Deep Jalao (Light a lamp)...

Here's Junior wishing you all a very happy Deepavali with her song about Deepavali.

This was a good effort considering the baby was lurking at the foot of the performer and director, waiting for a chance to eat Jr's eats..



Happy Deepavali again folks..

Happy Deepavali (Diwali) to one and all..

What an eventful Deepavali ?

This is my 16th Deepavali outside Chennai (Madras) and my 14th Deepavali in the United States !!

Ever since my Junior year in college, I have missed celebrating Deepavali with my parents, brother, sister and extended family.. Now that I have a family of my own, I am at least fortunate that I happen to be with them on this day.

What was once the day to measure the year by, is now spent with a visit to the local temple and watching Sun TV.

But this year, we got an altogether new experience.

Nothing, not one thing went as planned even for an uneventful Deepavali. Granted, there are no firecrackers here (we got used to that!), new clothes involves buying a T-shirt from the local JC Penny or WalMart for me and my wife trying to find a Salwar that she purchased on her last India trip, but has not gotten a chance to inaugurate (we got used to this also !), sweets usually include the packet of Grand Sweets Mixture and Laddu flown in by the most recently arriving relative (which could be a few weeks or few months ago, and we got used to that as well !)..

Contrast this with the visits to buy the cloth, go to the tailor for measurements a month before deepavali, then go for the final alteration, and the suspense and wait to see if the tailor would actually deliver it before Deepavali! or the homemade "theratti-paal" and "deepavali marundhu" made by your grandma. One almost, always ends up in a nostalgic mood..

The only things that are still common are

a. the oil bath and the prayer after with your family
b. the visit to the local temple
c. Vadai, Paayasam, Appalam Poriyal and my favorite Aloo fry as part of the Deepavali menu
d. the possibility of watching a Deepavali release movie with friends at the local theater !!
and my favorite
e. the phone calls to get wishes from relatives and friends !

This year we started with Reliance India call failing us early in the morning. The calling feature wouldnt work. Then we tried to use Cingular from the cell phone or direct dial to India using SBC service.. No luck. We got the "All circuits are busy. Please try again later" or the phone simply went dead after dialing the number.

Thought I would at least post my wishes on the blog and blogger goes down as I write this post !!!

The kids are on nasty form and refuse to stay in the car seat. You know how they describe some animals act crazy before an earthquake ? My kids were acting that crazy.. The good news is there was no earthquake..They made the temple trip very memorable, in more ways they can imagine.

The only thing that went my way was the food. My wife waved her magic wand over the stove and made all the sadness go away ! But for that, it would have been a complete rout!

Things will get better in the years to come as the kids grow older, or so we hope.

We are very sorry we could not wish you all by phone or email..

Belated Happy Deepavali to all of you, from all four of us !

Who do you listen to ?

Before I respond to "poor girl", let me set the record straight on a couple of issues.

1. I am indeed surprised by this form of Astrology as I am naturally inquisitive.
2. My curiosity should not be confused with acceptance of this method or its results
3. I do not endorse this Astrology or act as a spokesperson for the "Naadi Josiyar's Association", if such a thing exists.
4. I still do not know how this works. So the curiosity is still there..
5. I am not old enough or wise enough to give advice (especially marital advice)

Dear Poor Girl, (in what way you are poor, I do not know!)

I have had two experiences with Astrology/ advice in general which stand out in all my brushes with the topic.

1. When I was a freshman in college, I could not handle the hazing. So I wanted to write the IIT JEE again, get a better rank and try to get into IIT Madras. Everyone I knew was against it. They told me not to waste a year. But I was adamant and came back to Madras to study. At the time, I was taken to every Tom, Dick and Starry to get my future predicted. Everyone of these so called Astrolgers told my parents that I have a bright future and they should really not worry about this and just let me waste that year. So I was taken to see the Kanchi Swamigal. The old saint was in his nineties I think. Could hardly see, hardly hear. We made the trip to Kanchipuram and were lined up against a chicken wire fence. His Holiness was sitting 10 feet away. One of his assistants came by and asked my dad what the problem was, went and whispered something in the old man's ear and came back with the response. "he said, ask your son to stay here and study in a local college". My parents couldnt handle it. On our way back, they kept insisting that the Saint was old, he couldnt hear, it was the fault of the guy who went back and forth between my dad and the Holy man.. etc. etc.

Finally, I decided to go back to college and not waste that year, but it was because I spoke to a brilliant psychoanalyst by the name of Dr. Sivaprakasam.

