Wonder La

We went to Wonder La again, this time with Anu's brother and family. It was a hit just like the first time. The weather was just too good!

Vallabh and Kavya (Anu's niece) had loads of fun. Keshav refused to enter the water, still had fun watching us jump in and out.

More pics on our flickr site

Happy Diwali

It's been almost 10 years since I was in India for Diwali; Anu and kids were here a couple of years ago. We had a wonderful time at Chennai, in spite of only for a couple of days. The Diwali scene in India has changed quite a bit. There's more awareness to environmental issues - which explains the reduction in the fire crackers sale and use. The crackers are also getting more friendlier - most crackers display the decibel level and some even come with safety fuse that's timed to avoid bursting on the face.

The usual ones like, 100(0) walas, flower pot, ground chakar, sparklers, rockets are still abound. The fireworks display high in the sky, which is quite a crowd puller in the US and abroad, have become common place here. The night sky is full of beautiful firework displays - they are going on even as I'm blogging. They are out in full force. We saw few wonderful displays behind the Chennai Central clock tower on our way to the train station on Saturday.

Happy Deepawali 2006! Pics on our Flickr site

Time was slipping away...

We almost didn't make it to our train on Thursday headed to Chennai, thanks to Bangalore's traffic jam. For no apparent reason, the traffic came to a standstill on JC Road, just a few minutes away from the City station. We only had about 30 mins for the train with our seats yet to be confirmed. We almost gave up, but decided to get out of the car and started walking towards the station.

Luckily, we found a autowallah who took pity on us (w/ kids and bags in tow), decided to take us to the nearest train station at which our train would stop enroute to Chennai. We made it there miraculously with few mins to spare and made it to Chennai.

Our first experience of Bangalore's famous traffic jams will stay as a memorable one!

A brush with the past - Tipu

Not having much to do last Sunday, and the driver at our disposal, we decided to visit the Tipu's palace and fort in the heart of B'lore city. Even long time Bangaloreans would not know about these wonderful pieces of history in their backyard. While the palace was open (Rs.5/- entry fee), the fort was unfortunately closed for renovation. It is sad that these wonderful treasures have long been abused and ignored. However, both these sites are now under the care of Indian Arch. Society, and are being renovated and preserved.

Tipu lived over 200 years ago and used the palace in Bangalore as his summer home.

Pics on our flickr site.

Rendezvous at Leela

Kim and Barbara visited Bangalore on business from Schwab. They were staying at the Leela palace on airport road. I met them at their hotel on the last day of their trip. They were both 'really ready' to get back home to California, but had a bit of last hour shopping to do before getting on the plane :-) We chatted about their 'food' escapedes and run-ins with the 'cabbies' in Bangalore. I'm sure they had tons of 'Bangalore experience' to take back home.

Pics on our flickr site.

Golu in Chennai

We visited Chennai for Navarathri couple of weeks ago. This time we went calling on relatives far and near. We also went shopping in T-Nagar for Diwali. The pocket felt lot lighter on our way back! Got back to Bangalore on 2nd October.

Golu pics on our flickr site.

Saraswathi pooja

Saraswathi pooja was clelebrated excellently. Mami's mama family visited. mami's thatha was the chief guest. latha perima,viky,divya,ghayatri etc. Visited us in athai's house.
this was a great day with all of them there.Vallabh and keshav were very happy and were enjoying the day.