Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

I read a lot and am a fast reader so folks are usually quite surprised by how many books I read every year, but today I was surprised instead as I read this toot by Project Gutenberg:

A Man Read 3,599 Books Over 60 Years, and Now His Family Has Shared the Entire List Online
One page of Dan’s list of books

3599 sounds like a very high number. As I have been tracking every book I have read since 26th Nov 2007 I went and checked the list to see how I match up to Dan. In the past ~18 years that I have been logging every book that I read: I have read 3827 books!! Assuming I read the same number of books every year since I started reading novels at the age of ~9 years that would translate to ~7200 books read over the years. Filtering by unique books read, it comes to 2781 books.

As opposed to Dan, my list of books read is in the form of an excel file that notes the name of the book, author and date read. I could share the list online if folks are interested so see the stuff I read. BTW, the books in the count above are novels (fiction), they don’t contain any of the technical or programming books that I have read over the years. (Or any of the comics/graphic novels). It will be interesting to get a count of the no of books when I reach the age of 60, if I remember then I will make sure to post about it when I get there.

Well this is all for now. Will write more later (once I finish this book I am reading 😉 )

– Suramya

Today was Rakhi and I have a lot of sisters so end up with a ton of Rakhi’s being tied on my hand. Rakhi (Raksha Bandhan) is a Hindu festival where sisters tie a talisman or amulet called the rakhi around the wrists of their brothers who symbolically protect them and receive a gift in return. The sisters do a Tilak, tie the Rakhi and then give a piece of sweet. My sisters don’t know how to give just a piece of sweet so I usually have a full laddu/other sweets (usually quite large) stuffed in my mouth for every Rakhi being tied.

This year, Surabhi demanded “Get Dairy Milk Chocolates, a lot of them. No a ton of them for me” for Rakhi, then a few hours later I got a call from Sara (my niece) that she also wanted lots and lots of chocolates when she came over today. So being the nice brother & mama I am, I went to the local shop and bought every single Dairy milk chocolate they had and arranged it for Surabhi & Sara (See below). I got over 60 chocolates for the two of them 😉

Surabhi with her treasure of chocolates

I naively thought that they would take only some of the chocolates home and leave the rest at my place so that everytime they visit they can have a few. Instead they took the entire thing with them… Hopefully they won’t eat it all in one day.

This year’s Rakhi’s

Group pic of all of us who were there in person

I also wanted to do something different and created a shot video of my Rakhi celebrations from 1985 onwards (before that Surabhi was too young to tie the rakhi) to date.

– Suramya

I love books and I read a lot. Which means I buy a lot of books (physical books) as well. Last month I was in the US for a few weeks for work and Surabhi’s graduation and I ended up buying a few books 😉

My latest book purchases last month

In my defense, I was left unsupervised in a bookstore. The only reason I didn’t buy more books is that I was concerned that I might not have enough space in my suitcases for them.

– Suramya

Jani’s cousin got married last week in Kanyakumari (which is the southernmost tip of India) and Jani flew there on Saturday (25th Jan) for the event. Since I couldn’t take the whole week off I got there later by driving down from Bangalore to Kanyakumari. (Basically it was an excuse to do a solo road trip).

In total I drove 1640 kms in 4 days with ~22 hours of driving in total over 4 days. I started from Bangalore at 6:15am on Wednesday and reached the venue at ~5:30pm. The road was well maintained throughout as I took NH-44 most of the way. There is construction ongoing in places for flyovers which required minor detours/bad roads but other than that I could consistently drive at 100 without having to worry about random obstructions. This was the first trip where I drove for such a long time alone and before I started I was a little worried that I would get bored on the way but once I started it was really zen to just listen to music and drive.

One annoying aspect of the trip was Google Maps. It used to be really good but slowly Google has been removing functionality from the app and that gets annoying. Cory Doctorow calls this process Enshittification and this was a prime example of it. Earlier when you searched for directions between two points the app would allow you to drag and change the route. In addition it would also show all routes we could take everytime but now it will randomly select a path without the option to change or even see how long other routes would take. This time Google decided for some reason that NH-44 was closed for all traffic and kept insisting I take another route that would add ~3-4 hours to the travel time. As first I was able to force it to show the NH-44 path by putting the phone in Airplane mode before asking for directions (I had downloaded the maps locally) but even that stopped working after a while. Thankfully by then I was on NH-44 only so I just ignored the instructions to turn off into random directions and forced the map to update. Not a super critical issue in this instance because it was a straight route and I knew the way but could have been a big issue if I was going to a new place. I think I am going to explore openmaps in the near future to see if they give a better experience.

