In America

 As our car got closer to Mango Meadows resort, the greenness in the last few interior drive stretches was so much that it felt like green is the only color around here. Wet green kerala glow all around the greenery. Guide walk    The trip had started with a guide walking us through the campus and talking about the traditional significance and the traditional use of some of the thousands of species of trees in the campus. While it was informative, it was starting to feel like a boring school study tour, especially as the descriptive prose is more applicable to the future state of these young trees. It is hard to give a bone thin tree credit for having had it's bark being used as clothing by yester-year rishis. The guide walk slowly disintegrated, and small groups started doing their own walks. Cycling    Niya, Vichu and Arnu got themselves cycles that were free to use for half an hour, the younger kids played in the childrens play area, adults were most...

This week is about watching "Kumbalangi nights" over and over. Uyiril thodum thalir  Bobby and Baby falling in love again picturized beautifully. Bobby and Baby are presented as innocent nice endearing people. You find yourself liking each of them very much, and then you are happy to see them fall in love with each other. And then the song "Uyiril thodum thalir" comes along taking you further into the mood.. OoLaye premicha penkutti Bobby and Baby have a fight and get over it, and it is endearing to watch them navigate through to success.. Yeshu namukkariyatha aalonnumallallo.. This scene establishes the closeness of the sisters. You see them as a unit now. Chettannu viliche.. This is a super hilarious scene. Saji has never been called "Chetta", and request to be called "Chetta" in the wake of being asked to talk about Bobby's marriage proposal, Saji beaten with pankayam.. Saji's sincere love for his brothers comes out in...

July 3rd Worked from home. Stopped work a little early, looked up some routes to Seattle, settled on the route with Crater Lake, as I had heard direct positive reviews on it from my colleague Arun and through my friend Amruth as well. Booked  a Motel 6 in Redding, which was about four hours from home, and about two hours before the Crater Lake national park. The drive was not particularly pleasant with all the traffic, a bit of Sunol beauty was there on the way.Reached the motel, called Divya and slept. July 4th Shastha Cavern was a potential sight that was pretty close to the motel,which the elderly receptionist recommended as well, but for her, the crater lake was an all-day thing. With the daunting task of driving all the way up to Seattle, and still open to let any place on the way stop me short by it's sheer beauty, I decided to give Shastha the skip. The drive from Redding to the Crater lake was green and interesting with the big Shastha lake and other lakes as wel...