Family Page in FaceBook, What If

Thanks to Couples Page,and the questions from FB "To help us show you a better ad, tell us what you like.", for inspiring me write this entry

Seriously, what would life be if Facebook automatically created a Family page and sent us updates.
You went on a vacation, and after a few days of bliss which made you forget FB, which alerts the FB usage collector, that they are losing their addictive power, and sends you a mail, saying FB missed you.

 On these lines, imagine,
1) Son-in-law posts a photo, and gets an update from FB after a few days..
You mother-in-law is yet to like the photo. But she has liked/commented on posts, posted after yours.
Here is a suggestion of family counselors, based on your locality.

Or...
2) "We see that you are married to so-and-so, who has mom-in-law as her mother, but mom-in-law has not included in her family circle. Is there a problem brewing?

Or....
3) Wife/Girlfriend posts a foto with a new haircut.
If the spouse had girlfriend-updater app installed, would get.
"Girlfriend has new haircut. You are yet to comment on it."

If he didnt have the app, the girlfriend would get, "The person you are in relationship with hasnt commented on your new haircut. But your other friend, SO-SO=SO likes your haircut. Can we suggest you update your relationship status"

Or.....
4)Hubby updates ( a pvt msg to wifey) "Thanks to wifey, for the best pumpkin pie ever..."
But, Mommy reads this in the family page and updates 
Mommy: "Have you forgotten the taste of the pies I made"
Son( a pvt msg to mommy, which wifey sees in family page) : "Mommy, i was to say
Thanks to wifey, for the best pumpkin pie ever, after mommy dearest"
Didnt finish the sentence for obvious reasons. wink wink!
Wifey : Darling, "Obviously", I cant wait to see u in person wink wink wink!!!
Son/Husband : I am out of here and deletes his Facebook account

he!he!he!

Deepavali 2012 - Diyas

Is there a festival to beat this Queen of All Hindu Festivals?
Deepavali, the most celebrated festival of the Hindus.
Deepavali, the Festival of lights
Everywhere you turn around, it is rich and colorful, sparkling in all glory...
The light of prosperity, winning over the darkness of  failure and loss.

I am here explaining if it is Diwali or Deepavali...
He is interested, in the stories and festivities...
"Mommy, what are we going to decorate for Deepavali", an innocent quip from my Super Hero, and I had to think of something including him...

And so we started, painting and decorating the diyas..
Thanks to being in the Bay Area, I could get unpainted clay diyas...
We had a great time, mommy and son..
Nikhil creating a few of his own, and helping me out with ALL the base coats for all the diyas.

Geek time... Here's Super Hero diyas..
It is upto all the geeks, to decipher, who is who

And here are a few clicks of what I made ....
Took around 4 hrs for this batch.
The first one the longest, as I got used to the texture and was generally an expirement..
Costwise, yes this is much cheaper than buying in the store..
And design wise, colors of my choice and designs of my choise.
Each one, is a memory of the time I spent with my kid, having fun creating something beautiful..
Hoping to make this a Deepavali tradition in our home..
Cant wait to repaint them for Karthigai...

Navarathiri 2012 @The Sakthirajans

Navarathiri 2012 @The Sakthirajans



Navarathiri, the time to celebrate The Divine Mothers.
Traditions differ in the various parts of our country, but one thing they all have common is the festive beauty and the gathering of friends and family.
Traditions need to be continued, but for continum they need to be adapted, enhanced, innovated to suite the region and surroundings.
Hence was born in the humblest beginnings, The Navarathiri Traditions @The Sakthirajans, a beautiful mix of modern US and tradition.


Growing up in India, Navarathiri has always been a big part of our family. Something we all used to look forward to. The daily sundal hunt, the few goodies we get, and most of all, the fun we had going around with friends and cousins all decked up.
As my friend, aptly reminiscints, "Navarathiri is the Indian Halloween". Isnt it?
Little girls all decked up in colorful pavadais, bangles jingling and golusu ringing their fast steps..Beautiful sweet memories...

