Unattainable...
Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 9:33PM As of last week San and me have been together 11 years. A very short time compared to my parents (39) or my grandparents (73 years when grandpa passed away), but long enough for us to understand a postponing of the celebration because work.. work.. work.. came in the way.
Just like Indian festivals, birthdays, etc. etc. being pushed to the nearest weekend, the wedding anniversary plan was to go to Livermore Temple and say a prayer with the kids and San's parents.
We knew there was a Kumbhabishekham going on at the temple and we expected the crowd. It was a good walk to park and finally when we washed our feet and went to the entrance, the god's appointed bouncers asked us:
"are you kalasA sponsors?"
Me : No.
GAB : Sorry Sir. Today the temple entrance is for kalasA sponsors only. If you are a sponsor you can take the kalasA and go inside and come out.
Me : !!!!!?????!!!! We have come from south bay and my father in law is here only for three weeks. Can we go in and come out real quick?
GAB : very sorry sir. they are making arrangements for the puja tomorrow. regular devotees have to come back tomorrow.
So now we were "regular devotees". It did bother me a bit and got to thinking of how this blog got started and how the blogger mellowed out over time.
We drove all the way from Cupertino to Livermore and back without as much as going into the temple. This was a first with this temple.
They could have mentioned the prominently in the website or the folks who were regulating the traffic outside the temple could have asked us the same question and could have turned us around. Would have at least saved an hour, changed plans and driven my in-laws to some other place to celebrate. The Ghirardeli chocolate factory was actually our other(usual) choice.
God is in chocolate! God is in Vanilla! He is in every flavor is what we have always been saying.
Next year, the ritual changes. We celebrate at our usual favorite spots. The GG Bridge and some great ice cream.
Balaji Ummachi, why do you make me have this love hate relationship with you? Why?
.
Reader Comments (3)
Happy Anniversary, Sundar and San!
What is Balaji Ummachi's fault here? Think of it as going to a restaurant for a special rava dosai and theres a long wait so you cant get in. Will you be mad at the rava dosai? :D
Happy Anniversary!!!
Boo: namba kaila enna irukku...all things done my Ummachi..illayo... thats why ummachi mela kovam...:)
Boo
not mad at the dosai, more at the restaurant.. but if it is going to be 15 mins late, the restaurant always tells you "sir, rava dosa takes 15 mins. do you really want it".. seriously. go to any bay area restaurant and order rava dosai and they will ask you that.
just wanted the regular devotees sorted out at the gate or have a notice on temple website (under hours) to show that Sat. was a special devotee day only. would have saved me 3 hours of riding with kids to and from Livermore on a hot afternoon or at least 40 mins once we got there..
Bajaji : temple staff not same as dosai : restaurant
why?
balaji controls everything including the temple staff who control access to him (yes, that is like an infinite loop) while a dosai simply has no control of anything whatsoever...
:)
Me, thanks. you said it nicely...
:)