A picture is worth ?

Yeah , Yeah.. we all know a picture is worth a thousand words..

The pictures I have below are worth, well !! a few thousand bucks !!!

Had gone to a friends place and she showed us her latest Sari and this picture was actually in the border. Guess Sari's have become very high tech these days!! The whole picture was actually embroidered using GOLD thread in the silk along the border !! We were pretty sure that there was enough gold in that sari to trip metal detectors, in the event our friend decided to wear that sari and go through airport security. The detail was just fantastic (I took the picture with my cell phone and that is why the resolution on the picture is not big (the picture is actually 3 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet).

There were little peacocks and roses on the small border which I could capture with my cell phone just to show the detail..


This peacock is 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches actual size.

Computerized gold sari's !!! What next ?

A Magical trip...

Have been promising a edited video of the Disneyland Sea World trip to a bunch of you for a long time.. Finally got around to editing it...

It is longer than the usual 40 second clips I post. But the whole thing is still under 2 minutes..




We had a blast.. hope you enjoyed the video !!

(and yes, It was reallly tiring doing this in ourmedia.. so I switched to Youtube..still havent figured out all bugs yet on this one)

What is the probability that ....

One of the other highlights of last week was the final exam. The instructor actually told us to bring our books, notebooks, notes, any other text (everything except a laptop where google searches might bring out answers) and the exam was supposed to be tough with the open books. He gave us a surprise.. The exam was for 130 points !!

The last 30 points was a bonus quesion, in case you couldnt answer anything in the first 100, you could answer the bonus question and make up for it !! But guess what, almost everyone in the room finished the first 100 points in half the time and were struggling with the bonus for the next hour..There was a steady stream of people walking up to the instructor trying to get more information (hints for the answer) on the bonus question. I was in the first row and couldnt help overhear the questions.. especially the girls in the class. They were pretty much trying to elicit the answer from the guy by asking questions like "how are we supposed to proceed with this problem ?".. I never knew that this was a valid question you could ask the instructor in a final exam !!!

For my part, I asked him if there are negative points if I attempt the bonus and give up, or if Igive a wrong answer.. he said "no" and I gladly handed him my paper and walked out ! I never figured out the logic, especially since the exam was on continuous probability. I am not smart enough to get the first 100 points, what is the chance that I will answer an even tougher bonus question !

A welcome break..

Have had a busy week as most of you can tell by lack of any posts here.

First we had a little house warming ceremony with local relatives, visiting relatives and office friends, for lunch last week, and that was about 50+ people !! we had a blast since Jr. wanted to have a Pinata (for Tamizhian's this is the Uri Adi that we do in the villages, except here it is a mexican thing and they call it a pinata !! amazing how mexicans and south Indians have so much in common , because they share the same lattitude !!).

The house feels empty right now because our visitors from India are touring Washinton and Oregon. We had San's parents, her paternal grandparents, her maternal grandma and the four of us in the house. . . the space was just enough! We are going to miss them when they leave for India in a few weeks.. and we have to brace ourselves for a barrage of questions from Jr. on why they have to go, etc. etc.. !!

Two week break from school and that means I get to post photos and videos this week.. yipeeeeeeeee.

I thought I had it tough, but NO !!!

Most of you have read my post on me trying to explain death to Jr. I thought I had it tough, but this was a piece of cake compared to what I witnessed today.

Had taken all the grandpas and grandmas to the Livermore temple today. We were in the inner sanctum, praying to Balaji. The priest had just finished his Archana prayer and when he was done, he started doing all the standard things in terms of blessings..

In any typical south indian temple, once the priest finishes reciting the prayer, he first gives a few spoons of the water (that has been blessed) to everyone, this is followed by placing a crown (that was placed on god's head) on every ones head, then he distributes some fruits or nuts or whatever edible item was used as offering to the deity that day.

In front of us was a kid, must have been 5-6 years old. He was with his mom and grand parents. My guess is he is from North India, and or has not been to a south indian temple in his life.

Here is the converstion I heard verbatim :

Mom : son, the priest is going to give you some water to drink. please show him your hand and receive the water !
Son : I cant hold the water, how will I drink it ?
Mom : just open your hands, he will put a few spoons on your hand. I will help you drink it.

Shows his hands, then mom helps him get a few drops in his mouth ..

Son : This is not water !
Mom : It is water, but it is holy water.
Son : Is it coffee ?
Mom : No, it is not coffee!
Son : Are you sure, because it tasted like cold coffee or something !

by now the rest of the people who could hear then cant stop themselves.. they are all controlling their laughter. by this time the priest comes with the Sadaari(crown) to place on everyones head..

Son : Why is he doing that ?
Mom : Just show your head.. it was placed on the god's (statue's) head. If they place it on your head, you get blessed by god.
Son : I think he is trying to see if it will fit someones head ! is that what he is doing ?
(by now the other people in the sanctum are cracking up with visions of Cindarella in their head)
Grandma : (smiling by now because mom is clearly not able to answer the kid). Just show your head to the priest and I will explain everything to you once we go home..
Son : okay !

Finally the kid showed his head to the priest, then took the sweets that were offered to everyone and walked out..

Man, I would gladly explain the concept of death to a 100 kids, hell , I will teach them group lessons than handle this one kid !

Jr. has been way too good to me by comparision !!!