And into the second year of the Navarathiri Celebrations, this time I wanted to do Navarathiri with a little splendor, and hook my son into this. With girls, it would be a little easy to get them into Navarathiri spirit, for which girl wouldn't love a reason to get dressed and get goodies.? But boys?Need a different strategy.
So, my main strategy for this year was,
How to package and market to sell Navarathiri to a 5 year old Super Hero, not losing the Navarathiri feel?
How do I share the festivity with all family, scattered in different continents?

I was inspired enough, with pinterest crafts, and my hands were itching to try out a few, giving them an Indian touch.
So the other thing, I decided this year was, ALL the decorations need to be handmade and unique. If not all, I did achieve most, I should say.

So the first thing that was done, was the invitation.
I wasn't satisfied with the standard Name-Place-Date-Time emails,
and couldn't find any online cards Indian themed.
I wanted something unique, exactly capturing my passion for Navarathiri.
Hence I made my own, using one of the clicks from Last years celebrations. As I gazed into the serene beauty of Goddess Saraswathi, the invite flowed out naturally.
Thus the e-invite was created.

Then, I had to introduce the golu inviting tradition, to my son. And so I decided to walk around and invite friends within walking distance. For this, I created the Vethalai shaped invite, from patterened scrap book paper, with the invitation message printed on the inside,
which were offered to friends, inviting them for the golu.

Next came the decorations.
I have always been intrigued with the wreaths and its symbolisms.
So this year, I gave it a Indian twist n adorned the door, welcoming the Festival season.
This was the first I made. (blog entry)

I got so carried off with, making paper diyas that, I had made so many of them and had to find a use for these.

The empty walls were inviting, and quickly the diyas "lighted" up the bare walls, along with the little glittery kolams I had made in transperancy sheets.



Next was the coffee filter lanterns.

This was totally inspired by the pinterest coffee filter board.
I took a bunch of white coffee filters, dyed it with pink/red/orange colors(single, multi) and ruffled them into the lanterns.
Used small cylinders cut from toilet rolls as the center.

As a finishing touch, Utra thin LED lights were entwined and set in flashing mode.
The soft colors and the lights, enhanced the beauty and added to the festive atmosphere.

I had pink polyester petals, from last year, and I just love the color and feel and so wanted to use it, and an idea struck.
An unused bowl, and small paper cups and glue gun the petals now blooomed into pretty flowers to serve as pedestals to the Goddesses and adorn my Golu.

Put in ittle LED tea lights, and they glowed like pink stars.
A totally unplanned decoration, this turned out to be the star of the Golu, with all liking this.

With a sudden burst if ideas, I was able to make a bunch of tissue paper flowers, which I fondly call, "a distant cousin of samandhi poo", to adorn the Golu padis.

 

Seeing me so excited and making so many things,
My son, was super excited
and said he wanted to keep his golu too.
He wanted 3 little pigs and dinosaurs.
Hence 2 little parks were created.
Mommy and son had fun, making the hay house, stick house, and for the brick house we used the bird house he had crafted in an art class.
The 3 little pigs were made from clay moulds & air dry clay, and he colored them.

For the dinosour park, I used aluminum trays as base, and had soil covering them, with a small "jungle" from sprouts.
Nikhil, made a story in this park, with the 3 big bad dinosaurs creating havoc, and the super hero leader dinosaur fighting and defeating them.
The little dinos, had their heads buried in the sand, scared of the bad dinos :-)

Now to the main attraction, the golu.

The first padi, had the dasavatharam set, along with Krishna @various stages of life.
This year, Amma and Appa presented my Golu, with Durga-Lakshmi-Saraswathi Vigrahams, the perfect addition to our Golu padi.
This was the second padi.
The third one, is Nikhils favorite padi, with Baby Ganesha & Baby Hanuman.
He even kept them with reverence, with his hands.

