70th Birthday - Surprise visit and more ...

 The idea to visit my daddy for his 70th birthday germinated sometime during the Christmas break of 2016 ... during our Cancun visit. The thought of surprising him was very very enticing, but I had visited India in summer and had almost emptied my vacation hours at work. I also changed groups at work place, so the comfort level with the manager / Biz associates was low. There was also the possibility of kids CASSP exams, tournaments ...and of course money involved.
 The idea was discussed with sister .... she had similar considerations along with the fact that her kid was younger. She kept postponing the decision till late january. I had by then started enquiring different travel agents for a price quote. I was surprised that the ticket fare was not very high considering March is non seasonal / non peak time for travel from US to India.
 Around this time, there were some site problems that my parents were facing in India. Some illegal occupants claiming to have the right paper work over my parent's site. This caused a lot of grief to my parents, especially dad. He put off any discussions on this matter, saying he would leave the matter in the hands of capable officers, God willing, everything would be settled in his favor. But we all knew this was his way of avoiding any discussions,  he was deeply saddened by the events . My mama emailed me one fine day, saying he met daddy and he seem to have lost a lot of weight and he felt his health needed attention. He also warned saying that daddy had taken the site matter to heart which had affected his health.
 That was it ... I could not debate any further with my sister or circumstances here in the US. I had to make that trip to India in March. Husband was very supportive, infact, he had been the one encouraging me to make that trip terming all my considerations as unimportant. To him, parent is above all ... no money, no career, no kid exam should stop one from being there for the parent. Anyways, when I told the sister I was making that trip irrespective of her situation, she wanted 2 days to sort out her side. Things fell in place, and sister also decided to make that trip. So we booked our tickets. This was the first time in 16 years of marriage, I was going to India with my sister and no kids. The trip itself was very short. We left on a friday and were back the following monday...but boy what a trip it was.... so so satisfying.
 We left US on 10th march, 2017 and landed 12th early morning in Bengaluru. Sister's FIL was at the airport to receive us. We rested / ate breakfast with sister's ILs and went to my IL's house. We had booked the taxi in advance, thanks to my aunt. Quick hello to my niece, and wave to my aunt, we headed to Mysore around 11:00am on 12th. Although we had barely slept in the flight, both sister and me were highly energetic. We couldn't get enough of all the planning ...

Day 1 :(sunday)  We managed to pack few return gifts in the ride to Mysore :) We had carried the return gifts / gift bags / sweet boxes / chocolates from US.We reached Mysore around 1:30pm. Parents were taking their afternoon nap when we knocked on the door. Daddy opened the door was extremely surprised to see us ... he couldn't believe his eyes for few minutes. We settled down and got down to Biz the same evening. We had catering / venue booking / gift packing / purchases to tackle and couldn't really put it off ...
 We placed the order for a yummy pineapple pastry and headed for venue hunting along with my parents and V mama and aunty. After going through few places, we settled on Ruchi the Prince.  It had a great outdoor space, stereo system , lighting. We discussed the table arrangement and took our time to finalize the rich dinner menu. ... Watermelon juice, Aloo chat, vegetable pakoda, Tomato soup, papad, vegetable biryani, corn salad, rasam, rice, curd rice, naan, navratan korma, daal, bhindi masala, mango ice cream, gajar halwa , meeta paan and banana :)   I am boggled with how much food we eat ... We made personal phone calls to all invitees because not many had a clue about our visit. Only my aunt, V mama knew ....

 Day 2 (monday): We headed to the mall for shopping clothes. Since it was a short visit, ended buying clothes for kids back home as well. Parents bought us clothes too ... grabbed a quick lunch in the mall and went to the jewelry store and bought a pair of gold studs for mom. Also bought sweets for all our guests and started packing the return gifts. The gift set included a set of kitchen towels (in the form of cute baby frocks), kesar pedas, chocolates, and cash for 1st family circle members. We also prepared games to be played during the party. We had bought table mat sets from US as prizes for the games.

Day 3 (tuesday): Daddy's 70th birthday... we were excited as family members from B'lore started coming home. The house atmosphere instantaneously turned festive :) We debated on our clothes to wear for the party, joked about each other, decided on mode of transport to the venue ... basically did stuff that families do when they gather together.
 Sister, me and my aunt went first to the venue to ensure the table arrangements were done exactly how we had instructed them. We were glad they were, we only had to make minor adjustments. We also neatly arranged the "Receiving table" with gifts, arishiNa pottaNa and prizes for the games. Set up a special cake table (we carried special table clothes, chair covers from US) Guests slowly started arriving and were extremely pleased with the arrangement. We ensured we welcomed each family personally so daddy / mom could just relax and enjoy the evening.
 We started off the evening inviting few family members on stage and recollect some memories they share with my dad. I was moved with all the heart felt messages / memories / words of appreciation / love family / friends had for my dad. A very humbling / touching experience it was ..
 We cut the cake, started with the Antakshari with a twist. The teams were divided into Kalpana, Aarthi, Ramesh and Ambarish :) Crowd was enthusiastic ... the food kept flowing fresh / hot off the stove. There was mass request for a game of Bingo and we played the same as dinner was served.
 Everyone seem to have a great time. We took pictures, ensured guests were attended / fed. The night ended around 10:30pm and we got back home to prepare for the Sathyanarayan pooja the next morning.

