Category Archives: bangalore
No Jinx On This Holiday
We spent Thanksgiving holidays in Paris in 2013. That was the time of the infamous Alabama-Auburn college football game which the kids watched (in horror) in some expat bar, as Auburn shocked Alabama to win in the final play/second of the game. Those poor Parisians watching American football for the first time were likely confounded…this was how those crazy Americans played the game? 🙂
Alabama and football will never live that down. Neither will I, because (according to the kids) I apparently jinxed that game by calling Alabama the victor before it had even started. Oh well. It was only football.
After I wrote a post a few weeks back about my upcoming delightful journey to India with the entire family, I felt a twinge of discomfort. Had I jinxed that as well by calling it in advance?
Now that everyone is back Stateside, safe and sound, after a wonderful time during the holidays, I feel relieved.
What a trip it was! A time to make many new memories that will live on for a long time. Fabulous (and rare) family time, sight-seeing, R&R, partying, crazy traffic, delicious home cooked food….a lot of experiences crammed into too little time together (crazy Bangalore traffic I could do without! What happened to you, beautiful Bangalore?).
Hard to capture everything in one collage!
Apparently, I didn’t jinx the delightful journey after all. It even exceeded my high expectations.
Kids can say whatever, but this assures me that I didn’t jinx that awful football game in 2013 either. Obviously, it was a (bad) fluke. It also gives me renewed confidence. I do believe I will continue to make my predictions on Alabama games in the future too. So, okay, last night’s game was another fluke. Crap happens. 😦
Happy New Year, ya’ll!
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Holiday Traditions and Delightful Journeys
We had a holiday luncheon at the office this week and the food was catered from PF Chang’s. And of course fake Chinese food comes replete with fake American fortune cookies.
Here’s what mine said: You are about to embark on a most delightful journey!
This was followed by some “lucky numbers” that were likely generated with a random number generator. But, hey, the fortune itself I believe.
I believe it so much that I stuck the fortune paper on my monitor at work. I guess that also shows that I need a break! In case you think I’m making this up for a blog post, check these out –
Fortune Cookie with lucky numbers. Lucky me!
That small piece of paper is stuck on my monitor (lower right) to remind me every day about my upcoming delightful journey…
Holidays are a time for R&R with family and friends.
This year is “special” multiplied. It hasn’t happened yet but it is about to begin. Less than a week to go! Although the countdown actually began ages ago…
Many months ago, my mom had a command, a demand, a wish and a prayer – that her only two children and their families, i.e. all the grandchildren and the significant others of all the attached ones come stay with her for some time. All at the same time. Given that every single one of them live more than 10,000 miles away, it took a fair amount of time and coordination to make it happen.
Therefore, this year, our holiday tradition will be exquisite – Christmas in our hometown in India, to be spent with my mom and the entire clan that is closest to me. What’s extra special is that for the first time ever, we will all be there, no exceptions. [We will miss our close cousins who live in the US – but that’s deferred for the next delightful journey!]. In India, there will be time for extra R&R with the clan, time with extended family and friends, time for a bit of tourist activities and much more crammed into this delicious (pun intended) time. Can’t wait for it to begin!
I am designating the “delightful journey” from my fortune cookie to this entire upcoming holiday. What could be more delightful than that?
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Background image credit: By Marcus Quigmire from Florida, USA (Happy Holidays Uploaded by Princess Mérida) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
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The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 