The adventures of a zany mom

Trying something different... This time, my friend, Sangeetha Menon's, beautiful commentary is interspersed with mine! Here's the blog Thank you for reading.

I have been told several times by people visiting from India that we, in the USA, celebrate Navaratri (the Indian Festival celebrated right at the onset of Fall) in a much bigger fashion than folks in India.  The festival is celebrated in different ways (and for different reasons) in many parts of India.  All have an underlying theme of victory of good over evil or victory over our senses. In Gujarat and Maharashtra, the celebration includes a  Garba   (a wonderful, fast paced, and sinuous dance) which is the celebration of 9 forms of shakti (Goddess Durga ) .  For Punjabis, Ashtami (the 8th day) is celebrated by giving food and gifts to 9 Kanyas (young girls) in a ceremony called KanchKe .  The Bengalis conduct a huge Durga puja with a procession of the Devi - an amalgamation of the 9 forms of shakti also known as Durga . People from other North Indian states celebrate Dussehra during this time to celebrate Lord Rama's fight (9 days) and final victor...

I recently started working I downtown Houston which caused a niggling worry on how I would handle the traffic. I had decided after the first couple of days of driving into work, that I would try the bus. So started my bus route 265 experience. I have not seen a more orderly and obsequiously polite set of people as those that travel on my bus.  I would hazard a guess that people on all the park-and-ride buses behave this way too.  Commuting by bus brings out something different and very pleasant in Houstonians. If an aerial view would be taken of people as they park at the West Bellfort park-and-ride during the peak bus travel time, we would all probably look like ants marching up to, and disappearing into a huge bus.  A conveyer belt of multiple lanes converging into a single box that is then moved along so that the next big box can take its place to be filled up, and so on. Where you see a lot of aggressiveness and rage-inducing behavior on the Houston roads, yo...

Dying was the best thing that happened to her. This sounds callous - but her timing was impeccable. She saw her grand kids and saw hem happy. She spent a week with us and was quite happy. She spent time with nearly everyone near and dear to her... And then her body gave up. She took an exit and left. There could have been so many things done and said that may have resulted in a longer life for her. She could gave stayed back in the US with either prakash or me,but she may not have been happy. It would not have been an ideal situation. She did announce that it was her last trip to the US as she left. She could have avoided going to the Thiruppugazh peruvizha right after the long flight home and the poonal. This, in my opinion, was surely a huge contributor to compounding her illness. Then again, she would certainly not have been happy if she didn't go. The day of her death, she could have been taken to Dr. sharada, a doctor who knew her and her medical history ve...

Something made me hesitate to leave to go to work on Monday July 29th.  I had barely left to go to work when I got a call from prakash (my brother in California).  Getting a call on a weekday morning from my brother has been the pattern for the last few pieces of bad news he has had the singular misfortune to share with me.  Today was no exception.  He had to break it to me that our mother passed away. My mother, Sharada Krishnamoorthy, a beautiful soul who touched the lives of so many, is no more.  I have had to read this shocking statement - shocking because it is so sudden and unexpected - and I still can't believe it. She must have known.  The last 4 months of her life were spent in a sort of a goodbye.  She left India along with my father for a trip to visit all of us in North America.  She spent time with prakash and jayanthi in California,  Rajesh and aarti in Toronto and finally with us in Houston - she got to be quite clo...

June 2012:   This year is a milestone year for our friends Srini and Rajiv and we had been talking for a long time in combining our vacations to have a mega vacation.   Ideas bandied about were skiing or a cruise.  Of course the "majority" vote and common sense prevailed, and the cruise won. The Srikanth couple are in the organizing mood again.  Srikanth sent out a notification that we need to make plans fast as ticket opportunities were drying up.  We immediately had to have dinner (at The Pethes) and decided on the cruise.  A memorable discussion and decision.  Not many discussions between us happen without a lot of laughter.  This was no exception. Srikanth's bucket list included a cruise from San Juan (eastern caribbean).  Sanjay's bucket list included taking his kids to Louisiana.  Srikanth got his wish as that cruise seemed to be the best deal.  The Singhs had unfortunately set their sites on skiing and so bowed ou...

Our 2011 holiday plans were made well in advance.   Well, by that it means that we had used our RCI points to book a week - a week in The Netherlands Antilies no less.  Of course - just the week was booked and nothing else.   Cut to October when we started looking for flight tickets.  Sticker shock played its part and we had to drop the island plans in favor of saving some money. We then chanced upon a deal in las Vegas that seemed to be too good to pass up.  We checked flight tickets and they seemed reasonable too.  So the trip was on!  Now it was just a matter of gathering people to go with us.  We asked the Pethes and Avantsas.  While the Pethes declined regretfully, the Avantsas agreed to go with us to our delight.  Even better news came in when Prakash agreed to join us!  This was great and we were all looking forward to the holidays.  We had my Rio trips and the kids' semester finals to go through.  The days flew by faster than we could keep up.  Plans for the trip were afo...