Sundar Narayanans Travelog

Jr. plays the Sax

2012-01-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

Jr. has been learning the Alto Sax this year. They had their first performance for parents.

It is an expensive but beautiful instrument. Thankfully they allow us to rent on a monthly fee and if we rent for enough months we get to buy it! (Reminds you of Bama Vijayam, doesn't it?)

Took this HDR picture of the Alto Sax a few months ago..

Here is a video of her practicing at home after her first two classes..

Considering that we don't get to see her practice at home often (San's complaint that the thing is too loud!) and are limited to once a week, she did very well!

The plan is to encourage her better going forward...

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Beyond words..

2012-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

Came home yesterday and started eating dinner..

The sambar was smelling sooo good. Tasted very good too..

Told San that she was really working hard to impress the kids!

Me to Jr. : The sambar is really awesome!

Jr to Me : Wait till you taste the Rasam. It is awesomer!

Guess the Rasam is outside the bounds of the dictionary...

ps. This actually happened. This is not an attempt to get out of the dog house either..

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Transitions

2012-01-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

The MIL has been in India as of the last week. Time moves so fast. It has been a full week since we saw her off at the airport.

This time the kids were all grown up about saying their goodbyes and promised to behave in her absence. They are holding at around 75% of the promise and going down rapidly!

The adults have transitioned as well to the new routines. I have been left without a Yoga partner and have missed the MIL giving me the usual sermon about either not waking up early enough or pushing myself too hard in the room. The new Yoga studio is motivation in itself and have been going regularly just to keep up my promise to the MIL!

San is back in the kitchen working hard to impress the kids the last few days..

On Monday she made Okra curry with Okra that was not ripe enough. Not her fault because that was all the Indian store had, but the little one was brutal.

She could become a judge on the Iron chef program or "Chopped" where she gets to deliver the bad news. The comments and critique were even too hard for me to handle! San put on a brave face and came up with a Tindora Curry the next evening.

The little one said "Before you put it on my plate, I want a taste. I cannot trust your cooking!"

This is what happens when we have grandma letting her sit on the kitchen counter top, encouraging her to taste things as they are being made. On the bright side she did have a taste and say "It is delicious!" and that made San's day! Seriously, with critics like this at home, things are getting a little out of hand.

Today, I made sweet Pongal to celebrate Pongal. She did not have a problem with the taste of the pongal but with the smell of my hand as I took it to her mouth. "I don't like that strong temple like smell in the Pongal!". She was right!

Actually the smell was from the "pachai kalpooram" (edible camphor) that was crushed with my fingers to season the Pongal. The smell was in my hand not the Pongal. We should use the little one at airports instead of sniffing dogs and we will probably make a fortune if we got a cut on what we find!

We are now down to a new but interesting routine.

Wishing each and everyone of you a happy Pongal!!!

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Cricket

2012-01-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

As most of you know have stopped following cricket for years. In fact don't even watch TV anymore.. News from Google, Youtube videos and the occasional movie at the local theater during holidays or on blockbuster. That is pretty much the sum total of entertainment outside what the kids provide (which is plenty)!

It has not been a loss. Friends tell me this was a good move considering Indian cricket is at an all time low..

There was a recent joke where folks were saying

"pretty soon Australia will be the first team to declare their first innings for a score of 0/0 and still beat India in three days.."

If such humiliation is even comprehensible as a joke things must be pretty bad!

Went and checked Cricket news just now.. Looks like the Indian team is finishing 5 day matches in 4 and is now going towards 3 day completions. Will come and check back in two more years and see how it goes...

For now, back to the crickbernation..

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Do Not try this at "Home"..

2012-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

We are used to seeing this warning so often, be it product marketing or game show advertising.

Sometimes a book should come with that warning! When you read a book and practice something and it might cause you to have some mind bending experiences, that warning should apply.

Now why the emphasis on the "Home" part?

Well, some things are meant for people who are ready to give up their affiliations with familial ties and responsibilities of a social nature and can practically be isolated when it comes to emotions and thought. A person who is married with kids and is gainfully employed should not try certain things, or at least that is the conclusion I am coming to after doing some meditation exercises that started around the 22nd of December.

There are some meditation techniques that are combined with Asana practice (seems to work fine after Bikram Yoga sessions) that work, when it comes to realizing a certain inner calm or inward focus.