2. My mother has a broken knee. Her knee has to be replaced with an artifical knee or she will not be able to walk. The doctor told her to go consult an astrologer to fix an "auspicious day" for the surgery!! The astrologer tells her that she should wait past Diwali or the surgery might not end up well!! As far as my mom goes, an astrologer trumps a doctor! After repeated pleading, my mother is still waiting for Diwali to come and go this weekend before she will go into surgery. I am worried, but I think she has the right to believe what she wants. As long as she doesn't ask me to postpone my surgery some day, it is fine by me!

So, what I am trying to say is, it is all upto you.. At the end of the day, you alone are responsible for your actions. None of these astrologers are going to stand by you.. not if you and your love lead a happy life.. not if you and your love fall into misery..

Good luck with your life!!

I am into freelance advice now ?!?

Got this email from an anonymous person on my Tamizh Blog, to the post on Naadi Astrology. By far, this post has had more comments than any other posts.

Here is the comment. (and here is my post on the same topic in this blog !)

========

Hi

I am in love with a guy.He is a hindu and i am a christian. I told my parents that i love him.With neighbours advice,they took me to nadi jodhidam to listen what he says.But the guy who tells nadi joshiyam told very good about me and after seeing his palm reading,he also told that whoever marries that guy is going to die...
I was more disappointed on his rest of the dialogues also.

Then my parents adviced me to forget him.But i didnt.So they again went to jodhidar who predicts jadhagam and they also said some negative points only.

Then i told my boyfriend about this.So he went to someother jodhidar and they told that anyway we have to wait till 2008 to get married, otherwise we wont lead a happy life.

We are really confused, and dont know whether to believe it or not.We really love each other and we dont have any other option to marry someother.

We dont know whether we have to believe him and wait, or to get married. My parents are opposing now...

Please suggest me an idea,because i am really confused.... :(

by
poor girl

==========

First I thought Prabhu was making fun of me along the lines of his NN posts..I really hope not..

I am now torn.. I have actually been made into a real life NN !

Time to make a difference..

My first chance to vote after becoming a US Citizen. They gave me a voter registration card when I went for the Swearing in ceremony.. but I was moving from
Sunnyvale to Cupertino at that time and didnt fill out the form.. that was a bummer..

Now apparently it is too late to register online.. so have to go mail the thing in.

But the funny part in american politics is that when you register to vote, you are actually asked "what is your party ?".. this part is new to me. In India, you go vote for which ever party you think needs to take over the city, state, country, etc.. you decide who the better mayoral, chief ministerial, prime ministerial candidate is !!

Now, I had to go find out if I am a Republican or Democrat.. this is a tricky situation. Why ?

When I came to the US of A in 1993, I was really impressed by Bill Clinton. So was every graduate student who moved here in the early nineties. The guy wanted to stop oil wars, was welcoming students who wanted to come here and do their Ph.D's, the whole country gave us a red carpet welcome. We felt at home here. Things of course have changed. Two ways..

1. I am no longer a student who makes a few hundred dollars in stipend a month and gets around everywhere on his used road bike. I am married, "settled" in the true sense of the word, in the USA, and own a car and a van which when pushed, make me shell out 200 bucks or more in gasoline every month!! Add to it the fact that I am still friends with my gay, ex ballroom dance buddies and I am trying to bring up two daughters in a country where suddenly having foreign roots is un-cool!

2. The United States is no longer the same. A country that couldnt be attacked by any streach of imagination is attacked, that too by terrorists. I find a dark side to USA when I hear of things about scandals in the middle east. I still remember grandpa telling me the day of my first trip to the US of A "You are going to a punya bhoomi (land of good karma)". He went on to elaborate how Americans gave away free food, milk powder in the sixties when things were so bad in our home town. He told me that America is a great country, a land full of do-gooders!! Now, I am somehow torn by the people who forward emails to me about how Iraq got what it deserved because somewhere in the bible there is something about "they incurred the wrath of the eagle" or some such sentence.. I learn that the US is no different from India when it comes to Politics mixing with religion or people voting because they are scared, or because their religious head said they should vote for x, y or z!

To add to all these turmoils, I love Arnold as a governor, not because he is a movie actor, but because he actually has his eye on the ball. I mean, he has his eye on the bottomline...

So, took this test today at this link and this link.

The result ?

Apparently, I am a Liberal Democrat with a capital D!!! Have to keep this in mind when navigating the political landscape of the USA...

Next thing on the to do list ? Find out where the Mrs. ends up in the tests.. now that is another post altogether..