Vacation Details

Day 1

By the time all family members gathered at the resort, it was around 3:00pm. By then, we folks from CA had refreshed... so I decided to welcome the rest with some cool water melon. We all exchanged pleasantaries and relaxed for a while. We decided to hit the beach in the evening. With sun cream lotion, a tent, frizby and swim tanks we headed to the beach. The weather could not have been better and so could not the beach. Being used to the cold California beaches, the warm water beach at the island was a welcome change. Reminded me a lot of the Chennai beaches I had been to with my family back home. All of us had a great time ... some liked getting
soaked in the water especially my little one. I simply enjoyed watching her and playing in the sand. One another cousin of mine had a son a little older than my daughter .... he was a little hesistant in getting into the water and preferred to practice soccer. He is just over 2.5 years and appeared to be quite good at it. After some frizby and quite time, we headed home for a simple dinner. We were all so tired and hungry that plain "Saaru / Anna" (Rasam rice) felt divine. Soon, we hit the bed... it had been a long day for us folks from California.

Day 2

The next day, we woke up late (8:30am) ... you see we were in a relaxed vacation mood. The east coast folks had already woken up and were sipping their coffee in the patio. They advised us that they had seen an amazing
sunrise and we should experience the same. Being nature freaks, we weren't going to miss out on that. We decided to visit the beach early the next day morning for the sun rise. We had a hearty breakfast (dose and gojju avalakki) and decided to soak in the pool.... off we went to the resort swimmin pool. Initially I was hesitant to get into the pool ... but could not decline my little one's plea... she was having such a great time and I wanted to be a part of it too ! It was so much fun in the water. Cousin S suggested ice cream and all of us headed ice creaming hunting. We reached the island downtime in the process and found a nice ice cream shop. I had Fudge Brownie and it was simply awesome. Another cousin M suggested kite flying and we bought some kites at the down town. We spent some more time at the downtown and went back to the resort. After a nice tea, we decide to go to the beach for kite flying. We were hoping that the kids would enjoy kite flying .... but they seem have more fun in the sand with the pail and shovel. After some fun time at the beach, we went to the downtown for the dinner. We reached a nicely done restaurant ... the ambience of the place was good ...food was as good. It was an OK thai dinner. We went back to the resort and hit the bed soon.

Day 3

As per our plan, we woke up early for the sun rise ... I could hardly sleep as I could simply not trust the alarm. (of course, the alarm did not alert us at all) We reached the beach at 5:45am .... perfect time for the sun rise. The sun rise was absolutely brialliant and it had a been a long time since I had seen one as amazing. We went back to the resort and prepared breakfast. (uppit). We lazed around the house before we went out to checkout kayaking. After a lot of searching, we found a place later in the day where they offered kayaking rentals. My sister and me decided to take turns to take care of my little one. First she went kayaking with her husband. They had a real testing time when the got stuck in the mud and had a hard time coming out. By the time they came out, it was early evening ... besides their experience was not very encouraging for us give a try. So we decided against it. So headed back to the resort. We spent some more time at the pool and then went home for a nice coffee. The rest day was spent in beach volleyball and sand castle building and sea shell collection.

Day 4

It was time to bid good bye to everyone ... our initial plan was to go to the airport and return the car by 11:30am ... but we changed our plans in order for us experience kayaking. Me and my spouse went kayaking while my sister watched my child. I would catagorize kayaking as a team building activity ... initially our team was not so great and we landed in the grassy marsh. We soon figured our rhythm and had a good time. It was exhausting though! We went back to the resort for a family lunch before saying good bye to all the cousins from the east coast. Drove back to the airport and returned the car and reached the airport at the right time.

Overall the family vacation was a refreshing experience .... as my sister's husband rightly put it: "Idea of a vacation in India is usually visiting places and going sight seeing .... idea of vacation in US is just escaping to a quiet place" This time we relaxed in our US vacation idea!