Some exercises reminded me of the minute I jumped on the cold water and floated out with a snorkel in Hawaii. There was a sudden silence, a stillness, and the blue waters and colorful corals 20 feet below me transported me to another world and for a brief few seconds I stopped breathing and then suddenly the calm gave way to my lungs going "need air, NOW!!" and I started kicking out frantically to get back to the boat! It took me some time to realize what had actually happened and was trying to internalize those moments for the next few days!

It was almost like what people describe when experiencing "water boarding". Sitting in a carpet in my bedroom in the dark, experienced a drowning sensation. You might ask "why would any sane person want to experience a sensation of water boarding at home?". There are somethings at are not described easily in words. So will not attempt to do that.

Recently have been working on sitting still in lotus pose for longer and longer times. Eight months ago it was 3 minutes tops. Last week could go for an hour easy. It takes a constant effort to just sit in lotus pose in the dark and be still.

Have also been able to filter out things which was scary. The body was fully conscious of things being said around me or even people moving around me. The brain was telling my body to get out of this position, but the body simply did not react. Just disobeyed and acted disconnected. That kind of spooked me and the MIL. So she advised me to stop these meditation attempts. Apparently the kids sensed Daddy was going through periods of extreme calm and extreme trigger happiness and it was obvious to them but not to me!

There have also been a lot of thoughts recently that simply steer me towards making a clean break from everything in my life and go sit in one place and focus. The wife clearly said "Hell NO!". Wherever you go, we follow. Isolation is not an option for you. So that experiment will have to wait till after retirement, whenever that might be!

After doing a bunch of these meditative attempts, went and read forums and found a common theme.

Do NOT try this at HOME! and do NOT try this without a Guru to teach you how to control the way the body reacts when you attempt to control your mind.

For now, the experiments have stopped. Going to focus only on the "breath working with the body" to execute the Asanas in 90 minutes and leave it there. My wife and kids at one point thought I was simply going "nuts" which is the easiest way of rationalization for someone who does not believe or cannot comprehend any experiment.

Kind of gave me a glimpse into why any Yogic practice is branded as "mystic" or "magic" or "hocus pocus".

All this started because there was a Yoga forum where it was mentioned :

"Beginner Yogis focus on the heat, sweating and the instructor..
Intermediate Yogis focus on perfecting the Postures by entering and exiting them correctly and holding the poses for longer times
Advanced Yogis focus on the breath synchronizing with the postures. It is a 90 minute breathing exercise with a few asanas thrown in to distract you!"

This is actually true! Once you know that you can enter and exit the poses right, you realize that to do this with less effort, your breath has to co-operate and it does not sync with the body movements. One wrong inhale or exhale makes you stop and catch your breath so you can move on.

Just like the first time you learn to balance on a bicycle, go on roller blades or the first time you learn to float in water you panic and then calm down, the same thing happens while executing Yoga poses although you are standing on a mat or sitting on one. Once you calm down, it is possible to do wonders with the same body that simply failed you a few minutes ago...

This realization naturally sent me searching for breath control methods and some experimentation and seems to have some side effects. Had the side effects been prominently mentioned in the books and videos, would not have tried it.

Very much have my sanity and will experiment more carefully with my mind going forward, if at all!

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Just Dance Kids

2012-01-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

The kids have been playing "Just Dance for Kids", on the Wii at their cousins place practically every alternate day since X-mas.

They were hooked to the songs and we were hooked on watching the little one make those cute dance moves. She really gets into it and moves like a pro!

Was not happy when we went to Best Buy and the store clerk said "there is no Just dance for kids in Kinect. Only for Wii. Kinect is aimed more at adult audiences and Wii is more of a family entertainment thing" and he went on to give us a few Dance options which either had "mature" dance moves or Lyrics that were PG13 or simply NC17!

My track record with Microsoft Hardware products has not been good. Even bad mouthed Microsoft and ended up in a fight with the wife and MIL because saying negative things about THE company is tantamount to abusing the BIL in proxy and that is not nice.

Considering the fact that I verbally abuse most companies including IBM, Google, Motorola, McAfee, Adobe and Microsoft on a regular basis thanks to certain shortcomings on their products and the only companies that seem to make me happy are Canon and Apple it should be clear that the household is very polarized at times!

Thanks to a Wiki article that had an entire list of Kinect Games, was able to find out that there is a Kinect version of Just Dance for Kids and is available in "select" stores.

Went and bought one for the kids this evening.. just to see them smile and dance away!