Almost all the friends made it our Golu with their family and accepted our Vethalai pakku.

And we even started our new tradition of, Vethalai Pakku Thamboolam for boys.

 For Saraswathi Pooja, Goddess Saraswathi had a throne green silk throne fanned out from a New saree, which we offer to the Goddess to bless.


It was a fulfilling and satisfying Saraswathi pooja.







The strategy of inviting all family to our Golu?
Yes, I achieved it.
I was able to vividly captured, the Golu step by step and posted on my FB page, and everyone in family and friends enjoyed my Golu and accepted my e-thamboolam.

The strategy of getting the 5 year old involved? It really paid off.
Every morning, as soon as he woke up, my 5 year old, came and played with the 2 parks.
He became genuinely interested in the story Dasavatharams and now can recite the 10 avatharams and the story of Matsya, Koorma and Varaha avatharams
He sat through all the prayers and is looking forward for the next year's Navarathiri, already giving me ideas for the parks.
Nikhil was so involved with the Dasavatharams, and had difficulty explaining to him, how Balarama & Krishna, existed at the same time as borthers & Vishnu's avatharams.
Wasnt baby Krishna scared of the snake on top of him, when he woke up from sleep?, he quipped on observing the bommai of Vasudeva carrying Krishna in a basket.
And many many more such questions.....

Summing it all up, The Navarathiri 2012 @The Sakthirajans, turned out to be a very heart warming, fulfilling celebration.
I am still in the Navarathiri mood, that there are still a few decorations hanging around in the house..
:-)

Welcome Fall & The Festivities, Indian way

Its October..
The start of Festival Season...
This year, we are welcoming the Fall and the Festival season , with this Indian Style wreath.

Diyas or  அகல் விளக்கு, entwined in a continous creepers, 
Symbolizing, the ever continuous cycle of life
There is no start, There is no End.
There is no birth, there is no death,


As the lamp lights up darkness & paves the path for the lost travellers
let the grace of Swami, light up our lives & enlighten our souls.

I am reminded of this stanza from Shivapuranam,

ஆக்கம் அளவு இறுதி இல்லாய், அனைத்து உலகும் 
ஆக்குவாய் காப்பாய் அழிப்பாய் அருள் தருவாய் 
போக்குவாய் என்னைப் புகுவிப்பாய் நின் தொழும்பின் 
நாற்றத்தின் நேரியாய், சேயாய், நணியானே 
மாற்றம் மனம் கழிய நின்ற மறையோனே 

Oh god who does not have birth  , life or death  ,

You are   the one   who makes   all the world,

You would protect , destroy   and also   shower your grace  ,

Destroy  the illusion , and make    me to serve you ,

Oh god  who is like   a scented flower ,

Though you  are far , far away  , you are  near  ,

Oh Lord of Vedas  , who is beyond mind and thought .

Nikhil's Super Hero BDay

Let you be forewarned 

For I have already scribbled enough

And am not gonna let you go, till you finish reading it.

The Making

Why???

As if it wasn't emotional enough for me to see my little kinder, repeatedly say that he was "missing his old friends", "they will be searching for me", ''I want to go back to my old school", "will I never see my old friends forever again?' now I had to keep him safe from getting hurt again(which is quite a story which I get into a later date).

And so, I wanted make this BDay as memorable as possible +

I wanted him to have fun and play without any physical strain.

Absolutely no bouncers, which is the perfect and easiest way to keep the 5 year olds busy, if you ask me.

So, mommy had to use her brain. ( Which by itself is quite a rare event, as daddy puts it)

And so Nikhil's 5th BDay transformed into A Super Hero Mission.

What started as a little thought, then slowly grew and grew until it became this Super Hero Party.

In the end, all turned out well and the kids had fun.

What I didn't expect, was the sense of peace, accomplishment I would feel, after the party was done.

The last time I had felt such, was when I completed my college final semester exams.

