A very happy Deepavali to all of you

Wishing everyone a belated Happy Deepavali!!!

Hope everyone had a great time on Friday night and yesterday. Here in Cupertino, the celebration is still going on..

We did get to wear new clothes, have vadai, paayasam, bakshanam from friends, have fun with some mathaapu (sparklers), watch a new release movie(daddy was sent to the theater on a cheer up mission) and have a fun time with family.

We also had a marathon session on the phone calling/receiving calls from all relatives on the land line, the Vonage phone and two cell phones!

Diwali was much needed in this household. It cheered me up a lot, enough to bring the kid in me out to have some fun! Seeing daddy happy, mommy and the kids cheered up as well.

Have a lot of things to catch up on with what is left of the weekend. Here are some photos.

Here's to lighting up all the darkness in our lives!

ps. Watched "Aadhavan". Vadivelu was at his best, but the movie was so-so. One of those movies where you watch the first half and if you walk out of the theater in the second half, you are really not going to miss anything.

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Navarathri 2009 - The rest of the golus..

Previous golu posts on this blog...

2009 : first set of golus

2008 : Part 1 (Golumania), Part 2(padis), Part 3(Megolumaniacs)

2007 : Golus and Paavaadais, more paavadais and golus..

2006 : Don't know and don't remember why we missed the golu scene in 2006.. we had just moved to Cupertino and things seem to have been normal. But no golu posts...

2005 : The first golu post when San was still very pregnant with the little one (ah, how time flies!), stitch shots of golus

Now for the last of this years photos.. (the little one deleted two of the photos on the iPhone by mistake)

That is all folks!

The Chronicles of Navrathria continue next year.

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Golugraphy - Navarathri Golu's 2009

Wishing one and all a very happy Navarathri Golu season, Dushera, whatever other name the next ten days go by...

Golus from Bay area friends have made it to this blog for years now. This years photos do not do justice to the magnificent displays. Most of the pics were taken on the iphone instead of the canon (it will be obvious from the photos). Here are the pics from the golus we saw this weekend...

More Golu photos next week. The kids had a great time this weekend, singing, collecting eats, meeting friends, etc..

Here's to a better tomorrow!

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Ganesh Chaturthi - celebration

Here's to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, especially when it comes to bike paths on dark roads!

We had grandma do the pooja this year. Everyone in the house, except daddy worked very hard to make it a great celebration. Daddy did enjoy the tasty treats and took a few snaps with the left hand and realized that the camera is not as light weight as one would think. Another perspective change over the last 14 days...

Here are the photos of the god, the eats and the well dressed kids. Grandma was very impressed by the speed at which daddy used the laptop with only his left(not his natural) hand and typed, did photo editing, etc.

Was seriously looking to buy the Dragon voice recognition software as it seems be the market leader and has a lots of press coverage. Many of you emailed me to tell me that I will definitely be disappointed and it is not good enough yet to meet my need. Thanks a bunch.

We all prayed that tomorrows doctors appointment end in a good note. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

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Lights, Camera, Action

First the lights..

Now the camera..

May the godess Lakshmi (more specifically Sowbaghyalakshmi!) bless this house with a new lens in the coming year!

Okay, okay.. that was not the cameras fault. It was an accident! After taking pictures of the outside lights, on a tripod the extended family requested a group shot. Without realizing that it was on manual mode with 0.8 seconds at F/4.0! and on self timer, placed the tripod and this is what we get. Still does not hurt to ask the godess, right?!

That photo, came in handy! This is the first group photo with all the unrecognizable ladies published on the blog!

Now for the action...

My BIL, who is celebrating his Thalai Deepavali (first deepavali as a "hubby"), came up with this one. He was trying "night shot" mode, thereby giving this second picture, which would normally make the reject pile, find extensive use on this blog to show what was happening without having to do any photoshop to black out faces. This ensures that the folks seeking anonymity are happy and makes me happy as well (I get to post some photos!)

Happiness, is watching great looking happy women celebrate in style...

This was another candid classic from the BIL who is now trigger happy with his new Nikon D40 (Edited to chop off what remained of the recognizable faces. Ladies, my apologies! Next year will make sure all of you turn the other way so we dont have to do this).

That picture pretty much gives a brief overview of this years deepavali saree selections namely:

asattu karuppu with arakku border
mayil kazhuththu color with segappu border
deep magenta with gold border
etc. etc.. (colors which are undescribable, untranslateable and untransliterable in english)

The kids really enjoyed it!

We had a blast this year!

This Deepavali was much needed in this household which has otherwise become very gloomy in its outlook.. Time to think positive at home, at blogger, at everything!

Here's to the "lighter" side of life!

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