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Thaaram Onam 2025

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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...
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Navneeth Unnikrishnan performance

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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.
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flying cans

 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.."
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Crawling Caprio

Watched Revnant this weekend. DiCaprio crawled with excruciating struggle after being attacked by a bear. Reminded me of the scene from "Wolf of Wall Street" where he did the same crawl after an overdose of cocaine.  What made you crawl? What did you let crawl you? 
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Iftar at Rameez home

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 Today's plan centers around Iftar at Rameez's home in Fremont. After lunch, we set out to Ikea, did some shopping of small items for my parents who are to return to India in a couple of days.    After Ikea, we did a nostalgia drive around our earlier Fremont home and school, and we reached his house at 7:13 PM , 2 minutes before ETA.     Fruits and glasses of juice were already on the teepoyee. We sat around in a sofa and waited for the sunset.  Aadu had the responsibility of alloting Ifthar snacks in the plates. In a very methodological fashion he placed "Petti pathal" and "Kozhiyada" in the plates. When it was time, "banku vili" was played in the portable speakers, and the fast was broken with dates, orange halfs and juice. The fast breaking had happened almost involuntarily as Rameez handed out the dates to everyone. As I was about to eat the prepared snacks, I found myself at a loss as I tried to find some coherence between Bajrangi and Empura...
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The photographer

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  Vijesh came with his black beard, in a black checked hoody and jeans. As soon as I saw him, I knew what to do with the packet of holi powder I was carrying. I walked over to him and he quietly said .. "I don't like powder.." Manu and Gafoor were walking to him with the same plan. Surprisingly, even Manu did not dare put powder on Vijesh.  A quiet power.  Nimmy did not dare either. Gafoor would not. I would not. Stalemate. Perhaps the most dramatic moments on the ground. Kids did not dare either. Stephen Nedumpally aura. Even my parents were not spared holi colors.  Vijesh distracted the miscreants by offering to take their photos, and escaped unspecked.   My dad who had been in Nasik HAL commented that he has never seen such an extensive and lively holi celebration in such a huge ground setting even there.
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Deepak Visit 2025

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 We got into taut conversation as soon as Deepak and me bade goodbye to Riyaz and Deepak's IISC friend in San Ramon. Deepak was looking into my eyes and talking about his family history and his razor sharp analytical brain was placing lots of pieces of information into the car. Our ideologies are different, and we both know that very well, and yet I loved how Deepak poured his heart and brain out. I did not know whether to look back at him or to focus on the road as he kept talking to me with unwavering eye contact.    The conversation was cut short as we reached my home. The vegetarian lunch was a novelty to me.   I used to talk about how 5.1 speakers giving sound from the back is a low hanging fruit that cinema enthusiasts like us should tap into. Demoed that.     On the drive back, the discussion was about religion, individuality, and Ayn Rand.  The conversations continued to be taut. Deepak is a great speaker and I enjoyed listening to hi...
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