Politics above the Nation?

I don't usually blog on the political happenings - although I have my views on such things - whether or not I know the subject completely :) But the headline today on The NYTimes ticked me off.

The US House Speaker's invitation to the Israeli Prime Minister, to address Congress next month - without the express permission from the POTUS (President of the...), let alone the State Department - leaves a bad taste in the mouth of any sane, right...er...correct thinking democratic person. How can someone invite a foreign personality, without proper permission - when the two nations are at unease, diplomatically?! That too - when that someone is lower down the chain of command...

I see only politics at play here at the cost of demeaning the position of the POTUS - and there by the position of the nation. With the general elections round the corner (2012) and the 'minority vote' at stake - this is a cheap trick by the Speaker. Someone cut the Speaker's tail please....

Swasti!!

Let BB go...

I am neither an economist nor do I claim to understand how the US Fed works (may be just a little, in passing). But I think Obama should let Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, go. Isn't it under his stewardship that we had recession building and taking millions of 'lives' everywhere? Didn't he pledge allegiance to the failed economic policies, and was probably the brain behind drafting many?

When the economy tanked, and when the only way is up - however insignificant the change is, he did take some bold decisions to effect that change. Or was that a much delayed response in the first place? We will never know anyway.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. -- Einstein

If BB was a part of the problem in the first place, doesn't it make sense to bring in a fresh pair of eyes and brain into this hot seat? ... who can bring in fresh thinking, better policy and the much needed change? BB's list of accomplishments could fill a realm of paper, printed 2-sided at that, but keeping the same dull heads who either didn't see this coming or didn't act on it earlier should be enough reason to change him, I think.

What's more...it could also help BB go make a 'decent living' for all his 'economic prowess'. Apparently he only makes $200k p.a. without any bonuses or pay raises, albeit the fact that the toxic assets he made the Govt. buy last year are bringing in huge returns. A Wall Street executive could have easily raked in a couple of billion for this kind of effort.

Let the people change. And so, let the rules of the game change...for better! It takes courageous leaders to take bold decisions. Haven't seen that yet in Prez BO.

Swasti!!

Disney - Where Dreams Come True

We have been to the Walt Disney World and been on the 4-night Disney Cruise earlier this month. The kids had a blast and are already asking to go on a 7-night cruise next week. Usha and I enjoyed the vacation thoroughly as well. This is our first cruise trip, but second visit to the Disney World. The cruise really is our dream come true. (yeah...why not?! no need to cook; no need to do dishes; no doing the beds nor washing clothes... ha ha)

One thing that really strikes me on our trips to Disney World is the cheerful faces of all those that work there, and their excellent customer service. Right from the bell boy to the store man to the security guard to the characters (of course). If there's any place on earth where someone bends over his/her back to satisfy the customer - then Disney is the place, we felt.

And yeah...we even celebrated Datta's 4th birthday (per Indian calendar) on the cruise and he really liked it.

More on the trips soon...
Swasti!!

Nobel intentions ?!

Congratulations to the President, for being chosen for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The coveted prize, however achieved, is the greatest of the compliments.

However, the Nobel Committee's selection of Barack Obama raised more questions than it answered - about the selection process and about the panel's intentions, to name a few. Any which way I look at it, this award (verb), is not justified/appropriate at this time.

If Obama's aspirations, eloquence and initial steps helped change the world's perception of the United States - then he's just doing his job, correcting the wrongs of the previous administration. Nothing great there. If his grand vision of a non-nuclear world and sustainable peace across the globe is being rewarded, then he is not the only person of stature with those visions. There have been many who aspired as such, and worked hard and long for the same. Not enough reason, I think, for the award.

Anyway - as mentioned at the outset, a Nobel is a Nobel - however achieved. Congratulations Obama!! Luck is favoring your good intentions. Make the most of it and make a real difference in the world!

Swasti!!

The Sasquatch Experience

This weekend, we took the kids to 6 Flags - Great Adventure Park in Lake George, NY. We had return tickets and wanted to use them before it gets too cold. It was in the low-50's when we started at home in the morning. But once we reached the Park, the weather was very pleasant.