Phase 1 : Innovations are born because of necessity

First , Mr.BusyBeeDaddy declared only on Aug-5th that he wanted Nikhil's BDay Bash on the 18th.

So I had a quick couple of weeks+1 weekend to take care of everything.

( The effective manager that he is, his job was done, as soon as he had delegated this task to me, and given an ETA :-) )

Then, Mr.Budding Manager wanted an Amazing Spiderman BDay(till he changed like in an hr ). I went around one party store to another, on a requirement gathering spree.

After assessing, the available decorations , I wasn't happy, and definitely not convinced.

And I came back.

Then after a couple of hours, Nikhil declared that he wanted an Avengers BDay.

After, just short of making him sign a document with witnesses, getting umpteen # promises that he wont change his mind again,

I sent out the invite, with an Avengers theme in mind after deciding on The Tech Museum to host his party.

There was a variety of Super Hero Fonts that I was able to find on the net. I especially loved, the "AmazingSpider", "BatmanForeverAlternate", "SoundFX", "Palooka BB", "ironman", "SF Arch Rival" & "SF Arch Rival Extended"

The invite

Nikhil is bringing the party to you.
The little super hero is turning five.
And, its time for the earth's mightiest little heroes to assemble and have fun.

Kiddos, SMASH!!

But Niki wanted to "play forever in the party". What else would a 5 year old want?

And I have this sudden addiction to anything DIY & reusing, and was soooooooooooooo waiting for an oppurtunity to try out things.

So, 1+1=

 And so , pinterest+google were heavily bombarded in the days to come.

My poor old laptop, hadnt seen so much use in a while and was there cringing and crying, slowly down things at every possible way.

There were so many ideas for BDay parties and so suddenly, there I was planning my very first DIY(as much as possible) Super Hero BDay Party.

Phase 2 : Ready Start Action

It was a rewarding search, of finding interesting yet not common games to train the little ones. The super hero training camp's curriculum was designed & redesigned  catering to the liking of the Kinders. Then again modified to be more gender nuetral. Girl Power Eh!.

The New York City Backdrop took quite some time, to find the best possible way to do it.

Had to be light, and right color, right height.

Went through quite a few attempts. Paper on top of colored paper turned out quite messy and heavy.

Cardboard sheets were heavier.

Then I figured out a solution and it was using a table cover as the base.

And painting, sticking, coloring on top of it.

Then came the Super Hero lollipops.

The Buildings from my cardboard boxes with all of Niki's fav super heroes waiting to jump out in action.

My most favorite - the comic themed photo frames which I had made, out of unfinished wooden frames from Michaels.  This one took quite a while, as I mastered the art of decoupaging, painting, sanding and was very very happy with the results. Since my little master, ran away with the rest of his SpiderMan comics, I had to use pages from Super Man. :-)

Oh Yes, I forgot the certificate. Designing the certificate, itself, was quite fun. And I was able to locate the perfect SpiderMan image for the background.

And, there was a couple misses. I missed 2 of Nikhil's close friends, getting confused with the email ids, I forgot the thank you note , I forgot the Game callouts, and lighter.
But overall, I should say, it was a fun event.

The D Day

The Daily Bugle, has a news report

There was a newspaper clipping from Spidey's The Daily Bugle, waiting at the membership desk, setting the mood of a Super Hero Party.

Here's the clipping - The Daily Bugle, Saturday, 18th August 2012

Top Secret Mission Manual

The Super Heroes had the  Super Confidential, Top Secret, For your Eyes Only, Super Secretive Mission Manual, waiting for them, as soon as they entered the party room, with a list of tasks, which they had to accomplish, to win their very own certificate from "The Amazing Spiderman"

Here's the manual - Super Hero training manual

The Super Hero Training Mission Starts now

Secret Identity

I had made a variety of masks, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Spiderman, Green Lantern, and a glittery version for the girls, Hulk, SuperMan, Iron Man, Batman from templates I found on the web, using foam sheets.

