diwali

Had my busiest Diwali for years, Anya was meant to be away with Aircadets for the weekend. It was cancelled at the last minute. In one breath she informed me of the cancellation and that she had invited five of her friends to a diwali party, food, fireworks and a sleepover. With a lot of hectic last minute shopping got everything ready, they spent screaming the night as they were watching ghost stories on youtube. And today had to take her to our expensive shopping mall to buy clothes. She is off to Germany tomorrow with school, and like most girls .. women,,
SHE HAS NOTHING TO WEAR.

Got a diamond pendant for Shobha, asked her if she liked it.... after some hesitation she told me it was small

Some you lose and some you lose,

SEASONS GREETINGS babu

The President Celebrates Diwali

This link was sent by Kumari.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuiAW_6XKVM

and a part of it is in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VRb9lGjeFY

At least watch the first part and last of this one.

its over:-(((

Deepavali does seem to have set off nostalgia abut how good it was. (good material for our book on sivananda colony) Ravi, that was terrific writing about your sartorial adventures. Truly, clothes were so few and meant so much. And the sweets and preparations!
I can remember going off to a permanent ‘sale’ called Missing link about 10 times in a row to consider, buy and exchange .. How much heartache and though and confusion was behind that one set of clothes.
Why isn’t it so good these days? Im glad I don’t have to buy clothes in a Tirupur sale any more. But still, this time I didn’t even make an attempt to buy any. Because we know we can buy new clothes any time?
But maybe we have to change our mind set about how it should be and move on to different kinds of activities? As Kap says the kids don’t like the old traditions of getting up early; distributing sweets …sharing so much. However hard we try to get them to like it. We have to try harder to keep ourselves and the kids entertained. Like Kap and family going to Vedanthangal for the day. The old traditions are falling away and maybe we have to come up with more new ones. Like calling up everyone on the cellphone. And cutting down on tv.
But whatever we do, I think its important that we get to together as much as possible. That shouldn’t change.

ps: kap we did eat your chinese burfi..without a suthi.Keep going.. its the trying that matters

hi folks,
diwali has come and gone. but we older generation are still nostalgic about the older dys when money was scarce but fun and anticipation made up for it.
i remember as ravi says looking at the diwali dress days before we actually getting to wear it. opening and counting the crackers again and again hundreds of time before diwali . comparing it on the sly with karthis lot, has she been given anything extra. getting woken up at 4,ooam and having a head bath. rushing to be the first one on the street to burst crackers. and of coursecheerfully rushing to give sweet to neighbours when young and being forced to as we grow older.
this time it was harus reluctant turn i think .
so i do try a liitle to bring back the rituals for the kids ,which of course they dont appreciate and think it is a load of bullshit. but arleast for me sanjay is still young enough to be enthusistic. i made two sweets ,both a variation of the burfi type one grrn and one pink. sanjus choices. one wass too hard and the other too soft. i did think of mixing the two. and of course each diwali i compare the sweets i make to chinna baby chithis mysore pak which required a suuthi to break from the plate,.


kapu

happy diwali to all

kalyani kindly chk this pic

No Joy Ahoy !

I still remember the days before diwali being given some money to choose one dress (pant and shirt),,, buying the material after visiting a few shops and then giving it to the tailor ( a few recomendations from friends on which is the decent one without paying through the nose) who then proceeds to measure you ,spending many uncomfortable moments at the groin, takes mesaurement twice,,, finds out if you are a shoe type or a slipper type ( i always said sometimes shoe and sometimes slipper ( i didnot own a shoe then ! )and then finding out the trial date for the pant and then going there trying it on ,,, and then giving him the thumbs up and then taking it home and keeping it before the pooja and not wearing it, touching it and seeing it a few times on diwali eve

waking up early and then putting it on and walking out and feeling everyone's eyes were on you and envious of the masterly colour choices you had made and the fine lines of the tailor --- wait wait invariably he would have messed things up and i had to stand straight 90 degrees my legs held together otherwise innumerable wrinkles will fall on all ends
but still it was fun

I can walk into any shop and walk out with five sets of clothes if i want and i think a few days ago bought about 7 shirts etc but was it fun NO NO NO NO
Happiness is along the road not at the end of it ,,,,,,

Ravi

Happy Deepavali

I hope everyone is planning to celebrate deepavali wherever you are.Each one of us is a little bit lonely on these festive days, all of us being separate and far away but lets make the best of the day wherever we are and celebrate with whoever is around.