Jani and me at the Engagement

Jani and me posing in Traditional clothes

I reached Kanyakumari just in time to go change and head out to the Engagement which was a simple event. Usually I end up wearing suit’s for weddings but this time I wanted to wear more traditional clothes so I wore a Kurta instead of Jeans which had an added benefit of being a lot more cooler & comfortable than a suit. I was pretty zonked out during the event as it was in Tamil but still managed to stay awake for all of it.

The wedding party in pure white

The next day was an early start for the actual wedding. It was an interesting experience since it was the first Christian wedding I attended. My expectations were based on what I have seen in the movies but as both bride and groom are Pentecostal Christians the wedding was quite different than what I was expecting. It was an extremely simple wedding with no jewellery or bright color clothes. In-fact the entire wedding party was dressed in White on the day of the wedding. I had initially planned to wear a Sherwani for the wedding but decided to wear a golden kurta instead as it was just too hot to wear a Sherwani. Even then I was one of the few spots of color in the wedding.

Wedding selfie with cousins, niece and grand-daughter

After the wedding during which they didn’t allow any photos to be taken we all changed to more casual clothes and then drove from the venue to Tuticorin which is where the boy’s side of the family is based. We ended up starting quite late due to the various events/ceremonies and reached Tuticorin really late night after 11pm. After another photoshoot I went and crashed while the rest of the folks stayed up really late to chat and hang out.

Posing in traditional Vesti & shirt combo

Next morning we had a relaxed start of the day as the reception was scheduled for 11am. For this event I wore a traditional vesti and short combination. We had planned this as a surprise for the rest of the family. I was a bit worried that the Vesti would fall off but the new versions have velcro so it was safe and I didn’t flash anyone 🙂 . Funnily enough I was the only one wearing a vesti because for the rest of the folks it was daily-wear so they all were wearing suit-tie combo while I was in a Vesti. I think I was a lot more comfortable because a vesti is as per the local climate and quite well ventilated. I was feeling sorry for the folks in full suits.

Group pic on the way to the reception

After lunch and getting our pics taken we and Jani’s cousins decided to step out for a bit because by then it was just folks coming on stage for pics with the couple and that got boring after a while. Thankfully for the reception folks were dressed in colors other than white. The beach was nice but I couldn’t go in the water as I still had to go back to the reception afterwards. We spent about a hour at the beach and then headed back to the event by which time the newly weds were more than ready to head back home.

Jani and me at the Beach

We dropped them at home and changed into more comfortable clothes. At this time all the functions were done so a few of us stepped out for a bit of shopping followed by dinner. Post dinner I again crashed early because I had an early start planned while Jani hung out with the rest of the family.

The next day started really early and I left by 6:15am which was a good thing as I avoided most of the inner city traffic. The drive back was uneventful and I reached home by 3:10pm which was a pretty good time and had lunch after which I crashed and only woke up the next day morning.

– Suramya

Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in India, it symbolizes the spiritual victory of Dharma over Adharma, light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. This year interestingly it fell on Oct 31st when Halloween is celebrated in a lot of the western countries, which made it an interesting day since that is the day when it is said that the barrier between the unseen world (spirit world) & our world is the thinnest and when the darkness is the strongest. Plus it was a bit jarring to see kids in Halloween costumes in the middle of Diwali pictures 🙂

We always go to Delhi whenever possible for Diwali as that is the one festival we celebrate at home with parents. In fact in the past 43 years I have only celebrated it 8 times without going to parents place and that was when I was in the US and it was not feasible to fly home for it as it was in the middle of the semester plus ridiculously expensive as well. I flew to Delhi with Mom on 26th so that I could spend some time with dad. I usually take 2 days off for Diwali and did the same this year as well. Luckily for us the day after Diwali was a Karnataka state holiday so I ended up getting 3 days off (plus 2 days for the weekend), I did WFH for the remaining two days.

Nothing beats spending time with family, but the Delhi pollution is painful. Before folks start blaming the Diwali crackers please note that I arrived in Delhi a week before Diwali and the air quality was so bad that I had the air purifier running 24×7 in my room and was taking Allegra every day for my allergies. But it is easier to blame cracker bursting instead of actually solving the root cause of the problem.

Due to work commitments Jani flew in on the 30th late night, her flight arrived on time but her luggage took over 1 1/2 hours to arrive. Apparently they sent it to the wrong terminal and it took a while to figure out what happened before they could sort things out. Once the luggage arrived we went back home and compared to Bangalore it is an amazing experience to drive a car in Delhi/Noida. The roads are wide and well maintained, due to this even when a car breaks down there is enough space for the others to continue on the way. Compare this to Bangalore where a lot of the roads are barely 1 1/2 times the width of a car so in case of a breakdown you are stuck there for the foreseeable future and that doesn’t even take into consideration the constant flooding of the roads here.