And as I made each piece, each one went through multiple rounds of quality and acceptance testing, where I showed Nikhil the mask, not mentioning how it is supposed to represent, eagerly hoping that he would recognise it correctly. As each and every mask passed the test with flying colors, I set on to complete all of them

Took almost a day to finish the 30 odd pieces.

And so, the little super heroes had the masks available, and they quickly chose one and covered their true identity.

Super Hero wristbands

Next came the "rigorous" task of designing your very own Super Hero Hand-piece, for which I had strips of different colored foam, with a bunch of stickers and double sided tape.

Voila!! The Super Heroes were all ready for the mission now.

The radioactive Slew crossing

This is an idea which I got in the last minute. I had the black sheet, which I didnt want to just throw away, and just when I was thinking what to do, my little one was playing his Lego Batman game which resulted into a Green/Pink Radioactive Toxic Slew , which the Super Heroes had to navigate without getting their feet burnt.

 Do you have Spider Sense

This one was a box filled with items and the Super Heroes had to use their Spider Touch Sense, and figure out whats inside the box without peeking. I dont have a picture of this, but was really surprised that quite a few kids were able to contain their curiosity and really not peek. ( Very much unlike mine :-) )

Give Spidey a Nose

This was a new twist to the age old Pin a tail to the donkey.

The kids had to affix, a sticky nose to the Spider Man's face. Sadly I dont have a pic of this too.

Spin Super Webs

The Super heroes had cans of webs(silly strings) that they had to use the catch the Bad Guys.

I should say that this was the best training exercise the kids loved. I was really scolding myself, for not getting more cans. So much so that, next time around, I am going to have a party just with silly strings.

Strongest hug to your mummy/daddy

I heard quite a few crushing bones, when the Super Heroes tested their strength.

And my shoulders are still paining from my share of the hug :-)

Loudest roar on planet earth

And my, ear shattering roars, that reverberated through the party room..

My little Super Hero, all he could do was a baby roar, getting all shy as people watched him.

Bash the Bad Guys

                                                                 This one again was a hit with the Super heroes, who really didn't need a reason or any more training to bash the bad guys up.

Mission Accomplished - We are Certified Super Heroes now

As each of the Super Hero were handed over their certificates, there was huge round of applause and cheer.

And the Super Heroes, proudly displayed their Certificates.
Here's the link to the Certificate(pdf).

The "bomb" pinata 

Ever since he saw a pinata in a friends BDay, Niki has been wanting one. I knew there would be no place to hang a traditional pinata. So I came up with my own.

A Paper lantern ( which had already seen the wrath of our very own demi god), was strengthened with layers of paper&Modpodge n then given a spray of black paint and then finally had the words BOOM painted in gold.

Niki, cdn't wait for the pinata time, and in fact it was him who loaded this into the car.

And the kids really had fun, diffusing it :-)

The Party Settings

• The BirthDay banner, was one that I modified n reused one of the banners from the previous years, now fitted with Spidey 
• Made a Spider Web Banner, spelling out NIKHIL
• Center pieces were Nikhil's super hero board books, fanned out
• Of course, the super hero lollipops, all dressed up as SpiderMan and a few as masked crusaders. This again, the little Super Hero loved it.
• Then there was the plain red table sheet, which I had painted and customized for with his name
• Supero Hero jellos and juice
• My favorite was the comic themed photo frames which I had made, out of unfinished wooden frames from Michaels. 

