebrating with sparklers in Cupertino and the sparklers were purchased in the local Chinese store. They defiinitely did not come from Sivakasi.
This is turnign out like the Nikon camera ad that was shot with Canon cameras.
Needless to say this capture has created some issues at home about blogging, photos of the kids on the internet etc. etc.
Jr. is happy that she has become a posthumus child model given her childhood has become a thing of the past.
The little one is claiming she is a genius for pointing this out right. She is also upset that Jr's photo was copied while she is "much cuter" as a child with fireworks.
San and MIL are just getting on the lecture train..
