In America

  Old fashioned Vipin Vasudevan Vipin has not caught on to the current trends. The flat hierarchy thing. He doesn' really get that. So, he is very respectful to other Thaaram members elder than him. It starts with the affectionate "Chetta.." vili but it does not stop there. He listens patiently to all the suggestions coming from all the folks he interacts  with while handling the overall coordination of the Christmas celebrations this year. Vipin has a huge reservoir of patience, and humbly gets thing moving in the right direction. Another old fashioned thing that Vipin sticks to is hard work. He is always available to put in his work, and his time, late nights, early morning - whatever it takes. Hats off to you Vipin - awesome work! Unreasonable Girish The entire sound setup of the event for the songs and dances, ambient music came from Girish. Girish comes in in the morning of the event - with the laptop for the karaoke, two sets of mike receivers for the four mikes, th...

 It is rainy season. The theme for the amateur singers at Music India Foundation was rain. I had sung my rain song, and had come out to call my kids and ask them to have dinner. I called on whatsapp couple of times, and then on the phone couple of times.  He had blended into the parking lot, like the cars - possibly apprehensive about the clause that would disturb his status quo.

 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...