Totally worth it!

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2012 - A great start !!!

2012-01-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

It is no secret that the biggest change in this household is that Daddy is now doing okay when it comes to being healthy!

When my MIL and myself started doing Yoga we set ourselves many personal goals. My personal challenge was to do the standing head to knee pose before March 10th, exactly within a year after starting yoga. Teachers told me that some folks take two or three years to do this and some who are strong and flexible to start with, can pull it off a few weeks or months after starting Yoga.

We had an emotional farewell class to the old yoga studio at BYSJ yesterday evening. It was an event we will not forget! 70 people came to celebrate the closing of the old studio which enables starting 2012 in a huge new studio right next door! It was an emotional farewell as this place is a temple of sorts, where people make their dreams come true and push themselves to bring out the best in them. Michelle, the owner of BYSJ was the one teaching the class and she coaxed, cajoled and blackmailed in her sweet voice, the 70 people in that class, to do every pose without sitting down. She even managed to tell us old stories of the creation of this studio during the breathing breaks! Somehow in the middle of all this, managed to do the pose that has been eluding me all this time..and once you know how to do it once, voila, you can do it again for a photo session in your backyard!

2012 is indeed being ushered in with a sense of accomplishment!

While showing the kids the pose they also wanted me to show them the other two standing poses as the little one clicked the snaps! Seriously, she is turning into one fine photographer..

The best gift to oneself is a sound body and a sound mind. The family is now convinced about the sound body part. They have not yet confirmed the sound mind part. In fact they think Daddy Narayanan is seriously getting unsound. More on that later..

For now, this is a happy blogger and a happy blog!

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Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

2011 is done with in a couple of minutes..

A year that started off badly but also a year where all things bad have turned around.

My mother was diagnosed with a life threatening illness. She survived. For that alone the last year was positive.

We also had me going through a very rough patch physically and mentally in Jan/Feb and March brought in Bikram Yoga. Something that has been in my backyard since 2002 but was destined to find and appreciate only this year. I recovered enough to have another surgery on the right hand and recovered from that as well and can now lift the little one, throw her up and catch her.

This from a guy who needed help to open the refrigerator door or carry more than one gallon of milk using the right hand! The rest of the year has been sickness free and filled with happier moments.

Work has brought me new challenges and the joy of dealing with those challenges. This year also saw me travel back and forth to Austin, something that will be a continuous process over 2012. Have learned to appreciate folks who travel for work since this started.

The kids have been good and San has been doing well with home and work.

What more can one ask for in a year?! Well, another year of turning things the right way!

Here is to 2012!

Our entire family wishes you all a Wonderful 2012!!!

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Couple of hours at the Oakland Zoo

2011-12-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

It was raining in the morning and outside temperatures were in the high 30's. We had made plans earlier to walk around Berkeley and then go on to the Oakland Zoo by noon. The weather was not something we factored in.

So we whiled away the morning indoors with the kids playing Kinect and then the sun came out! It was warm enough to walk outside without a jacket. It was already 11:30 AM.

With a rush of last minute enthusiasm we declared "even if we get to spend only two hours at the Zoo, so be it! Let us go" and we drove off to Oakland.

The weather was perfect to walk around and we got to spend exactly two hours at the zoo. We knew we were going to cover a small section of the zoo and let the kids go at their own pace till the zoo officials kicked us out at 4PM.

We were in for a treat. The lions and tigers were at their active best as were the macaws! The rest of the cages and enclosures were empty but thanks to the skyride we were able to figure out which enclosures had active animals and go see those.

Here are some pictures, thanks to the 70-200mm lens and the 2x extender which was used extensively on this trip. The wife and kids as well as BB family gave the photos a two thumbs up..

The small play area with the frogs and tortoises brought back so many memories of our last trips to the same zoo..

The little one still has the same fascination for the golden lion at the exit after four years!

The kids got their share of "rides"..

Finally for the photographs of the Tigers and Lions. Have never been able to get them like this in any zoo trip so far! Must have been my lucky day..

As far as wild animals go this is what we got to see. So in line with the S.Ve. Sekar joke,

Question : Can you name 10 wild animals?

Answer : 5 Tigers and 5 Lions!

you get 5 photographs of the Tigers and 5 of the lions.

Well, let's make that six pictures of the Tigers as this last one is too good to not post on the blog!

