Backyard fun

This post starts with an apology to Pavan Uncle and Deepti mami!

They visited the kids a few months ago and gave a gift. As is customary in the house, gifts are always opened at a later day. This one went to the garage shelf, thanks to San who doesn't believe in reading what the gift actually is before hiding it from the kids.

We reserve the right to hand over the gifts on days when the kids have to be bribed for something. We run out of bribe gifts and hence this rule! As it so happens, this gift was Christmas trees to be made of cookies which had an expiry date for the frosting and the cookies.

We still let the kids make the cookies with frosting, sprinkles, etc. but instead of eating it, placed it in the backyard..




Now that we have enough critters that visit us every evening and make it practically resemble the Fairyland projected in the latest Snow White movie. The kids and grandparents enjoyed watching the birds and animals come close to us to taste cookies..

It was great to watch them come and devour the decorated cookies, one piece at a time..




We are truly blessed with this 20 foot hedge that defines our backyard that makes any summer evening a pleasant evening!


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Valentine's day

Valentine's day came and went and this blog did not see a post?

Well, there were secret plans made between me and the kids to record my singing and playing "And I love her" for Amma and post on youtube as a surprise.

A. Mom knew about it and it was no surprise
B. the little one hated the song. (or the fact that Daddy was singing for mommy and not for her!), and would simply throw tantrums during the recording.

After some time we (Jr. and me) gave up on the idea and said "Whatever!"

Here is the incomplete work (or what was captured on the iPhone)




Needless to say, San was not impressed with the production. Both Daddy and Jr. have done better in the past! But she still loves us all "And we love her"!


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Global Winter Wonderland

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..




Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.


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Excitement in the backyard

We have had one busy week with the parents both being super busy at work to the point where we think it is going to be a 12 day week.

In the midst of all this god always finds a way to throw some excitement our way to amuse us and the kids even if we are cooped up in our living room.

A wild cat of some kind decided to visit our backyard today. San of course assumed it was a raccoon perched on the fence. We (the kids and me) were pretty sure raccoons are not that big and do not look that muscular!

So we mounted the 70-200 and the extender to make it a 140-400mm and decided to observe the cat.

It was very pretty (and dangerous I am sure). Could not hold the heavy lens with my hand steady as there was a 30 degree temperature difference between the living room and the backyard and was also worried about the thing having rabies or making a dash for me.

Here are some pictures and a video. The kids are now scared of going in the backyard alone. That will pass. The wild cat gracefully made an exit into the forest like area behind our house.

We were happy for the temporary amusement..


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Karthigai Lights and Christmas Deepam

In our house we have a tradition. On the day of Kaarthigai Deepam (the day we light oil lamps and pray to lord Kaarthikeya and eat Pori Urundai's), we also put on the Christmas lights. The Kaarthigai day in the US also coincides with my star birthday in India as they are around 12 hours ahead and overall turns out to be a great experience.

In summary, I get to eat pori urundai's every year for my Birthday!

The oil lamps come back in the next two days but the Christmas lights stay on till the New years!

This year daddy Narayanan aka limpy Narayanan was given an ultimatum by the kids. Either get on the ladder and put on the lights with help from mommy and the kids or go hire someone to put on the lights, NOW!

With a lot of help from the three of them, the lights were up after an hour..

We also celebrated with the kids lighting lamps (or switching on battery operated lamps that look like real lamps)and placing them inside and outside the house!

Good eats..

Notice daddy's slight paunch. 15 days of eating, limping and no calorie burning and trying on pants a tad smaller on the waist can do that!

A full moon night as always for Kaarthigai and this year it coincided with an eclipse in many parts of the world. The moon as seen at 400mm and ..

and back lighting our house..

We had one busy day. Children's party in the morning. Lighting up the house in the evening!




This special day was made possible thanks to isolation from the internet. We are now planning to cut the internet cable on festival days as a policy!

Hope those of you who celebrate Kaarthigai, had a great day yesterday!


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I am daddy

The little one has a new fad now. Walking around wearing daddy T-shirts and claiming "I am daddy!" It is hilarious. Caught her on video when she was least suspecting it.
We had fun yesterday at Big Trees state park which was a 3 hour drive away. We also visited a mining town that has been preserved to look like the early 1900's called Columbia on the way back that reminded us of our trip to Ballarat in Australia many years ago! It was one tiring trip for the kids who did 2 mile walks and some steep climbs to get to the Stalinslaus river. Now the little one has a cold and both kids are going through Daddy withdrawal symptoms as I make my way to spend this work week in Austin. Time for her to grow up and be daddy! .

Rock climbing craze

The little one has been climbing..

Well she climbs all over the house!




So we are now checking out "rock climbing" classes for kids in local area.


In the meantime she has to be content with the little setup at Ortega park..

There are dangerous similarities she shows with Daddy.. Loves to do things for a few months and then drops it abruptly...

will have to keep an eye on this one!

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Addictive video..

My cousin shared a really addictive video called "Land of Lungi"

It is a nice appreciation/funny video of Kerala, a southern state in India. If you are a Tamilian who travels a lot and lives outside of Tamilnadu, chances are your life crosses paths with way too many folks who are Keralites and you are heavily influenced by the culture from Kerala. You always go to Vishu parties, you prefer Ada pradaman to semiya paayasam and you constantly try to convince your wife that a white silk saree with gold jewellery with coins will suit her, irrespective of what the oldies in your house say about a white saree being unauspicious..

