Gender profiling hits closer to home..

Friday evening. Mom asks dad to stop by the Indian Grocery store on the way home from work. She gives a long list of things to get.  

The kids come back from evening class. It is time to unload the stuff from the trunk and given how the stores don't give plastic bags anymore and also given that daddy is not the default shopper, there are no big bags. All the individual items are just spread across the trunk. So we need as many hands as possible to do the unloading fast.

The kids are helping and Mommy says "I asked for beans. I expect you to buy beans for making curry for the four of us for one meal. Not for two. This is waaay more beans than I would have got"

The little one decides to join in the bashing "If you thought he got too much beans wait till you see how much Vendaikaai(Okra) he got!" which turned out to be a false accusation. When Mommy saw the quantity she thought it was too little.. Nevertheless, you folks get the picture..

Jr. decides to chime in "See, this is what happens when you send a 'boy' to get vegetables!" . This 'boy' is the one making them their special sepankizhangu curries etc. and suddenly this 'boy' is not to be relied on for buying vegetables?! 

It is not easy living with three girls.. When they decide to pile things on, it comes big and deep. Daddy has decided to stop doing a few things around the house till they come around. 

They are watching too many serials on the iPad that designate daddy as the person who takes out the garbage and plays with power tools in the garage. Time to unplug the internet connection in the house. 

Holi vilayaadu paapaa (ஹோலி விளையாடு பாப்பா)

As the great Mahakavi should have said "ஹோலி விளையாடு பாப்பா" ... as in dude speak "Let's play Holi babies!"

Holi was celebrated across the bay area over the last 8 days, read "two weekends" just like any other major festival is over the nearest weekends. 

We were fortunate to join one of the groups celebrating Holi over the weekend. It was great fun. 

Given it was with some of my IT-BHU seniors, brought back so many memories of playing Holi in BHU 20+ years ago!

The Holi monk with his kids..

The little one played holi till she was drop down tired in spite of starting off with a stuffy nose!

We also got to meet another group of really nice people who happened to celebrate in the same park. They came over and said "it is not nice to have two groups play holi separately. lets all join in!".  They brought their Jelabies and Tandaii over to our table and we all put colors on everyone. It was great to see the spirit of Holi in action. 

Next stop. Easter bunny hunt at some place or other for the kids is our guess.. 

It is great to be able to celebrate as many festivals as possible.. things we never did as kids in South India. Our kids are lucky to get this diverse an experience!

Happy Holi to everyone!

West and East

Jr. gets to practice saxophone over the weekends. Her teacher is making sure an email goes out saying she practiced and Jr. knows she has to, if the email has to go out!

I am also making her practice Carnatic music when we get a chance. She knows the songs by heart and it is a question of being able to follow the notation in the paper and translating instantly in her head from a different south Indian classical notation. 

She does a great job of both and has improved a lot.

Next week, Nagumomu in Raga Abheri.. at least the first few lines!

More than her practicing, these videos end up with some funny outtakes. Hope the kids have fun watching this years from now.