Enna Vechchu comedy kemedy pannaliye ?! (Not making me a comedy piece right?!)

That is a popular punch line of Tamil comedian Vadivelu (one of my favorites).  That seems to have already happened to me.. have become a comedy piece, literally!

Many of my friends and family who watch Vijay TV, have told me that they have a program called Comedy Starz where they used my picture as a "prop".. 

Got the whole thing on video here..

There is some good and lot of bad in this.

Good : Yoga gets some more popularity

Bad : Yoga is still seen as some kind of magic, illusion or rope trick (you see the way the compere ends it? that is the way illusions and rope tricks are presented by street performers).

Also, there is a way to get in and out of a yoga pose. When Jim Kallet was at BYSJ to teach a special class he told the teachers "never get into the pose in the beginner class using an advanced way. I saw this teacher do it in the front row. A football player was behind her in the second row. He was new. He copied her and we literally heard his knees go pop .. pop. He permanently damaged his knee. You can mess with the gods, but you can never mess with your knees".  People do things the wrong way and Yoga gets a bad name. 

Someday will post a video of doing this toe stand, or if BYSJ has one, will link it here. 

There is another bad side to this. Everytime a photo from the blog gets used somewhere (remember 80 feet cut outs of Junior bursting fire crackers in Chennai?), the family is up in arms and wants to shut down all my social media accounts from Facebook, to the blog to twitter, etc. Some will comment and say "get some money out of those guys" to which my response is "the day Indian media companies actually pay anything to take stuff.. that day will never come". Others just go to all out fear mongering "now every terrorist knows about you and your family" to which my reponse is "so the terrorists are all going to start doing yoga? That would actually be a good thing because there won't be any terrorism after they start yoga and do it for a few months!".

If anything, Yoga helps you let go and move on.. so AaaaaUuuuuuuuMmmmmmmmm ! 

This too shall pass!

Niagara Falls

This travelog is long overdue! During the summer, we made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit my Sister-in-law, the local family matriarch! 

As soon as we settled in, there was a trip to Niagra falls. It was a good 4 hour drive to the falls. We spent a good 5 hours there and drove back by 10PM after a dinner stop at a Travel stop Pizza hut. Did not realize how long it has been since I had Pizza hut pizza! 

It was a nice drive along lake Erie with my niece and her hubby who also joined us. I remember her as a small kid of 5 or 6! Now she is married and is running a family. How time flies! 

We had a greally great time as we went on the Maid of the Mist to see the falls. Some of the pictures are from the 5D. Then at some point the lens got completely wet. It is a weather proof lens but it was practically getting drenched. Given waterproof and weatherproof are two different things, decided to switch to the iPhone. 

 

My niece was limping by that time because her knee was acting up. So the five of us went on to see Hurricane ridge at the Cave of the Winds. The kids loved it so much that they wanted to go back and stand in the falls again and again. 

Finally when we could no longer breathe, we turned back towards the parking lot. The air is so heavy with the mist that you walk but feel like you are drowning. 

The last time we visited Niagara falls was at least 10 years ago. I am trying to dig out the old photos and videos. Not sure if the little one was born or not during that trip. 

In a few years we plan to go back, to the Canadian side and stay till late in the night to see the falls with lighting! We are at a stage where the kids are comfortable taking care of themselves, there are no diapers to change, no feeding breaks.. we should capitalize on this phase while the parents still have energy to go on hikes, lug suitcases etc.

The trip was all the more fun as daddy Narayanan explained the family tree on the fathers side starting from kid 1 to kid 12 over a one hour period.

It was a big hit with Jr. !

On a final note, what is a post on Niagara falls, without a video?!

Niagara falls continues to be a big hit with the family! Cannot wait to go back!

The girls go sky diving with Varun uncle..

This weekend was interesting. Came back from Asia and was still recovering from food poisoning and jet lag. Sangeetha's baby cousin (not a baby anymore, just like how the Little One is not little anymore!) came to visit us. I decided to make the most of his visit and cheer myself up. This kid was seven I think during our wedding and somehow I still see him as a seven year old. . . as usual I digress.

He came for a weekend visit from Melbourne. So we decided to go take him bowling and then Indoor sky-diving.

He won the bowling by a wide margin and beat everyone in our house. Then came the sky diving..

he did great! He was startled at first but adapted well and went up the wind tunnel! 

but we had some unexpected surprises.

We learned that Jr. is a natural at this!

The little one surprised us as well.. 

Jr. went up the wind tunnel on her second try and that was something to watch! 

They all came out with certificates and coupons for future visits. Something tells me that we will be going there again. The place is 35 minutes away from home and if we can reserve a spot (which was available that morning) it is a good deal.. especially if you have had a rough three days and just want to watch some smiling faces and family members have a great time! 

Have not been in this tunnel in almost nine years! "Damn I looked young once!" was the thought that came to mind after looking at that old post from 2008.. maybe will go again to celebrate 10 year anniversary of first indoor sky-diving experience in January.. and maybe, maybe, will take Sangeetha with me!

At this rate, not sure if I will ever get to post things from the Pittsburgh trip. It is going to be another hectic week.. maybe this weekend... lots of tea, sit outside and blog!