Day 4 (wednesday): The day started early ... once we were ready, we headed to V mama's house where breakfast was arranged. We wanted to help ... but apparently our aunts / uncles the experienced ones already had everything taken care. We spent sometime with them and came back home. The pooja started on time, family members arrived on time as well. It was a hot day, so we served juice to cool down the heat ... The pooja ended right around lunch time, and the caterers arrived just in time. Chairs were cleared, plantain leaves laid out and food was served. The food was not great, but the mood, atmosphere more than made up for it. Once lunch was taken care, we all stretched and laughed and joked some more, took pictures and soon it was time for Bangalore families to leave. We thanked them for their short visit ... and they assured us that they wouldn't miss it for anything. We finally relaxed that night, after all the travel from US for only for these 2 days and we had achieved what we came for. It was extremely well spent and daddy was extremely pleased with the way the days were spent.

Day 5 (thursday): It was a day we just lazed around ... morning breakfast from a restaurant, fab india shopping, some more shoe shopping, clothes shopping, sugar cane juice, bhel puri ...

Day 6 (friday): Lunch at V mama's house, day spent with chikkamma, of course shopping and eating ....Bought sweets, packed stuff, ate puff / sponge cake from Raghavendra bakery, parents bought some more gifts / clothes for us / kids.

Day 7 (saturday) : Started early to arrive in B'lore chatra at 8:00pm. It was cousin P's baby shower. Yummiest masala dose / dumroot breakfast ... mingled some more with extended family. Visited ILs place again ... said our good byes to everyone and came to the airport.

Day 8 (sunday) : Flight delay ... 1:30am slight postponed to 4:00am .... time spent in B'lore airport was very very tiring .... but then arrived on time in California to be greeted by husband and kids. Didn't sleep a wink in the flight ... I guess sister and I memorized the "Who wants to be millionaire" question / answers. The kids were delighted to see me back ... they loved their gifts and sweets ...

The next few days were spent in terrible jet lag ... although I had to work. But overall the short visit to India was memorable in all ways ... every penny spent on the trip was well spent.

Ring Challenge

I have embarked on my first ever "Health" related challenge. It is called "Close your Ring" challenge. The point is to close all 3 rings (Move (Red), Exercise (Green) and Stand (blue)) rings on the Apple Watch for the next month. This Closed rings are to be achieved atleast 5-6 times a week. Hubby and I are competing to get the rings closed.
 Yesterday was Day 1 and I was able to close the Green and Red rings. The Blue one was stuck at 75% :( Husband was able to close all 3 rings. Today morning I was talking to my manager and happened to tell her that the blue ring is hard to achieve. She gave me quick tip ... "Move your feet" atleast few mins every hour. You should be able to close it. Yesterday I kept standing almost the entire afternoon working on my raised workstation. Apparently that is not enough .... I need to move around to have my stand ring to account for it.

Well now that I have extra information, I am all geared up to conquer the Blue ring today. I have already completed Green ... red is almost there... and it is only 9:30am. I am hoping I am able to close the Blue one today ...
  

Cruel experience

I came to office at usual time 9:10am. I recognized the SUV in the parking lot .. it belonged to my manager. I made notes of the things I wanted to discuss with him today. We usually discussed about pending issues first thing in the morning since we got caught up in meetings almost all day long.
My manager sat in the cubicle next to mine. As I entered my cubicle, I saw my manager's manager by his cubicle. She stood there waiting for something.... perhaps a print out she wanted from him I thought and quietly entered my cubicle. As I settled, I heard some noises of desk/chair being pulled, wires untangled, coins being emptied from lockers etc ... "He must be really searching hard for those print outs" I thought. Someone from the neighboring cubicle even joked "Hey, you seem to have a lot of money" and he said "Yes, I have".
Within 5 minutes or so, everyone seemed settled ... no more voices heard, noises disappeared ... "Back to work" I said to myself and continued to read through the mails in my inbox.
As I was reading through the mails, my manager's manager stopped by my desk and said "Can I see you in my office for a few minutes?" I was surprised at first but nonetheless followed her to her office. We settled into the chairs around the small round table in her office. She started "There has been some changes in our team which might have an impact on you. Today is the last day of your manager in this company". I froze ... didn't I discuss a million things over the past few days with my manager and in none of those discussions was there a hint of his quitting ... didn't he mention even last evening about the slides we needed to include in design sessions to be played early April? Didn't he schedule a meeting only last evening? Was this something he knew about ? Why didn't we have any Knowledge Transfer sessions arranged considering he alone was handling some important stuff? - Many other questions buzzed in my head within a fraction of a second.
My manager's manager continued "I would like you to take on all his responsibilities until we find a suitable replacement". I nodded ... language/words chose to abandon me ... I couldn't speak ... "I'll set aside 1 on 1 time with you on monday to discuss specifics" I mumbled and walked out of her office.
I HAD to talk to my manager to understand what had transpired between last evening and this morning. I went straight to his cube ... but he had left. I hoped to talk to him during the day ... but he never showed up again in office.

