The dancing gene

This blog is not new to my lament about how a Tamil Brahmin dude and ballroom dancing (or dancing) don't go well in the same sentence. 

I am not the only guy in the family tree to pick up dancing. Turns out my two nephews both picked up one form of dancing or another. 

This weekend we drove to Los Angeles and back to watch my nephew compete in a Bhangra dance competition. He is part of a team from Pittsburgh and they went up against 10 of the best teams in the world at the Orpheum theater in LA. 

Any reunion on the fathers side of the family is rare for me. My father is the last of 12 siblings. Of all those siblings and their spouses, only three are alive. My aunt, my dad and mom. Given the wide spread of ages among the next generation and the generation after that.. we meet in little clumps. 

The little one tells me "I thought most of grandpa's side of the family are dead. So all these people exist and you never told me?".. looks like I have my work cut out for me.. My MIL who joined us for this trip was also surprised as she has never seen any of my nephews or nieces or cousins for that matter!

The great unifier, aka my SIL got a lot of us to come to this event and cheer the nephews team. We even got matching T-shirts prior to the event!

The guy kneeling down who looks like a younger version of Virat Kohli was the star of the show for us.. 

We got treated to some amazing talent and group formation dancing.. Yet to edit the photos and videos from the event. Here are a few..

These guys were literally leaping off the stage a good 4-5 feet in synchronization. The energy and beats were so high that the audience was on their feet at times!

 Did not like the white cloth background obstructing my shots from the gallery seat. So I mirrored the flooring on that white background to generate this photograph.. 

Need more men in the family to pick up dancing.. any and all forms of dancing!

The star of the show did not disappoint! Had happy tears watching him dance with abandon!

A long weekend implies a short busy week. Will update this post later this week with a video link. .  . 

Watching them grow

No.. not a post about the kids.. They are growing alright! 

There is a family of geese living in the creek that runs along Lawrence expressway. They go for a walk in the same path I take post lunch or when walking to the local starbucks to get some tea. 

Have been watching them for the last two weeks. The little ones are growing so fast! They have almost doubled in size in two weeks.. maybe I am imagining it.. 

 

It warms my heart to watch them trot along and see the parents help them climb the sidewalk to cross over.

Sometimes I just sit down on the sidewalk and watch them for a few minutes and move on. Calms me down immensely and helps me dive back into work. 

Nature has everything out there to calm us.

If only we can take a few minutes every now and then to get some sun, breathe fresh air and watch the creatures around us to get a reset?! 

The adventures of Sundar, Episode 435: starring Pukelady and YogaYoda

The last two weeks have been interesting to say the least. Went to Asia for yet another business trip. Everything was same old same old. Yet another Uber driver who has fled the middle east gave me his story as we went to the airport on an early Sunday morning. Made it through the trip. Then San requested some urgent support back home. So I moved my confimed biz upgrade seat to an earlier flight in economy class. That was a mistake.

Just like in T20 cricket when you get someone out on a "no ball" and the guy comes back and hammers you for a six on the free hit, I got a double whammy. There was a lady on the flight who decided to throw up an hour after the flight started. Now, throw up may not be the right way to decribe it. She more like "sprayed up". The rest of the 10 hours was spent smelling puke and just taking sips of air to be able to breathe but not get too much into my lungs.  All that breath control from years of yoga practice, didn't work! 80/20 breathing vs. pukelady wasn't even a close contest. End result was that I was going through flu like symptoms within 24 hours after landing. 

Last weekend and the early part of this week were a blur. My wife decided to not say a single word throughout this. Usually she goes on a rant. This time she was all TLC. Someone must have taught her that this tactic might produce more guilt/hour than the lecture and sure enough, they were right. 

Stuff at home and work took a hit because my voice was gone. The last three four days have seen me steadily improve, spending more time at work and being more active at home. So it is natural to want to get back to the Yoga room as well to speed up the recovery. 

The plan was simple. Start in the last row and keep moving up as I feel better. Did start in the last row and moved up last two days. 

Went to yoga class this morning with the MIL. It was taught by the YogaYoda, Jim Kallet. Decided that this would be a good class to graduate from second row to the front row.. yes. why not pick the hottest spot in the room to check if you have fully recovered from the flu?!  Guess I did not think this one through.

While Jim did say the usual "you should know how much to push yourself. this is going to be a slightly longer class. so pace yourself. Sit down if you feel dizzy. Take a break and get back".. I took it the way my mother tells me "if that is what you want to do, please go ahead".. which usually translates to "if you want to call yourself my son, don't even think about it". 

Now, don't laugh. Every one of my Yoga teachers bears a close mental resemblence to my mother. They have eyes in the back of their head and can know if I am even thinking of giving up on some pose, even if they are in some other part of the room, much like how my mom can remotely control my emotions from the other side of the planet. So it was natural for me to take it that way.. 

It was a great class. Did struggle through the middle of the class, because I did not pace myself. 

Jim continued to amaze with his words of wisdom. When you are that experienced, it shows! 

My MIL has never met Jim and was telling one of the teachers before class "I am already past 60. getting old. so some of this is getting difficult" and the teacher told her "the guy who is going to teach this class is older than you!"

Wrote this about Jim's all day class from four five years ago.. he is doing another such class tomorrow. Not sure what shape I will be in to go. Right now, just happy that I got to take his regular class!

It is an experience not to be missed.