Family union – Journey

As mentioned in the previous post, I was looking forward to this family union since the time we had zeroed on the place – Florida. Naturally I was all excited when the travel Friday dawned. As usual I had postponed ironing and packing to the last day. Our flight was later in the evening (red eye flight) and so I was able to pack conveniently.
My sister and her husband came to our house on time as planned. We headed to the airport on the decided time. I prayed there would be no traffic jams, and luckily my prayers were answered and we were able to reach the airport sooner than expected, thanks to some fast driving by my husband. We reached the long term parking lot and were welcomed by “Parking Lot Full” board. As we decided to make a “U” and look for parking spaces in other lots, the security person said that we could park our cars in the short term parking itself at long terms rates. You see short term parking is right next to the airport terminal and my sister screamed “How lucky we are” in excitement. Her husband pointed out, don’t conclude so early …. Wait for us to park the car.
We were surprised to find the domestic parking lot so empty. We parked right across the elevator so we didn’t have to walk long with the luggage. When we entered the domestic departure terminal, there were boards of all the airlines except ours … we looked, looked and still looked and then we found … our Airlines (Airtrans) was in the International Terminal. So walked all the way upto the International Terminal. The Airport is really huge and walking from Domestic to International Terminal with a kid and luggage is just not easy. Finally after a little more searching we found our terminal. We checked in, managed a quick dinner and headed towards the gate. The flight was on schedule. We cursed the airline crew for allotting us seats way in the back and were trying to get comfortable in our seats. My little one was just not too happy to be restricted to her seat. Thankfully we had carried Barney DVDs and turned on the laptop. She got busy with that for a while before falling asleep. We were to change flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville. We reached Atlanta on time 5:00am local time (2:00am PST). The highlight of our wait time at the airport was the over excitement of my little one, news repeated atleast 5 times in the CNN channel and the bad rest rooms.
One of my cousins S and her family boarded the same flight as ours at Atlanta. We all flew together and reached our destination on time. Car rental was just a piece of cake. We had our breakfast after a long wait at Cracker Barrel. Our vacation home was tastefully decorated condo. The patio had a nice view of the ocean and the beach was 3 mins walk from the condo. It was a pecfect place for a family union and we were all set to spend the next 3 days together.
Our return journey was not really eventful. Only thing that will be etched in my mind about the return journey will be the restlessness of my little one in the flight. All our energy was burnt by the time we reached back home. Our mind was refreshed while we were physically very tired.

ps: Details of my vacation will be in the next post

Mind your Language

Have you ever come across a person who doesn't speak his / her mother tongue and wondered why ? Well ... I have .... and now have found convincing answers too.
After coming to the US, one of my first observations was that, the kids born to Indian parents usually did not speak their mother tongue. (they understood, but wouldn't converse in mother tongue). They insisted on continuing the conversation in "English". I had seen this in India as well ... if a kid as young as 3-4years replied in "English", I could see the pride in the face of parents. But this practice is more strong in the US, I realised. After living here for sometime now and seeing my little one growing, I have realised why this is the case.
I am sure all of us agree that "Language gets polished when you speak more often". Its just not true to just spoken languages .... its true to Computer languages as well. You gain command over language when spoken/used often. So kids in the US are exposed to English all the time ... be it in school, with friends and even in grocery store. They realise pretty early in their life that their parents understand English. They also realise that their mother tongue sounds different than what the others around them are communicating in. Its amazing how early in their life they figure these things out.
The fact that even the parents friends circle may not necessarily consist of people speaking the same mother tongue justs adds to their exposure to English.
Picture this: Some one speaks to you in a language you are quite comfortable, other than your mother tongue.... say English. You would never reply back in your mother tongue ... you'd reply in English. The assumption in the above situation is that the other person speaks your mother tongue too. The same holds good with kids too.
All this does not mean that the kids do not know their mother tongue .... they very much do and are quite comfortable with it too. Sometimes, it takes the parents to go some extra miles to ensure the kids to speak in eir mother tongue.
Atleast I will try my best that my kid is comfortable with my mother tongue "Kannada"

