The last time I was in India for my birthday was three years ago. It was a memorable birthday spent with my collegemates at a reunion in Varanasi.
The last time I was with my parents on my birthday was in 2003!
Recently my dad fell down (again) with his Parkinsons and stubborness both advancing more or less equally. So I decided to come spend the thanksgiving week with my parents in Chennai.
Was welcomed shortly after midnight by the immigration officer who was nice and greeted me but missed the fact that it was my birthday.
Had a short nap after three back to back flights and went to see Kabali early in the morning. My mom gave me some money to go buy a shirt. She insisted. I happened to be the first customer for the store. They were delighted to have a very happy smiling temple going dude as their first customer and I got to pray with them again as they did the prayer to start business for the morning.
My dad is definitely doing better, but I think he is going on some adrenalin rush in the happiness of seeing his son back. This is a happy post, so I will stay positive. He is walking a 100 steps today. That is a big deal given he was not moving three weeks ago.
Then my mom insisted on some mini vadai and payasam to celebrate.. pre-diabetic label be damned, I promptly dug in.
This was followed by a whirlwind trip from old Cupertino to old Fremont (sorry.. Mylapore to West Mambalam) with an auto in waiting to see San's grandparents.
This is definitely a more adventurous ride.. see the two timelapses below..
The day is still not over but I am happy that my parents are smiling today.
Have a few more temples to visit and relatives to meet. It has been a different and great birthday experience this year. Thanks to everyone for the wishes on social media.
The Tamizh word "வேண்டுதல்" crudely translates as "request". One meaning is a request to god with a caveat.
In other words, if God answers a request you make, you will do something in return. I still have a pending request. When my MIL got the cancer scare, and I was sitting with her for the bone marrow test, I prayed that if it came out negative, will go tonsure my head at Gunaseelam temple. The test came out negative... but I have not had a chance to visit Gunaseelam temple yet.. why I did that commitment, only god knows. The good news is that for most of these "vendudhals" there is no time limit or expiry date. I can do it when the opportunity comes.
A year ago, I visited the Jian'An temple in Shanghai and told the Buddha that if we got certain milestones at work, I will come visit again the following year and light an incense stick. That did happen and got 3 hours in an afternoon free. So off I went to see the Buddha.
My colleagues came with me and I told them it was my commitment.. so I will pay for the trip to the temple and they said "you don't have to but, okay!".
This is one place in Shanghai that has not changed in the last year. The rate at which things change in China is mind boggling. A new highway becomes operational every 6 months. New train stations spring up. There is changes and experimentation everywhere on a large scale with people being willing to participate in these experiments.
When you get out of the airport, if your license plate is linked to Alipay, you just drive out. It charges you automatically. The vending machines in tha airports are all cashless.. everything is using a QR code to dispense stuff. While it is forcing travelers who do NOT want to use Wechat pay or Alipay to find less options, it seems to work great for the locals.
I still see these payment methods accepted in bay area restaurants.. but do not see the reciprocity in China. This is not new. Ever since Google pulled out of China, things have steadily become more difficult for any US technology company to compete with local copy cats in China. The people though don't care. I also don't think that shutting down these payment methods in US is going to change anything because the few people it will affect are not in a position to go do anything when they get back home. Chinese Americans might get upset.. but there is no such thing as an American Chinese.. maybe I am oversimplifying things..
where were we? yes. China changing at rapid pace..
In the middle of all these massive changes, this temple stands the test of time, with its golden roof, dragons and elephants lining up the corners..
After the trip got to ride back to the hotel area in the subway.. the last few stops, the train was almost empty. This was during my beardy baba phase.. my eyes were red from lack of sleep and jet lag, but I was glad to make that trip to see the big Buddha..
On my most recent trip, saw a lot more changes.. it was a mixed bag.. Teslas are hard to buy. There have been cut backs on electric subsidies as well as tariffs on imported cars. Folks were not that attached to iPhones.. it is seen as an anti China phone.. last year it was a status symbol. Today it seems to symbolize something else and that cannot be good for the US. There is also a lot more security at train stations and airports, why I could not figure out.
There is still a new crane on the horizon at a different place stacking up a high rise in record time..
The world keeps changing at a rapid pace, thanks to the people and their leaders. The net result of these changes on the world, we will see in the very near future. We don't have to wait even for a decade to see the impact of decisions made today.
On the bright side, there is no anti American sentiment at the ground level. Folks treat you as nicely as they did before. Think that is a good thing!
On the way back from ATM we had seen this ad for road safety with a vehile raised up on a billboard, but the vehicle seemed to have suffered a mafia type gunflight than a highway accident. So we asked our driver what gives and his response was "originally the vehicle was in an accident. but once it was put up there, the locals come out in the night and fire their guns at it as target practice when there is no one around!" .