Our short visit in video.. The 70-200 converted to a 140-400 may be great for pictures but it is not easy to shoot video with such a huge lens combination. Holding it steady in your hand becomes quite a challenge.

The next visit might be a few years down the road for all we know. One thing is for sure. If you want a place where kids can have some outdoor fun, the Oakland zoo will always make it to the top 5 in our list!

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A day in San Francisco...

2011-12-30T23:51:00.000-08:00

We spent a day in San Francisco by Pier 39 to take the kids to some place local and have some fun..

Turned out to be a great idea. So far our SFO trips have covered the usual Golden Gate bridge, Crooked street and end with Ice cream at Ghirardelli's..

There have been some deviations in the past to the tour guide routine but for once we decided to explore things we have walked or driven past. In other words get to smell the roses a bit, which was kind of a theme in the family over the last few days.

So off we went to visit the COIT tower..

The base of the tower has some amazing murals. Not posting the pictures of the murals here because they make some money selling prints. Guess that is why they have a sign that says "no flash or tripods"..

We had a nice home cooked packed lunch in our Van and went on towards Ghiardelli's, except this time we parked and went to the Maritime museum lobby and walked along the beach to see the different vessels docked at Hyde Street Pier.

The kids had fun getting on the various vessels. It was a world they had never been exposed to. It was so much fun watching their eyes widen as they read the displays and watched informational videos two levels below the deck of a cargo vessel..

There were great views of Alcatraz and Embarcadero from the ships.

The masts were majestic and we were simply awe struck by the fact that these ships with triple masts have survived the test of time and have been preserved for such a long time.

It was also fun watching the little one trying to steer the ship one handle at a time. The ship was just swaying a few feet and she wanted to control it!

It was also interesting to see how prices have changed over time!

Then we went on our walk to enjoy those things on the sidewalk and displays we usually rush past because we are on a deadline to head back to San Jose..

First we stopped at a window where a couple of bakers were doing a display..

What a display ! Truly magnificent piece of bread! They also had starfish, turtles and crab shaped bread pieces which were very impressive.

The little one had fun interacting with the guys painted in silver and dressed as robots.

We walked by the Hard Rock Cafe and past the Christmas tree at the end of the pier and went to see the Aquarium. The entry tickets were a bit steep but thanks to a AAA discount we decided to go for it. After all it was our "smell the roses" day!

The aquarium was actually worth it. Three levels of well maintained displays with more than 20,000 fishes and marine animals. It was like a compact version of the Monterey bay aquarium which also had two glass tunnels, one for shallow water fish and one for fish at deeper waters in the bay.

The last room was kind of weird. It wasn't exactly related to fishes but was about conservation and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric.

They had hedgehogs and

turtles and

Chinchillas which apparently poop 200 times a day. They don't look much but their display cage had more poop than food which amused the kids..

Then it was time to return to Ghirardelli's to have some ice cream and hot chocolate before returning to San Jose...

We started and ended the routine the same way but the detour was wonderful.

Next time we go there are a whole bunch of Art galleries, a Wax museum, a Ripley's Believe it or Not show , etc. etc. and we might just do another one of these wander around trips about a place that we have grown to love over the years!

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History is cruel

2011-12-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

History sometimes is cruel. It repeats itself as some say.. and you think back and go "wait a minute. Wasn't I supposed to learn something from the past and build on it in the future?"

Well, the little one is now at the same stage as Jr. from a few years ago and we are now watching the breakfast saga as though is a slow motion rerun of a bad Law and Order episode!

The only good news is that Jr. outgrew the custom of "chewing the cud" and behaving like a Camel after two years. The little one amazed me by doing something two weeks ago. She looked at me around lunch time and said "Can I spit this out?" to which I said "fine!"

She spit out something in the wash basin that pretty much was hard and simply would not wash down to the drain. I had to literally smash that stuff and push it into the drain.

Further interrogation revealed that the two hard objects she spit out where the breakfast cereal she had stuffed into her cheeks that morning. After having stored it in her mouth for almost 4 hours she spit it out because she needs the space to store parts of her lunch.

This kid is getting very good at shortening our lifespan significantly. Her sister was a saint by comparison. So we are creating new history here!

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Global Winter Wonderland

2011-12-26T20:53:00.000-08:00

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..

Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.

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Numerology gone too far?

2011-12-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

We ran out of Appalam (papad)and was asked to go get one from the new stock. Grandpa had recently replenished the stock of Appalam on his November visit.

