A graduation to remember!

There was a break from social media between March and September. Sadly, this also meant a blog break. Many events, trips, thoughts went unposted. Going to try and catch up over the next few months. 

Writing can be cathartic. It can also be a good memory jogger, trying to see what sticks to your mind a few months later! 

Here is the first of such posts. The little one graduated high scool and has now settled in college. She is a five hour road trip away and that makes it comforting.

All she has to do is call and I can start driving.

Jr. on the other hand has not had a mention. She should have! She finished her 4 year degree in 3 years and did a summer graduation.

This was because of a deal we made with her. If she finished early, we will support her Masters program, no matter where. Remember, this is a kid who worked hard all summer in 8th grade to jump two levels in high school math. The motivation was a new iPhone instead of daddy's hand me downs.

It is a win win and she is back in California for her Masters. That alone was enough to make me happy. 

All she has to do is call and I can start driving.....you get the idea!

When she started at Purdue, I did not go to drop her. Stayed home with my emotional support puppy(aka the little one), while San went and dropped her. My friend went and helped!

Finally the entire family got a chance to see the Purdue campus and participate in the graduation. 

The best part was they had a surprise for me. My friend was there again for the graduation! 

It was fitting that he was there at the start and the end of that degree.

The graduation ceremony was very well organized. We got to see a very happy Jr. walk with confidence and hope. 

Drank some hot cocoa after the graduation before taking off from campus.

My family knows all too well that my best undergrad moments were not in the lecture halls, but sitting under a tree and drinking chai with my friend.

He would invariably challenge me on my grasp (of everything ?!) and always caution me on my jumping to conclusions, generalizing too quickly, forming very solid opinions very fast, only to revert. In short I used to be a fickle minded child and those chai sessions slowed me down for my own good. Apparently not much has changed in 30 years per family. Anyways, I am off topic already.

If there was any takeaway from that previous paragraph, it is :

1. Chai drinking is good for getting an education that you might not get in the classroom

2. It is better to go for Chai than for alcohol as you might actually remember what you learned (not covered in previous paragraph, but good advice given the kids are no longer kids!)

3. It takes a long time to change one's personality!

Got a campus tour the previous evening. Jr. showed us every part of campus she had visited. Nice campus which fits Jr. well. Now we know why she was at home in Purdue!

Got a nice family picture just before the clouds finally gave in and it started raining! 

A new beginning for both kids this year..

A short clip of the graduation ceremony..

Wanted at least one girl to do a doctoral degree, but that is a tough sell in this house. We are now into philosophical discussions on the value of a Ph.D in this day and age and "just because you were stupid enough to study forever, doesn't mean .. " type discussions. We live in interesting times and I am continuing to work on the "keep calm and carry on" attitude.  

We sincerely hope to see one more graduation picture added to that time series, in a couple of years! 

Thanks to all of you who have cheered and supported Jr. all this time! 

Navarathri 2023

After two years, this blog is seeing an entry for Navarathri. Last year I happened to be in India for a conference and barely made it back on Saraswathi pooja. I did get to visit a few homes in Chennai last minute to see golus! 

As most of you know, we do NOT have a golu (doll display) in our house. I am trying to figure out though if the higher powers (mom) would divine a way for me to start. Given the best years of our kids being kids are gone, maybe it is a moot point now. Hopefully my girls marry into homes that have golus!! 

Personally I think families that have no golus because they associate the festival with some past tragedy, may not be the best families to marry into. Will definitely get flamed for this, but one has to voice his opinion when it comes to correlating deaths to not celebrating festivals. The dead are dead. Festivals are for the living! In case I do conk out on some auspicious day or festival, this blog post would hopefully remind my near and dear ones to keep celebrating! Now that the rant is over.. lets move on to positive things!

Bay area golus!!!

They are a treat, as the folks here take it very seriously and do an amazing job. The only thing that beats the doll displays and the enthusiasm of the kids to do their own little side projects is the food ! There was also some singing and instrument playing in many houses and this year I sang 4 or 5 different songs on repeat mode, thanks to whatever I have learned from my carnatic music teacher from Paadarivom Padipparivom! 

A cover photo for the blog is a compilation of some of the dasavatharam sets in the golus. 

Here is a slideshow of all the beautiful full golus..

Then there are the side displays which are done by the kids for the most part with some adults taking it to a different level. The one of Ramana's ashram and the Murugan atop a custom made hill were mind blowing when seen up close!

and finally, the unique dolls that caught my eye on some of the golus! 

Given the number of images for the unique dolls, the slideshow sometimes does not load. You can browse through them at this link.

A lot of our friends are empty nesters now and it was nice to meet some of the kids who had driven or flown in for the weekend. 

Matched San's sari color for the most part. She did have some challenging colors this year.  This is now becoming a bay area trend as I see more hubbies being forced to wear matching shirts for Navarathri... Hope the men folk don't take me to some alley and beat me up for doing this every year!

