A different August

This blog is a good screenshot of our life over the last ten years. Every August has been marked by sickness of some kind for me. 

For the first time, this August went without me being sick. To that we have to thank god, and that we did yesterday morning..

We have celebrated Ganesh Chathurthi (aka Pillayar Ummachi's birthday in our house) every year and sometimes it has been a full blown out weekend thing with every type of Kozhukkattai (dumplings) and other times a quiet prayer where we just sang "Happy birthday to you" in front of the god and went to bed. 

This year it being a school day, we got up early and finished the pooja and the food ready before it was time to get the kids to the breakfast table. 

The little one took that picture. She is getting better every day at taking pictures.

This Ganesha idol was given to me by my dad 24 years ago. It was actually glued on to a "day sheet calendar". It became the pooja Ganapathy during my college days as this was the only 3D version. It makes me think of my dad everytime I set this idol down on the floor and start the prayer. 

We had a huge health scare in the family in August, but fortunately things turned out okay. We all thanked Pillayar Ummachi for helping us through this tough time.  

We are now into a long weekend with no travel plans. That means, it is time to go work on the other 1000 pictures left from the Jaipur trip!

Happy Tamil New Year !

Time flies. We are at yet another Tamil New Year this weekend. The girls dressed up nicely to celebrate. San also did a marathon effort in the kitchen this morning to make some amazing food. I must have added 4-5 pounds just at lunch and to compensate for that did three hours of hot yoga instead of the usual 90 minutes.

The back is also hurting after being squeezed in cramped quarters on long flights next to oversized folks whose bottoms spread laterally into neigbouring seats. My strong recommendation to the good folks who make the 74(+)7's and Airbus equivalents is to create a solid barrier between seats instead of the hand rests. Then again, if a skinny guy like me is suffering, it cannot be too great for said oversized folks. As usual I digressed at the first paragraph.. Tsk!

Where were we? Ah, the new year! Got back home just in time to see the cuties dress up and have fun. To celebrate the new year, I got myself a pair of Bose headphones that are expected to do wonders for future air travel. Don't ask me what Bose has to do with Tamil New Year. It has as much to do with a Toyota or Ford Car sales event has to do with Memorial day! 

This year we celebrate the girls growing older by one more year and the fact that they still pose for daddy when begged to do so.

Had to capture the earrings she is wearing.. they are made of Terracota apparently! 

For once I wished there was a picture of me with the kids to post! Maybe we will take one over the week. 

Happy New Year to all of you. May this Tamil new year bring peace and happiness!

Holi vilayaadu paapaa (ஹோலி விளையாடு பாப்பா)

As the great Mahakavi should have said "ஹோலி விளையாடு பாப்பா" ... as in dude speak "Let's play Holi babies!"

Holi was celebrated across the bay area over the last 8 days, read "two weekends" just like any other major festival is over the nearest weekends. 

We were fortunate to join one of the groups celebrating Holi over the weekend. It was great fun. 

Given it was with some of my IT-BHU seniors, brought back so many memories of playing Holi in BHU 20+ years ago!

The Holi monk with his kids..

The little one played holi till she was drop down tired in spite of starting off with a stuffy nose!

We also got to meet another group of really nice people who happened to celebrate in the same park. They came over and said "it is not nice to have two groups play holi separately. lets all join in!".  They brought their Jelabies and Tandaii over to our table and we all put colors on everyone. It was great to see the spirit of Holi in action. 

Next stop. Easter bunny hunt at some place or other for the kids is our guess.. 

It is great to be able to celebrate as many festivals as possible.. things we never did as kids in South India. Our kids are lucky to get this diverse an experience!

Happy Holi to everyone!