Was surprised to find the usual "Ambika" brand replaced by this one..

If Lord Krishna has this fate with his name changed, thanks to Numerologists, you should not be surprised to see me change my name to Soondaar Naarayenin..

Maybe the person who sent me that mail saying Mohammad Narayanan, my brother from some Aaafrican republic has passed away and has left me close to a million dollars did spell my name with numerology in mind?

One cannot help but think along those lines...

On a side note, the Applam is not that great and gets a passing grade.

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Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

We went through what has definitely a family tradition..

A sleepover at the cousins place and the kids opening gifts from under the tree after breakfast.

The hungry lions in front of their prey knowing that in a matter of seconds they get to jump on it!

The carnage of wrapping paper after the cubs are done unwrapping the stuff..

What happened in between..

and this year (as most years) one of the dads gets two of the same gift. When your life is an open book, guess everyone knows what to get you for Christmas?!

The little one wrote stories for the parents. One was Snow White written in her own words with Daddy substituted for a bad guy!

and the other was a cute frog family story.

We hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season.

We are slowly checking things off our to do list...

For starters we knocked off
- last minute gift buying for the kids and
- watched Mission Impossible 4 on Christmas Eve!

The theaters were relatively empty and the movie was a blast!

We had a good time with the kids showing their happy smiling faces throughout the day!

Our local adventures and checking off lists goes on over the next few days. Just shudder at the thought that our next break will have to wait till Memorial day! That thought can take a backseat for now as we try to live in the present..

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The school holidays begin..

2011-12-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

The kids are on break now. This year they did not even ask me if I was going to make it to their end of year class party. They knew daddy would not come.

They asked their mom and were disappointed to hear a "sorry" from her as well!

They had fun anyways...

Jr. made a gingerbread house and brought it home. It was great!

The little one made me a car ornament and that was great as well!

The best part was an email from the little one that was waiting in my inbox Friday evening!

A section of which is..

hi appa i am so glad that for two weeks there is no school and it is so fun
so i can play with you of the whole week i hope you have no work to so i
can play with you.a

Well, will disappoint her again, but the good news is she is getting used to it!

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Excitement in the backyard

2011-12-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

We have had one busy week with the parents both being super busy at work to the point where we think it is going to be a 12 day week.

In the midst of all this god always finds a way to throw some excitement our way to amuse us and the kids even if we are cooped up in our living room.

A wild cat of some kind decided to visit our backyard today. San of course assumed it was a raccoon perched on the fence. We (the kids and me) were pretty sure raccoons are not that big and do not look that muscular!

So we mounted the 70-200 and the extender to make it a 140-400mm and decided to observe the cat.

It was very pretty (and dangerous I am sure). Could not hold the heavy lens with my hand steady as there was a 30 degree temperature difference between the living room and the backyard and was also worried about the thing having rabies or making a dash for me.

Here are some pictures and a video. The kids are now scared of going in the backyard alone. That will pass. The wild cat gracefully made an exit into the forest like area behind our house.

We were happy for the temporary amusement..

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Karthigai Lights and Christmas Deepam

2011-12-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

In our house we have a tradition. On the day of Kaarthigai Deepam (the day we light oil lamps and pray to lord Kaarthikeya and eat Pori Urundai's), we also put on the Christmas lights. The Kaarthigai day in the US also coincides with my star birthday in India as they are around 12 hours ahead and overall turns out to be a great experience.

In summary, I get to eat pori urundai's every year for my Birthday!

The oil lamps come back in the next two days but the Christmas lights stay on till the New years!

This year daddy Narayanan aka limpy Narayanan was given an ultimatum by the kids. Either get on the ladder and put on the lights with help from mommy and the kids or go hire someone to put on the lights, NOW!

With a lot of help from the three of them, the lights were up after an hour..

We also celebrated with the kids lighting lamps (or switching on battery operated lamps that look like real lamps)and placing them inside and outside the house!

Good eats..

Notice daddy's slight paunch. 15 days of eating, limping and no calorie burning and trying on pants a tad smaller on the waist can do that!

A full moon night as always for Kaarthigai and this year it coincided with an eclipse in many parts of the world. The moon as seen at 400mm and ..

and back lighting our house..

We had one busy day. Children's party in the morning. Lighting up the house in the evening!

This special day was made possible thanks to isolation from the internet. We are now planning to cut the internet cable on festival days as a policy!

