May the festivities begin

November is a very special month for our family. This year, thanks to Veterans and the Veteran's day holiday, we made it extra special.

Both the kids flew in for just 2 days so we could celebrate their 18th and 21st birthdays as well as Deepavali. They flew in and out so quickly that it is like a blur. 

My parents also celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. In the coming weeks, San and me get to be a year older and wiser. I am just hoping to get some more photos of her smiling face! 

Time has on an average been good to us. We do have our little shocks and suprises, but nothing that we have not been able to handle. The most recent being a catalytic converter being stolen from Jr.'s car. We parked the same car outside our house for 12 years with no impact. She takes it to southern california and within a month this happens. It has been replaced and "wire welded" to the frame now. So hopefully it doesn't get stolen again. Little things like this.. but manageable. I got severe light sensitivity and a series of migraines. Maybe because of too much screen time at work  a few weeks ago. It is behind me now. So again, glad that things are in better shape.

However, this blog usually tells you nice stories. Good stories. Happy memories. So with that in mind... here are some pictures.. This girl is now a confident, assertive woman. All of the women in the house are confident adn assertive around me. Then again, I don't count. It is how they deal with others that counts. 

Just yesterday she looked like this.. or so it seems to me.. 

which brings me to my parents.. they probably feel that just yesterday.. they looked like this.. and before they know it, all their kids are married and settled and now their oldest grandkid is an adult. Who knows, they might be blessed enough to see a great grandkid in this lifetime! Something that not everyone gets to see these days!(note to Jr. : Not saying you need to get married. Just wishing my parents will be around longer. You do you!)

After talking to my parents to wish them, realized that they are happy that all their kids are well settled. They were thankful that their life took them the way it did. What can you give them as a gift? All I could think of was colorize their wedding photo. My mom described the sari color as a "sandalwood color, but not yellowish, with a double tint.. or double color".. she used many more descriptive words to get me to the right hue.

Age catches up with everyone, sooner or later. Given where I see my dad, chances are I will get there sooner. These photos are a reminder to capture good memories and mentally accept changes as they come!

Not to leave out the little lady, who has now turned 18 ! She has always been the most mature person in the house and the only person who can put me in my place in any argument. Both San and Jr. bring her and put her as a shield in front of me when they struggle to use their logic to justify things. This one is smart. As long as she eats her meals on time, I am happy.. for that matter so is she!

We did have a quiet family brunch at Saffron's. Their pick. The food was great! The ambience was also nice! We were the first to start the brunch and had reserved it. Were in an out in an hour. Loved it! Would definitely go there again!

They got to blow candles on what was a Jamun gift from the place. (Should have mentioned my allergy to strawberries.. my bad! Didn't expect to see strawberry sause on Jamun's. Apparently very good combination per rest of family). Got to see my three Jamun's smile a lot and that was good enough!

They probably make better wishes than me!

Last but not least.. a wonderful Deepavali weekend. On Friday I could not even open my eyes to light. By Saturday things got better and we celebrated nicely. There was a total of two sparklers I held in my hand for the photos. That was the sum total of fireworks we held in our hands this year. Two sets of sparklers!! There were some flower pots done by kids at our friends place. It was too cold out. So we just enjoyed talking to friends and drinking tea!

Sadly had to say bye before the weekends parties were over..

already packed and ready to go back to college. Still it was great they came for a weekend! San is teaching me how to keep smiling after saying bye to kids. 

She had this amazing sari with a peacock pattern. One of her best so far! Usually I go out of my way to match her Sari color with my shirt. This one was unmatched. Just admired it. 

The pro photoshopper in me could simply not let it go.. so I had to go do this..

Good memories!

Also wishing my baby sister and FIL wonderful birthday's !!! 

Here is a belated happy Deepavali / Diwali wish to everyone! May there be light in your life!

My three beauties are smiling and that is making my life lit! Cannot ask for more!

Revisiting the Kennedy trail

This post titled Mt. El Sombroso, captured our previous hike at the same place last year. It was the hardest local hike we had tried. 

This year we went there again on a cooler day. The added bonus was the sun rays coming through the clouds. It was just a spectacular sunrise. We started hiking very early and were back after a chai break at the top by 1PM. It was still a hard hike even if the weather was better. 

Here are some pictures.

Chaifie at the summit

These days I sweat so much that there is a change of clothing at the summit. Find it easier to walk back in fresh clothes!

Now the skies..

