Navarathri 2021

Last years Golu was a wash, because of COVID. It was also when I missed Jr. a lot as she was setting in college and getting busy. 

This years Navarathri was better. I had just landed after a hectic last minute trip to Chennai just after Navarathri started. So it was nice to be invited to a few golus in the bay area. Most of the golus this year were ladies only events and that meant, not a lot of Golu pictures.. we even went to a drive by golu this year!

This year I tried to continue a thing I started in 2019.. trying to match wife's saree color with my shirt color. It was a challenge as my wardrobe, while colorful, is no match for her variety! Once I set this trend and make it fashionable, it will only be a question of time before Nalli and Pothy's start selling matching shirts to the sarees. You will hear this soon "idhu sari with blouse ma, idhu sari with blouse and Shirt!".. you heard that here first! just remember..

There were a lot of new dolls which was impressive given people managed to get these shipped here during COVID. We also visted a few folks for the first time and saw interesting dolls, some that date back a century and were handed over for generations!

This year, I was asked to sing in a few Golus and did that. Have only been singing movie songs recently, but decided to give it a try. Wife give me a smile and said "not bad!" which is as much of a compliment I can expect to get. Next year, will learn, practice and sing a few classical songs if everything goes well!

All that said, here are the pictures of the golus and some dolls that caught my eye..

Hopefully by next year, COVID is a thing of the past and we get to visit more golus. There are many families that have lost dears ones in the last year and that also reduces the number of golus we visit. When you hear "we lost a relative, so no golu this year in our house!" over and over again, the magnitude of COVID strikes you!

All these trips got me to feel somewhat normal again after that Chennai trip. 

We did do a quick Saraswathi Poojai and Vijayadasami, given they both fell on working days and I was in meetings for the most part of those two days! 

It would be a big miss if I forget to mention the food over the last week.. sundals, vadais of different types and sizes, payasams, pooris, kuzhi appams, etc. etc. either I got to eat them directly or San got me parcels from the ones she visited. Given I had lost 5 lbs over 15 days with the trip, have almost put all the weight back in one week now. 

Wish the kids take more interest in dressing up and visiting golus in a few years once they are out of their busy high school/college life!

If I can try to learn carnatic music (again for the 4th time in my life) at this age, there is hope for them! 

Wishing you all a wonderful year of learning ahead! May the godess Saraswathi bless you with learning everything you wish to learn and may you find the right guru to teach you!!

Romancing the trail

It is a long weekend. We still have to deal with a kid who needs to be taken care of. That means no long trips. 

We started the weekend off by visiting the Land of the Medicine Buddha in Santa Cruz. Our friends have all been there. We tried to go there last year but it was closed the day we went. Given our friends made it during San's ankle healing hiking hiatus, we finally made it.

It is a beautiful and serene place. There is a 6 mile hike with a lot of inspiring wisdom written on boards. We pass a beautiful prayer wheel before starting the trail and a shrine that is really serene. 

There is a Tibetan feel to the place almost.

We met a total of 7 people and 4 dogs on the 6 mile trail. It is almost a 1000 foot climb and we did it in under 2 hours which was pretty decent by my standards.

The good news is San is back to her usual speed and for once showed restraint to keep up with me. So, we are back to normal! 

There are little mini shrines everywhere.

people have stacked up rocks everywhere on a one mile section of this trail. Was tempted to stack one, but in the interest of time and the fact that there is no cell signal for most of the trail, just kept walking. We had a deadline to head back home or be in cell range. 

It is an hours drive from Cupertino given traffic but it was worth it. The entire trail is shaded and covered by really tall redwoods.

there is a story behind that photo. San finally started taking my photos.. this time she said "I have an artistic touch on a photo.." What she meant was that I was at a fork and taking one path vs. another.. what I saw in the photo she took was my bald spot which is pretty obvious in photos now. I didn't realize this till today! It has been some time since anyone took a shot of me from the back at this angle! 

I questioned her artistry.. and the trail became very silent for some time.. Then we laughed and kept going.. that is how magical this place is! 

Think it would be very tricky to visit this place when it rains as there are lot of fallen trees and in places navigating the trail was tricky.We picked a good time to visit!

Loved it! It was an easy hike almost till the end. So definitely worth going with kids and a good start for entry level hikers!

Skyline ridge trail on a smoky day

Now that San is back to her usual self, hiking program has restarted. This morning the group went to Skyline ridge and went throught the Ipiwa trail after walking along the horseshoe trail. We went to Russian ridge from Skyline ridge and were about to go to the view point, but turned back as the smoke from the north east got to the hills we were walking on. At one point the air quality was making it difficult for us to breathe and we turned back after going half mile from the Russian ridge trail starting point. 

It was still a good 2 1/2 hours of hiking and we had fun chatting all the way..

Here are some pictures, starting with the usual selfies with my girl! 

That is not fog. It is smoke from local fires setting down. Air quality was an issue today!

The best part of this trail was not the lake. It was the view point from the trail where the hillsides were almost 8 different colors with the different plants..

Thank you Gene Sheehan for making this trail! Absolutely gorgeous!

The entire hill side was colorful on both sides of the trail. A great picture spot!

"Suvaru irundhaa dhan chittiram ezhudha mudiyum" is a Tamizh saying which means "without a canvas there is no painting". My neighbor took this shot and she composed it perfectly. All I had to do was crop it and brighten the foreground! 

Almost bald is an inbetween look. I am just waiting for the few hairs to drop off naturally. It is not very far away.

We will probably go to this place from a different parking lot and go through Russian Ridge. We have hit one trail after another on this path over the last year.. Quarry creek, Sanborn, Saratoga Gap, Castle rock, Long Ridge, Skyline Ridge, Russian Ridge.. just a few more left to cover in this area.

The group is trying to get me ready to go to Black Mountain which is a 14 mile hike. Let us see if I can get back to hiking more and make it on that hike!