Guest Post by my Bro – Vj – About Sathabhishekam

Hi

It was a grand gala event celebrated at my Home known as Sathabhishekam and also another celebration of Sashti Purthi.

Last weekend, I had the good fortune to attain my Uncle's (Attimber) 80th b'day celebrations & 60th b'day celebration of my Cousin and it was a fun filled event. It was an occasion for the entire family to gather around the great relatives.

Events as taken place:

21st Jan 2010

2030 hrs: I Reached Home (Roha)

2100 hrs: Dinner (wow dinner on Banana leaves). Made me remember the marriage foods

2200 hrs: Mehendi program for the couples and relatives (Me the art maker: Four members for Mehendi and I completed all in almost 15 minutes….without thinking for perfection just finishing the work..)

2300 hrs: sleep

22nd Jan 2010

0400 hrs: Woke up its Good Morning and celebration & ceremony time.

Rangoli Time: Radha Attai wow instantaneously drew a rangoli of a Raath (Chariot as it was raathsaptami day) & other kolam.

0600 hrs: Kangal event (Washing of feets, Oil bathe, aarthi & so on done to the couples)

0700 hrs: Getting Ready. Everyone was busy in getting things ready.

- Cleaning the room

- Moving the Dewan to other room (making space)

- Vijay mama arranging the flowers and others materials needed for pooja like sweets, garlands, dooruva, fruits, & so on

- Dad went to get milk and other small things

- ME trying to capture all images

0730 Hrs: Getting ready for occasion.

- Typical cultural style.. Truly worthy & awesome.

- Need patience to dress up and carry on till program ends..

- Dhotar and Navvari Saadi

Check with snaps.

- Dad was dressing Uncle's & Mohan Anna.

0800 hrs: 2 Brahmin arrived, one came after 10 minutes and last one in 20 minutes (lost)

They were dressed in Dhotar's ekdum Brahmin style for puja)

0810 hrs: Pujari making preparation for puja

3 Puja ceremonies was Fixed:

Wedding Ceremony:

Hawan: the smoky hours:

SatyaNarayan Puja:

0820 hrs: Bringing the bricks, Sand for havan, asking for almost everything needed. Just like a Bazaar around

- Bricks & sand for Hawan.

- Ghee, Rice, Supari, oil, Prasad,

- Flowers, garland, Wooden seat,

0830 hrs: chanting and preparation.

It was amazing to see the Brahmin preparing for the Puja. All well adjudged and perfect work of them.

- The Rice rangoli's for Ganpati God, the Nav Graha & others

- The Supari's resembling the different God's, Goddess & devotes where amazing

- The Wooden small Mandap where decorated by them

0845 hrs: The first Puja was the wedding ceremony

- The Bride Groom where asked to sit in front of all this Rangoli's

- The Brahmins started Enchanting the different Sholka's and Mantra

- One of the Brahmins was guiding the couples to follow the instructions as narrated like

- Zaapa

- Some mantra to say

- Touching the

1020 Hrs: The groom ties the sacred 'taali' on the bride

It was really a great time please doing see the video of this event..

1115 hrs: After Tea for Brahmin they started for the next Pooja

Homa or Havan: Lighting of the sacred fire

- The Pujari lights the sacred fire in honor of the nine planets and the gathering keeps the fire ignited by pouring 'ghee', along with other scared wooden and other materials.

- The fire was not allowed to go off till all the ceremonies were completed; Nor was it burnt fully. (This made a smoke all around the home. it was very Smokey all over, no one dared to be neither in that room nor even in kitchen room. everyone tried to sneak out of house to catch some clean air..though peeping into get the ceremony glimpses..ME too did the same and missed to take videos of the further event)

- The Enchanting of mantra's continued for another 2 hrs

- With couples making appearances on Puja place for few minutes

- The Havan was receiving the different materials for different peoples to keep it alight like Dad, Mohan Anna and Brahmin's.

1300 Hrs: The Havan Puja was finally over and the smoke was clearing now. It could be seen that everyone was dying for hungry. but still a Puja to Go

- Everyone kept Patient for Food to Arrive(It was ordered to one the Brahmin's who was doing the ceremony.)

- The Cleanness was carried out like moving the Havan to another room and other stuff to make place for next puja.

This was quickly wrapped up like cleaning the floor, sweeping & so on.