Hope those of you who celebrate Kaarthigai, had a great day yesterday!

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5 years in Caricatures

2011-12-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

This week was travel week. Daddy managed to limp along and spend the week out of town and came back limp intact late Friday.

The kids were overjoyed to see daddy and promptly declared that they had a surprise announcement for me. The IBM Children's party was Saturday morning and limp or not, I had to come because most likely Big Al will be there and we will do our caricature collage!

So off we went and spent two hours at IBM..

By now we already had four sets of pictures showing a constant theme!

Our annual Santa picture, courtesy IBM..

Grandma helped the kids make their X-mas hats and Gingerbread cookie decorations.

The kids posed for me in the backyard after coming home, without me having to beg them to pose!

and the best part..

Next year the plan is to make this one giant collage and put it on our hallway. It might cost us a fortune to frame this one but will try!

Once again, we thank IBM for organizing this every year and Big Al for showing how the kids change in his caricature world!

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Too much Lollu (mischief?) . . .

2011-12-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

The kids have now discovered email.

Jr. always had an email account. Now that the little one has an email account they are way too into communicating by email.

This has led to some ridiculousness in the house with the ipad (with keyboard) being taken over by the kids to check email every 5 minutes!

Apparently the keyboard is easier for email typing than the swipe on screen keyboard.

There are also some funny conversations like this one..

Jr. : Why did you spill your food on the carpet?

LO : I will let you know by email!!!

Me and San : WTH !!!

This takes the cake..

Jr. from Computer room : I have sent you an email ! have you received it yet?

LO from living room (literally 6 feet away) : I am checking it right now. I will send you a reply soon..

Or this one :

LO : Daddy, I have no new emails. Can you send me one please?! (she is sitting 5 feet away!)
On the bright side the house is quieter with the kids on the computer but at this rate their social skills will take a nosedive in record time.

It is also truly amazing to watch a girl who has just turned 6 figure out email, use the features, ask inquisitive questions which would give some valuable feedback to email providers and get totally engrossed in it to the point that she checks email every 10 minutes!

Tomorrows technologists in action !

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The See Saw continues

2011-12-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

First it was the infected hand followed by a course of heavy antibiotics with side effects.

That ended just on Thanksgiving day to give me some time to recover, shop, go see low tides, spend a few days with the kids and be happy and then. .

things turn again with severe pain in the left foot that got to a point where I could not even step on it.

The doctors at my hospital are very happy to have a regular repeat customer. The family meanwhile is accusing me of poor work life balance, putting other things above doctor visits, pig headedness (if there is no such a word, there is now!) etc. etc.

To their credit the doctor was visited today and after many x-rays and tests they declared that a tendon has been damaged and continued use of the tendon has damaged it further.

Now it has come to resting the leg, some more pills and walking with crutches for a couple of days.

My days of staying off pills with yoga are long forgotten now. Praying to all the gods I know and all the gods I don't know to make this go away as fast as possible so the hot room can be visited again!

Going without yoga is turning me into a man with PMS and that is not a good sign..

Here's to a better tomorrow...

ps. On a slightly brighter note, the Shutterfly photo album from the trip was delivered. It is fantastic. Next time we go on a family trip, we are definitely going to make an album..

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Negative tide day

2011-11-27T09:30:00.000-08:00

Friends notified us that yesterday was "negative tide day" and a rare occurrence that coincided with sunset time!

The weather was perfect and there were more than 2000 people in Half moon bay to walk the tide pools and show kids the little critters that are found in the few hours where the water recedes far back (things which were 6 feet underwater come to within a foot of water levels during a 2 hour period)..

We walked 2+ miles with the kids on slippery sea weed, kelp, gravel and barnacle covered rocks to see some amazing little ecosystems!

Here are some photographs..

The pelicans and gulls were enjoying the critters as well, albeit differently! They celebrated tide pool day as early dinner day!

When the water receded there was a 500 feet stretch of sand that was almost a marsh glistening in the sunlight..

Snails and mollusks everywhere in all kinds of colors, trying to hide under the rocks, but not fast enough.

This fish was well camouflaged in a very small tide pool. An older experienced tide pooler?! pointed it out to us as we were asking him "there is nothing there! what are you photographing?"

What looks like an ugly bag is a living creature which shrinks to the touch and supports a zillion other organisms that are piggy back riding on it..

We saw four different starfish, a chocolate brown starfish..

