In America

 As planned, everyone including Gafoor and Ramshi arrived around 2:45 3 PM timeframe at Greymont Park. We started off with a round of warm up Dumb Charades. Then Bharathi started unpacking her magic box of games. Collecting tennis balls thrown by team mates into a stack of paper cups, blowing the balloon into a special paper cup that looks like two cups stuck together on the narrow edge, and passing on to your team mate who picks it up using another half blown balloon and passes on. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do my part as well and guys' team won the game. Sorting M & Ms by color with straw suction, catching a potato on a fork, vocabulary quiz,  enacting a song while the guesser is forced to listen to unrelated song playing on noise cancelling headset, the games list was never ending. Innovative games. The most popular one was an improvised version of "What's the good word". We all stood in a circle. One person comes up with a category, and says one w...

  We had our Fremont potluck Onam at Amruth's home. We started with a group photo.  And then family photos.  Then, it was time for the sadya - and what is special about this Onam Sadya are Ashok's fish fry and Anjana's prawns fry. Those plantain leaves are from Amruth's backyard. This Onam celebrarion had got postponed from couple of week's back as Amruth fell sick on the original planned date. Hence, this sadya brought in some extra freshness unlike it would have been if it had come back to back with the residents' association sadyas that were happening last month.  Once early evening kicked in, Amruth made special "Wagh Bakri" tea. I really liked it and appreciated the tea. Amruth appreciated the appreciation and made me one more extra cup.  After that we had multiple engaging conversations - about Amruth's japan trip, about AI and the ever changing landscape, the immigration situation, about Alok's new San Jose home. The conversations contin...

   pothichoru restaurant A new restaurant has started in Tracy that serves pothichoru, the traditional kerala meal of the common working man. Nostalgia has a power that the Michelin does not. As soon as I clicked go, the map said you have arrived.  Omelette, poricha meen, meen kari, chammandhi, payaru ularthiyathu, cheera thoran, puzhungalari choru, vaazhayila, news paper - andhassu! After wresting the mildly annoying software issues, and the long hard commute, when you come home to a pothichoru like this, it is a pothichoru to remember.  I am reminded of another pothichoru from a Fremont restaurant IIRC that we had had to celebrate Divya Brennan's story being published in a book. 

Minimal Elegant Decor The hall decor was planned out to be minimal for this year's onam, and had a quiet elegance to it.  The Maveli cutout is very effective and good value for money, an idea that Vipin Vasudevan had introduced last Onam, and executed on this one as well. Vipin Viswanathan's handmade vanji from last year made a reappearance as well this time, bringing in some grandeur. Pookkalam Pookkalam had looked good in the morning, and then a layer of rose petals were added all around, elevating the look considerably. Sruthi had done most of the work at the hall today morning, while Nithya, Ramshi, Divyas had done a lot of background work, with chasing flowers, and getting the petals ready. Lot of hardwork behind the beautiful pookkalam. Sound System Setup Girish came in with his two speakers, speaker stands, a woofer, two transmitters, two receivers, four mikes, a mixer, the sound cables, wires, laptop etc. Arun and myself were apprentices as Girish explained the setup he...

The humility with which Navneeth performed and spoke won over my heart instantly.  He started off with "Sripadham vidarnna saraseeruhathil". And continued to bring to light exquisite gems from the classical era of malayalam film music, carnatic music, hindi, bengali etc.  He delved into the details of the brilliance of the compositions. Not a lot of it registered for me. What registered was the grandeur of the songs.  It was a lovely evening and was well worth the three hours drive up from Tracy. It is thanks to the Music India Foundation's initiative that I actually got to experience the performance of Naveeth Unnikrishnan.  Ravi Menon has a passion for encouraging the music loving community, and yesterday evening was a wonderful manifestation of a lot of behind the scenes work, thanks to the entire team who worked behind this.

 I was deeply immersed in work. Exception stack traces were swimming around my head, and I was trying to hold the head at the right spot for the solution to surface in focus. That is when I saw a black object flying outside the window,  I looked out and saw the blue trash can also fly and fall into the ground..  I rushed downstairs. Ramshi slid her car windows down and gave me a packet with chicken curry and chemmeen curry and said.. " please keep the trash cans up..  in a bit of rush, have to pay the speeding ticket.."