The kids enjoyed the rides, shows, pizza and characters walking around. We had a pic taken by the professional photographer outside the gate there - just in case. I was thinking, 'taking the pic is free - we can always say NO when the time comes to buy the pics'.

There are some adventure rides there, and Sasquatch was one such, introduced this year. I thought of trying that out - and I am glad I did. Usha tried to pull me back saying - you never tried these things, may not be good for the heart etc. etc. I thought - 'okkasaari fix ayyaananTE naa maaTa nEnE vinanu' :) and went ahead.

The ride up was abrupt, my head got pushed away from my body (which was secured by the restraints), I got lifted up into the air (whatever clearance was left between the seat and the top restraint. Before my thoughts reached a point of panic, the descent started - and a sense of relief started to occur when I realized I am still in the air, with my bottom still in the air, didn't know when I will sit down in the seat; how I will sit - will I be thrown down? will it hurt? should I keep the eyes open or close them? Did I secure the restraint latches well? Or will they open up with all this pressure? Oh my god. where am I now? when will this end?

Well - folks were already opening up their restraints before my thoughts subsided and at the end it didn't feel as bad!

All in all, an exhilarating experience indeed! I am glad I went for it!!

BTW, we ended up buying the photo package on our way out :))

Swasti!!

Kiss a Pig?

I am for adventurism, not all out but to some extent. May be 51%, just to tilt the scale. But when I was reading a piece the other day on different fundraising ideas - I came across this. Kiss a Pig. (http://www.stepbystepfundraising.com/kiss-a-pig-fundraiser/)

Kiss a Pig?! What the heck is that?! Apparently, I learn, it's a big hit with Americans and fundraising. As conspiracy theorists have been writing, these kinds of events are probable causes of the outbreak of Swine Flu. May be it's true after all!

What else are you guys kissing out there?! Gosh!!

Save Humanity!!

Swasti!!

Manicure or Pedicure?

Yesterday we had been to the NY State Fair in Syracuse. At the end of the day, we took the free shuttle to get to the parking lot. On the bus there were two teenagers sitting next to us, and I couldn't help but smile at the conversation I overheard.

She: (looking at his hand resting on the support bar) Why do guys have such short nails?

He: Oh! That's because I have a bad habit of biting my nails deep, for some reason.

She: Yeah - I observed that with many guys. Don't know why they can't stand normal nails.

He: I guess regular nails don't look nice on guys. It's okay for girls as you go to get pedicure done. Is it manicure or pedicure for hands?

She: Mani... Pedi... hmm...whatever! The place I go to has both and I just get my nails done. I didn't pay attention to which is which.

Swasti!!

Milwaukee Art Museum

I like art. I like museums. But I don't like visiting Art Museums when I am travelling as I feel there are other better things to do than spend a half-day locked up in a museum. That being my mindset, I didn't allocate any time for anything other than taking my kids to the pre-planned Children's Museum in Milwaukee, WI on July 7th. We left Chicago around 11am and reached Milwaukee at 1pm. We parked in a lot and went into the Betty Brinn Children's Museum. The kids had a wonderful time there. After spending 3 hours there, and having lunch/snacks, we went out towards the lake shore and were surprised to see a wonderful building. Turns out, it's the Art Museum. The building itself is a work of art. The interiors are fantastic as well. We went in briefly, looked around, took a few snaps and came out for lack of time. We did stick around for the Museum's closing time (5pm) to see the wings close down for the night. Isn't it amazing? See that pic here.

Not sure if we ever go there again, but the next time we visit another city, we will make sure we check out the Art Museum. If it's as slick as this one, i.e.

Swasti!!

5 states and 2,717 miles

Back in 1998 I had been to Chicago but didn't have time to go up the Sears Tower. Usha wanted to go to Chicago for a long time and with our 10th Anniversary upon us, we decided to visit the Windy City. I checked the flight tickets and called some friends/relatives around there. One thing led to another, and we ended up with a long list of invites to visit. These invites were also from different places in that region - not just Chicago area. So, we both decided to go driving and took a week off from work.