Appreciation / Encouragement

I still remember the day my SSLC (10th std) results were announced. I had secured a good percentage (ok, I was a geek then) and my parents were really proud of me. Except for my third language score, I was myself quite satisfied with my percentage. Its almost customary in our family that once the results are announced, I would share it with my grand parents (luckily for me, they reside in Mysore as well) and get their blessings. So I went straight from the school (where I learnt about the results) to my grandparent's house. They were as much excited as well, as were my uncle, aunt and cousins who stayed with my grandparents. My uncle who had promised me a watch if I secured good percentage, did not forget his promise. He bought me a really good watch the very day. That was my first watch and my excitement knew no bounds.
Then I visited another uncle of mine (dodappa's house). They were really happy for me and my cousins U and L were in tears of joy when they learnt about my percentage. ("Anandabhaspa")My aunt, who has always generously gifted me anytime I visited them, bought me a gold ring in appreciation of my achievement.
I received several other token of appreciation from other uncles and aunts at that time. But the watch and the ring have remained very close to my heart. I still treasure them and do not share it with anyone.
As a young student, I really felt so happy and encouraged to get all these gifts from near and dear ones. Now, as a working professional I may be able to buy these items myself, but the excitement is no longer there. I excitement in receiving gifts has long faded away as well. But I still remember my happy moments when I got these gifts as a student. Its perhaps my turn now to encourage other students in my family and help them savor the precious moments.

Family games

As noted in my blog before, we are having a family reunion coming up. I was thinking about the various things we could do during our gathering and went flash back to my times in Mysore. We played a whole range of games during family gatherings .... most times, I would play the host. Here is a recollect of the games we enjoyed in our family:

• Antakshari (Kannada and Hindi) : One of my all time favorite games.
• Chowka Bharah (a board game using sea shells)
• Bingo / Housie-Housie
• Scrabble
• Dumb-Cherrads (rarely)
• Word building
• Puzzle solving
• Cards (Rummy, 28, Donkey, Hearts)

I would like to learn about your family games ...

Accident .... Emergency ... Action / No Action

2 days back, it was the birthday of my little one's friend. My little one so excited as if it were her own ... it just added to her excitement that the goodies bag she got had some cool toys for her ! Her favourite was a plastic whistle. I was playing with her and she accidentally tried to grab something and the whistle in her hand pierced my right eye. For a second, I was extremely scared and thought I was blind. After getting back to senses, I realised the pain and constant tearing. All I wanted to do was be sure I wasn't blind. I tried to open my eyes... but it was more difficult than I thought. With a lot of efforts, I finally opened my eyes and thanked my stars for being able to see.
Though my spouse insisted, we visit a doctor immediately since the tears never stopped and I couldn't open my eyes easily, I resisted the idea. Its a matter to time before the tears will stop I argued. But not the one to take it easy, my spouse dragged me to the Emergency room. (it was already 8:00pm ... so regular doctor check up was out of question). I always fear the emergency room visit especially after being there once in Las Vegas. The scene here was slighly different and less frightening. There were atleast 10 patients ahead of us, so it should take about an hour to 90mins we concluded. The wait here was very very exhausting, especially for my better half. The little was getting really restless since there was nothing which grabbed her attention there. A game of "Jute" would be a good bet she decided and started running around the place. After almost 90mins, we were called in for initial "Triage" where our details was verified and BP recorded. Then we were sent back to the waiting room again. We waited, and waited ... and still waited. There was no sign of any progress made. My query on how long it would take for my turn fell on deaf ears at the reception. By around 9:30pm, my sister and her husband joined us there. My little was hungry, frustrated, sleepy by now. So my spouse decided to head home, feed her and return back.
So, my waiting continued, this time with my sister and Brother-in-law for company. Finally around 10:00pm I was called inside. No one accompanied me. A male nurse practisioner led me to a hallway and wanted me to give an eye exam. I could see quite well with my left eye and read out the letters at a distance without any effort. But my right eye was still tearing and I said, it was hard for me to read. But he insisted that I read and I gave my best shot. I was taken to one of the beds and asked to rest there. I waited here for additional 45mins before the doctor examined me. She explained to me that there were some scratches on the cornea and then prescribled some medication. She also wanted me to consult an opthamologist. But she assured me that there was no cause of concern.
The next day I got my eye thoroughly examined and thankfully there was nothing seriously wrong.
Now I am doing just fine except that my vision is slightly blurred due to the medication. (well I am able to write this blog, so I must be doing more than just fine)
I will never forget the long wait in the emergency room. It was quite an experience.