If you need a prep hike for any all day hikes in Yosemite, look no further.. this is the best option!

Something tells me we might even do this trail again in a few years!

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! 

Super bloom revisited..

In early May? we visited Cal Poly and checked out a local super bloom. Given the thing moves up north every week, it came closer to us last month.

The previous year our hiking group had noticed this amazing hillside on the return path from Monument peak. So we decided to go to Monument peak in reverse and try to get pictures of the hillsides with wild flowers.

It was great for pictures, but somehow really really bad for allergies to the point that I called the photo album "sea of allergies". 

The wild mustard was 6-8 feet tall and the trails were full of thorny shrubs that had not been cleared well. Between the flowers and thorns, 3/8 people in the hiking group started sneezing and two (myself included) had nosebleeds before we exit the trail. It took a good 2 weeks to recover from that hike. 

However, the pictures did come out great! The thing was beautiful till my watering eyes could see clearly no more..

This was the path from Ed Levin County Park to Monument peak. This summer has also been extremely hot and I would not recommend going up on these barren hikes with no possibility of shade. Take lots of water with you and hydrate well. Wear a mask if that helps. Like my old mentor told me "you should have just stayed home and watched a youtube video of someone else doing this hike given your allergies!". For a second he turned into Gounder saying "dei naaye, unakku idhellam thevai dhaana daa?!" and I burst out laughing. 

I sang "vazhi neduga, kaatu mustard" for San on this hike.. why not?!

The superbloom is more interesing when there are multiple colors.. this was all wild mustard and yellow. we didnt see the poppies or the lavenders.. so compared to the one near SLO, this was okay!

Maybe someone who has severe allergies and wants to see what this is all about.. can just watch the video below and save themselves the pain.. 

Next year, not falling for the "super" hype!

Chasing the super bloom..

A month ago, (feels like ages ago).. the not so little one wanted to go check out Cal Poly at San Louis Obispo as a possible college option, given its relative proximity and she liked their UG program. My knee was just recovering after doing all that rest, ice, compression business. It was but a 3 hour drive and we made a day trip out of it. Even took a Friday off work for this. 

The college was interesting. We walked around the place, ate lunch in the cafeteria with a bunch of students and did some more walking, had a late evening cocoa and lemonade in the store near their latest dorm and decided to drive back.

San's one line summary after we exit the college was "I feel like we were in a baywatch episode for the last 4 hours!"... an obvious reference to practically 95/100 girls who walked past us being in some kind of beach wear! Our kid did the usual eye rolling for such comments from mom. We are old, I got it. Wifey is still in the anger to denial phase.. eventually she will get to acceptance. 

On the way out, there was the plan to see teh super bloom! Apparently this Carrizo plains national monument, famous for the California super bloom was close enough. Then we learned that in the interest of time, there was a poor man's (time wise poor that is) Carrizo 25 minutes from SLO on a windy road which had pretty much the same experience. There was more eye rolling as it was a 95 degree day outside. One cannot have a trip where daddy drove 3+ hours one way and walked around a college that looked like a baywatch set where he felt like a time traveller, and not get anything out of the trip.. the eye rolling was ignored!

A 25 minute drive into more searing heat and there was a carpet of flowers as advertised. It was amazing. Except we were there at 3 in the afternoon with the sun beating down. The photos of folks did not come out. Wanted to wait there till golden hour and catch sun set photos, but that suggestion turned the eye rolls into downright mutiny. So took a few photos, enjoyed the scenery and drove back. 

The drive back was bad as there was an accident on 101 and maps rerouted us through small fields for a good 20 minutes. Ended up being almost 5 hour drive back and my knee got worse to the point that the next two weeks were spent with an ice water machine hooked up to knee 8 hours a day! It is much better now. Just when I was dreading the repeat of that drive, the kid has decided to go farther south on the same route for college. Don't know what fate has in store for me over the next four years on 101 South!

Back to the bloom.. here are some pictures..

and a video that shows this amazing landscape.. with a creek that we had to cross to get to the flower fields.. 

Here are some tips, in case you want to visit this next year. Time it right. The super bloom of flowers moves up north by 50 miles a day across california per most reports. we just had to wait three more weeks to catch it in our area! If you are prone to allergies like me, wear a mask except for pics. It took me two weeks to not just recover the knee but also get over the allergies. A sea of flowers cannot be good for a person with allergies! stay for sunset or go at sunrise. This would be out of the world at those times!

It was worth the pain though to see this beauty! Nature is amazing!