As usual I am off topic. Back to the Land of the Lungi..

Check out this video. Really cool..

The little one has been dancing with the iPhone in her hand to this song wearing her
"T-shirt and chaddi".. She even has a bangra type move where she points her two index fingers into the sky and does a little jiggle.

We are actually thinking of making a secret video of it tomorrow, when she is wearing her pants.

Long live the land of Lungi!

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Sita Mardi

On the way back from Allahabad, the driver strongly recommended a stop at Sita Mardi.

There are signs to this place from the time you leave Allahabad and a lot of hype. What beat us was that we had never heard of this place before as an important historic place in connection to the Ramayana. Ayodhya yes! Panchavati, yes! etc. etc. Sita Mardi. . not really.

Still curiosity and the fact that we had exceeded the daily limit of 200 km and were paying extra anyways made us say "okay. it is on the way and a small detour.. so take us there"

Amazing artwork on the dome!

Was told by driver that the wall work was done by Japanese artists. Do not know if it is true..

Some really nice bas relief murals on the walls..

Shiva with the ganges from his head flowing on steps into a pond. Nicely done!
The place definitely had some unique artistry compared to typical temples.. There was almost a feeling that a FengShui expert had designed the whole premises!

Shopping for trinkets. What would any trip be without it?

Flit like a butterfly, sting like a bee?
Jr. boxes flies like Mohammad Ali!

It was so funny to watch her being so mad and angry and trying to box the flies away with her fists!

The Giant Hanuman was nice but there was no place to stand in a shade and admire it. Lot of concrete around the statue, that was too hot to step on barefoot. No footwear and lot of heat with no shade was difficult for me to walk around and take photos, and it was impossible for the kids. So it was a one minute trip around this statue.

We went through a one lane mud road for 9 km and finally reached a market. There was a beautiful temple there (built by Birla is what we were told but could not see any signs there) in what was a gorgeous setting. A small river, temple on the river and a bunch of shops around it. Apparently the small temple has been built over many times and the later attractions like the Giant Hanuman statue were built by Japanese architects. The Hanuman for some reason looked more like a Japanese Hanuman than an Indian Hanuman!




The kids were not impressed what with the heat and the flies in the place. We stopped there for an hour and enjoyed the temple. On a cooler day with some breeze, this would have been a great outing.

Definitely recommend a visit if you are going on the Varanasi - Allahabad route!


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Flexibility as we age..

All of you know that Bikram Yoga has become a part of the routine for me and the MIL and we are now regulars to a point where our laundry cycles are synchronized with the number of Yoga clothes we own!

The three week hiatus in Bikram Yoga during the India trip was interesting. My logic was that Chennai temperatures were 98 to 100 F during the time we were there and the lows were in the 88 to 90 F range. Chennai is on the coast and is usually humid and so doing Yoga in the living room should be the same as doing Bikram Yoga in the studio here.

Have never been so wrong. The first day after landing there, tried to do the exercises starting with the breathing. Usually we sweat a lot after the very first breathing exercise. There was no sweating. Forget profuse sweating.. there was simply no sweat. It was a very bad clammy feeling. Still went through the routine in a little over an hour. The timing was a little off but did finish it. The rest of the day was a bad headache. It was possibly accelerated by the Jet lag but after having missed headaches for 100+ days, it was a rude shock!

The next day tried to go through the routine again and no sweating. Then decided to stop the attempts. My body was saying "enough. go back to a hot room" and my skin was clogging up. The rest of the trip saw no yoga, only a careful watching of the diet and before we knew it, we were back home in Cupertino.

Instinct was to go do Yoga on day one, but the body was jet lagged and we decided to wait for two days. The first day of Yoga was stressful. The mind knew how far to push because of previous experience but the body did not respond. A funny thing happened. There was a lot less sweating and felt like peeling off my skin and throwing it out. That same clammy feeling. A feeling you get just before it rains after an extreme bout of heat in Chennai summers! (what we call Puzhukkam in Tamil). Would come home, take a shower and the minute I dried myself with a towel and walked to the kitchen to make tea, my vest, shirt and pants would be drenched in sweat as if I had just finished the yoga session.

Obviously something was wrong with my skin and the pores were clogging up because of the weather change. Do not know if the water change and soap change added to the weather change, but it is a possibility. After the third day of Yoga, things came back to normal.

Did have another small snag with a TdP vaccine giving me side effects that made me miss Yoga for another three days this week, but so far so good.

The kids are having fun watching try hard to get back in track..




They have a lot more flexibility because they are young! Wish they retain this as they grow old.

One thing that has been brought to my attention recently that has to be shared. Doing Bikram Yoga seems to be like a test of the body in itself. If something is wrong or about to fail the Yoga seems to bring it out. The recent health check up showed a severe Vitamin D deficiency which is being corrected. Do not know to what extent this is true but we know of three cases where an underlying health problem has been highlighted by doing Yoga. There is always a question of "did the Yoga cause the problem or help bring the symptoms to the foreground?". Google searches suggest the latter.

If you have any such experience, do share in the comment section.

Meanwhile, the Yoga experience continues...


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From Lanka Gate to Visvesvarayya...

As far as trips down the nostalgic memory lanes go, this is the biggest for me!

After almost two decades, visiting the place where this boy became man, or at least half a man if my classmates would agree..




The video says it all, but here are some pictures as well of the brief ride into the past!

Oh, what a trip!


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