A Pongal that came and went..

Pongal was celebrated in our house three weeks ago! It just so happens that I still did not have a laptop and before we could say "pongaloo pongal" , Jr. was back to college.

So was her laptop which I was temporarily borrowing for blog posts. I am tepidly happy to say that my new Macbook Pro has arrived. Tepidly happy because it took more than a month to show up instead of the two weeks (Chip delays apparently.. which is a good thing for people in the Semiconductor business like me as prices are going up!) and the new Apple M1 chip has a lot of "compatibility issues" with things like Photoshop.. 

Had to go shop for a new Photoshop. The old DVD based installs don't work anymore with new Operating system, especially with the M1. All is well that ends well. So after spending some more time and a little money, we now have a functioning laptop that can finally recognize my external hard drives, do Photoshop and here we are.. posting about Pongal, three weeks later..

I also happened to have a double bone graft dental surgery which is still a pain in the face and have not recovered from it fully. Now that it is behind me, can blog in a happier note..

Where were we? Ah, pongal.. 

We made some delicious pongal, did a prayer and got some sun. . . 

of course there were vadais to go with the Pongal..

Then we tried a family portait.. it was a working day rush job.. but I was expected to have some "facial swelling" for a week.. so this was in anticiapation of that..

surprisingly there was no significant swelling post surgery. So we did get to take a decent family portrait just before Jr. was sent off.. they did co-operate this one for the photo on pity grounds.. so the dental surgery had one benefit at least..

There was no family and friends gathering to celebrate. Even last January, we had group gatherings to celebrate Pongal, before COVID did its thing. Hopefully by next Pongal things will be better.

Hope everyone had a good Pongal celebration. We live in surreal times.. we prayed for a better year!

A very happy Deepavali to every one

2020 is the year of staying at home. Deepavali is a stay at home festival for the morning but in the evening, you go see all your friends and relatives and join them in the firecracker fun.. 

This year it has been a muted affair. The gatherings are smaller and we meet only people in "our bubble" which is a good thing.

We did have new clothes, great eats and some sparklers! San and me teamed up to make a lot of sweets and savories (and she got some guidance from our neighbor on some sweets and they reminded me of my grandma cooking with her aunt Ambulu when we were kids.. they would spend days planning before the cooking started!). We did go solo on some items..

She sparkles better than those sparklers..It was a good thing I adjusted an almost underexposed shot and realized this was actually a good thing!

This is the first Diwali without jr. being present at home. That was constantly in the back of my head and I am not sure how many years it will take for me to realize that you cannot expect to see kids for Diwali or take that for granted anymore! Given every now and then I manage to go to India to celebrate with my parents, know that the kids will come back home after they grow up to celebrate.. maybe more often than I did.

The little one knows of my secret plan to keep her closer to home and continues to roll her eyes everytime I suggest colleges within a 20 mile radius. 

Life comes full circle.. What I did to my parents, my kids will do to me. Good news is that I am already in the "brace" position. 

It is my sincere wish that we get over COVID soon in the coming year! People are still dying and folks are still denying the truth and reality. Diwali or Deepavali is literally the triump of truth over lies, light over darkness.. knowledge is the true illuminator! 

May knowledge and facts make a comeback after this Diwali !! 

For someone who is staying at home, we have done a good job dressing up at every opportunity.. 

Still don't know how my wife is able to handle Jr.'s being away so calmly compared to me. Either she is made of different stuff or she is faking it really well. Have some things to learn and understand.

Once again, wishing you all a wonderful Deepavali/ Diwali!!

A very different navarathri

If you read my blog or see my posts regularly, you know that this blog has documented every bay area golu we visit during Navarathri for what.. 15 years running?! 

This year, I did not get invited to any Golus. San did.. as it was a ladies only timed event at most houses to avoid people from different social bubbles interacting. 

Save for my next door neighbor, I did not get to do the usual golugraphy. It is also a passion of mine to capture any new dolls in the display or anything unique year on year that folks come up with. 

The only golu from this year..

The new doll this year that captured our attention .. 

we did do the Saraswati poojai at home ..

San took this photo of me to send to my mom.. one of her best clicks in recent times..

This year given we dont get a chance to wear new clothes.. that is an understatement.. have not even worn formal pants for more than a few hours since March! It has been T-shirts and track suits and sitting and attending meetings or doing yoga on the same mat all day.. 

So every festival gets a new shirt.. this one was purchased last December during the India trip. 

The little one gets the photo credit. San is her usual lovely self and puts my age in perspective and stark contrast just within the 2020 photo sets..

Last year I decided to match shirt colors with San's saree color and went around for Golus.. this year has been different.. of the 9 days, she dressed up only on 4 and went to select friends houses with fixed time slots. 

Navarathri has understandably been a muted affair for 2020. It was my sincere prayer to the godess of learning that folks learn that wearing a mask and social distancing and washing their hands can save lives and the lives of people who are elderly, have other health conditions are as valuable as their own! 

No one needs to die because someone decides to be irresponsible.. the whole "in pursuit of my own happiness at all costs" attitude has a fundamental flaw that is glaringly obvious, thanks to a small virus!

This last year has been good for learning.. hope the coming year brings more knowledge to me and everyone around me.

Wishing everyone a happy Dushera/Navarathri/Durga pooja/Saraswati pooja/Vijayadasami/ Ayuda pooja.. and whatever other name you celebrate this festival by..