Started in Albany on Thursday July 2nd morning. Here's our itinerary, in short - and the major places we visited:

1. Thu 07/02 - Albany, NY to Cleveland, OH - visited Tallamraju Madhury and Ravi family (Usha's cousin sister)
2. Fri 07/03 - Cleveland, OH to Darien, IL - visited Chaganti Mohan's family (Usha's cousin). Checked into Marriott in Elmhurst, IL for the night
3. Sat 07/04 - Attended the 17th TANA Conference in the Rosemont Convention Center - Chicago. Will write another piece about it. Returned to the hotel room at 1:45am in the morning, after the TANA programs.
4. Sun 07/05 - Chicago, IL to Rensselaer, IN - visited Dr. Chaganti Mallik and Lakshmi family (Usha's cousin).
5. Mon 07/06 - Rensselaer, IN to Chicago, IL - visited the Aurora Sri Balaji and the Lamont Sri Rama temples. Checked into the Marriott in Elmhurst, IL.
6. Tue 07/07 - Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI - visited the Betty Brinn Children's Museum and the Art Museum with its wonderful wing top (which closes every day in the evening). On the way back, stopped by Nori Vijay's place (a friend of ours), had dinner there and then returned to the hotel.
7. Wed 07/08 - Drove along the Lake Shore Drive, took pictures on the banks of Lake Michigan and visited the Navy Pier briefly. Watched a kids' Pirates show there, walked around and went to another friend's place in Elmhurst (Singaraju Trivikram and Smitha) for dinner before returning to the hotel room.
8. Thu 07/09 - Took the Double Decker Bus Tour around Chicago downtown; stopped at the Sears Tower; went up the building and ventured onto the glass chambers on the 103rd floor; returned to Navy Pier for some more fun times. Watched Cirque de Shanghai show there and went on a moonlight boat cruise overlooking the city's skyline at 10pm. Returned to the hotel room.
9. Fri 07/10 - Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN - visited Dr. Veena Nagappa (Usha's classmate in Boston Univ.) and her family; visited Prof. Kandukuri Lingamurthy of Andhra Univ Engg. College, who's visiting his children in Carmel, IN; and then went to Ayyagari Lakshmi and Raghava's house (Usha's cousin) for the night.
10. Sat 07/11 - Indianapolis, IN to Dayton, OH - visited Glen and Cindy Courtright (he's my previous boss in SAIC and a great friend).
11. Sat 07/11 - Dayton, OH to Columbus, OH - visited Vani and Srinivas (Usha's cousin) in Dublin, OH; visited Perala Umasankar and Sujatha (my friend from Andhra Univ) in New Albany
12. Sat 07/11 - Columbus, OH to Albany, NY - started there at 6:15pm and except for a few breaks in between for dinner, gas, pee-stops, came home at 5:15 am Sunday after unexpected, all-night driving covering 635 miles.

What a trip it has been - fulfilling, exciting, interesting, educating, fascinating, surprising and of course, tiring. We sure need another vacation to relax!! I will come back with details of these visits soon...

Swasti!!

Michael Jackson

To be honest here - I am not a western music buff. I am more of a classical music guy. I do listen to English music - but more of the jazz and classical type. That's not to say I don't get excited and enjoy when I happen to listen to a Dangerous or a Thriller or the likes from MJ. I just don't go out and about to get and hear to that music. That's all.

Nevertheless, I followed casually the life of MJ and have great admiration for him for his skills and charisma. I pitied his condition many a time as well. A part of me tried to convince myself the allegations against him were untrue. Despite all his frailties and failures as a person, he is and will be remembered forever for his flair, skill and contribution to the western music world, by music lovers and casual observers alike. (It's no exaggeration when I say that a whole generation of music buffs grew up thinking western music is nothing but MJ.) King of Pop, he sure is!

May his soul rest in peace!

Swasti!!

I am with the G-19

During the recent G-20 conclave, Obama tried hard but failed to get the European heads of state to commit additional stimulus packages in their own countries in his ongoing efforts to try and kick start the economy back to speed. However, almost all the other heads of state are fixated on more market regulations and other long-ranging measures. I must admit, although I am a staunch Obama supporter - I am squarely with the G-19 on this issue.

