Shoe Shot

Scene -We are on our way to optometrist for our routine eye check-up.

Avi askes - Where are we going ?

I answer -To see an eye doctor !

Neev goes -No, I don't want to get a 'shoe shot' ! (Recent visit to Doc for flu shot prompted the response which came out as 'shoe shot' instead of 'flu shot')

Holiday Lights

A beautiful drive through the Vasona lake County Park , Los Gatos for half an hour of glitz and sparkles. City decorates the park with massive decorative lights every year. Our wait was not too bad and well worth it. Avi's favorite part was the Dinosaur Park and Neev's -watching Santa playing basketball. Ours - listening to the boys chit chatting.

Halloween 2009

Avi, a pirate and Neev a Lion cub. Couple of Halloween Parties, lots of spooky games, visit to pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving (and Avi insisted that it stays on his bed side with the battery operated color changing candle inside), celebrating 'day of the dead' by decorating a special bread in shape of a doll , winning a raffle for movie tickets, visiting the haunted house and a huge stash of candies from trick or treating. It is getting better every year.

Fall Festival @ North Park

On Saturday North Park Village hosted a party for its residents - food from different cultures, wine, live music, children's safety fair and a fashion show for children. Avi and Neev rocked in their cultural outfit round, casual round and Halloween costume round. Neev was a bit nervous walking the ramp but big brother Avi held his hand, walked with him, gave a pose with folding arms , blew flying kisses to the crowd and took a graceful bow. My little handsome models stole the show and was I proud - oh yeah !

Festivals....fiesta...friends...frolic..fun - Karvachauth and Diwali 2009

After we moved out of Milwaukee, I'd been celebrating Karvachauth alone. Thankfully this year broke the lone continuation of that and my friends and I got together to observe the fast followed by feast in the evening. The night before Karvachauth my friend adorned my hands with 'Mehendi' despite her super busy schedule. She is a professional and the season of festivals is pretty busy for her. It could not be any more convenient for me since we live in the same building and I went @ 10 PM after returning from getting a facial at Club One Spa in Santana Row (Yep, this visit was part of the gift card my sweet husband presented me on Mother's day this year. Andrea,my aesthetician turned out to be quite an interesting person, an Engineer in day time, a writer in leisure time but her passion is learning about peels and facials. I could feel it in her voice as she started telling me about the 10% lactic acid application she put on my face. 'No need to be worried , she said, its going to brighten your face'). Back to Mehendi - Swati still had 2 clients waiting for her at that hour. Thanks Swati - it meant so much to me that you squeezed me in just because I had mentioned to you that I would love to put Mehendi on Karvachauth. The last time I put Mehendi was more than 5 years back. I had forgotten how much I love the smell of it. I left it overnight only to wake up several times in between to apply lemon juice and sugar on it. I woke up to sweet smelling hands and a rich beautiful color of red - my favorite ! I remember growing up, we celebrated 'Teej' and I loved getting my hands done with Mehendi. Those were the days when mom fed me by her hands because I did not want the Mehendi to get messed up. Those were the days when she would scratch an itch on my back or knee because I was particular about not doing anything to get that Mehendi mushed. Those were the days when she would tuck wisps of my hair behind the ears because my attempt to blow them off my face would fail and I did not want to take a chance with my Mehendi by touching them. On a light note, those were the days when she helped me to the bathroom because......obviously how could I ?  :) And then there was wedding Mehendi ! My mom, sister, friends and I applied it together the day before my wedding. This was the most special Mehendi of course. Half of my arms and legs were decorated with intricate, thin patterns of auspicious 'kalash' and 'soorya'. Cousins fed us chai and snacks and danced in front of us on 'मेंहदी है रचने वाली, होठों पे गहरी लाली, कुछ सखियाँ, कुछ खुशियाँ ये तुझको मिलने वाली हैं, तेरे मन को जीवन को नयी खुशियाँ मिलने वाली हैं' और 'मेंहदी लगायुंगी मैं सजना के नाम की'। Such vivid memories of Mehendi ! The first day after wearing Mehendi was all about not putting any water on it or lets just say, minimum exposure to it so the color , oh that vibrant red -maroonish color could stay bright for the longest time possible. And it was manageable then since all I had to do was - well nothing at all ! Many years and two kids later Swati's advice of no exposure of water to Mehendi next day was met by my questioning/statement making tone "you know that I do have to change diapers". She laughed and said 'just use gloves' :)
Our preparations of Karvachauth party had been going on for 3 weeks in advance and it had become quite a talk of the town, er........North Park. Lots of friends wanted to join in and we all were very excited. 50 or so threads of emails later we were all set with menu, music. dress code and a plan to have fun.
I hosted 'puja' at my place in the evening , decorated it with sarees, dupattas and candles with Gayatri Mantra playing in the background. All of us dressed ourselves just a bit shy of looking like a bride. And man oh man, did we look resplendent ? Well, the husbands thought so :) Everyone's puja thali was beautiful. Decorated with colorful rice, velvet paper and shiny threads, complete with sindoor, diya, sweets and water and covered with golden handkerchiefs. Yes, its those careful details in our routine life which make festive occasions not only special and exclusive but also essential to break away from quotidian life.
After a round of clicking pictures, we sat down to do 'puja'. I read "Karvachauth Vrat Katha' and we did 'Aarti' together. We did not let Aparna stop just at 'Aarti' and she sang a melodious 'ghazal' afterwards. She has a beautiful voice. Later we all headed to courtyard , lit the fire place and waited for 'Chandradev' to come up. He finally did and we all performed rituals of 'Chandradarshan' thru' the strainer , offered water and did 'Aarti' of our beloved husbands and prayed for their long life and well being. It was time to dig in now with all the mouthwatering food on the table - matar paneer, chole, aalu sabzi, dahi-vada, salad, pulao, puris, gulab-jamun, halwa and chai. It was a little crisp in the late evening but fire-place and chai did its work. I had a great time with my friends.
A week and a half later we celebrated Diwali at home , did 'Lakshmi Puja' and lit candles and 'diyas' around the house. The next day our apartment community organized a Diwali Party and a lot of Indian residents of North Park joined in. Kids had fun running up and down in the clubhouse and later lighting fire crackers.
Festivals are lot of fun and frolic and they double the joy when you celebrate them with family and friends. There is a reason these F's go together.

