Diwali..

It was Diwali last week - even though it was my first away one from home it was a rather happy week with some great moments :)

And top of that list was the wonderful Diwali celebrations we had at our home - 2148 Oak Street - as for the first time ever I was part of a Diwali Aarti; and what more, youtube was our lead pandit :D

Bhai Log - at 2148 Oak Street :)

A lot of effort went into the party - the house was cleaned, food stuffs were bought and some amazing Indian food was dished out in our very own kitchen.. The party ran till 3am as we were totally overcome by the Diwali spirit.. 

And later in the week got better, I got to see my niece :D :D My bhabhi came to LA with her PhD advisor for a week-long seminar. It was great to see her and my niece - completed the family feeling on Diwali.

My niece strikes a pose :)

She's enjoying the company of Uncle J, even as Marilyn Monroe looks on :)

She was staying at a hotel in Hollywood, whose walls adorned a lot of movie-related photographs. One of Marilyn Monroe can be seen above.. Bhabhi's parents had accompanied her to LA and her brother and his wife joined us during the night. They also have a daughter. Fair to say that my niece and my Bhabhi's niece, with a combined age of less than 3 years cooked quite a storm during the night :D
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Interestingly, my Bhabhi's brother is a PhD, his wife is a Physician and of course my bhabhi and cousin are both PhD students. So I was in very august company for a few hours. Hoping to draw some inspiration there :D

And also I won myself the offer of a trip to Hawaii form my Bhabhi - condition being I must wind a life partner to go on that trip with :P I guess I should use this offer as a bargaining tool to win over potential suitors :D

And after I came back, there was the tailgating at the USC v Stanford NCAA football game at the LA Coliseum. What amazing atmosphere - people here really do well at setting up an atmosphere.

Balloons in USC colors..

Last time I had seen a game but not been to tailgate, this time I did the opposite. It was the wrong game to miss though - USC took Stanford, unbeaten this year, to 3 over times before tiring out. Hopefully next time I will watch the game and tailgate as well..

Of Going Away and Memorable Clicks :)

It has been a very hectic last 10 days or so and the coming 10 days are unlikely to be any different.. The reason? It has finally hit me that I am going to LA for an MS in Computer Science, and it has felt weird :/ Right from picking up my visa-stamped passport on July 7 I have been in a mad rush to get things done.. I have also blown a lot of money to buy stuff -- clothes, books, specs and stationary - MS is already a costly affair and it hasn't even started :p

More than all this, however, it was during my farewell trip to Ludhiana to meet my Naani that it really sunk in that I was going to go away now.. My Naani lives with my Maasi and at their place also saw my other two maasis for possibly the last time in a long time.. The late night gupshup was enlivened with old black and white photographs that were passed around.. It really is amazing that in these days of DSLRs and Digicams those 2x2 prints from film rolls of now dead cameras produced photos far more wonderful than I can describe.. There was a photo of my dad which was sent to mom´s family to arrange the marriage :p; there were photographs from my maasi´s wedding; and there were pics of my mom, my maasis and their cousins in various stages of childhood.. It was one such picture that really caught my eye - my maasi and my mom dancing and singing on stage in their pre-teen years (I am hoping to get hands on that gem pretty soon :) )...

Another thing that caught my eye was the wedding card of my maasi - it said clearly - "Outstation guests are requested to bring their beddings" :D I was told all marriages of that time had such a message as ppl typically stayed for a week atleast to be a part of a family wedding and they were too many to manage by the hosts alone :p

In the past week I also clicked a couple of photos that a few years down the line would bring a smile to my face or those of my descendants :D - there is one of my cousin´s daughter - Jia (christened chawani by her daadi despite being born in US :p) (who was born in March)..

Jia

and there was my photo with kids of my distant cousins (mere mausa jee ke bade bhai ke ladke :p) ..

Uncle J is quite popular with the kids :p

 The little girl in the pic here, Harsha, maybe only 4 years old but the run through she gave of her Mom's touchscreen phone would put big salespersons to shame :p ..

I think kids are the most wonderful subjects for a photographer - their being in a photo makes it amazing :) While we are talking about kids lets not forget my niece who was born in February last year - Surilli - I came to know that she can now speak (sadly haven't heard her myself yet :( ) - I have taken more solo pics of her alone than all my  friends combined from my erstwhile office (and that is saying something :p) ... As the first kid of a close relation of my generation she will be always be extra special...

Surili

Coming back to the feeling of going away - I guess I have too much preparatory work to do to have the time to be dreading the going away.. It would be fair to say, though, that I am looking forward to the new beginning in my life and am really excited about it .. And oh yeah, I also made a foray into the kitchen on Sunday and cooked up an awesome Chicken dish with gravy (to be honest I was only assisting my mother :p) .. It was a confidence booster and I hope to do well in the kitchen in the near and the not-so-near future :)

Main bhi cook :D

Of an eventful weekend

The weekend gone by proved to be one of surprises - some good and some really sad. The earthquake and the resulting tsunami in Japan were undoubtedly the sad ones. But there was some good news as well. I became an uncle for only the second time as NP became a proud Papa of a lovely little girl :D

Surili - 8 days after she was born

Iva - 8  hours after she was born

While Surili was born on 16 hours into second Saturday of February 2010, 'Iva' (or Chawani as her Grandma calls her :)) was born 11 hours into the second Saturday of March 2011 ,i.e., almost exactly 1 year and 1 month later. But the two were born in Gurgaon and Utah, respectively, so one of them will not have Saturday as day of birth :-P

Other than that it was a pretty sad weekend. I also read that Radhika Tanwar was shot dead near Satya Niketan overbridge. It was a kind of scary as I have been at that exact place almost countless times :(

The sad weekend continued into Monday where a terrible interview has me tethering on the brink of a reject from Oxford :( I am praying for a miracle now as that's the only thing that will get me an admit there :(

Japan continues to simmer though and I really hope that they come out of it alive and kicking. #PrayForJapan

PS> It was a reject :(