Thanks

A special thanks to below sites and the Super Hero mummies who inspired me to organise this party

• Thanks to my mother, who took care of EVERYTHING at home and was there helping me at every step and offering valuable suggestions, most of all, taking care of the little tornado. Without her, this party wouldn't have definitely happened. 
• Thanks to the mask templates from Cutesy Crafts
• Thanks to Page Turners Hollow for the Daily Bugle Template 
• Thanks to jollymom  for the callout signs

My Universe is 5 year old already

5 years.
A lot can happen in 5 years.
Governments change,  you change jobs, you change cities, friends get married, 5 more social media sites are born,  Java sees 2 major releases & a lot many minor releases.......
But to get the feeling of having lived a lifetime in just 5 years, only a child can do it
This time, 5 years ago, we were gazing at the little blue bundle, in amazement, happiness, without a clue whats in store for us the next few years.
We made our share of mistakes as first time parents..
Fought over whose fault it is, the baby missed a feed ( or should say, still fight :-) )
Dropped him a couple of times...
His first BDay, His first steps, His first words, His first hugs, His first day care, His first smile, His first tooth....
Went through his first colds n coughs as if it was the end of the world, and still, I cant see it as just a little cold cough...


Many snapped and clicked... Many that I couldnt capture it in celluloid
Many crystal clear, but Many of the details are fuzzy..
Many engraved in my brain..But Many of the details are pushed back into my memory. The keys to "the point between rage and serenity" :-)
(quoting X-Men-First Class.)


Like the Sun making us think that he is the center of the galaxy, though technically it is not,
The little 5 pounder, took over our lives, and we are dancing puppets.
Parenting is not so easy..
But together we all grew another 5 years.
Here I was reliving my childhood, jumping on the sidewalks, dancing in a grocery store, singing in public, proudly wearing a burger king crown, eating icecream for breakfast, swinging in the park till our heads went dizzy, running around screaming, rolling in the snow, fighting over a pack of M&Ms, counting the # M&Ms, complaining to daddy whose fault it is...
We learnt, the thin line between right & wrong, how there is no right that's applicable always, why it is absolutely perfect to slow down once in a while, just sit and gaze at the ceiling, mistakes are ok, how a word means everything, promises are meant to keep.

In 5 years, I feel I have gained more wisdom, than all the years before...

This week we celebrated my little prince's 5th BDay.

Next week he starts Kindergarten.
My little one is growing up and fast.
I want to hug him a little more. Kiss him a little more.
Deep in my heart, the worst fear is the day, when he says "Mummy stop. I am big boy" is not far away :-)

Page from the Book of a working mother : Meetings from home

How much ever you juggle, there are some meetings that you have to take from home...
Such meetings are one of scariest times of my life.. Why????

To all the naturale geeks, forced-to-be geeks, and other wannabe geeks,
who have been already initiated into the world of X-Men,
it is an all familiar scene, seeing Dr. X's telepathic communication and astral projection,

Oddly enough, when I saw this scene, it makes me wonder, if my little one does indeed have the X gene....
How else, will I be able to offer a logical explanation for these "normal" occurances at my home

It is meeting time, I have dialled in to the call.
Waiting for my turn to talk.
Things are normal around me, there is absolutely no signs that the peace and quiet will cease to exist.

Exactly 1/2 a second before it is my turn to talk, the little X-Guy, paranormally senses it, even if I didnt have the phone on speaker,
and causes so much mayhem, that I start tearing up. Things like,
- starts talking,nonstop, after the till just then prolonged period silence.
- starts shooting questions, at the speed of light
- Questions so much bizarre, that it would take years to understand where and how the question arrived, from the random train of thoughts, leave alone give an acceptable answer
- has an emergency, like FinMcmissle went missing; his icecream started to melt more than normal;
- had been sitting under in invisible Bodi tree, and gets sudden gyan about life and shares the same to all in the meeting
- spills something, which 99.9% would stain the carpet within seconds of impact
- breaks something, into a million pieces
- hangs upside down, and starts yelling like tarzan
- And my favorite, starts excercising his lung capacity (not necessarily by singing, shrieking has a better outcome).

And so now I am seeing more of X-Men, trying to get more familiar with the workings of a mutant mind....
Hopefully soon, I can predict this, at least a nano second earlier, and brace for the attack....