Today was my first hand experience of seeing someone being laid off. What's more, he was my reporting manager. The experience was quite chilling to say the least.

Onake Obavva

Last evening I was trying to explain my daughter who "Obavva" was. (For the uninitiated: Obavva was a brave lady of Chitradurga, wife of a guard, who sacrifices her life to save her kingdom from enemies.)
Try as much I did to explain her the story, I was not able to put the best words to explain Obavva's martyrdom to my daughter. I was reminded to this wonderful song from the Movie "NagaraHavu". (besides being a great movie, it has some unforgettable songs). "Kannada Nadina Veera Ramani" song is one of my all time favorite songs. The rendition by P.B.Srinivas is just great ... but the song is par excellence because of Obavva's act depicted by actress Jayanthi. (in cameo).
This song being my dad's favorite as well ... he had trained me in it when I was barely 8-9 yrs old. I have sung this song in several competitions and have won many prizes. There was this one time when my teacher who was so impressed with my rendition of the song in our school competition suggested I sing the same song for District level singing competition. She even brought a cassette recorder to the competition and recorded my song. The speciality of this song was everytime I sang it, I got teary... so did my teacher. Just went on to show how much my teacher cared for me and our bonding.
Anyways, I digress ... so yesterday, in order to better explain Obavva's story, I played the song to my daughter on youtube. She watched it attentively. Obavva's death in the end started to haunt her... she could never understand why someone as brave as her could be killed ... but she appreciated her bravery and loved the video. She also understood the story much better than what I had tried to explain.

I hadn't heard this song in a very long time ... but yesterday when I heard it, I surprised myself by not only singing along without forgetting the lyrics .... but also crying at the end of the song.
Some songs are so touching, they never fail to stir you.

Sanskrit language - A class of its own

One of the few reasons I regret taking up Engineering was I missed learning Sanskrit language. I was introduced to this beautiful language very early in life in the form of shlokas. My parents taught me several shlokas as a kid and also explained the meaning of the same a lot of times. Performing pooja on various festivals increased my exposure to this language. I studied in Hindi medium school (meaning Hindi was the first language in Kendriya Vidyalaya, I studied. In fact Social studies was in Hindi ... anyway I digress). So I was familiar with the script of Sanskrit. (Hindi and Sanskrit have very similar script)
I could neither talk nor understand any conversation happening in Sanskrit.

And then high school happened. Sanskrit was my first language. Parents chose this language for me perhaps because it was easier to score better marks in the all important 10th and Pre-University exams. Anyways, I will always be thankful for me for making this choice. They introduced me to a beautiful language which had mesmerizing prose and lovely poetry. The Sanskrit grammar is rich and vast that one could spend their life time appreciating and understanding it in totality. I specifically loved working on "Chchandassu" ... and I how I can I ever forget those immortal lines of "Subhashitas" ??
Quote:
"Vjradapi kathoRani, Mruduni Kusumadapi
LotottaraaNam chetamsi Kohi Vigyantumarhasi"
- Genious lines ....

It helped that I had very good Sanskrit teachers who made sure we learnt our Ramaha, Ramao, Ramaaha along with appreciating the beauty of the language. I seriously considered pursuing higher studies in Sanskrit Literature ... but alas other interests took precedence.
Its been almost 13 long years since I have read anything in Sanskrit. Its a pity I have almost forgotten what I had learnt ...

Which is your favourite language?

Nepali Goddess

Nepali Goddess ??

I am in the state of shock ... right now. I don't know what to say or write except that I am sad .. very sad.
Sad not just for the little girl's future, but also all the tests mentioned in this article.

I have not witnessed this personally nor do I have a Nepali friend to check with. But if what is written in the article is true, then I am at loss of words !!