The last full day (day6) of the trip was reserved as the "free day". Given the whole week was a vacation, it was kind of ironic that we had the kids call it the real vacation day. We got back from ATM and were itching everywhere. God knows how many different insects bit us on that trip.
The Spa gave us Mosquito coils which brought back so many memories of lighting them up in India as a child. The kids had no idea what they were and we explained it to them. Don't think it made a difference in reality but it had a placebo effect with the kids.
First a bunch of insects bite you and once the blood comes out, a different set of insects come to grab it. It was interesting..
We got up later than usual at 8AM, had a slow breakfast, said bye to a lot of people who were heading to the airport after breakfast and went for a walk around the resort. The kids promptly went back to the room to read books and listen to music.
There was a hookah lounge!
and a shrine of sorts in a gym, which only had weights. Apparently the founder of the Spa was a world record holder power lifting champion.
The spa had a package for a family massage. The kids went for some face treatments which I promptly chose not to remember (one develops a skill to forget such details as time goes by) and San and myself were scheduled for a tea time massage.
I sat in the mineral tub for an hour and realized that it dyed my poonal blue! It is still blue after almost a week. There was plenty of fresh coconut water to go around. We went for multiple walks and the kids thought something was wrong with us given we were restless and were walking around.
Then it was massage time. They gave me a lot of names and options and I chose a mud massage. The lady said "we take a picture after we put the mud on".. given there is a blog and interesting pictures are always a good thing, I went back to the room and got my cell phone. I had no idea what I signed up for.
First they give you a disposable jatti which doesnt cover much. They should have a better designed disposable underwear for guys. Then the mud was put on. It was really cold. Later I learned that the mud itself is not cold but it saps the heat from the body. After 45 minutes of this mud / sand paper massage, which actually felt good, the lady says "I am now going to put some color mud on you okay? it is going to feel cold". I was thinking "I am already freezing here inside!". By the time I could respond, the coloring was done..
With moves that would have made Jambu sastrigal jump up with envy when he puts vibhuthi on his hands and chest, this lady had turned me into an aboriginal person of sorts. For lack of a translation, she had "karumbulli sembulli" kuththied me.. only thing left was for me to be paraded around the village on a donkey... but that is what this blog is for!
She took three pictures, one of which ended up almost being R rated. The other two I present to you.. Noted this is a far cry from Sundarananda.. but it is an interesting avatar and makes you wonder what my life would have been as a jungleee in Belize! I am actually wearing something.. it is just covered in mud. That is what we refer to as UNBELIZEABLE!!!
Then we walked to an open tub behind the spa which was just plain beautiful to wash off. The lady said "hold my hand and get up". I was like "I don't need any support to get up from this tub!" and in a second realized my mistake. My legs had no strength. Apparently normal for people after a mud massage. So with some help took the first few steps out of that bath and then things were fine.
Slept like a snoring baby after that massage till the family woke me up for dinner. Apparently I had turned away all the critters around the villa making noises with my snoring. San was very happy as her massage did not involved any energy loss, R rated picture taking etc.. The kids were also radiant after their "treatments".
We had a really good dinner and said goodbye to the folks we had been chatting with over the last week..
Still had the wet shoes to deal with from the ATM trip. Here is a tip. Take some crocs or water shoes with you if you do all these cave adventures. I spent a good hour trying to use a hair dryer to get the shoes to some level of dryness. Eventually two of the shoes were thrown into garbage bags and put in the check in baggage.
We flew out on day 7 back home.
Ate my "usual lunch" as breakfast.. Roti with Aaloo curry.. They make pooris too.. but call them flatjacks.. everything had a different name.. but coconut rice, roti, aaloo curry was my staple.
We were on our way to our gate for the SFO flight after clearning Immigration and customs at Houston when we bumped into family! We told them of our trip and their story trumped ours by a long shot. Apparently a person died on their flight shortly after take off and their plane ended up back at the starting point. By the time the flight left again and came to Houston, everyone had missed connections and there were 45 people waiting on standby, just to go to SFO for an entire day.. trying their luck on every flight.. We thanked our stars for not encountering issues like that, and made our way home.
This is probably the first time I managed to blog about the entire trip within a week of coming back. Thanks to editing and downloading the photos while we waited at airports and while flying.
It will be sometime before another family trip. The routine starts full swing with school starting tomorrow and navigating traffic without access to the carpool lane. Got a notice from DMV saying the "white carpool sticker" is not valid starting Jan 1. Last week was okay as there was no school and lot of people were still on vacation. All that changes tomorrow.
Belize was fun. It was thrilling, relaxing, an almost near perfect vacation. I did not have to drive anywhere and that makes me less grumpy and the overall mood of the family is better.
We are slowly getting better at vacationing.. there were zero fights on this trip. Skirmishes between the kids.. kids and parents .. yes.. Fights, no!