Darshini has been here for a month and a half; the longest period she has ever been home after leaving for college 8 years ago. We had a good time, reading, chatting, tv watching and doing lots of eating. Sindhu was home for a few days and left home a bit enviously.
Since Prashanth also came for a few days; I've been doing a lot of cooking.
And then experimenting with sweets. If you are housebound; then cooking is one activity that is enjoyable if there are people to eat.
So in order of success, badam halwa,gulab jamuns, coconut burphies, somaas, mottulad(only in our house do we call them so - otherwise I've heard maida biscuits, kalakal..)and ottu pakoda.

Sweet making should only be embarked upon when there are at least 3 willing pairs of hands at home. Its really labour intensive.

And it really brings back memories of Amma getting ready andas of sweets. The hustle and bustle in the house and ho she was always trying to keep our hands out of the andas but we could always get around the athais who would give us our due.

Nowadays ; people mostly buy the sweets outside. All terrifically planned and packaged. Aesthetic but the spirit of the occasion seems to be missing. Very few crackers and lots of tv watching.

The tow of us plan to go to coimbatore for deepavali and will be joined by Kalai, Mrg and poor Haru (poor because she is the only junior and will have to go all the houses to distribute the sweets)
Will post pics later

happy deepavali

Congrats to Aunty

Hearty congrats and you have shown all of us how to keep working and forget about age etc,I do remember many many years ago when i was in school Damodaran Uncle (aunty's father ) telling me one day My Daughter will get the Nobel Prize, I thought he certainly has lofty views and ambitions for aunty ! But later on one day when i had completed medicine etc and was talking about some new recombinant technology etc of which i had a vague idea she floored me with an indepth view and today after this appointment and looking back at various things I am sure with the right environment Aunty would have been breaking new grounds in research,and would have been in the running for the prize,

Have a blast and a party and I dont need to tell Aunty to have fun as she always does where ever she is !
Ravi

Director Research and Development

Hello All of you,
Here is a Good news to all of you. I have been appointed as the Director for research and Development in a company named Biosoil Enhancers,in Hattiesburg, Mississippi State.I would be joining by 15th October.This is a turning point in my Second phase of life.I have signed 3 years contract.
Lalli Aunty

Memories

All of us have memories of 90 sivananda colony or we wouldn't be here.
Can each person contribute their memories of the house and people there so we can put it all together in a kind of booklet for Appa's birthday on Feb 6th.
Lets' celebrate people while they are still alive.

Please send in your thoughts either by mail to me or post them on the blog here. Please do start thinking abut this.

Survived Swine Flu

Anya came down with it on Friday, with quite a high fever , bodyache and vomiting.The govt here has made it easy to get hold of Tamiflu, so started it for her on Sunday after a day of watchful waiting. Anya made a slow recovery.
Valli who is Shobha's carer followed it a high fever and bodyache, she has never had anything like it before. She was reluctant to take any medicine finally convinced her to take tamiflu. She is still not out of the woods yet.
I have not been affected by it and Shobha has not had it (touchwood). I don't know how I did it but managed to look after the invalids and somehow juggled work in between. Had a postpone a few meeting etc.
It is pretty annoying when you have patients with really trivial symptoms when you have a lot of things on your mind. (which is very common in the uk as patients don't have to pay to see their doctor)
Can't wait for the end of the week. Am taking Anya to watch Man Utd play Sunderland on Saturday.
Had to turn down a offer of a VIP ticket last Wednesday when they were playing a German team. Things that you have to sacrifice for your family eh