Mother's Day

I don't remember which year I learnt that there was a day dedicated to "Mothers". But I do know that it was not until Engineering days that I knew about it. For me everyday was revolving around my mother rather amma , daddy and sister... so there was no reason for me to specifically remember amma. But when learnt about mother's day, I wanted to do something that would make my amma feel special. With limited budget (I didn't need pocket money since my parents took care of everything.), I would try to make amma feel happy. Sometimes it would be a simple heart felt wish and warm hug ! My amma never failed to see the warmth and the purity of wishes though.
This year I wanted to surprise her with something different. I have heard several horror stories of online identity thefts and was always apprehensive in buying things online. Most times, the payment sites were not secured and I felt vulnerable. This time, I found a good site which was secure and offered to deliver gifts to India. Before getting too excited, I wanted to ensure that delivery was available in Mysore as well.... to my luck it was available. The only problem was that only flowers, cakes or chocolates could be delivered. There wasn't a wide range of choice .. but I didn't want to step back. So I decided on a Black Forest cake. I knew my parents liked the taste and they would appreciate it. So placed the order.
I was happy that the site customer support folks replied back to my order queries without delays and the cake was delivered to my suprised amma on "Mother's day". I called up in the evening and I could almost see her smiling face and hear her excitement when she said "Thank you for the cake" ... I wish I could run to her and give her a warm hug ! Thank you amma for everything you have done to me ... you have been an absolutely wonderful amma, a great friend and strict desciplinarian .... I appreciate you for everything !
The only regret is that I had placed an order for a Black forest cake, but the cake delivered was a Chocolate cake. I hope someone who reads this blog could point me to good site which deliver gifts to Mysore.

Welcome weekend

Yesterday night, after a long time, we watched a friday movie, "Pukar" (Anil, Madhuri movie) after dinner. Our initial plan was to watch till interval and continue the next day. The idea was to go to bed early and go for an early morning hike the next day. But we got so engrossed in the movie that, we didn't realise that we had almost completed the movie .... so we decided to complete it anyways. It was obviously late by the time we went to bed. I was skeptical about the early morning hike we had planned.
As usual, we woke up to the "Weekend Bonus" .... an early rising ... thanks to my little one. So we decided make the best of the time and stick to our hiking plan. I quickly prepared tea and packed vegetable rolls, orange juice, water etc ... our backpack was ready. (ok... I know, we were going for a hike and picnic ... but with a child one must be prepared) We set out earlier than expected. Reached the ranch and found a convinient parking place. (the parking lot was full as were leaving) We put the little one on the stroller and she didn't complain for a change. We hiked for about 45 mins while the little one was busy with her recital. We spotted a mountain lion as well. We had completed a path and wanted to explore another trail. But it was past breakfast time and the little one would not compromise. So I decided to sit back to feed her and my spouse went for a jog. We headed back soon after and enjoyed our breakfast while driving back home.
Its been a great start to the weekend ! I hope we do this more often !

Sun rises in the east ... sets in the west

I went on an evening walk yesterday and enjoyed a wonderful sunset. The weather here is so good for the past 2 weeks that sometimes, I think we should go on a trek or to a beach everyday ... alas thats not possible!
The beautiful sunset reminded of the time I have thoroughly enjoyed nature's eternal beauty. In this post, I would like to remember the best sunrise and sunset I have seen so far.
I have always been an early bird. I woke up early almost everyday and enjoyed the morning sunrise from the terrace of our house in Mysore. I could see the complete view of the Chamundi hills and it only added to the glorious sun rise. But the best sun rise, I can never forget in my life time has to be the amazing experience at Kanyakumari. It was during the holidays after my first semester engineering exams. We were on a south india vacation. We reached Kanyakumari when the weather was almost perfect there. The serene beauty of the place captured our attention instantly and fell in love with the place. We knew that apart from the other things we wanted to do, enjoying the sun rise was a must. We checked into a beach side hotel and got up early in the morning (around 5:30am). We went to the terrace and waited with baited breath. The sun rise was so exotic that one had to see it to believe it. It was an amazing experience. Its been a while since, but this particular sun rise is still bright in my mind.

