Caricatures continue..

One more year rolls by.. the IBM Childrens Christmas party was today. Daddy Narayanan did not go for the first time in 6 years but San took the kids and got the Caricatures done by Big Al.. This has become a family tradition now and has survived six years! Guess we can go as long as they are still considered kids..

They did have fun taking pictures with Santa, face painting etc. etc.. but for once Daddy has to beg Mommy for photos to put in the blog..

Leaving you with the sequence for now..

My cute babies are growing into pretty young ladies! Why? Why? Why? What is the rush? 

Missed the party because the entire day was spent in the Yoga room. Yes, entire day from 9:15 to 7:30 for a special event where a world famous Yogi came and gave us pointers to improve our postures to a small group of people at BikramYogaSanJose. It was enlightening and deserves a separate post!

The season is here.. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

5 years in Caricatures

This week was travel week. Daddy managed to limp along and spend the week out of town and came back limp intact late Friday.

The kids were overjoyed to see daddy and promptly declared that they had a surprise announcement for me. The IBM Children's party was Saturday morning and limp or not, I had to come because most likely Big Al will be there and we will do our caricature collage!

So off we went and spent two hours at IBM..

By now we already had four sets of pictures showing a constant theme!

Our annual Santa picture, courtesy IBM..

Grandma helped the kids make their X-mas hats and Gingerbread cookie decorations.

The kids posed for me in the backyard after coming home, without me having to beg them to pose!

and the best part..

Next year the plan is to make this one giant collage and put it on our hallway. It might cost us a fortune to frame this one but will try!

Once again, we thank IBM for organizing this every year and Big Al for showing how the kids change in his caricature world!

.

Party time, taking some things for granted

This is our fourth year at the annual IBM Christmas party for Children. Those of you who have been reading this blog long enough know that each year we put a caricature comparison of the kids done by the same Artist year after year..

This year is no exception!

Big Al actually remembered the kids this year! This year they have finally outgrown those same tee's they wore three years in a row. Both of them have mature faces now!

We also did the usual face painting, cookie decorating, getting balloons etc.

For the first time we attended the magic show and it was a ton of fun. Have never seen the kids this animated or happy in public in a long time. At Disney it was awe and wonder struck faces. Here is was pure glee!

Jr. gave me a nice pose. The little one erased part of her X-mas tree and was refusing to pose.. she is turning into a mini me. Cannot stay still in any place for more than a few seconds... she was just whizzing through the whole thing!

They do a really great job of decorating the place each year with a different type of tree (one year is green, one year is white, etc.) and the whole thing is extremely well organized!

We are all aware of the real Santa. Still the allure of sitting on Grandpa Claus and getting a picture is fun! The kids loved it.

If you do look at the youtube video link in this post, have tried to explain the issue on the video in the Youtube description. If you have any pointers towards the real problem or a fix, please let me know...

Another year has almost rolled by and is coming to a close. It has been a tough year that is coming to a close. Counting days at work, at home, over the phone with relatives..

Hope we count down the remaining days without any major issues!

.

Life is..

"Life is Searching for the constant in something variable and searching for the variable in what is constant" - Sundar Narayanan.

(do not know if a quote like this exists already, but writing this independent of any quotes that may exist along similar lines that are out there. If not, this is my quote!)

An otherwise monotonous routine life, and we can still see changes!

Take for example, the annual IBM Kids Christmas party we attended for the third continuous year.

This year, we knew what the kids liked to do and we got them to do everything they liked, at the party. The constants were the photo op with Santa, the big tree, ballons, the clown, the cookie decorating, the caricature stall where they got to pose..

The variables were the hat decorating and the fact that the girls are older by a year!

We have been going to this one person (Big Al) to get the caricatures done for the last three years. We get to see how the kids features change, "in caricature"! He does an amazing job and the kids know they are posing just to find out how different they are compared to last years caricature..

Here are this years pictures..

and here is a composite of the last three years caricatures...

The kids really enjoyed the party, just like the previous years!

Sometimes we should be thankful to powers above and beyond that we are blessed with some sense of monotony and order and at the same time have changes over time that make life interesting for us.

Wishing one and all a wondeful holiday season..

-The Traveling Narayanan's

.

When life gives you a rollercoaster, go for a ride!

Probably not the most original or thoughtful title for a post... but hey, it is one of those days!

The morning started off with dropping San's uncle at the airport. From there we went for a Christmas party at IBM. It was a copy of the party we attended last year. We had as much fun as last year if not more!

There were ballons, caricatures, photos with Santa, face painting, cookie decorating, nice music in the background, clown, did I say balloons?

There were many Caricature artists, but we found the same guy who did the drawings for the kids last year and waited for him in line. Now we get to see the kids face change, as seen by the eyes of the caricature dude, aka Big Al.

We came home and found missed calls from my brother and sister and a message to "call India when you get a chance". Today being my birthday based on the Tamizh Calendar, guessed that they had just tried to wish me on my birthday, saw that it was past midnight in India, hit the delete button on the machine and dozed off for a full two hours in the afternoon.

Woke up, worked, and was on the phone with a colleague when an India call announced that my dad had suffered a heart attack and was in ICU. How were we to know the sense of urgency with a "call back when you can?". Apparently things were hectic there and they did not know what to tell me and also did not want me to worry!!

Went through the quick cycle of anger, denial, feeling of general impotentence, guilt, anger ,denial.. etc. etc. The standard feeling which many a son/daughter settled in a different far away land has felt before me, something that many more sons and daughters will feel in the future, where they wish the Star Trek Transporter should be a household appliance.

We had advance booked tickets to go see the latest SRK movie, and after talking to my mom decided to actually go to the movie. In a weird way, the act of going to the movie kind of made me realize the pointlessness of being here and wishing for some magic wand to wave over time and space.

The latest is that my dad is weak after the angiogram and will need an angioplasty in the next few days. The angiogram itself has left him weakened is what we are told and he is now under medication. Funny thing is they did not detect a massive attack for 48 hours. They took X-Rays when he complained of back and knee pain and told him it was the strain of lifting objects! Only after he complains of pain in his chest does he get an ECG.

Jr. and the little one know daddy is worried, but cannot understand why. They are trying to cheer daddy up or worse case provide enough distraction. We are back to our laptops and life goes on.

My mother gave me a profound thought earlier today which was resonated by San's cousin. When my mom wished that I was also there in India and how my brother is going through a very difficult time juggling work, hospital, etc. etc., my immediate thought was "why dont you guys come here? I can take care of you if you come here"

The simple response was "You live abroad for 15 years and have difficulties everytime you come here for 15 days. I have lived here for 65 years!!! Not easy for me to come there and adapt at this age!".

Somthing to think about. Lots of questions, no answers.

At the end of the day, have to thank god for this day where

got to talk to family
got to see the kids smile
got to hear that my dad is getting better

so will leave you all with these pictures :

Clown!

Balloons..

Balloons galore

Posing for caricature with Big Al

Posing with Rosa..

The caricatures (compare them to last year).

The little one all focussed in decorating a cookie!

Finally, the photo op with Santa.

There we have it!

Some day this was...

.