A day at 'Zeum', San Francisco

This Saturday we visited Zeum, Children's Museum in down town San Francisco. Highlights-
Clay Modeling where Avi chose the theme 'space man'. We made 2 robots, one car and one dog and then turned our models in an animation movie by putting them in front of a background of a space, clicking pictures in different positions. The movie turned out to be like this - The team of 2 space men and a dog land on a planet with their space car, climb on a rock and then climb down.

Avi did karaoke singing with Hollywood written in background. He sang 'itsy bitsy spider'. We got the DVD made.

Neev enjoyed running on the slide watching himself on the screen where it showed like he was jumping into fire.

On Sunday we went to Neev's friend's Mahirah's birthday party. On my way to the steps, my shiny slippers broke. I was going to drive back to get another pair but decided to stay back and be barefeet . My friends understood and I don't think anyone else noticed :) The only sad part was that these were one of my wedding pairs. Anurag's take - they lasted 9 years, now you have to let them RIP.

Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Salt Lake City, Amtrak

The vacation we were so.......looking forward to for last 2 months came and went. My first line sounds sad only because I am depressed that we wont have this long a vacation (11 days)anytime soon. We had such an amazing time that returning back to grind of life seems just that - grind ! May be talking about it would cheer me up. We started on 3rd morning at 4 AM. Even though we went to bed at 8PM , no one really slept through except Neev. Avi kept going back and forth between his and our bed, asking,'is it time yet?' Finally at 3AM we jumped out of bed, showered, gave David a wake up call (Anurag's colleague who was very sweet to insist that he would drop us off at train station). Yep, we did not fly, we took train - Amtrak, something we had been wanting to do for years - a long train trip. It was half the excitement of our vacation, not only for us but also for our friends who are still asking 'how was the train trip' instead of 'how was the vacation'. Avi and Neev had watched the train trip episodes of 'Cailou' and built a volcano complete with bubbling lava with their daddy and were all set for the train trip to Yellowstone.

Their experience was not much different from what was on TV. A courteous attendant helped us board on California Zephyr's sleeping car with our luggage, showed our cabin and offered coffee and juice. We could not wait to explore but first on the list was breakfast in dining car. Sumptuous omelets filled with vegetables and cheese, hash browns and warm croissants, french toast and hot oatmeal was what we picked. Friendly staff made the experience even better. They asked Avi to draw train on the table cover which he duly did with lots of smoke fuming from the engine. Meanwhile we checked out the passing by city, factories and walls full with graffiti. Not much different from India in that respect, I thought.

Stuffed with breakfast , I did not think I could be back in dining car for lunch soon. We made our way to the lounge car , also called observation car. Seats on both side overlooking the wide windows stretched on the ceilings , it offered a great view and scenery most of the way. On the speakers, the driver filled us in on all the historical places and told stories as we passed through them. Kids loved passing through the tunnels, specially the one which was about 2 miles long. They covered the whole length of the train several times by going up and down, pushing the buttons between cars, Neev waiving 'how u doing' to every single person he met and saying 'yeah' and nodding when people said how cute he was. There was another young and lovely Indian couple traveling in train and we found a lot of 'we too' things with them such as they moved to USA at the same time as us, they moved from SoCal to Bay area also the same time as us. Geeta has a degree in child psychology and no wonder she hit it off very well with the kids. Her husband Vicky lost $100 to her on the bet that they would not find another Indian family/person traveling in Amtrak. I had to console him that the money was still in family. They were also getting off at Salt Lake City and our arrival time there was the only thing that sucked. 3 AM was too early to wake up two days in a row . Our car rental was scheduled at 7 AM and we had to kill 4 hours in the waiting room (we kept that much of margin, given we are used to Indian trains getting late all the times). Well, Amtrak surprised us, not so pleasantly in this case by getting there EARLY. I am so thankful for Geeta and Vicky's company and warm weather, the time did fly off at the train station. Geeta and Avi played hopscotch , rescued mommy from bears and sang 'boom chick a boom' and several other versions of it. Avi and Neev climbed on the metal luggage attached to the rocks (I think that was a great idea to beautify a train station), kicked pebbles , watched other big trains and basically had fun. Thankfully those 3-4 hours did not seem too long. At 6.30 we took a cab, went to airport and the nice lady at Hertz upgraded us to a spacious minivan. We settled, put Neev's Cd's in and buckled up for my husband's dream vacation - Yellowstone (another one is South Africa) ! The kids drifted off as soon as Anurag put the key in and I wanted to do the same but sipped my caffeine instead so I could give my hubby company and have some uninterrupted talk with him which we seem to have only when the situation is exactly like this - long drive, kids sleeping . Salt Lake City is HUGE and surrounded by mountains. We have become so used to seeing atleast 5 Indian faces at every stop light in bay area that it felt different traveling in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and not spotting anyone from India. That's why we were very surprised when we reached the West Yellowstone and checked in our hotel to see that it is run by an Indian family based in Reno. We asked very hopefully if there was any Indian restaurant too but there wasn't any (Lake Tahoe, CA had an Indian restaurant, Las Vegas had one too so I had high hopes). West Yellowstone is at the west entrance of Yellowstone, a typical small tourist town. While Checking out the town we realized there was s huge crowd of Indian visitors so my suggestion to Indy Johal, manager of our hotel - open an Indian restaurant as well and I bet it would be a smart business decision. I know Neev could not get his favorite 'khichadi' there but some 'dal chaawal' would have been soul warming to him. He ate poorly through out the week and survived on oatmeal, cereal, milk , yogurt and multi-vitamins. Avi thankfully was adventurous with food and enjoyed whatever the place offered.