A red and gray softer starfish (softer to touch)..

An orange starfish

and a pink starfish

We also saw some sea anemones that were simply gorgeous!

We made our way back out of the tidepools towards the rocks to enjoy what was definitely one of our best sunsets to date!

When you have a whole bunch of kids on a beach all excited and hyper the energy level of the place is up a few notches and that adds to the experience.

Just wished that the tripod which was in the van had also been lugged around to capture the colors post sunset. Another day, another time!

This is the best I could get with a high ISO sin tripod.. It was too wet and slushy with kids and dogs running around to place camera on anything and try a timer shot.

The time spent at the beach and the tide pools was worth it. It took us an extra hour to get to the beach because of traffic and we also spent one hour getting out of the parking lot to the freeway! So if you do plan on doing this next year (or the next negative tide day), get there at least two hours before the low tide starts and make dinner plans in one of those beach side restaurants and drive home with less traffic later.

If you have kids in the under ten age group, the tide walk is strongly recommended!

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Black Friday..

2011-11-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

We went shopping yesterday. All day!

Either looking at what was there or actually buying things that were part of the plan.

We spent a lot of time with the four of us not throwing tantrums, all smiling and happy, eating out, checking out things to the point where it was our best day in a long long time that we can remember.

Daddy got an iPad, to replace lugging the laptop and power cord around office and for future travel. To complement it, we now have a futuristic keyboard that opens out like a Nissan Z from below the iPad. Way cool and nerdy!

The kids got some clothes and the boots they have been bugging us for the last six months..

Mommy got herself a hair clip for 3 bucks but was content with it! So we will leave it at that.

We as a family, are thankful for black friday!

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Growing up and Growing old

2011-11-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

On a cheeky note, we all grow older at the rate of one year per annum but we grow up at different rates...

Case in point, the 25 something crowd of more than 20 guys who happened to be in the theater last night for a show of "Mayakkam Enna". Had gone to watch the evening show with Balaji last night and it was a full house.

Mayakkam Enna (you can watch trailer here) is a movie by Selvaraghavan with his brother Dhanush as the hero. If you thought this was some feel good, masala romance movie that targets the twenty something youth, you may be mistaken.

It is a visceral movie about a group of friends growing up and growing old based on the circumstances they face in life. Some deal with the hand they are dealt with courage and conviction while others simply struggle to pick up the pieces. Selvaraghavan does a fantastic job of creating vivid images of the characters with all their idiosyncrasies and Dhanush stands out as an actor. The heroine steals the show throughout the movie. A first timer to Tamil movies, this girl can act.

It is a treat to watch a heroine in a Tamil movie get a chance to show her acting skills as opposed to just showing herself for a change.

Went to the movie without knowing anything about the movie. Had not heard about the storyline, the cast, nothing. Just that Sangeetha watched it the previous night and said "you will like this movie because there is a lot of good photography in the movie".

Came out loving it. Sad part was that the crowd of guys totally spoiled the movie going experience. They simply could not handle the serious scenes and would start making loud ridiculous comments to the whole theater which was not much different from little kids who act out to crave attention.

Was telling Balaji that one needs to be a husband and or a parent to understand "the growing up" aspect of life and clearly this crowd was not ready for it.

This movie was 80% tragedy, 20% happy go lucky and another bonus 10% if you managed to connect the dots between the two.

A must watch for a mature audience!

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Ups and downs

2011-11-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Lets see..

+ in last 6 days?

Come back to reality nice and smooth after a nice trip to Hawaii

Dinner with friends and relatives over weekend

A beautiful Photo book in the process of delivery, thanks to Shutterfly

- in last 6 days?

Two trips to the hospital to take care of pus in hand

Way too much antibiotics than this body can handle

No yoga in 15 days

Think we should call that even!

Did try Yoga in Hawaiian bay waters..

Could not resist the chance to pose..

But right now a poster child for "man with PMS" aka Yoga withdrawal..

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Three days in Paradise

2011-11-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

The pictures say it all..

Unique flora and fauna, waterfalls galore, pristine beaches, lava everywhere, active volcano within sight...

A long weekend well spent with the family of 10 people including a personalized snorkeling trip at Kealakekua bay (gateway to the gods)!

This trip will be cherished for a long time to come. We celebrated Jr. and the FIL's birthday in Hawaii's big island.

More later. For now it is time to catch up on the routine!

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