- The Two Brahmin left to collect the Food and remaining Brahmin made the needed preparation for the Satya Narayan Pooja.

1330 Hrs: The Pooja started

- Ranjani Akka and Attimber were asked to sit for Puja.

- The Pooja was started and enchanting of Mantra's was what we could hear.

- There were as many as 5 stories narrating the different stories on Satayanarayan and reason behind this Pooja.

1420 Hrs: The Food arrived along with the sweet aroma of taste and made us eager to Eat

- The Puja concluded with Aarthi's..Satyanarayan aarthi and so on

- We took the blessing of the God and Couples took the blessing of the Brahmin who has conducted the Pooja Successfully.

1445 hrs: Food Round One:

- It was Marathi Brahmin food. Wow..

- Poli(Sweet Roti) with Ghee

- Dal, Rice, Aamti(lller to Sambar)

- Papad, Kooshibir & so on

- Everyone was enjoying the good food

- Mom, Dad, Anna, Radha Attai everyone one was serving

1500 Hrs: Round Two

- It was my turn and almost those remaining along with the invited guests:

Aunties: Kunal Mom, Supriya's Mom, Ankur Mom

- I glutton the food in minutes...Yummy Kya!!

1515 hrs: Everyone has finished the food and there was last puja still to be done(astoundised naa..The pooja to do the disassembling of the Pooja)

- it was done in few minutes and the small wooden table with SatyaNarayan was moved an inch towards right.

1530 HRS: Blessing and Gifting time

Blessing was going around. Everyone was trying to get the blessing of the elders

1645 HRS: Mom had her Friends came for Bhajan's

- Hear some recording in the videos

It was real true and auspicious time.

Latter on visited some temples in Roha from Dhavir Mandir to Hanuman temple to Sai Baba mandir in our Area.

Vj

Snaps Link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpadmak/2010012280thBirthdayCelebration?authkey=Gv1sRgCLjvwa6K9cvwRA#

Video Link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kpadmak/VideosOfMarriage?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTSxM7Ur4KslgE#

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Do forward to others whom i missed

Short Vacation Trips

   

The last two weeks of 2009 are now etched in memory because of ‘planned’ two short weekend trips to Ocean City, MD and Miami/Key West Florida.

December is not an ideal month for a visit to Ocean City. Our trip’s aim was to idle away in isolation away from home. The Hilton stay was exactly what the doctor ordered. A break from the routine. After a year long stressful work, a planned trip really emerges as refresher.

The Christmas weekend trip gave us a glimpse of the summer treat we can expect at Ocean City. The 4 hour drive from our Hendon VA was uneventful. Driving across the Chesapeake bay bridge during daylight is always a sight. The continuous sound of waves as we slid open window glass door soothes even the most shaky nerves when approached with the correct mental attitude. The weather predicted gusty winds made the front door whistle eerily. The picturesque view of Sunrise from the Ocean front hotel room, the Sea gulls flying around, people walking/jogging on the beach in pairs or with surf boards were all impressive. Ocean city, we will come again.

Florida is supposed to be warm,hot and humid during December, the contrast of weather in Virginia. As you can guess it seemed as if we carried our weather all the way to Miami.

The light snow/sleet covering the airplane had a delayed take-off, prompting us to miss our connecting flight. For the patient me it was a leisure time at Atlanta airport, reading off the nook and praying for a safe trip. Luckily for us we arrived in Miami FL to be picked up by my friend SM and his wife who gave us wonderful company throughout the trip.

First evening, we walked around south beach cafe’s/pubs and welcomed new year 2010 witnessing the fireworks display there.

Second day our plan to visit the crocodile lake at gator island got disrupted because of unforeseen thunder/lightning forecast. Alternatively we visited the sunset plaza and watched Avatar in IMAX 3D. The line for Avatar in its third week show was very long. However I thoroughly enjoyed “3 idiots” viewing and it made up for a wonderful stay in Miami.

On Saturday we 4 drove to the ‘southernmost point in USA’ in Key West across the 7 mile bridge. The bluish green ocean and the sunny weather made the drive fascinating.

My Wifey and I parasailed for the first time ever. It was hugely crowded at Mallory point where everyone had gathered to witness the beautiful sunset. The fire jugglers and other street performers were good.

On way back almost every other mile, we noticed a Cop car ready to pounce upon over speeding vehicles. Review of the visit to two Indian restaurants “Imlee” and “House of India” made it to the Yelp which I discovered whilst there.

