Deepavali 2017

It has been some time since a post came to the blog. Life has been busy .. but with plenty of happenings!

There was the Diwali that came and went during a weekday, and was celebrated over the weekend.

There was a special Yoga class last weekend.. More on that later.

But this post is to wish everyone on the blog space a belated Deepavali . . . Facebook takes over these posts now and then.

The photo below is a compilation of Deepavali (Diwali) celebrations over the years. We did not do fireworks in the early days for fear of smoke alarms.. a kid or two later and we go "bah!" 

There used to be no sparklers or the entire family posing around one single sparkler in the garage! 

There were years where we just cozied up and did not celebrate, or celebrated with the birth of a new baby!

The one year this was celebrated in India! 

Click to enlarge the image. . .

Got happy tears just looking at old photos and compiling this one!

This is one happy festival!

Celebrating Deepavali in India

It has been 25 years since I was in India for a Deepavali ! You can celebrate all you want in the US of A with family and friends, but somehow nothing comes close to being in India on Deepavali day!

On a whim, got last minute tickets to go to India straight from my business trip and spent the weekend in Chennai. I have spent 3 days with my parents in the last two years and made a promise that will go see them even if it was a solo trip without wife and kids and even if it was only for a weekend. Glad that I made it.

San got me tickets on Air Asia. That was an interesting thing in itself. These guys take the Airbus flying quite literally. It is like a local "bus" ride in the "Air". They take this "low cost airline" concept to an all new level. An unnecessary security check within their own gates to throw out my water bottle and then charge for water on the flight! It was an all time low on my flying experience list. Once I reached Chennai and got a bear hug from my niece, that was temporarily forgotten. 

Then I got to see my dad, which was one main reason for going. He has tremors now and is conscious of it. So he doesn't come to the phone or skype often. That said, he manages it pretty well. He knows when he cannot talk and stays silent and is very meditative. When the tremors subside, he is normal and goes about his usual activities. 

He asked me to take pictures of him this time...

Then there was our second failed attempt at recreation of the old picture routine.. 

Lots of fireworks! 

Lots of fireworks.. 

I taught my nephew how to hold an oothubaththi to a Kuruvi vedi and that experience alone was priceless. The poor kid had fractured his arm and was just out of his cast, but was so hyped up that he was running around the terrace with me in all that excitement. 

He reminded me of someone all the time... me!

My niece did my hair and make up as part of Diwali and I sat through it patiently thinking "my sister used to comb my hair for hours, then my kids did it.. you are probably the last one to get the experience of combing my hair as there is not much left to comb these days!"

Fireworks are not the same anymore from when we were kids.. They sell these fireworks where each piece is like a long tube and they are like 4th of July fireworks, expensive and fancy. 500 rupees for just one piece but very nice. The entire city was lit up with these things! It was non stop from every roof top. Just an amazing sight to watch. The smiles on the kids faces.. it is something to see when every kid you walk by is just all smiles! 

Here is a video composite of the whole fireworks experience.. this doesn't even come close to being there!

(WARNING : the background noise in this video is very high !) 

Then there was the sweets and savories. My mom made sure that 177 yoga classes for the year were nullified in 177 minutes. To summarize "she kept me well fed" for the three days. By day two, I started saying "enough" before she even put anything on my plate, because she would continue to pile it on my plate for a good two seconds after my saying stop! Some things never change. Had just told my brother to lose weight and go do some yoga and he gave me a look and a smile that said "if you live with mom in the house, no amount of yoga is going to get your weight down". He was right. Have put on a good 5 lbs in 3 days!

If you are wondering how come I have eyes only for San.. look no further.. think there is a gene for that which gets passed on.. 

It has been one hectic but memorable trip! 

Heartfelt wishes, belated as they may be, for everyone's lives to be filled with light and happiness! 

Copyright shoppyright..

On our recent India trip, we were in Chennai going from Mylapore to West Mambalam when the little one kept saying "I think I just saw Jr.'s photo on a big banner ad for fireworks store". 

Given the noise level in the auto rickshaw and traffic and also given the improbable odds of something like that, we promptly ignored the little one.

Today BB sent us a photo saying "we were driving through Doraisawamy subway when we saw a picture of a girl who looks just like Jr. in a fireworks ad! Wanted to share it with you". 