Diwali Havan

Once we reached home, we woke up dad so that we could give all the stuff Jani had got for them (and for me 🙂 ) which was quite fun. The next day we all woke up early (for me anyways) so that we could do the Havan to bless the house and all of humanity with health, wealth and happiness. An interesting aspect of Hinduism is that there is no one right way to do things, so different communities and even families have their own rituals for Diwali. For us it is an Havan in the morning and then Lakshmi puja in the evening. After the Havan since the house was filled with smoke (more than outside) we all sat in the garden and just relaxed for a few hours enjoying time spent with each other.

Jani filling the Diya’s with Oil while Dad relaxes by watching TV

Lighting the first Diya

In the evening we all got ready before dark so that we could do Lakshmi Puja. I have written about why we worship Lakshmi on the day instead of worshiping Lord Rama as Diwali started as a celebration for Lord Rama returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of Vanvas (Forest living) after defeating Ravan who was the demon king of Lanka and symbolized darkness so I am not going to repeat it again here but I do encourage you to go and read about it (scroll down to the bottom of the post).

Pic of the lit Diyas

Lakshmi Puja

The Lakshmi puja does require a bit of prep work, to fill all the Diya’s with oil and arrange them in proper order. Once that is done the Diya’s are lit and we do a short prayer before taking the lit Diya’s and putting them all around the house and outside. The idea is to light the entire house and avoid any dark rooms/areas.

Family photo outside the house with the decoration and lighting

Family photo in front of the house

Obligatory pic with the Frogs 🙂

This year because Jani likes bursting crackers (Even I do, but am severely allergic to the smoke) we got crackers (fireworks) and I burst crackers on Diwali after over 25 years. We hadn’t gotten much but still spent a good hour interacting with the neighbours and having a lot of fun. After we got done with bursting them me and Jani took a drive around the sector to admire the amazing decorations and lighting that folks had put up for Diwali. After that we called it a day and went back home to crash for the night.

Jani Bursting fireworks

Jani Bursting fireworks

Me bursting fireworks after 25 years

Love this pic because of the composition

The remaining days after Diwali I basically just chilled at home, not going anywhere and spending time with family.

In all it was a fun trip and I look forward to doing it again next year.

– Suramya

Birthdays are usually a lot of fun and this year was the first one in a few years where I was at home instead of traveling. Brief list of where all I celebrated my Birthday in the past few years: 2019 – Antarctica, 2020 – Maldives, 2021 – Assam, 2022 – Nagaland. So this year we decided not to go anywhere and just spend time at home only. Now that we are older we had stopped cutting cakes at midnight for a few years but recently restarted doing that as it was a lot of fun. This time Akanksha, Ayush, Bagri,JD, Himanshi, Rajani, Samariddhi and Shahrukh showed up near midnight to wish me and that was sweet of them. Even though folks have come over to our place multiple times some of them still managed to get lost on the way and it was really hard not to make fun of them.

While sitting and chatting we started talking about ice-cream and and obviously I started craving for some ice-cream as we had been talking about it constantly. Rajani and Jani ordered ice cream for me and in total got almost 1.5 kgs of ice-cream. I am going to be eating that for the next quarter unless we have more folks over and I manage to feed it to them 🙂 .

Since I don’t like chocolate, Jani had asked for a Pineapple cake for me. The bakery folks forgot to write my name or anything on the cake and we were all making fun of Shahrukh about it, since he had picked up the cake. JD immediately jumped into action and at first tried carving ‘Happy Birthday Sur’ on the cake. Since that was too long and we had a Happy Birthday cake topper he switched tracks midway and carved ‘Sur’ on the cake. I guess they wanted to make sure people knew it was for my birthday and not a reused image from someone else’s birthday.

Pineapple cake with my name carved in it (look carefully, it is there)

Once we cut the cake everyone fed me a slice and thus I personally was forced to eat almost 3/4th of the cake. It was an awesome cake which made it easy but then I didn’t have any space to eat anything else after that even though the Pizza we had ordered was awesome.

Group pic on my Birthday

Unfortunately for Rajani she was extremely tired and decided to crash early and the rest of us continued to hang out and chill. At around 3am people decided to start heading out and we took a group selfie. Since Rajani was sleeping she wasn’t in the photo so we came up with the bright idea of taking a photo with her as she was sleeping and that was an awesome decision. She was very sporting about the whole thing when we showed her the photo the next day.

Pic with the sleeping beauty

After folks headed out we crashed (even though I wanted to stay up and watch the new Dr Who episode that had just come out) and the next day we were supposed to meet for Lunch with Surabhi & the kids, Anil and Manisha. As I knew we won’t be getting up early I pushed lunch to 2pm and then slept off. Waking up in the morning was painful but we managed it and drove over to ARAKU Coffee in Indiranagar.