Simply pumping more and more billions into the market, without the needed checks and balances in place, is not going to bring true economic revival. True, it will make the investors (read, speculators) happy, and helps drive up the indexes. However, the fallacy of this policy is that once the stream of stimuli stops coming, the market (again read, speculators) will have nothing else to speculate upon and drive down the markets. Because, I believe, 'the fundamentals of the economy are not strong' (to borrow from Joe, the Also Ran). These investors look for each and any such stimulus or short term gains news and pump up the market, as we have seen recently. Once that stops, they run out as fast as they came in - at the expense of common man, thus wreaking further havoc on the psyche.

So, even if it is painful, I'd say - stay the course; strike the iron while it is hot - bring in the correct checks and balances needed for the long term health of the system, rather than announcing one package after another. That's what we expect of the man with the vision - long term vision, i.e.

Swasti!!

He believes he can fly

Remember the song from Space Jam - I believe I can fly ?! Datta reminded me of it when I was driving the boys to school the other day.

I was driving and stopped at a red light. Datta was chatting non-stop about what he would do when he grows up (which is another story for another time, as he has no concept of linear time and thinking; and thinks he can be a Benjamin Button - you know what I mean!)

So anyway - when I stopped at the red light, he didn't see the red light - and asked me to keep going. I told him I can't as the light turned RED. His response was: "I want our car to fly in the sky so we don't have to stop for red lights. I want our house in the sky. I want my day-care, annayya's (big brother's) school in the sky, our play ground in the sky, walmart in the sky, temple in the sky...". Chandra caught on as well and true to their mood then, they kept on and on...until they built a whole community in the sky.

Sometimes I am scared to ask them to do anything that looks like conditioining them, lest I should stunt their creativity. Well, that's only sometimes, though. :) Let's see what they become...

Swasti!!

Goal without a plan? Yes, sometimes...

My first significant goal after getting out of my home as an adolescent (for Bachelors education) was to get out of the country. During my M.S. education and initial years of employment in USA the strategic goal was to get back to my home country while still young. As the years passed by, the desire to get back not just to my country but to my hometown as well grew bigger and bigger.

We decided to return in October, after 15 years in USA. Do we have a plan? Yes and maybe. Do we need a well structured plan to get back to our homeland? The desire to get back to our roots and become a socially relevant entity there is strong enough in us and we believe that will get us to our current goal.

Do we need to plan and execute to it always? Sometimes the excitement is in doing things as they develop, while not losing sight of the goal. And we look forward to reaching there.

Swasti!!

Wake up the bull? Not anytime soon...

Markets are going down for a few months now. Not just in the USA, but everywhere. One would think the indexes have tanked and they will start turning back up pretty soon. But every passing day brings with it some other bleak story - pushing the numbers further down. Once in a while we see speculators pushing it up a little bit, in vain hopes of the govt. recovery package doing wonders. But alas, we see the bear shaking its back ever more vigorously on the Street.

We have seen hundreds of thousands of jobs wiped out recently. Many more are on their way out. Again, not just here - but every where else as well. Banks collapsed. Many companies were shut down. Auto giants are on their way out or getting ready to be marginalized to being minions. One would think the nation would start getting into a savings mode never seen in recent times. But I haven't seen that in my community here where the restaurants and malls are ever so crowded even during weekday evenings, let alone on weekends.

Then we have the learned economists asking the public not to withdraw into their savings shell, but continue to spend as if nothing has happened. They say that is the only way to beat the recession. Yeah - right! Aren't these the same elite who brought about this situation? How can a reliable solution come out of their brains, which created this mess in the first place? Are we to believe that they realized their mistakes and now are prescribing the right formula?

Methinks, in simplistic terms, that all these economists and highly learned folks, complicated the otherwise keep-it-simple theories only to suit their own self serving purposes without any social relevance in mind. You earn money, save it and spend it for your needs first, and then wants. You borrow at times to meet those. But what we have seen is that the second step is missed completely in recent times and that the wants and may-be's have become needs and cannot-live-without's. All because of the media and marketing blitz added to the plethora of pundits that rule this world with their short-circuited brains and convoluted thinking.

Keep it simple, stupid!

Swasti!!