I was lucky to experience and equally amazing sun set as well. This happened in the fall of 2004. We had gone to Lake Tahoe .... again a family vacation. We had seen the Tahoe lake and were headed towards Reno. As we were driving, we noticed that the sun rays which were so intense all the while started turning golden orange. We were lucky to be close to a Vista point. We were not going to miss out a golden opportunity to see the sun setting behind the mountains with a clear lake to complete the picture. It was a great sun set ... I could almost see all the colors of the spectrum as the sun set. We captured some great pictures and everytime I see the pictures, I re-experience the sun set all over again.

I would have ended this blog right here .... but I happened to notice that my best sun rise was in the Eastern hemisphere and sun set in the western hemisphere :)

Vacation planning

Family gathering, family vacations (not just our family of 4, but all uncles, aunts and cousins) were somethings that I grew up on and always looked forwad to those. Exploring new places was just one part of the fun .... we cousins rocked the bus (pun intended) while travelling to these places. Antakshari was almost mandatory ... which more often than not ended up in some argument about the beginning of the song ! The adults took part in Antakshari as well. How could I forget those yummy snacks we ate almost non stop. It was a unspoken / unwritten rule that every family would get atleast 4 snacks. I can never forget the kodbale, chakkali, benne biscuit, sajappa, Khara puri, Kobbari mittai etc. (all these are famous snacks in Karnataka).
Since the time I moved to the US, family trips are limited to just me, my spouse and my little one. Occasionally, its my sister and her husband. Some of my cousins, who had as much fun as me in the childhood family trips, found the idea of a family union in the US quite exciting. We decided that we should all meet up atleast once a year. This idea June 2005. It has taken almost a year to materialise. This year, we have finally decided to meet up in Florida during the May long weekend.
Narrowing the location to Florida was a herculean task in itself. If one family wanted to meet in Texas, the other families found it not so glamorous. If one suggested Southern California, the other had other social obligations there .... the ideas bouced back and forth for 2 weeks. It almost appeared to me that, we might not make it this long weekend as well. But finally we decided on Florida. Though booking flight in the nth minute was going to be expensive, we decided to go for it anyways.
Once the flights were booked, car rental and accomodation almost seemed effortless. Now we have everything in place. I just cannot wait for the long weekend ... I haven't been to Florida and I am looking forward to those sunny beaches. Most important of it all.... I am looking forward to meeting up my family and making memories.

Whats there in the number !!

I always talk to my parents over weekend. If I don't talk to them first thing saturday mornings, something keeps haunting me the entire day and I lose my peace of mind. Its become such a strong practice that, I don't even bother to prepare the tea on saturday mornings... so my spouse prepares strong masala chai, while I am busy purchasing the calling card to India.
This week was an exception in that, I could not talk to daddy saturday morning as he was not available then. So I had to call up in the evening. During our discussion he mentioned about the parties he attended in honour of his retirement, the various gifts he received, tons of fruits and fresh garlands he had got. While we were busy chatting on various subjects, he mentioned that the new phone was grey in color and the instrument had a caller id feature as well. He said he had made a request to the telephone dept to retain the old number. We had bought new washer / dryer and I "had to" share the details of the same with my parents. So we switched topics and discussed various things before saying good bye.
Come monday evening and I couldn't wait to talk to daddy about his new role experience. I tried calling home, but no one was picking the phone. That was unusual ... daddy would go to work at 6:30am and it was just 6:15am ... my daddy has been so punctual in leaving to work that we almost can set our watch time to 6:30am when he steps out for work. And amma doesn't usually go out so early .... since there was no response, perhaps both amma and daddy went for a morning walk they had always planned I concluded. I called up later after 3 hours and this time the phone was engaged. I waited for half an hour longer and called up again .... the phone kept ringing but there was no response ... now my heart began to beat faster. My parents always tell me if they planned to go out of station ... so they are in probability in station ... but then my grandpa was supposed to undergo a cataract operation in B'lore ... did they make a last minute decision to visit grandpa ?? But then daddy had mentioned that he could not afford leave when I told him that he deserved a vacation before starting his new assignment. A million thoughts ran through my mind in nano seconds ... I was confused / concerned at the same time. I could not sleep well that night.
The next day morning, I rushed to my mails and behold ... a mail from amma waited me ! The subject read phone number change ! That was enough to calm me and put me to ease. What a relief that was ... I called up daddy / amma and had a quick chat with them before heading to work.
I came back home and shared my experience with my sister ... only to learn that she had gone through the same the previous night !