The afternoon we reached Yellowstone, the agenda was to just shower, eat, rest and sleep , in that order but the kids just wanted to jump on the beds. Last two days of train excitement and erratic sleep did not keep them for long (thankfully) and we all retired to our beds early before waking up in the morning to step in Yellowstone National Park.

Our annual pass allowed us to bypass the long lines of cars waiting to pay the day tickets and we saved a great deal of time. As we entered inside the west gate, begun our amazement at the enormity, natural history, wild life , serenity and the beauty of it all. We were able to see and enjoy most of the attractions in both south loop and north loop during our stay but hiking and camping was not our plan this time simply because of the children. Other than the natural attractions we also enjoyed the lodges that we stopped at. Made of wood and stone, they were a perfect place to take a beak and relax in the evening and still feel all the amazement at the beauty of Yellowstone because they are designed to do just that. Huge timbers, logs, stone fireplaces and antlers are among the few things that left us mesmerized. Old faithful Inn's porch was a perfect place to sit on rockers and watch old faithful geyser erupt 150 feet high. Its definitely some sight. Our other favorite in south loop was Midway Geyser basin with hot water falls and grand prismatic spring. The colors of the spring are just spectacular. 

Hot Mammoth spring in the north loop is not to be missed. Years of water erosion has formed steps like structures and the colors of bacterial mat are just amazing. Its a beautiful landscape of terraces sculpted by travertine limestone. This area’s unique scenery is created by hot, acidic water ascending through ancient limestone deposits — resulting in the travertine terraces.The view of grand mountains and the spring from the lodge side is majestic.

South and North loop are different. South loop has lot of thermal activity, fumaroles (steam vents), huge waterfalls and beautiful vistas packed with herds of bison, deer , moose , coyotes and wolves and it has charming Hayden Valley where you just want to pull up your car at a turn out and look at the beautiful vista of this national park.

In the bginning of North Loop lies the caldera of Yellowstone , also refered as Super Volcano and you feel amazing putting your feet in the very middle of the same ground which exploded 650,000 years ago. At Yellowstone, the caldera is so big that it includes a fair amount of the entire park. In fact, it is so big that scientists confirmed that the region had a caldera by looking at photographs from space.

North loop also has the view of grand canyon of Yellowstone , mammoth hot springs and towards east is Lamar valley with most concentration of Grizzlies. Lamar Valley is characterized by huge boulders which look like they are all strategically placed all over this area. We got a chance to see a pack of spotted deer very close to us in the valley. Speaking of wildlife we got to see LOT of bison , deer ,coyotes and bald eagle. We did not encounter a grizzly and did not want to return from Yellowstone without seeing one so last day of our vacation in National Park was spent watching the 'Grizzly and Wolf show' and learning a a few things about them. Avi and Neev loved running inside the Bear trap put on display (a tunnel like thing used to trap bears). They could not care less about watching the Wolves and Bears but climbing up and down on the made up mountains and going inside and running outside of the teepee tent was fun.

Anurag and I hope to return to this delicate ecosystem that is home to Old Faithful and two-thirds of the world’s geysers; where grizzly bears, wolves and other abundant wildlife roam freely. This is again one of those places where you lie on the ground (careful with staying on tracks because thermal activity is everywhere and you never know where your feet can sink in with acidic fluid capable of burning through your boots) look at the sky above and contemplate your existence in this world, in this universe. You think about natural history, your ancestors, evolution and the future of it and you think about the true meaning of hardships, passion and discovery. Without anyone telling you, you educate yourself because your imagination goes wild. You need those thoughts to put everything in perspective- that's what vacations are for. So you can come back relaxed, ready to focus on whats important. 

On the last day we drove through the Grand Teton National Park , located in north western Wyoming. We witnessed a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains and pristine lakes.The scenery is different from yellowstone and we were captivated by the abrupt vertical rise of the jagged Teton Range contrasts with the horizontal sage-covered valley and glacial lakes at their base. Anurag and I kept debating if the white part on top and in between the mountains was snow or something else. As we got closer it became clear that it was snow. The lodges in Grand Teton were again lovely and warm.

We exited Grand Teton to Jackson and said bye to the national Parks. The next 300 miles of Idaho and Wyoming were open space, ranches with beautiful wood fencing, animals farms, huges bales of hay and a travel through a canvas of beautiful painting. After spending a week out there the entry to Salt Lake City's was flashy and my feeling was 'why couldn't we just stay back'. The only thing I looked forward to was Indian food. Thankfully there was Ganesh Indian Cuisine only 2 miles from our hotel. First time in the week, neev opened his mouth wide for rice,paneer, raita and naan, dosa , papad and biryani. Now all we needed was to crash in the hotel.

The next day's agenda was sightseeing in Salt Lake City. We went to the temple square and took a tour of the famous Mormon temple and visited Salt lake Tabernacle. The famous organ at the front of the Tabernacle contains 11,623 pipes, making it one of the largest and richest-sounding organs in the world, and the building was constructed so that even the drop of a pin at the front of the building can be heard at the back. Unfortunately the choir rehearsals were not on but we were able to see a singer rehearsing for a recording . It was a nice experience. 

