In America

In the middle of the night, heavy rain pouring, a woman walked towards the house. She had draped a cloth over her head . She was holding something with both her hands. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning, and heavy thunder... the temple bells rang wildly..  Divya opened the door and kept the arabian bread pudding that Ramshi had brought into the fridge. How are you going to hang stars in the middle of a hall with a vaulted ceiling? There is no way you are going to reach the roof even if you were a circus athlete who could balance on two ladders. You just tie two twines diagonally from the walls and hang the stars and snowflakes on it. Once done, some things are just so perfect that they fail to impress.  The decor team had started the work at 10:00 AM with the plan that everything would be done by lunch, and we can all come back in the evening.  Against the original plan, we decided to keep the stage to align with the hall design.  The stage back drop work was re...

 The decision to drive to Yosemite on Saturday morning was made in the last hour on Friday. I pinged Amruth but they had other plans.   We started a little after 9:00 AM in our Santa Fe. We exited Tracy Hills into fog that had set in over the highway. Just enough to see through.    Kittu had lost all his jackets in school. And Yosemite demanded one. Also, there was some vague need for snow chains in my head. So our first stop had to be a Walmart. Had some fun using voice commands to find and add walmart stop using android auto which I don't have in my daily driver 3 series.     I will continue to say that the drive is what matters in a car, even though I will submit that I was amused by the tech. The snow chains would bring in some overhead and cost, and on checking latest conditions in Yosemite, decided against getting them.     As I caught myself off guard with the sudden trip plan, I had not had sufficient sleep. Also, I was starting ...

  Boat story. We had our first meeting at the Star Cross park. Banerji's drive for a grand and impressive backdrop infused the project from that meeting. He had come in with this blue print that he and Chris had drawn out. There was a touch of grandness and an "all in"ness in everything he said I had brought in decor items from the koottu onam group that had happened a few weeks back.  Banerji did not want to use it as is, we tried to see if the happy onam circle can be be formed using the koottu decor but that was not working out and that got dropped. Vipin Vishwanathan was initially not in the decor group. I knew that he was the right person for the job as I had seen the pooja room work that is in progress at the garage.  Vipin Das, a recent thaaram to join tracy hills had ideas about printing the maveli from walmart. Starting with that drawing, we estimated how big the vanji needs to be by looking at the cement squares on the park floor, and decided on two 8 X 12 sheet...

 Food is something you have to have. Even when you are going to an amusement park with roller coasters and water splashes.   So, I had the tag for the food in my wrist band. You are entitled to an entree and a side every ninety minutes. So the first combo was a burger and mac-n-cheese, the second combo was a pizza slice and two bread sticks, third combo was orange chicken and chowmein, forth combo was breaded fish and waffle fries, fifth combo was fried chicken and french fries. That is quite a lot of food for thirty dollars. You also notice how all of these have a same old stuff vibe to it. Sometimes, America feels too standardized. Thirty dollars is cheap for all that food combined. But to take that advantage, you have to spend on the entry ticket, and on the parking ticket! You can't beat America on money games. I have gone to so many water theme parks. But I still did not build the sense muscle to go prepared with a swim suite so you can enjoy the water which would feel aw...

 As is customary when we are running late for an event, we were in Rally mode. Divya would say move three lanes over to the right, there is a gap there. The horse vision gets a stretch to the right.  We reached the hall late, and Golden Gate Sailing fame Ranjith was there to guide us in. He said walk through the double doors and you won't see anything. Someone guided me into the row seating in the middle of the pitch dark auditorium.  Just as we settled down, it was time for the program interval.  Caught up with Shaji, Abil, Neenu, Binu, Old Ridgewood neighbors, Ajay (REC), Smitha (Divya's friend), chit chatted, had mango lassi, tea, cutlet, laddoo. Shaji had to leave early and we went back into the hall.  My seat was at the edge of the row. Liya started performing her bharathanatyam dances, and I noted the synchrony between the song, and her performance. The live performance of the singer, and the violin, and the mridangam were really good. Two songs in, I jus...