Some wishes are better, not granted

When I joined the workforce in 1995, I used to envy some of my colleagues who used to come 'flying in' to work. This was at Bellcore. They used to nonchalantly describe their flight in the same breath as car travel - and complain about having to travel by planes. I didn't understand at that time what their problem was - and secretly wished I could travel by air to work, some day.

This wish was granted 7 years ago when I had to travel frequently to Ottawa to work with a partner company. Then after a couple of years, for another big client at a far off place, I had to start travelling by air every week. That went on with minor mods for about 4 years. The charm of air travel (to work) vanished after the first few months - and it was a real ordeal ever since. Several variables fell into place and I pulled myself out of that vicious cycle last year.

Another wish I had was to go on a short trans-continental trip. I have friends, relatives and colleagues who used to brag about their short t-c trips, and how much they would like to stay away from such trips. All this banter was most often delivered with an air of boasting. And my wishing horse must have registered this as a wish. It was granted a few times since early last year - when I had to make 2 or 3 day trips to Europe and a 5 day trip to India last week.

I must say, this is another ordeal I really don't look forward to, any more.

Some wishes are better left ungranted, as they say.

Swasti !!

Obamayana

The other night while putting the boys to bed, they requested for a Rama story. Having told them some Rama stories recently, and having listened to more at the Sunday Heritage classes in the temple, they got hooked on to the Ramayana characters.

Chandra is Rama and Sugriva while Datta is Bharata and Hanuman. Sometimes they take on a third character as well. And anything slender and long becomes a bow and an arrow. Anything with a protrusion at the end, naturally, becomes a mace (gada). We have innumerable battles at home these days, and luckily for us and for themselves, both are on the same side and fight with fictitious evil, up in the air.

So, last night I thought I would tell them about the genesis of Ramayana, i.e. the story about Shravan Kumar, his old parents, Dasaratha's archery skills and the curse he incurs because of that. Yeah, I know - too much high level stuff for the little kids. Righfully so, I was jolted from my own slumber when the words Obama, change, schedule etc. started getting mixed up with the story.

I don't remember when I started dozing off and what all I was telling them - but when I looked at them, they were wide awake and with confused looks for what I was blabbering. They know Obma is the new President, but couldn't understand what Obama has to do with Rama, Dasaratha and Hanuman. At that point, I decided to start another simpler story and retold the 'Bharata pleading Rama to return but leaving with his sandals' story. And I made sure Obama wasn't part of this story.

After that the kids slept easy - but I was interested and intrigued myself with what Obama was doing in Ramayana and it was a long night for me. I could never figure out :)

Swasti !!

My favorite moment of the Inauguration

I have been wondering what Barack would call himself during the Oath ceremony. The announcer earlier introduced him as Barack H. Obama. But when the time came to be sworn in as the 44th POTUS, he boldly, rightly and confidently called himself Barack 'Hussein' Obama without trying to omit, hide or ignore his origins.

It showed his great strength of character. It showed his unwavering integrity to what's real - the fact. It showed his belief in looking to the future while standing his ground. It showed great hope for the peoples of the world to be ones own self and strive for excellence. He glowed all through his campaign and this definitely is a very defining moment. I am impressed.

Looking forward to a great Presidency and wonderful times...
Swasti !!

Imagination

Last night I was reading a bed time story for the boys. Brief synopsis: crows fighting on a tree; a pigeon lands on the tree; crows fight with it and send it away despite the pigeon's requests for shelter as it lost its way in the rain and dark skies; pigeon goes to a mango tree; lightning strikes the 'crow-tree' and hailstorm kills and injures a lot of crows that night; the remaining crows ask the pigeon in the morning how it survived; praying to god saved its life.

Once the pigeon is thrown out of the 'crow-tree', Datta said: when I become a small, tiny infant again, I will jump into the book, hit the bad crows and rescue the pigeon.

He said that with such conviction, it's not even a wish to become an infant again; he thinks it's just a matter of time before he becomes one :). I wish I had that imagination !

Swasti !!