North Visitors Center of Temple square is home to an impressive, 11-foot statue of Jesus Christ known as The Christus and the blue sky painted on the sides and ceiling of spiral ramp is grand. We took the kids to the family history building where they dressed as shepherds and colored for a while. Outside the building there is a small cottage and the lady who showed me said it belonged to her great great grandparents where they raised 4 children. She said she was very proud and I could understand that. The cottage is now preserved with all original furniture and pots& pans , barrels and other things necessary to live. Its surrounded by pumpkin patch and my little pumpkin Neev matched pretty well with it. 

Then we roamed in the downtown Salt Lake city and really, it all belongs to the temple. They have a number of buildings surrounding the main temple and they are BIG. In the afternoon we took the kids to Clarks Planetarium where Avi and Anurag enjoyed a 3D show in IMAX theater while I watched Neev as he took nap in the stroller. 

It was time now to return the car and head to the train station to catch California Zephyr back to San Jose. After dinner we boarded the train . Our beds were made and we were ready to dive in. Neev and Avi were pretty tired and fell asleep in no time. Surprisingly all those swings of train movement did not work to put me to sleep and I was up all night. You can see the raccoon eyes in the pictures we took the next day in the train. We were home at 7.30 PM the next evening and I was so glad that I scrubbed the house sparkling before leaving (even made the beds). This is one thing I know- leave your house all clean before a vacation. There is just no feeling like returning to a warm welcoming clean home when you are bone-tired. A shower and hot moong dal khichadi with dahi was a combination proved to make us feel relaxed and at home. After the shower I could barely keep my eyes open through dinner and that night I did not wake up even once. The next morning I woke up all fresh and relaxed and to a pleasant surprise of realizing it was Saturday and not Sunday. We had lost the track of days and dates and for some reason thought that we only had a day before hitting Monday madness. Anurag was ecstatic over the good news. One whole weekend at home after a long vacation -thats all he needed.

Some interesting things about our vacation-

We forgot to pack the hair brush , did not buy one, did not feel the need for buying one. We just blow dried for a minute and were all set.

Our Armenian taxi driver in Salt Lake City was a fan of Bollywood music, did not understand the language but played 'Veer-Zara' for us. Yep - he had a collection of Hindi music CD's.

We need to treat Avi like he is not 4 but 14. At 'Dragon's mouth spring', we could not convince him that the 'dragon firehole' had a real dragon. He simply said, 'come on, its just the hot gushing water sounding like a roar'.

And then we changed our minds back again when he got on all fours and jumped like a frog to amuse Neev.

Avi and Neev got into a verbal fight of 'stop it' and 'you stop it' and a spitting competition and Anurag and I ignored it completely (not a parenting tip from us, just a memory of our decision of playing deaf)

In Salt Lake City downtown we visited the Jesus Christ's temple's children's museum area where Avi got friendly with a lady and her son, started coloring with them and then began telling them, 'you know my jeans got torn on the knees my mom cut out a letter A out of the patch and fixed it'. Its true BTW and as soon as we heard this, Anurag and I exchanged glances and started laughing. (I had mended Avi's jeans just before leaving for the vacation with an iron on patch but it wasn't something I thought he would pick to share with a stranger). Not stopping here, he continued, 'and also when my pajamas got holes in them, she stitched them'. At this point of time, Anurag and I were hysterical. We were obscured by the big wall so Avi did not see us but man oh man it was a painful laugh (laughing so hard while trying to be silent, I swear tears rolled from my eyes and my stomach hurt). I don't remember laughing like that in a long time. Anurag told me to be thankful that I finally got to stitch his favorite pajamas and jeans before this trip so at least when my son spilled our torn secrets to people, I at least came out a winner. Imagine if I hadn't done that.....Avi would be telling a different version and I don't want to think about it :)

Laughter is the best medicine

This Sunday, we went to watch Indian Independence day parade in Fremont. As we were waiting on the street, someone dressed as a bear or a dog (the costume was really confusing) handed out candies to the children. On our way back home, Neev was recalling the event and practicing his vocabulary. He got stuck at the candy part and started asking whether it was bear or dog who handed out the treats. After listening to Neev's bear or dog question for 5 minutes Avi got really irritated and said, 'we don't know if it was bear or dog so lets just call him a man, okay !'



The day before was Janmashtami and we went to Livermore temple where the community organized a grand celebration. While waiting in the line for Krishna Darshan, I explained to Neev that we were there to celebrate Bhagwan Ji's birthday. His response, 'where's cake?'



Upon returning from the temple, Anurag changed Neev's favorite nursery rhymes CD to Celtic Women . Neev is used to getting his way with choice of music in the car .Usually it's better to just listen to 'I am not a baby anymore' , 'hello everybody so glad to see you' and 'hickory dickory dock' than listening to his do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti pitch of shrieking but that night Anurag was just not ready to suffer through 'ta-ra-ra-boom- de-ay' for the filiionth time (First I have to explain this Fillion word .One day we were talking about numbers and Avi asked me what's the highest one. I said, ummm..........trillion.......may be gazillion . He asked, isn't any number higher than that. I said no. He said, yes there is , its Fillion ! So folks, if there is ever need for counting after trillion, gazillion, its the term Fillion and for patenting purpose I declare its my son who coined it :) . Back to our music story -Anurag told Neev in a rather straight and firm voice that Daddy likes this music and he just has to learn to enjoy it. Anurag finished the sentence with 'daddy likes it'. Immediately and together Avi and I said, 'me too'. Neev thought for 5 seconds and then said, 'me three'. For few minutes, there was a burst of laughter in the car instead of music and then we enjoyed 'we're floating in the air' and other songs by Celtic women for the rest of the trip.