Guess what?! It is Junior bursting fire crackers and it is a photo from this blog that someone copied without asking for permission! At least sending us some free fireworks would have been a decent gesture. 

Now here is the irony. The original photo is of Jr. celebrating with sparklers in Cupertino and the sparklers were purchased in the local Chinese store. They defiinitely did not come from Sivakasi. 

This is turnign out like the Nikon camera ad that was shot with Canon cameras. 

Needless to say this capture has created some issues at home about blogging, photos of the kids on the internet etc. etc. 

Jr. is happy that she has become a posthumus child model given her childhood has become a thing of the past. 

The little one is claiming she is a genius for pointing this out right. She is also upset that Jr's photo was copied while she is "much cuter" as a child with fireworks. 

San and MIL are just getting on the lecture train..

You know what they say.. 

When life gives you fireworks... just enjoy them!

Mini me..

We had a quiet fireworks celebration in our backyard. Wanted to have a few pictures of this. So I set up a tripod and had the camera on self timer.

The first few round of sparklers was marked by me constantly requesting that all four of us start around the same time and look into the camera etc. Always get good shots with the black background, so I push for pictures.. 

After the third photo the little one yelled "Appa, I want to enjoy vedichiying the pattasu! So just come here and do this with us!" 

I promptly switched the camera off and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the pattasu vedichiying! (crackers bursting).

Watching the little one enjoying the fireworks with such intensity brings back so many memories of me bursting crackers as a kid.

If there is a "pattasu" gene, it has definitely been passed on to the next generation! 

To do Pooja or not to do Pooja ... that is not the question!

Technically there is no Deepavali for the family, what with my Grandpa and my Aunt (periamma) passing away last year.

When you get down to explaining it to a 5 or 8 year old, especially a five year old and go

"we don't have Deepavali pooja this year"

LO: why?

me: Because we remember your great Grandpa and I remember my aunt

Jr. : because you are sad? We are sad too when we talk of Great Grandpa!

Me : Not really. Just to remember them.

LO : But now we are sad because grandpa is now a god "AND" we don't celebrate Deepavali! (she made the "and" the punchword)

Me : hmmm.. we still get to eat the good stuff that Paati will make and you get to play with fireworks.

LO and Jr. : (all smiles) OK!

So Grandma made her usual good eats and San got us some mathaapus and we had some quiet fun for 15 minutes total in the backyard! Enough to make the kids say "that's enough. let us go back in!". The outside temperature helped with that decision.

In India this would never happen. 15 minutes of fireworks and we call it done? Never!

My brother and me would start a good 15 days before Deepavali and go on for another day or two after Deepavali was done..

Guess that was another time another place altogether... but I was there for a few minutes earlier today, transported by the smell of the smoke and the sparklers...

Jr. is still scared! Her mother and grandma defend her by saying things like "she is a docile kid" etc. etc. when I challenge her to be a little bolder and continuously frustrates me. Who knows, maybe in time she will learn to love sparklers?! The funny thing is she is scared of the initial burst when the thing catches on fire. Once it is past that point, she is happy to hold it and watch it go.

The little one needs no telling. She is like a tigress.

Couldn't keep her still for the photo!

Grandma joined in for a minute within those 15 to pose for this photo..This photo meets all ISO Grandma 9000 standards she set for me before taking the picture..

"We should know it is me, but my face,dress etc. should not be prominent" she said. "No problem, pannidalaam (that can be done)" I replied with the air of the Sathyam studio photographer who told my parents "yes that can be done" to any request they make simply so he could be done with us in those good old days!

Then the kids were down to the last few sparklers and daddy decided it was time to do some quick photo experiments..

We just set the timer and captured all the fun..

This whole plan to do the sparkler thing was about to be abandoned because daddy got called to work earlier today and we lost our internet connection at home from 2-6! We now have high speed internet though. Just choose the wrong day to upgrade I guess.. luckily things got sorted out just in time for me to return home and do this.

We had a wonderful time eating and sparkling.. we pretty much did everything except the prayer and the new clothes. With four birthdays coming in the month of November that isn't an issue either. The kids went and thanked "Kollu thatha" for watching us from above and making the evening worthwhile.

Hope you all had a wonderful Deepavali !!! We did.

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