Our 2008

It's been an eventful year for me personally. The year started off great as we are blessed with a baby girl (Mahalakshmi Gayatri) on Jan 2nd. I went to London in late Jan to coordinate the conference proceedings of SPUG - a telecom industry body. There was a change in my work life - with Sprint's economic troubles cutting short the account I am managing with them for SAIC. That put me on a contract with a California client - and made me fly across the continent frequently. My earlier weekly trips to Reston, VA seemed a breeze in comparison. However, after a couple of months of the cross-continental trips - I couldn't take it any more. And with 3 kids at home and Usha working full time - I opted out of the CA program and found another contract in July which allows me to work from home most of the time. As it turned out - I travelled only once to Reston, VA in the past 6 months. That's a great change for me - after being on the road for the most part of the past 7 years.

Usha is having a great year at the different hospitals she works - gaining very satisfied and loyal patients who want to be seen only by her.

Chandra has been practising his ukulele more and more and can now sing while playing it. Datta too started on his own ukulele. They both attended soccer training sessions this summer and enjoyed them very much. They are looking forward to another session starting in Jan.

We all vacationed for a few days in Belgium enroute to India in Sept. We enjoyed very much, beating our expectations, given that we travelled with 2 toddlers and an infant. Thank God we didn't take a short trip to Paris, as planned earlier. The kids loved India and want to go back again soon.

This is also the year we voted for the first time in our lives - in an election of significance. And to vote for a winning candidate is a great feeling. We look forward to Obama's inspirationsl Presidency.

On the flip side for this year, we saw our 401(K) savings doing a vanishing act - and we are glad we don't speculate in the stock market. The Mumbai events during the Thanksgiving holiday in November left a sickening feeling, which will be very hard to forget for a long time to come. It reinforced us to be more watchful of our own lives and how we lead them.

To cap off 2008 on a positive note, we had great pleasure organizing a great party of friends and family on Dec 28th in Piscataway, NJ. Everybody we invited, barring 3 or 4 families, attended the party. With 70 adults and 35 kids present - everybody had a great time. Santosh Khammamkar's music program was well received. Kids' impromptu dancing to the songs and the songs sung by friends turned a good event into a great one.

Quite an eventful year indeed. And we are ever so grateful for another memorable year.

Looking forward to another great year coming up where we try to realize our long term dream of returning to India...

Swasti !!

Thanks for the Blast!

This past Sunday (Dec 28th) we hosted a get together party in Piscataway (NJ), the planning for which started more than a month ago. Datta turned 3 on Dec 23rd while Mahalakshmi turns 1 on Jan 2nd. And then the New Year is just around the corner. We haven't met with many of our old friends and family for quite some time. All in all - we decided to have the party in NJ so the venue will be accessible to people coming from different states in the NE corridor.

Venue: Party Hall behind Hi-Touch Wireless store in the Sukhsagar Restaurant strip mall.
Time: 11:30am - 3:00 pm (11:50am - 4:30 pm actual)
Scheduled Program: Cake cutting, Lunch, Music program by Sri Santosh Khammamkar

The party started on a very slow note as invitees started coming in around 11:45 and I was the only one from the host family receiving the guests and talking to them. But my conversation skills were not enough to keep them engaged. We needed Usha and the kids to bring charm to the gathering. Having only one vehicle, being used for getting things to the party hall from different places kept them and Haritha (my BiL Ravi's wife) stranded in the hotel. After a while, Ravi brought them to the party hall - past Noon and the party started coming to life.

My friends Satyasai and Lalita Kommaraju from Philly were the first to arrive, followed by Seshagiri and Rama from Edison. Then came my friend from Rutgers Satish Kethineni with his wife Srilakshmi and kids Sanjay and Sujay. While I was chatting with them, one of my maternal cousins Srinivas Kuchibhatla, whom I haven't met before, arrived with his family. And then a steady stream of friends and family started joining us. All in all, including us, we had 69 adults and 36 kids at the party.

It picked up tempo with enthusiastic participation from everyone present and by lunch time - with the menu that received good reviews - it really started to take off. Once the cake's cut the birthday party environment is in full swing and the kids had a good time jumping around and playing with the balloons (most of them were brought down and blasted by then).