Potluck Feast

This Saturday we had a Potluck Party with our friends at Cypess Lawns. I love our apartment community. Its a HUGE complex comprised of 6 buildings and managed by the Irvine Company. So I still have a piece of Irvine and its famous upkeep even after leaving Irvine 7 months ago. When we drove to San Jose in January, it was raining and trees were bare. I knew that not many places exist like City of Irvine .They polish their streets like obsession ,rebuild them even when according to me they are perfectly smooth , their shopping centers are great entertainment places and they are children friendly, have water fountains everywhere, surrounded by Palm trees which are covered in lights even when its not holiday season and the trees have speakers on them playing music all the time. They have beautiful, manicured parks and so many of them. And, you can't beat 15 minutes drive to ocean. A dream place !

Moving to silicon valley here was exciting but we were leaving Irvine, not a town in Missouri so obviously I was skeptical. Amidst the rain , cold and exhaustion from our trip to Disney the day before , we entered the North Park Village and I knew by looking around that I still would have a bit of Irvine with us. The community is around a rectangle shape city park followed by another GRAND rectangle shaped building which reminds me of a Las Vegas Hotel. This building is surrounded by Palm trees, has a huge pool. spas, cabanas, grills, fire places, couches, dining tables around the pool and then a gym, indoor basketball court, spinning room, yoga room , a large round water fountains surrounded by sofas and an Internet cafe. Did you think I was describing a resort? Very much like it ! It has 6 communities and all of them have their own facilities what I just mentioned and the residents have access to all of them . For a jog, picnic, barbecue or a pool party you never have to leave this place. Don't wanna cook lunch, the complex has Quiznos and tables outside looking over the park. Want to have coffee with friends , Starbucks is right here. Its late in the evening and you run out of milk, the community has even a store . Read a book in the library , play billiards , work out in a cardio-theater , shoot hoops in the full indoor basketball court, have a swim , get the chair massage at pool side and eat barbecue all the times. A perfect vacation spot, if only we did not have to work to pay the rent.


We have made a great group of friends here and we try to get together as much as possible. We had a pool party few weeks back and yesterday we had a great Indian lunch. Shahi Paneer, Chicken Biryani, Dahi Bhalle, Dal Makhani, Pulao, Idli, Sambhar, mixed veggies and Gulab Jamuns. We ate and ate and packed left overs for dinner. All the husbands took the kids for a nap while the ladies stayed for heart to heart discussions on blessings in life, aspirations, frustrations, kids and husbands.

A great lunch and a greater conversation , even the dinner and Sunday's lunch was taken care of. Life is good and doesn't stop here since we decided to do high-tea next time.

And I am thinking, I gotta send this to my community manager - she should agree to make my next year's stay rent-free :)

Rakshabandhan

I called my brothers and wished them happy Rakhi. I have memories of us getting dressed in new clothes and doing tilak and tying Rakhi on their little wrists. I did not get to make memories of tying Rakhi on their grown up wrists since we NEVER got together to celebrate this festival in person in last 19 years. I moved to the hostel in 1992 and we were never together on Rakshabandhan after that. So the memories I have are of me and my younger sister in yellow frocks and skirts and my brothers in black shorts and striped shirts. Mornings started early as we told our brothers to shower and get ready soon (we could not eat before tying Rakhi, a rule which was not strictly followed). We would put a long and straight tilak on our brothers' forehead and tie Rakhi followed by feeding them something sweet and since I am the oldest in siblings , my brothers would touch my feet for blessings. I couldn't care less about customs and traditions at that time but now I know they were not just that, they were what I would call constituents of whole, whole which is me, my life so far. It affected my subliminal self , the reasons I have for my being today -Family ! And I know its not just with me, its with all of us. We all have memories, sweet and sour , relationships , sweet and sour and they all get credit for our concealed or obvious personality. They have made us what we are , they have formed our beliefs. They are the essence of us. And I don't know where I am going with this declamation. So I called my brothers and wished them well, bestowed my blessings on them, sent my love and missed them. We received Shilpy's Rakhi (my sister-in-law ) just in time for Anurag, Avi and Neev. And what lovely Rakhis - silver and sandalwood. I have to mention that Shilpy is one of the few people I know with an excellent taste in things. Avi enjoyed smelling them and Neev was cute beyond word trying to copy his big brother and taking big sniffs . Their tiny wrists look beautiful with them. I told Avi all about the festival . He is at the stage where I would love for him to have Bua, Masi and Mama around who could be other COOL grown-ups in his life who are part of his family.


It was a lovely day which we spent talking about Rakhi, playing with friends at basketball court and park in the morning, swimming and hot-tubbing in the afternoon and then going to Santana Row in the evening where Anurag and kids got ice-cream while I got a massage at Club One Spa, one of four visits my thoughtful husband gifted me for Mother's day this year.


Why don't we do this every day?

August trip to Gilroy Gardens

Yes, we are making use of the membership. Made another trip to this place. I love it for its scale (small) and the thoughtfulness put to details keeping families in mind. Well shaded, lots of eating places and MUSIC everywhere.
Today we enjoyed the water play. While Neev preferred to get wet in my arms and not setting his foot down, Avi totally got in groove. He loved aiming water guns at different objects - barrels, wind chimes, watering can, water wheel . Got in a water fight with another older boy on the other side of the circle and held the ground pretty well.
Saw a bird show - a white cockatoo riding bicycle, scooter and even roller skates. She even did her shopping by wheeling a toy shopping cart and putting juice and bird seeds in it. Very impressive -I must say. Heard a talking red tailed Cockatoo who apparently is a celebrity bird and has appeared on Jay Leno and David Letterman show. It was cute. Neev preferred watching a 5 months old enormous owl sitting very obediently on the presenter's arm. Another Cockatoo flew through the hoops which the audience held in the crowd. A Pelican flew and danced for us on stage.
On the way back home , kids fell asleep. Avi refused to walk when we reached home. Anurag kept him going from garage to the front door but he was so irked at not being carried that as soon as we entered ,he dramatically fell on the outside rug , holding the door open with his legs. I tell you it was hilarious to watch a 4 years old putting this show ! Avi and drama are synonyms. Why not, after all he is his mother's son, my husband tells me .Well, Anurag had the Flip so we got a chance to record the scene.
Recording just so we can read it years later.