Even though we have no golu, we still do Saraswathi pooja like clockwork. 

This year for a change I played Vara veena on the flute to commence the "spirit of learning"

Our little saraswathi..

This year we missed our kids who are both in college, but had fun visiting friends, catching up and eating a lot. The after effects of all those good eats caught up finally today, but if history is any guide, things will be okay in a few days! 

We really loved Navarathri this year!

My guru gave me a 15 minute music class on Vijayadasami and started teaching me Sree saraswathi Namosthuthe in raga Aarabi and I loved the new start for music learning! 

My friend and flute teacher made me play in front of friends and family to get over my self doubt, and that was equally wonderful ! 

Attended one India golu virtually. That one was twice the size of the biggest one we saw locally!

Here is to Indian festivals!

It is heartening to see good traditions surviving over time!

A big heartfelt thanks to all of you who invited me along with San, encouraged me to sing and gave us all the good eats! 

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

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! 

Portola Redwoods Park.. after Mount Hamilton

On hot summer days, (this was again a month and a half ago) when bay area was ready for "karudam weather" as some south Indians call it.. we wanted to hike as a group in the shade. 

There were reasons for it. We had made an attempt to go to Mt. Hamilton summit but aborted the attempt as multiple people got dehydrated before we reached the 3 mile mark. Our plan was to leave late afternoon and hike given the trail had no shade. Hindsight being 20/20 this was a bad idea. The last time we had successfully done this was in December in much cooler foggier conditions. So we turned back, drove to the observatory in hopes that we can at least take pictures. The Lick observatory had just closed before we drove up. So we sat near the gate, ate the snacks and tea that would have marked a successful hike and drove back all the way. The few pictures from the failed attempt..

The hikers did want to make up for that by doing another hike right away but in the shade. After some debate on the "most shaded trails" in bay area, we picked this Portola redwoods as none of us had been on this trail before.

Good news? Total shade. Amazing redwoods. Cool throughout when it is reaching 95F outside

Bad news? no views of any kind. No summit. Uniform views throughout. 

the only thing changing in the "bench photos" that are now part of every hike.. is the increasing size of my bald spot.. you can literally track it across bench photos.

We did have a lot of fun with the conversation and as an added bonus some of the kids joined us! 

This is not an easy trail. Would definitnely ask folks with knee or ankle issues to avoid this! 

We did see some interesting things on the way..

Then the ever present redwoods on the trail..

there was a decent flow of water in the creeks, which was an added treat!

A video of the creek and trail.. you can see how serene this place is!

We had a sense of accomplishment after going through this trail to the extent we went. This more than made up for the aborted attempt in Mount Hamilton. Something tells me that we will make another attempt to go around Hamilton in winter. 

One more nice set of trails within a 30 minute driving distance!

Sweeney Ridge trail and Mori point in Pacifica

After a three week hiatus on hiking, we had a chance to join a large group of folks on a hike to Sweeney ridge. 

A group of 14, some of them I met for the first time. Enjoyed it thoroughly. The trailhead is a 35-45 minute drive from home depending on traffic and given the insane temperatures in Cupertino, this was a morning well spent in the fog and mountains. 

We also get to cross Highway 1 and go see the beach at Mori point  in the end. The ridge is part of the last piece of the hike. Started from home at 6:15 and came back home at 1:45. Hiked for 5 hours with a bunch of photo stops and a small break for tea and snacks at the vista point on top. There was nothing to see as there was a heavy fog and mist in the air. It did feel like walking through Jurassic park.

The parking lot for the trailhead is shared with an Orchid greenhouse. It makes for an interesting last mile climb back from the freeway to get to the car. 

By the time we made it to the top with the 1600 foot climb, was completely drenched! Good thing I had a change of clothes in the backpack for the rest of the descent and beach!

The morning dew made for some great pics with flowers, bees and spider webs.. 

When coming back to the car, noticed that my pants had a yellow layer of pollen on them! Luckily this time there was no severe post hike allergies to report!

sometimes you walk past a small flower that looks near perfect to the naked eye at 3 feet.. then you go take a macro shot of it and realize it is not that perfect.. still this small flower was irresistable!

The rest of the landscapes are in this slideshow..

A short video clip of the hike. Took a lot more slow motion videos of the waves crashing in.. you have a small sample within this clip.

It was time really well spent with a fun bunch! The last part of the trail where you come down to the freeway is very loose with gravel and if you don't have hiking shoes with grip and poles (for folks with bad knees) it is dangerous. We have been doing this for sometime now and managed it.. but first time hikers with improper shoes.....not recommended!  

The trail starts with a steep climb as well and keeps going almost a 1000 plus feet in one go. Warm up beore you start climbing!

Strongly recommend this as an early morning hike for a hot summer day!