Let there be light.. lots of it - Photoblog

Nice nap, an hour at the park with the kids to make up for working in the morning.

Time to tune out work and get into the Memorial day spirit.

Say a prayer for military folks who make this quiet day in the park possible, fill up the gas tank, go on some local drives in the next two days. .

The mind wanders through a bunch of thoughts. . . oil dependence, oil spills, oil wars... how everyone knows what the right thing to do is but as a collective we fail!

A wise man told me recently "Sundar, commonsense is more difficult to implement than you think!"

Everyday there is a bitter realization that he is right.

Time for that optimist in me to take a different view of things?


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A very happy Deepavali to all of you

Wishing everyone a belated Happy Deepavali!!!

Hope everyone had a great time on Friday night and yesterday. Here in Cupertino, the celebration is still going on..

We did get to wear new clothes, have vadai, paayasam, bakshanam from friends, have fun with some mathaapu (sparklers), watch a new release movie(daddy was sent to the theater on a cheer up mission) and have a fun time with family.

We also had a marathon session on the phone calling/receiving calls from all relatives on the land line, the Vonage phone and two cell phones!

Diwali was much needed in this household. It cheered me up a lot, enough to bring the kid in me out to have some fun! Seeing daddy happy, mommy and the kids cheered up as well.

Have a lot of things to catch up on with what is left of the weekend. Here are some photos.













Here's to lighting up all the darkness in our lives!



ps. Watched "Aadhavan". Vadivelu was at his best, but the movie was so-so. One of those movies where you watch the first half and if you walk out of the theater in the second half, you are really not going to miss anything.




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Fantasy of Lights - Vasona Park

One of the local parks here (Vasona park in Los Gatos) has a Fantasy of Lights event where they put nice Christmas light displays and you drive through them at <5 miles per hour with the matching music to go on a local radio station.

The light displays were amazing! The kids were initially entertained, but they were not happy with the open passenger side window. While it accomodated the photo/videographer, it made the van too cold for their liking. This was followed by questions like

"how much longer do we have to drive like this?"
"are we going to stay here forever?"

etc. etc..

It is a good idea to teach your kids a few patience lessons before taking them on this drive...

Here is a video and some photos of the trip.



























Thoroughly enjoyable!!



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Kaarthigai Deepam - FAQ and JUFAQ

Let's jump right into the definitions here! First the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Kaarthigai Deepam :

The Tamizh version of the festival of lights to celebrate Lord Muruga's (aka Kaarthikeya, Son of Shiva) incarnation in the form of six children. Sometimes coincides with Thiru-Annamalai-Deepam, a large oil light lit on top of the Annamalai Hill for Lord Shiva.

When :

Tamizh month of Kaarthigai, full moon day

How long :

3 days.

What is done :

Light earthern lamps, burst crackers, eat rice crispy treats also known as "pori urundais" (Pori - puffed rice, urundai - ball).

On the second day, there is a general house clean up. When I was four five years old, I remember my grandma calling the second day "kuppai Karthigai" (Kuppai literally means Garbage). She would clean up the house and put lights in the corners.

The third day was "pee kaarthigai" (pee literally means feces in Tamizh!). This was a day for cleaning the bathrooms, drains, and there were lights pretty much everywhere in the house. We also used to light the lamps with neem oil on the last day. The neem oil has significant medicinal value (I read an article where Americans are trying to create Neem tree farms in Texas so they can harvest neem oil for medicines!). Maybe it was our ancestors way of disinfecting the house by burning lamps with neem oil.




Here are some pictures from yesterday..






















Now for the JUFAQ ( Jr.'s Unanswerable Frequently Asked Questions).

We were at the Livermore temple yesterday. Lord Muruga's idol was dressed up with a golden crown, golden Vel(spear)and lots of flowers. I wanted to meditate for a few minutes.

Jr. came sat next to me and says :

Jr. : Why is he all dressed up? Is it his birthday today?
Me : Yes.
Jr. : How old is he today?
Me : He is one more year older today...
Jr. : Is he a kid?
Me : Yeah (the idol here does make the god look like a kid)
Jr. : which school does he go to?
Me : (at this point, losing all hopes of any meditation). He goes to a special school for god babies.

there were more questions, no answers and we started back from the temple.


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... in the yard lights!!!

Heard a lot of commotion in the backyard. Rustling leaves, sounds of people running through.

Was really worried that there were some intruder. Cautiously switched on the light in the backyard and was pleasantly surprised!




They were actually quiet and starring at the yard light! Got a close up hand feel for "deer in the headlights"!



Wish there was a night vision mode on the S30!

Jr. woke up because of all the noise, and saw the deer.

The smile on her face, that made my day!

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Solvang et. al.

This is a continuation of the photoblog series..

Solvang is really beautiful. Cute shops that look like they are frozen in time. It is almost like visiting Denmark, with the addition of pedal carts, horse drawn carriages, no tto mention the cute shops..

It was a treat to take pictures of the kids in the Solvang park, which is right next to the Hans Christian Anderson Museum..



The statue in the park ..


The cutesy pedal carts in Solvang..



Window displays outside stores that are a treat to watch..


We came to Solvang pretty late, after spending the day at Lake Cachuma and the Mission at Santa Ynez. (I will post on those two places separately). So before we knew it, the town shut down and all the shops closed and it was just us and the lights..



The main street and two other streets were well lit (beyond that it was residential areas, just like any other city). Here is one of the side streets.



The Main street in Solvang, nicely lit.


The courtyard of a small mall with a fountain that had four horses in the four sides..



Statues at one end of the mall



After spending time in the few blocks of well lit Solvang, we realized that there was no place to eat!! The place where we stayed (the famous Pea Soup Andersons) closed down at 7:15 for Christmas eve. It was a pity that we stayed here but never drank the Pea Soup..


We were left scampering to find food. Thankfully, there were two options. A mexican place and a Chinese place. We choose Chinese. The Mandarin Touch restaurant, which I will never forget. Probably only place open in Solvang till 11:00 on X-mas eve !! We thanked Jesus for this restaurant ...


The fried rice was yum yum yummy delicious! It was either this or go cook Maggi noodles in the microwave in the Hotel room..

Will have two more posts on this local travel series. One on Lake Cachuma and one on the Mission at Santa Ynes, over the next two days..