Blissful mornings

When Neev wakes up early and still lets me sleep in for a few more minutes, running his fingers thru' my hair, twisting and turning his little body on pillows.

When Avi joins in a few minutes later and asks for good morning songs and adds 'its going to be a special day today'.

When we can skip breakfast and have brunch instead -OUTSIDE.

When the day is not planned and laundry & cleaning is taken care of the previous day

When I am on vacation and wake up in a suite but not in a hurry to 'cover' the attractions, just to enjoy a cup of coffee and let the kids jump on bed.

When I hear the pitter-patter -pit the FIRST morning of rain , its overcast and a bit chilly.

When we have to leave for a long road trip at dawn and catch the sunrise on the way.

When I caught glimpse of life thru' train -rides, passing by villages and towns, with a cup of chai on numerous over-night journeys between home and college.

When I started jogging with friends in Bangalore ISRO Layout and we found this beautiful temple en-route.

When its weekend.

Yosemite trip

Our trip to Yosemite National Park was awe-inspiring. Spread in 1200 square miles, this place needs to be revisited . Things we covered in this trip was El-Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Fall.
The nuances of the Valley form spectacular rock formations, for which Yosemite Valley is famous but rising more than 3,000 feet above the Valley floor, El-Capitan is the largest monolith of granite in the world. Its more than a rock , a strength that you feel when you are around it.
Avi and I enjoyed the water play in Yosemite lower falls. Laying on the warm rocks with my feet dipped in cold water felt like getting a hot -stone massage. Avi loved throwing the pebbles in the falls. Outside the falls , he pretended to hunt the bears in the caves (lots of rocks around lower falls forming cave like structures) and save 'Mommy' from them. Neev did what he always loves, copying his big brother and chasing him all over.

The trip reminded me of my 19th birthday party at Pearl Valley, Bangalore . A bunch of us went on motorbikes , about 2 hrs from Bangalore and had a blast at water falls. And yep, my friends carried the cake and chole-bhature on bikes. Fond memories......

Like all natural settings , being there felt so relaxing. Gazing up from the Valley floor we appreciated the enormity of it all. Hope to go back sometime again.

Trip (another one) to Children's discovery museum

Coudn't be more convenient. Train station is only 10 minutes walk from our home and I took the kids for a train ride. 20 minutes later, the train dropped us right in front of the Museum. A GREAT day spent making pizza, playing with giant blocks, painting, making rocket ships and straw dolls, blowing bubbles, checking out the fire truck & ambulance and a lot of other COOL things. Avi's favorite thing - watching flying lemons (as he liked to call the yellow and green balls flying on top of gush of air), Neev's favorite part -going up & down on wobbly conveyor belt shaped thingy.
My super mom moment - fixing a FRESH meal of pao-bhaji with all the paraphernalia -chopped red onions, lemon wedges, cilantro chutney and butter.
Highlight for Anurag - kids went to bed by 8.30 and we both watched a great hindi movie. For Wednesday, trip to museum, dinner and movie - it was a day from dreams. Loved it.

4th of July weekend 2009

Pool, shopping, movies and a trip to Gilroy Gardens. It was all about Avi and Neev. Rides, rides and more rides in Gilroy Gardens. Fun for them but my head was spinning at the end. I am not getting even on the carousel next time, will probably just paddle the boat all day - that was the most relaxing part for me.

Sunday June 28th 2009

Lovely Sunday spent with friends by the pool swimming and barbecuing. We grilled turkey and chicken kebab, paneer tikka, potato patties and vegetables. Yummy food and an afternoon of ladies talk - can't get better than that. Had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

My Purna Narayan - मेरे पूर्ण नारायण !

During Shanta Dadi's visit we went to Hanuman temple, Mount Madonna in Watsonville. We started early morning around 6 and after about an hour and a half drive from San Jose, found ourselves in serene setting of Mount Madonna. Nestled within was a Hanuman temple, sitting on top. We climbed the steps to enter into a large open area complete with arrangements for havan and the step benches on both sides . Lots of bells , small and big were hanging from the ceiling. We did pooja and got tilak and prashad. The priest of the temple is not from India and yet very fluent in chanting shlokas in Sanskrit. He told us about the revered Guru Baba Hari Dass, founder of Hanuman fellowship in Mount Madonna. He also told us that Babaji would be available that day in the retreat which is rare as he travels a lot. We could not believe our luck. Avi and Neev loved spending few minutes doing ding-dong on the bells and running around before going on a short hike and then returning back for Babaji's darshan. Babaji loves little children and as Shanta Dadi rightly put it , 'we had our passports with us'. Sure enough Avi and Neev were the youngest in the crowd of devotees and it only took us a minute before Avi and Neev were called out to get 'candies' from Babaji. Babaji has maintained a continual vow of silence since 1952 and communicates by writing. I don't know what came over me but I did muster the courage to request him if he would bless us in form of giving Avi and Neev special names. He looked at them and then asked for their date of birth. In his own hand writing, he handed me a piece of paper and there was my blessing. My Purna Narayan ! He named Neev 'Purna' (पूर्ण), a complete, perfect being and Avi 'Narayan' (नारायण), a name of Lord Vishnu. Yes, they will always be Neev and Avi but every now and then I call them by these names and offer my gratitude to Babaji for his blessings.