Group photo during Lunch at Araku Coffee

We didn’t know it at the time but they were having a Taco themed event today and since I love Mexican food it was an awesome coincidence. We ordered pretty much every type of Taco they had listed and loved it. I also tried a Spiced Mead cocktail and it was soo good that I barely got to drink it as others (mostly Surabhi) kept stealing sips and I ended up having to order another one. It was one of those awesome lazy lunches where no one was in a rush to be anywhere so we all just hung out and chatted.

But all good things must come to an end so around 5 we had to call it a day and head back home. Once I was home, Jani crashed after finishing some of her work while I watched the new episode of Dr Who. It was an interesting episode, not one of my favorites but not one that I disliked either. The 14th Doc’s personality is noticeably different from the 10th and that does get disconcerting at times but still a lot of fun.

Well this is all for now. Have a really early morning tomorrow so an going to call it a night.

– Suramya

Continuing from my previous post My Deepavali vacation 2023 – Part 1. After Diwali we relaxed for a day and finished the Bhaiya Dooj festival. On Wednesday, we met up with Tarini and Varun at their place for dinner and drinks. I am not a cricket fan but if you are in India (or anywhere where there are Indians) it is impossible to escape the craziness of the World Cup.

Since India was playing in the Semi-finals we ended up going to a nearby sports bar to have a few drinks and watch the match. Watching any sport with a crowd is an interesting experience as it is almost impossible not to get caught up in the excitement when everyone is on their feet cheering and screaming their heads off. After a few drinks we headed back to Tarini’s place for dinner and finished watching the match over there. India won the match even though it looked it they might not earlier in the game so that was good.

We would have loved to stay back longer but folks had to go to office the next day (not everyone was on a holiday like me) so we headed back home to Noida. When I got home we found that the parents had forgotten to leave the outer door unlocked (I had the key for the inner doors). As I didn’t want to wake anyone up, I ended up jumping over the wall, unlocking the inner door to get the keys to unlock the main gate to let Jani inside.

The remaining week went by with us just chilling at home. On Saturday, I had friends from college visiting for the weekend. Amit, Vinit, Pranav and his Wife Jigna came over and stayed with us in Noida. I was meeting Amit after almost a decade so it was fantastic to catch up after such a long time. I have known these folks for 24+ years now. Saturday afternoon we went out to Lunch at Burma Burma where the food was so good… we ended up overeating to the point were we barely had room for dinner a few hours later. (We started lunch at 3 and ate till around 5:15 or so).

Lunch at Burma Burma

After lunch we were almost in a food coma so we hung out at home while Jigna caught up on her sleep and Amit visited his uncle. Jani had meetings so once she got back we drove over to Ravi’s place who is another friend from NJIT for dinner and drinks. Since the last time we had met, Ravi had learnt how to make amazing cocktails so we had drinks and just caught up with each others lives and were up almost till 3am just chatting and then drove home.

You don’t often make friends with whom you stay in touch and remain great friends even decades later and it is a privilege to have such friends. Or as Yeats said “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends And say my glory was I had such friends.”

Group Pic at Ravi’s place

For Sunday we had planned to go out somewhere where we could watch the match and spend the day there. But as always the laziness quotient was high and dad moved the TV to the drawing room from the living room to give us more space where we could laze around and watch the match. The setup was a complete jugaad with my Dressing table being used as a stand for the TV and cables being run all over the place.

Watching the Indian Cricket Team’s pathetic performance at the 2023 World Cup Finals

Unfortunately for us the Indian teams performance was not worth the effort that we spent setting up everything. It got to the point where some of us actually dozed off in the middle of the first innings. The second inning was a little bit more interesting but the Indian fielding was pathetic so we stopped watching the match when it was clear that India is not going to win and went out for Dinner.

Diner was at this lovely place called Theos Cafe & Patisserie. The food there was quite good and pretty much everything we ordered was good. Once we finished dinner we just hung out at the cafe till it became obvious that they were waiting for us to leave so that they could close up so we headed home and spent the next few hours looking at old photos from our College days.

Dinner at Theos Cafe & Patisserie

The next day everyone except me and Vinit left to go back and since I was working on Monday I spent the day catching up to emails and things that had piled up during my vacation. My return flight to BLR was supposed to be at 9pm but Spicejet delayed it till 11pm (we actually flew out around 11:30pm). Thankfully they did send an email/sms/call about this early enough that I could plan accordingly and not end up sitting at the airport from 6:30pm… The Delhi airport Terminal 1 is undergoing renovation so not much to do there except sit at the lounge. I ended up working for a bit before catching up with my reading.

Thanks to the delays I reached Bangalore around 2:30am and home around 3:30am. That concluded a very restful and fun vacation and I am already looking forward to my next trip.

– Suramya