Sunday the visit to the Sea Aquarium and South beach shore, combined with dolphin show and dance at “Mango” made another memorable day.

Mouth watering and tastiest food prepared by our ‘kind’ hosts made it a fantastic short vacation trip ever.

Looking forward to visiting again.

Oh Yes !!! and here is the link to the Florida trip photos 

Comments are Welcome !

Wish you a Happy New Year 2010 !!!

My MOM’s Creative Designs on Sweater

 

 

Demoing one of My mother’s creative design.

Comments always welcome !!!

Guess What My Name Is Khan is all About

 

Several years ago, when I watched Kill Bill Vol 1, I was blown away by the motivation and reasoning given behind the ruthless revenge vendetta Uma Thurman followed in the movie.

Today as I got some time to have watch the trailer of another SRK movie My Name is Khan I could not help thinking about what the storyline would be. From the trailer itself it is clear that SRK plays an autistic person of the name Rizwan Khan. We see fleeting glimpses of a happy family including son to SRK/Kajol. Also shown is SRK is on a Journey to meet the President of USA. With some dialogues interspersed mentioning about the impact of 9/11 on citizens across the world.

My guess is SRK’s kid is a victim of hate crime and because of the inability of parents to feel safe, he starts on a mission to meet and convince the president to stop ‘hate’ across the world. So i guess the film is another tear jerker/happy feel good ending movie from the KJ productions.

I always love to watch the movies for their treatment and enjoy the moment and experience the concept.

Good luck to KJ/SRK and team for their movie’s success.

What Say !?

Reading “ASP.NET MVC In Action” book on our “Nook”

Finally My Wifey and I decided on the name for our Nook.

It took a wee bit of time to get reading stuff on it.

I was easily able to copy of PDF files into the gadget by simply hooking it to the PC with the provided charger cable.

The PDF’s formatted well but not as sharp and smooth as I wanted.

I recently had purchased a “ASP.NET MVC In Action” and “IPhone in Action” book by Mannings publication and was informed about the availability of ePub Format. I downloaded them and copied them to the Nook and voila guess what.. the Experience is Just smooth.

I have embedded some photos displaying the same.

ePub is the way to go !!!

 

 

If you already are into technical reading buy eBooks and get a reader. Even though it is not colour yet, eReaders make a great gift.

Anybody want one !?

Got My EReader NOOK

 

Finally after a weeks delay, my thanksgiving purchase this year arrived today by UPS.

It took a 20 minute tussle to unwrap the packing to lay my hands on it. It looks kinda cool and very much like kindle except for the iphone like bottom coloured bar.

I have kept it for charging now and will begin using it later in the day.

Here are the pictures of the NOOK captured on my iPhone 3GS.

 

 

Last week I finished hearing David Baldacci’s “The Christmas Train” and was put off by “The Accidental Billionaires”.

I am already in chapter 3 of “Superfreakonomics” and it’s introduction chapter (preface) is a masterpiece and highly recommended.

Smart things to Know - 2

 

In a follow up to my earlier post. I have recently learnt a couple more tricks to be smart.

Whenever my friends shop online for a technology product or even for a pizza, One of the things they always do is to scout for a Coupon Code or a Deal Offer.

It’s strictly no-no to buy a product without a deal or discount. Once the product to be purchased is decided on, Just Google the product or the brand name and voila ! Discover a valid coupon code or instructions to save money of the purchase and sometimes find alternative places to buy the product for a lot less. (Just be wary of phishing sites. Caveat Emptor). In face using Microsoft Search engine Bing is likely to get you Cashback offers depending on the season.

The second thing I wanted to mention is about Collection Agent. A friend of mine recently mentioned that he always escalates the bills to default and be forwarded to a collection agent where he negotiates a settlement amount on the phone without disturbing his credit score. I really don’t know how much truth is there in it, but next time I default and I get a collection agent call, I am definitely going to negotiate for a waiver.

 

What Say !?

Google Wave – The Impressions

Over the last one month, Google Wave has frequently been a trending tropic on twitter. Most of the time, it would be a ‘spam tweet’, luring unsuspecting users to unwittingly provide info and in turn getting them to retweet the same ‘spam tweet’ further encouraging the trend.

Finally when my friend SN gave me an invite, I invested a couple of hours in the last few days to investigate and jump on and ride the ‘Wave’. My friend already realized that Wave is no fun without friends and this is very true.

