MIA

Not that I'm an avid blogger, but I have to admit that I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks. Something really terrible happened and L was admitted in the ICU for 2.5 days, hence the lull. All is fine now and she is back in action. Not that I plan to post every single day after today, but I will at least try to be regular in my posts

Pongalo Pongal

We celebrated Pongal on Monday 1/14 in spite of being a week day. L made the traditional ven pongal and chakkarai pongal which was very delicious. We (read "me") couldn't wait for the neivedhiyam to be over and wanted to eat it right away. However He had other plans since we didn't offer it to Him, as for some reason we couldn't open the cooker. Apparently the safety valve wouldn't release. It took a lot of iterations from both L and me to finally pry it open before we could eat.

Anyways Happy Pongal to one and all

Resolutions for 2008

I'm not the kind of person who actually makes resolutions around New year, much less publish it on a blog. If there is something that needs to be done, I try to do it as & when needed and not actually wait for the New Year. This year I wanted to be different and hence I have decided to make a manageable number (say 3 to 4) of resolutions for this year and see how I'm doing at regular intervals throughout the year. Here is the list (in no particular order)

1) Call my parents and L's parents regularly every week on Fri/Sat night for us. This resolution tops the list for this year as our calling for the last year was absolutely erratic and unpredictable. This seems like an easy resolution, but I put it on the top of the list as I feel that it might be difficult for us to keep it up :-)

2) Make a to-do list of things that I would like to do with L

3) Make a conscious effort to spend some defined quality time with L (even if the kids are yelling in the background :-))

4) Make a clear decision about certain muggy things - do we buy a home in USA?, when do we return to India for good etc

Pirandha Naal Vaazhthukkal to Isaipuyal

For 15 years from 1977 to 1992 it seemed as though there was only one music director for South Indian films - Maestro Ilayaraaja. When Mani decided to make Roja, he was looking for a new music director, for the first time, after a fallout with Ilayaraja who had been part of all of Mani's films previously. Roja released on Aug 15th 1992. The previously unknown music director, A.R.Rahman became an overnite sensation after that and there has been no looking back ever since. Today is Rahman's birthday and I wanted to wish him for his immense contribution to music - introducing new vocal talent, innovations in sound, taking Indian film music to newer heights and above all being extremely humble after having achieved so much....Hats off to you A.R.Rahman (yes, it is coming from a hard-core Ilayaraja fan) and wish you a very happy birthday!!

Happy New Year 2008

Wishing one and all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!