Happy New Year 2023!

Usually there is a photoblog with a family picture wishing everyone a Happy new year!

This year, we are not together for new years. It is the first time since getting married, that San is not with me to watch fireworks, or be together at someones place to usher in New year or be at some airport lounge waiting for a red eye flight back to the US! 

We miss her a lot. Okay, I miss her a lot more than the kids! 

Still she had the idea to take a family photo over the phone. So I am taking that photo for the blog!

The little one, who is not so little anymore is working on college applications! How time flies! This blog started before she was born! Now she will be off to college in a few months!

Here is one such Happy New Year picture from this blog from 2009!! 

Given the weather outside, we are just staying put at home and watching TV till midnight! These are older kids now that don't want to venture out in rain. There was a time they would go and play in the snow on Dec 31st. Those times are long gone!

2023 is going to be a big year for this family where the kids will have serious decisions to make!  We hope for the best!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2023! May you have a  healthy, happy year ahead! 

Starting 50 with a memorable day

Started the 50th year this week! My family and friends made it special with their wishes and blessings!

Got to do yoga in the morning with my teachers pushing me as usual. When you are in a Bikrram yoga class, you actually expect that your teachers to be tougher on your birthday and my teacher didn't disappoint! It was also awesome to have my guru in the front row with me! Always makes me give it everything I got.

My wife made me some potato roast with paruppu sadam (that is all I wanted) and it was yummmmy!

We had already gone to the temple earlier and celebrated Karthigai deepam.

My Tamil birthstar is Rohini and this year there was a lunar eclipse which was specifically related to Rohini. So I was advised to stay put at home and eat light.. which I did.. in anticipation of all the good eats that were coming!

Now that I am part of a music family, which is a large family, they made my day extra special. Got some special wishes from the music group and got to show some progress in the singing. Still writing what seems to be a never ending post on my recent singing experience. Hope I get to post it during the thanksgiving break!

The best part of this birthday was my baby showed up for thanksgiving break. Having her at home after 4 months made me so happy!

We went to LED lights this year for Kaarthigai.. simply because it is rainy and windy out here. We respect the folks who can still pull off lighting oil lamps in Cupetino!

My not so little girl baked an amazing cake. She has a gift. Hope she keeps up her baking.  I asked Jr. to blow a candle with me given she spent her birthday last week without us!

A rare photograph of the four of us. It is going to get more and more difficult to get these photos as years go by..

A day that was made very special by all my family and friends! I am lucky to have all this love! Lucky to be healthy and happy! Thank you for all the wishes!

Navarathri 2021

Last years Golu was a wash, because of COVID. It was also when I missed Jr. a lot as she was setting in college and getting busy. 

This years Navarathri was better. I had just landed after a hectic last minute trip to Chennai just after Navarathri started. So it was nice to be invited to a few golus in the bay area. Most of the golus this year were ladies only events and that meant, not a lot of Golu pictures.. we even went to a drive by golu this year!

This year I tried to continue a thing I started in 2019.. trying to match wife's saree color with my shirt color. It was a challenge as my wardrobe, while colorful, is no match for her variety! Once I set this trend and make it fashionable, it will only be a question of time before Nalli and Pothy's start selling matching shirts to the sarees. You will hear this soon "idhu sari with blouse ma, idhu sari with blouse and Shirt!".. you heard that here first! just remember..

There were a lot of new dolls which was impressive given people managed to get these shipped here during COVID. We also visted a few folks for the first time and saw interesting dolls, some that date back a century and were handed over for generations!

This year, I was asked to sing in a few Golus and did that. Have only been singing movie songs recently, but decided to give it a try. Wife give me a smile and said "not bad!" which is as much of a compliment I can expect to get. Next year, will learn, practice and sing a few classical songs if everything goes well!

All that said, here are the pictures of the golus and some dolls that caught my eye..

Hopefully by next year, COVID is a thing of the past and we get to visit more golus. There are many families that have lost dears ones in the last year and that also reduces the number of golus we visit. When you hear "we lost a relative, so no golu this year in our house!" over and over again, the magnitude of COVID strikes you!

All these trips got me to feel somewhat normal again after that Chennai trip. 

We did do a quick Saraswathi Poojai and Vijayadasami, given they both fell on working days and I was in meetings for the most part of those two days! 

It would be a big miss if I forget to mention the food over the last week.. sundals, vadais of different types and sizes, payasams, pooris, kuzhi appams, etc. etc. either I got to eat them directly or San got me parcels from the ones she visited. Given I had lost 5 lbs over 15 days with the trip, have almost put all the weight back in one week now. 

Wish the kids take more interest in dressing up and visiting golus in a few years once they are out of their busy high school/college life!

If I can try to learn carnatic music (again for the 4th time in my life) at this age, there is hope for them! 

Wishing you all a wonderful year of learning ahead! May the godess Saraswathi bless you with learning everything you wish to learn and may you find the right guru to teach you!!