You know how you have a feeling of calm and tranquil when you go to a religious place , whether or not you are religious OR you know when sometimes you go to a religious place looking for solace but you don't get that rest of heart . I am not sure what it was in the temple -lull of falling waters and balmy lavendar, vista of mountains and view of valley below, the energy & fervor from the devotees, feeling of revereance towards Babaji and his work, ........it captivated me ! I carried the feeling back with my Purna and Narayana and a few lavendar leaves.

Merry May -Neev's second birthday celebration, Shanta Dadi's visit, Trip to Monterey,Pebbles Beach, Pfeiffer Beach and Lake Tahoe

May was truly merry and brought us a special visit from Shanta Dadi, a trip to Pebbles Beach and Pfeiffer beach with her, long weekend trip to Lake Tahoe and Neev's second birthday.


Neev turned two and celebrated with a Diego Cake and Party with his play group friends on May 27th. The party was planned in a hurry and thanks to all the guests who made it so special. Neev's little friends Rajit, Mahirah, Shravan, Aashka, Poorv, Rishabh, Sidharth joined in the fun and singing birthday song. The burnt almond cake was delicious and Neev loved opening all his presents. This year he seemed to enjoy the toys more than the packaging. Avi is almost four and a half and was delighted to get a goody bag from Neev's party - yeah right ,he was supposed to be playing host. Crayons, Bubbles, chalks, stickers and tattoos are still dear to him.



Lake Tahoe was beautiful. We've been told that its beauty should be checked out in both seasons. I think it would be gorgeous in winters so we have to go back. Avi was hoping to get snow and after a mile's hike down to Emerald Bay (and back up) his spirits were still strong to climb up the mountain to touch the snow. We had a hard time convincing him that its REALLY high and if we could not hike all the way. Driving down from the mountains there was a breathtaking view from a narrow bridge built in a way that you see the massive lake on both sides. You can not stop on that bridge and the drive is for just a few mts but my oh my,what a view! You have this massive lake flowing down below surrounded by mountains. one of those moments when you realize how tiny you feel in front of abundance of nature.
I loved our condo in Tahoe and realized that with 2 kids a regular hotel room with 2 beds would not have been a comfortable choice as this one. Avi and Neev loved having their OWN room and the fireplace (did I mention jumping on the bed). We woke up to a beautiful morning in the midst of mountains and tall, tall trees. Coffee never tasted so good before. I just never wanted to step out and do nothing but Neev could not stop saying beach,beach,beach. So we drove down to the Lake and spent a day lazying in sun, playing with sand and paddling boat. Who said water is colorless - I loved the hues of lake. It was clean and transparent on the shore, a few feet down blue, green further ahead (emerald, bottle green, sea green - definitely you could put a name on the green) and then far ahead against the Sun it was like shiny pyrite sprinklings, or white sand or the silver shavings -yeah , one's imagination could take off here.

In May beginning, my grand aunt, Shanta Dadi visited us. We cooked , laughed, shopped , watched movies and stayed up late talking and talking. Avi and Neev formed a very special bond with her. For them it was extra-ordinary to have a family member visiting. They miss her very much and want to see the pictures from her visit all the time. During her visit all of us took a trip to Monterey, Pebbles beach (also the famous golf course) and Pfeiffer beach. Believe you me , Pfeiffer beach was something else. I can still feel pure white sand under my feet - can't get better foot scrub than that :) At Sun set,huge rocks which have been cut by water over time , some forming the shape of a gate , some with holes in them, sieved the dimming light through these openings, creating a perfect scene for some awesome pictures.
Monterey drive was too good to be true combination of mountains and ocean. Simply loved it. I could describe it in another long paragraph but mentioning a flock of geese , a lone boat and a dried up tree would be enough to keep my memory alive.

Its been long time

I don't feel like writing about Avi and Neev just because my blog is named after them. My days are filled with so many of their expressions, conversations and also frustrations that I fear them getting lost in tomorrow's time if I did not share them, if I did not record them.


Avi at 4 continues to be my source of pride , my sense of accomplishment . He loves his preschool, loves to draw and is beginning to read and write. His latest obsession is his lego table and blocks. His imagination is quite wild, reflecting in his creations of designs of cars and buildings that I think can only exist in future :) He is also going thru' the stage where he loves to have conversations with grown-ups other than Mommy and Daddy. In play ground, I can never have the pleasure of chatting with other moms, partly because of chasing after Neev and partly because Avi would want to tell his stories by ,"excuse me mom but if you have finished talking, can I please tell her about ..........". Oh yeah, he uses polite words - excuse me and please, only thing he does not understand how interrupting itself can be rude even when he is using the expressions 'excuse me' . We've had many conversations about this and his questions is always 'but I said excuse me and please' .

This morning he insisted on carrying his toy batman and missile launcher (its quite big in size and not an outdoor toy really) outside and I made it clear that I was not going to carry it for him in my bag if he got tired of holding it. Few minutes later in his attempt to manage the unwieldy toys in both his hands , it slipped and fell. Its an expensive toy and I have all the intentions to pass it to Neev in one piece. I forgot what I said about not carrying it and offered to help. He quickly agreed, adding, I thought you said you won't have have any space in the bag to carry it but if you'd like to...sure...! I am sure I could have come up with something to say to him, instead I just smiled and enjoyed as one of many tickling things children say.


Neev is almost 2 but it seems to us that he is always going to be our 'baby'. Luckily for me, both my boys are not stingy in doling out hugs and kisses and Neev has this special squeezy hug when he feels extra lovey dovey. I tell you there is just no feeling compared to that one. I wonder how long he is going to hold on to that. I know that I will....forever ! He is still not as much interested in playing with toys as running outside and exploring. He is still clingy and wants 'uppy' all the times. Usually I am not the one to complain except around dinner time :). He sings and dances and knows so many nursery rhymes it amazes me. He is starting to put the words together and the ones he likes to say all the times -'lets go out' and 'lets go pool'.


