Every year this blog has a retrospect post looking back through the archives..
This year was not worth the blog archive search.
We got memories worth a lifetime during a two week stretch in our India trip, first when the little one agreed to do her mottai with Daddy and came back to the USA to brave abuses like "you are a boy girl"
and this was followed by a spiritual connection at Manikaran and Manali in the Himanchal, a one of a kind experience!
There were sicknesses in the family that pretty much want us to forget this year and they pretty much made us feel that there are things that are way out of our control and made us ponder spirituality to a higher level.
The blog and blogger have not strayed significantly from the usual routine, save for the MAJOR upgrade to the Photo/Video department. This blog has seen the photographer learn new tricks (and hopefully show others that anyone can take pictures by following instructions and practicing), show a few cooking tips that show that if I can do ladoos, mixture and mysorepak, you can too.. and chronicle the kid raising experience with day to day tidbits that make us reflect and go "what were we thinking". Sure those tidbits make you LOL!
On the camera front, just like how a bachelor got married and decided to have kids as he realized that there was a progression to things, the point and shoot was replaced by a DSLR over time and the DSLR changed to a full frame camera this year. The only thing that beats having kids is to get them married, but usually there is a long gap between having kids and getting them married!
So someday this blogger might make a short film or documentary, but that will be a long long time from now!
Blogs have gone the same way as Temples. I know.. I know.. you are thinking "what the !!!" Let me explain. Today there was a conversation with my brother about going to temples. When we go to Kabali temple (in Mylapore) or Padmanabhaswamy temple (in Adyar) you find that 90% of the population in the temple is 50+ age group. Why?
A theory was that thirty years ago(when we were kids) there was not that much TV, internet, cell phones. The temples were not just a place to worship god, pray for your sins to be absolved, wishes to be granted, illnesses to be cured, feel closer to god, but also to meet your friends, find matrimonial matches for that nephew or niece of cousin, get up to date on neighborhood gossip, movies worth watching, etc. etc. or just plain get some exercise going around a large temple or walking to it.
Today the traffic and pollution have made that exercise an oxymoron. The cell and internet give you the gossip and info. Google, Youtube, Facebook, Bharat Matrimony and Shadi.com have made the rest of the temple visit unattractive. My parents listen to Velukudi Swamy on Jaya TV or Vijay TV. For all we know, even Velukudi Swamy is probably happy to spend more time explaining Bhagavatam in a studio than be stuck in Mount road traffic!
This blog is one such place. Facebook and Twitter have changed the way blogs are read. Ever since Blogrolling.com was hit as a virus site and blocked by browsers like IE and Firefox, the links to your favorite blogsites on the sidebar are all gone! It is like losing your phone book.
Still there are folks who visit the temple whatever be their reasons! Blogging has become like going to the temple. A place to revisit your thoughts, shout into the ocean, make new friends, have a conversation with everyone and no one in particular, just like talking to god!
So, on we go with more pictures, videos and words!
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