Ganesha Chaturthi

This year Ganesha Chaturthi was celebrated with so much enthusiam. This inspite of us coming back from our vacation to Los Angeles and San Diego just the previous day. Thanks to my mother, everything was so well done ... it didn't seem like we had just arrived from our summer vacation.

 The reason for this post, to detail out the menu

Gowri Habba:

* Saaru

* Anna

* Bisi Bele Bhath

* Raitha

* Carrot Palya

* Mosaranna

* Bele Obbattu

Ganesha Habba

* Gasa Gase Payasa

* Saaru

* Beans Palya

* Karida Kadubu

* Kola Katte

* Chatni

* Hagala Kayi Gojju

* Mosaranna

Our house Charpu : Ganesha Mangalarthi was on 5th 2008

* Chikki

* Cocoa Benne Biscuit

* Huliyavalakki

* Fruit Salad served at home for guests

* Mixture (Karida Avalakki)

* Banana

* Orange

Sister's house Charpu:

* Chakkali

* Huliyavalakki

* Shalya Anna

* Ribbon Pakoda

* Gasa Gase payasa (served at home for the guests)

* Rave Laddu

* Banana

* Orange

Thank you Amma ... I knew you were totally exhausted at the end of the week ... but your efforts are truly appreciated.

Divine Concert

Last Sunday Sep 7th 2008, I had the lucky opportunity of attending the divine concert of Violin Maestro Duo Mysore Nagaraj and Dr. Mysore Manjunath. The vidwans entertained the crowd with kritis after kritis. Both their individual styles was unique... Vidwan Nagaraj's music was extremely melodious while Dr. Manjunath's music was filled with calculated swaras.
The concert started off with Varna in Natakuranji. This was followed by kritis in Shanmukhapriya, ShankaraBharana, Raagamaalika, Suddha Dhanyasi to name a few and the concert concluded with Tillana in Hamsanandi. While all the kritis were simply superb, the Raagamaalika was just out of this world. I was so spellbound that it just brought tears of joy in me. All in all it was an out of the world experience for me.
It had been almost 8 years since I attended a live concert. I must say sunday's experience was totally humbling.

My true Hero

A little girl hurt her thumb, when she hit against the wall. Her mom ran to her, consoled her and tried to divert her attention to various other things around the house. There was no sore , or blood on the thumb. The girl held her thumb upright the whole day and in the evening her dad came. The magic rub of the thumb by her dad, followed with affectionate words seem to make a differnce. The pain on the thumb was soon forgotten. (wonder if there was any pain at all in the first place)
The little girl soon started school. She did quite well academically. She was enrolled in a school where the first langauage was Hindi. Her parents felt that Hindi Prachar sabha exams would help her with the new language. Her dad donned the role of a hindi teacher. The language was new to him as well ... but he never once showed his nervousness to the little girl. Before the girl turned 7, she had passed her "Maadhyama exmas" ... thanks to her dad. She was now comfortable enough to have a good conversation in Hindi. Along with her curriculum, the school encouraged all their kids to participate in Co-curricular activities. While the mom took the role of Arts / Music / drawing teacher, her dad took it upon himself to encourage his daughter to participate in Essay writing /monoacting / recitation / debate etc. Whether a prize was won or not, their encouragement did not stop. Of course, they tried to encourage the girl in sports as well ... but the girl did not show much on interest in that area. Soon, the girl graduated to Middle school. Her dad helped out in every possible way in her science projects and debate competitions. He was careful in his involvement ... he never once spoon fed. He always encouraged the girl to think out of the box. High school and college saw the girl take regular mathematics and physics lessons from her dad. She now discussed most subjects under the sun be it cricket matches or politics or a problem in Integratiom, or soaring petrol rates and its implication to common man ... she discussed everything with her dad. Soon she earned her Bachelors degree and found a good job in a different city. Her dad accompanied her first day to the office. After ensuring that his daughter's needs in the new city was met, the dad returned back to his hometown.
Then one fine day, the girl got married ... just a couple of days after the wedding, the girl had to locate to a different country to join her husband. The dad gave his most precious possession , his daughter away to this gentleman, her husband with a heavy heart. The girl started living in a differnt country ... her interactions with her dad / mom was not as much as it once used to be. But she always involved them in her world... though remotely. That girl is none other than me and today, I have a little daughter and am enjoying a whole new experience that life has to offer.
But dad, I cannot say enough things about you ...
I may not have been the best daughter one could have, but you still were there for me, when I needed you.
I may not have fulfilled your dreams by becoming an IAS officer, but you have never once complained about my choice of profession.
I may not have done a lot more things that you I could do for you ... but you never once expected anything from me.
Thank you daddy ... thank you for everything. You are truly a gem of a person .... I may have never said this to you ... but "You are my true Hero" ... my most admired person in whole entire world.
HAPPY FATHER"S DAY !