Both brothers love spending time with each other. Usually Avi is very protective of Neev and does not like it that I am starting to explain the concept of 'time -out ' to Neev. On the other hand I often catch him saying to Neev, 'Neev, if you don't leave my pick-up truck alone, I will put you in time-out' :).

Holi 2009 and years before that

We celebrated Holi 2009 in Holiday Inn, San Jose.

As a child I have memories of that excitement on the night before Holi. I would prepare for 'holika dahan' in our 'aangan' by layering the 'balguriya' (small dried cakes of cow dung put together in strings - widely used in rural India as a fuel) in shape of a pyramid. Around that pyramid I would make a 'rangoli' (floor art) of 'abeer, gulal, haldi, kumkum and aata (green and pink colors, turmeric powder and flour). We would prepare 'puja thali' with 'ghujia', other delicacies made specially for this occasion and set it next to the pyramid. We would go to bed in the midst of holi songs being played outside on street shops. Next day early morning Papa would go to 'holika dahan' at the 'chowk' and bring the 'agni' (amber) from there to burn 'holika' (the pyramid I made the night before) in our 'aangan' . My Dadi and mother would perform Puja and then we would go in circles around the pyramid with the fresh stalks of wheat in our hands and roasting it on the fire . Afterwards we would sit around it savoring a cup of chai and enjoying the heat on that cold March morning of Holi. Later in the morning neighbors and friends would knock on the doors to play with colors, not always a pleasant experience . For children it was not a problem though. We always enjoyed coloring and getting colored. In my town there is a Holi parade where bands would be playing and people in masks would be dancing away. We would stock up on pales of colored water, balloons filled with colored water on the rooftop and throw it on those people and yeah....they would respond back with their high pressure water guns . As much fun as it was to play with colors, getting it off was so not it. My mom would make 'ubtan' (a mix of gram flour and mustard oil) to help us get rid of it but it was difficult to get it all off completely and as result , for 'Holi milan' that evening all kids would like monkeys with those faded colores on faces even in our nicest clothes. We would feast on puri, kachauri, curry, raita, ghujia, rasgulla and a lot of other treats. That was Holi at my house. After I moved out for studies, I enjoyed celebrating Holi at my friends home, in college, in hostel with almost same fun and not much difference.

I considered it fun and that's exactly what we had this Holi too. Neev loved it so much, he still cannot stop mentioning holi once a day whenever I say the word 'color'. Avi was so thrilled that a couple of times he took fistful of gulal and smeared it on himself. He made a few friends and enjoyed coloring them and dancing away on Bollywood music. It was quite a day as we also had to go to a birthday party in the evening . Luckily getting the colors off was not tough as they were all dry ones. As the kids fell asleep in the car on the way to 'Jump it up' , I got reminded of long nap we used to take on holi afternoon as they used to say 'रंगों में नशा होता है !"।

Our move to San jose

We have moved to San Jose - heart of bay area, the silicon valley ! Anurag's transfer in Cisco has brought us here. Our new accommodation is great - pretty and plush. One can take a lot of pride being associated with Cisco here as they have a huge presence in this area. There are about 50 buildings in a stretch of 6-7 miles, a train station named Cisco way. Every where you go on Tasman Drive, its Cisco. Its also mini India here so no trouble feeling at home. Indian stores, Indian restaurants..............lots of choices.

Avi was lucky to get a spot in Cisco's preschool. Usually they run a long wait list. So far he likes it here. About me - no problems, its still California :) Anurag's work is demanding a lot of time so we have not gone out anywhere yet on weekends. I can't wait to see San Francisco. Hope to go there soon and write about it.

Avi's fourth birthday celebration in Disneyland

Avi turned 4 and we celebrated with a trip to Disneyland. I was skeptical if there was anything for the grown-ups to feel like they were at the 'happiest place on earth'. Anurag had told me about their famous customer service and how a lot of companies in service industry train their employees with Disney. It was quite evident from the minute we paid for the parking. Without exception every associate we met was tremendously polite, helpful and knew how to actually help us. Avi got special treatment with buttons pinned to his jacket which said 'Birthday Boy" and "happy birthday', a special ticket printed with 'happy birthday Avi' and the highlight was when on Mark Twain Riverboat , Captain offered Avi to take the ride in his cabin which was on the top. We all enjoyed the hospitality along the mighty river, watching the world go by from the deck of the gracious paddle wheeled Mark Twain. Avi even pulled the bell of the ship throughout the ride.
Avi was the happiest boy so far but I was still waiting for my happiest moments. It happened when we took the boat ride thru' 'its a small world' ride. It was magical and I am not ashamed of admitting that it captivated me. I loved it so much that I was ready to wait another hour for the second ride. Anurag convinced me that we should try something else which may leave me even more thrilled and though that ride proved to be my favorite thing in Disney, I loved 'Finding Nemo submarine voyage' and 'Alice in wonderland' too. Avi went on Star wars spaceship virtual ride twice and got a kick out of seeing R2D2 and PS3O navigating the spaceship. Yes, at 4 he is already a fan of Star wars and Anurag is not disappointed. We went to 'Autopia' and Avi got a 'driving license' and did pretty well driving the car (with a little help from daddy). He was a bit shy when shaking hands with 'Buzz Lightyear' but smiled for a picture anyway.
In the evening the castle looked unbelievable beautiful with snow lights. The main street , the Christmas tree, everything looked beautiful . Even though we were exhausted, we did not want to leave. It was special for Avi as it is and at the end of the day 'the happiest place on earth' left us very happy too.