Right after the lunch, just after 3:00 pm we started the music program. Our good friend Sriram Peyyety had his daughter Chy. Sreenidhi started the proceedings with a soulful rendition of a Lord Ganesha Bhajan (gajAnanayutam gaNESwaram). Sri Santosh Khammamkar started off his music program with a Kishore Kumar number and followed it up with numbers from Rafi and Mukesh, and mixed a few good telugu songs in between. Another good friend of ours Narasimham Kota had his daughter Chy. Sarvani dancing to the Bommarillu song - Apudo, ipudo, epudo kalagannane cheli. Sarvani showcased her talent with a smooth flowing dance to the song. His second daughter Chy. Manasa also danced to the Bham Bham BholE song sung by Santosh. Manasa is only 2 years old but danced very well and showed us all what's coming in the future. Narasimham garu himself showcased some cool steps in the process of encouraging his little daughter. Sriram garu started the dancing frenzy for the adults with his trademark steps and Narasimham garu joined followed by Ravi Nistala, my cousin's husband. Sriram garu pulled me as well to dance - and I obliged with my awkward-at-best steps.

We requested Smt. Sirisha Kotamraju (w/o Srinivas Kotamraju) to end the music program with her great rendition of 'nArAyaNatE namOnamO' song.

I need to mention here that all of this was made possible only with the gracious support provided by friends and family who covered several loose ends for us - before, during and after the event. And there were one too many of those, given that we were hosting the party about 180 miles away from home, in a different State. Bhargava made and brought yogurt for the party while also picking up the chapatis I ordered from a lady a little distance away from his home. Balu TKVL brought his mini-DVD camcorder to record the function. He also rushed to East Brunswick to pick up the Spinach balls curry, vadas and kaajaas from another lady I ordered them from. Seshagiri has been helping us right from the planning stages in booking the party hall and also picked up the main menu from another lady in Edison (Mango pappu, Brinjal allam/mirchi curry, sambar, Lemon rice, Dosakai pachchadi and papads). As we ran out of the pizzas for kids, he rushed out again to get another couple of them from the near by Pizza Hut.

Lalita, Padma (w/o Vikayakrishna TKVL) and Madhavi brought rice cookers while Susmitha (w/o Sundar) took charge of rice cooking. Santhi garu (oru distant relative and w/o Padmanabha Sastry - a family friend) and some other ladies at the party took charge of the food section - and making sure every body got everything they needed during the lunch. Santhi garu also helped in cutting the cake into pieces for all.

In the initial stages of party quietness, Sundar engaged the kids that were attending the party. And when we learnt that Santosh Khammamkar forgot bringing his Mixer, without which the music program cannot happen, Sundar went with Santosh to the near by Sam Ash to rent/buy a mixer. Having learnt that the equipment costs about $400+, we decided to go for a Karaoke machine from Walmart instead. And I requested Srinivas (Bhargava's BiL) to get it from the near by Walmart. He also took it upon himself to return it after the party :). Sankar and Vasantha took the boys with them to their house, so they can play with their son Mihir. That gave us the time to clean up the hall and return it in clean condition to the owners after the party. Sriram Nadimpalli helped with the video shooting while Satish helped engage the kids and took pictures of some nice occasions we missed.

Then there were others who helped us in other party logistics. All in all, almost everyone helped in making the party a grand success. The great part about it all is that everyone felt at home and took active part in the proceedings. Consider this: we had friends and family come from MA, NY, PA, VA, GA and of course NJ. Madhury and Ravi came to the party from a Boston suburb, with their 2 month old daughter Sri Lasya. Another dear friend Sriram Peyyety attended with his family having returned from India just the night before. Then there were Sundar and Susmitha who came from Reston, VA with their kids. My cousin Rani and her husband Ravi came with their 2 kids, from Falls Church, VA. We also had Sowmya and Prasad attending with their daughter, although they landed from Vegas just that morning - after taking a red eye flight.

My BiL Ravi and his wife Haritha have been of great help all along. They flew up from Columbus, GA for this party on Dec 25th itself, did a lot of planning, shopping, decorating and helped with many other logistics. We organized a few parties before - but all were close to our home, and none of this magnitude. Our heartfelt thanks to all that attended, participated and helped have a great time. We had a blast and we are already making plans for another party in 2009 :) We will see...

Swasti !!