The User Interface of Google Wave does not look dazzling or out of this world for any regular social media user who sometimes chats and sometimes forwards emails to his friends.

“Creating a Wave” seems a unlikely phrase but I am sure it would be one of the future trends and be as common as “Googling”.

Today explaining a Google wave is not easy as explaining “what’s an email” or “what’s a tweet”?

What I have recognized so far is the potential for a “Wave Topic” created by you, to intensify and diminish as time progresses. By collaboration by friends and followers, the current trend is likely to have have the most number of posts.

An idea is worth itself if it generates more money than it promises. The Google Wave Idea is a potential money spinner for Google, much better than YouTube.

If not for the steep learning curve for new users and its redundancy of utility along with social media updates, Google Wave would indeed have been fasters to create a wave.

Best wishes to creators and developers of “Google Wave” to have recognized the potential of Facebook and other social media updates and developed an ‘probably’ likeable and ‘currently heavy’ tool considering future acceptance today.

Lets all see how the Wave goes.

TTCMM

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Sometime in 1979, We first got introduced to each other in kindergarten class.

There has been no looking back ever since, our friendship has grown strong and stood the test of time and distance.

My best friend and I were raised in a town named Roha in the state of Maharashtra in India (Asia).

Of all the imaginations and discussions we had about in our pre teen years of the way we would shape up, it never occurred to us that one day, we will meet up in the land of opportunities.

So here we are in USA, halfway across the world where we were born, like in a Jeffrey Archer novel, .

My Wifey and I are looking forward to their visit this week celebrating 30 odd years of friendship and life.

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Somehow many of the things I do today have been inculcated into me since my birth. Like the habit of praying with my hands joined together every morning. Or always handing and receiving money with my right hand.

There were questions I had about certain things, most of them were answered logically or I had to figure them out on my own or from some story which has been passed on by word of mouth from generations.

One of the questions I had was about, why is it that Traditionally in the Indian family do the cooking ?

Recently as I saw my bloated tummy from the in-shirt dress I was wearing and this question again crossed my mind. You can imagine why.

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Halloween for me is still a day when enthusiastic kids go around dressed up in Costumes and ask for Trick or Treat.

Most of the snaps that day are very scary to see at in isolation.

Uploading the Halloween photos on Facebook made me think how will my friends react to finding my ‘wifey's’ photo in the album.

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For those who have come in late, TTCMM stands for Thoughts that crossed my mind.

What Say !?

Heavy Breakfast and Heavy Technology

 

Today morning I had home made vegetable puffs (instead of Wednesday waffles). Just two pieces have made me feel heavy in the tummy. They were excellent but as I am typing this I am feeling drowsy.

In my first job as a technical trainer, a colleague told me “Eat for yourself, but Dress for others”. From that day on, I have always put efforts to dress properly. But on the other hand, my eating habits relied on the principle “If it is on the plate, it should get to the tummy”. No real attention to chewing properly or the calories consumed. Strangely the consequence of this did not ever cross my mind.

Before I got married “Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dine like a Pauper” was a pretty good reference statement to adhere for eating.

After I got married, my wifey, an cook par excellence, allowed me to indulge everyday in smorgasbord of delicious food with encouragement to push my gorging limits.

Another dimension to it is the experimentation into newer recipes and delicacies. I had never imagined in my wildest dreams of eating a home made burrito, mind you, but one day I did and it was great. Lucky me.. Touch wood.

Today at the cusp of 14 months of marriage I am overweight by 28 pounds according to my wii-fit app.

Another aspect of my technological work is to be up to speed with the latest and greatest. Reading technical articles, directly off my Hi-Def LCD Screen has its pain points. It wearing off the eyes.

I sometimes jump skip some paragraphs to find myself staring at the brightly lit screen with my eyes wide open, reading words and trying to understand context and connect the dots which do not make sense if you lose concentration.

This is the same reason for which I have ordered myself the new digital reader “Nook”. I hope this will take care of the eyes not hurting them too much while reading digital copies.

The point I am trying to throw across is the idea that “the best way to read and learn new things” is to be in a relaxed state of mind.

I have learnt a few Meditation techniques in the past like Reiki and I hope to resume them this month and be back to my 100% concentration in everything I do.

What Say !? Am I focused on the task at hand ?