Past few days have been heart-crunching for me, to say the least. Especially, as you might know, passing away of Anna. Though he was suffering a lot for the past few months and could not respond even a tiny bit, I was glad he was alive lying on the bed with his eyes staring at me while I used to work from Mysore.

Anyway, to get to some details. He died on July 21st at about 12.45 pm just when the Thithi Oota of his mom's was getting over at my uncle's house (Madhu Kaka) which is on the same street. What a coincidence! In fact, Amma returned from Madhu Kaka's house at about 12.20 pm after doing Namaskara and getting Mantrakshate. She even placed some on Anna's head. She had the presence of mind to call 3 doctors as soon as she noticed him having difficulty in breathing. Of couse, it was all over by the time the first doctor arrived.

Well, Suma and kids reached US on July 20th at about 10 pm (7.30 am IST). We got the news July 21st at 4.30 am US time a few hours after their arrival. I immediately booked the flight and reached Mysore on 23rd afternoon by which time 12-day rituals had already begun. I joined on the 4th day. During these harrowing days, these so called great Acharyas discuss - or should I say argue - a lot about which ritual is correct and which is not. It is really fun to watch how deep they go and argue about small things.

Today Viji Mava, Nagendra and Tata's never-seen, only-known-to-Subodh-or-Vedu cousin came from Bangalore for Dharmodaka, a ritual performed on the 10th day.

Well, what do you know? This blog is NOT being used, actually :( Anyways, been off the blog for some time now, owing to work-related pressures. But, last month was fun in the sense that we had a wedding to attend. Normally, weddings in the family (however distant) happen in Bangalore so frequently that we hardly ever have to cook our own meals. But, this one was special, right? It was Guruprakash's (aka Prakash) wedding with Naganandini (aka Nandini, aka Nanz). We had been to the Var Pooja which was the day before the wedding in the evening. It was great to see all (or most of them) the cousins, nephews and nieces all dressed up. On the day of the wedding (which I took off from work), it wasn't as crowded as the day before, because it was a working day. Shammi and family (who had gone on a trip to Mangalore till then) made their first appearance at the wedding. Meeting Raghu (Shammi's cousin) and family was a pleasant surprise. Anu/Ramesh, Divya/Arvind, Prashant/Vani, Vedu/Pushpa, Vadiraj (no Anjana), Shubha (of course)/Prasanna, Neelima, Papu, Vidya, Nalini/Prakash, Vijayasimha/Malathi, the not-so-terrible twins, Sukruth, Shashank were the stars on stage. I'm, of course, modestly leaving out moi and family, Subodh & family and Sachin & family. You can view pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/swaroop.rao/Guruprakash_Wedding?authkey=su1JvZOiG1M

Well, what do you know?!! This blog is actually being used. Thanks to Pratima, Anniyan (which I assume is John) and Anu for making this happen. I'll monitor this more frequently now and definitely post more regularly.

It's been a busy couple of months for us. We went on a North India trip along with Shammi's family, covering Delhi, Fatehpur Sikri, Mathura, Agra, Haridwar, Rishikesh & Mussoorie in 9 days! We had a great time mostly, with brief episodes that left a bad taste in the mouth. Memorable moments were Taj Mahal (beautiful at sunset), views from Mussoorie, waterfalls at Mussoorie and the Ganges at Haridwar. Low points were the unholy stench and dirtiness of Fatehpur Sikri, the episode of getting cheated by our guide at the same place, the bribing episode of the ticket collector on the train ride from Haridwar to Dehradun. Photos from our trip can be found here and here.

I had been to a couple of the IPL matches here in Bangalore and boy, it was a whole boatload of fun, I can tell you. The atmosphere in the stadium is fantastic and I completely enjoyed myself, screaming, jumping, shouting, etc.

Then, there was Sneha's birthday party, which we celebrated twice; first in Sahana's absence, for her friends & classmates, and again after Sahana returned, when we celebrated Sneha's birthday together with Sohini's last Monday by going out for dinner to an Italian-Mexican restaurant.

Sahana had been on a 15-day business trip to SFO recently. Photos from her trip can be found here. Life here in Bangalore was obviously thrown out of whack due to her absence. Its a good thing that the kids had their summer vacation, else I would be in NIMHANS by now.

We'd [Sahana, Sneha & self] been to Shimoga last weekend for a munji on Sahana's side of the family. It was good fun, with a LOT of eating and enough coffee to keep me awake for a few more months non-stop! Shimoga's a nice place on the foothills of the Western ghats and the views are really nice. The outskirts are sleepy and laid-back with acres of fields, coconut / arecanut trees and the river Tunga (or its canals) visible at almost all times. The roads are plain awful, though, so you need to prepare yourself for a bone-jarring ride everytime you go out. Shimoga is centrally located if you want to do sight-seeing in Karnataka's more scenic spots like Kemmangundi, Jog, Sringeri, Agumbe, etc. which are all within 150Km distance. Photos from our trip can be found here.