A nice Indian festival to celebrate Ganesha falls on a working day.. a Monday!
Between jugging a car that has to be serviced and work and doing a pooja, Ganesha, the lord of removing obstacles, removed them all one after another.
San made limited edition (read limited quantity) of Kozhukkattai samples and vadai and they were (it is already in the past tense) amazing.
Usually I send selfies to my mom after any Indian festival. This time, posting it in the blog.. because as you can all tell, there is not much hair left.
Between last year and this year, hair loss has been exponential. Folks who have not seen me post anything in months should not be surprised...
Both photos clicked by San.. last year I looked up.. this year didn't even know she was taking a picture. Was just trying to finish the pooja in time so the kids are not hungry. It was good to have both kids home this time to eat dumplings!
Wishing you all a wonderful {Ganesh, Vinayakar, Pillaiyaar} Chaturthi from all of us here!
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!!
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!!
