Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

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

Last week was a lot of fun, we (Me and Jani) went to Delhi for Diwali which was on the 12th as we try to be with parents for Diwali whenever possible. Took an early morning flight and landed in Delhi around 10:30am. I was worried about the air quality in Delhi but thankfully it had rained the night before so the pollution level was one of the lowest I remember. My air purifier at home in Delhi usually runs at about 300+ but that day it was in the 70’s so it felt great.

11th was also Axu’s wedding anniversary so we went out for dinner with Axu, Montu and their parents. It was the first time I had gone out of the house on Choti Diwali (the day before Diwali) and I was surprised to see the number of folks who had come out for dinner. I always thought that most people would be at home but apparently that is not the case. Dinner was a lot of fun and it was good to catch up after a long time.

The next day was Diwali where we started the day with a Havan. I have a problem with it because of the smoke so ended up having to take an Allegra tablet to ensure that I can function. When I was a kid my nana (mom’s dad) used to do a Havan every morning and I had just learnt about air pollution and how smoke is bad for you. So I used to take a bucket of water and pour it on his Havan kund to stop the ‘air pollution’. It is a wonder that I didn’t get smacked into the next year.

All of us seated at the Diwali Havan in our house

After the Havan I escaped to the garden outside the house while the smoke dissipated from the house and then we all just chilled around for a while. Met some of the neighbors which was interesting because most of the folks I knew when I was living in Noida had moved out and I didn’t know any of the new folks.

Mom, Dad, me and Jani in the garden at our place

At night we did the pooja and lit candles and Diya’s all around the house.

Diwali Pooja

Photo taken outside the house with the full lighting on

One of the questions that has been asked a few times is:
“जब दीपावली भगवान राम के १४ वर्षो के वनवास से अयोध्या लौटने के उतसाह में मनाई जाती है, तो दीपावली पर “लक्ष्मी पूजन” क्यों होता है ? श्री राम की पूजा क्यों नही?”
(We say that Diwali is celebrated on the occasion of Lord Rama returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of Vanvas (Forest living) so why do we worship Lakshmi on the day instead of worshiping Lord Rama.)

The answer to this questions is:

“दीपावली उत्सव दो युग “सतयुग” और “त्रेता युग” से जुड़ा हुआ है!”
(Diwali is associated with two Yuga’s or ages as per Hindu Mythology, The Satya Yuga and Treta Yuga)

“सतयुग में समुद्र मंथन से माता लक्ष्मी उस दिन प्रगट हुई थी! इसलिए “लक्ष्मी पूजन” होता है!
(In Satya Yuga, Goddess Lakshmi appeared during the churning of the ocean to produce Amrita. This is why we worship Goddess Lakshmi on this day.)

Devas (gods) and asuras (demons) were both mortal at one time in Hinduism. Amrita, the divine nectar that grants immortality, could only be obtained by churning Kshira Sagara (‘Ocean of Milk’). The devas and asuras both sought immortality and decided to churn the Kshira Sagara with Mount Mandhara. The Samudra Manthana commenced with the devas on one side and the asuras on the other. Vishnu incarnated as Kurma, the tortoise, and a mountain was placed on the tortoise as a churning pole. Vasuki, the great venom-spewing serpent-god, was wrapped around the mountain and used to churn the ocean. A host of divine celestial objects came up during the churning. Along with them emerged the goddess Lakshmi.

भगवान श्री राम भी त्रेता युग मे इसी दिन अयोध्या लौटे थे! तो अयोध्या वासियों ने दीप जलाकर उनका स्वागत किया था! इसलिए इसका नाम दीपावली है!
(Lord Rama also returned to Ayodhya on this day and the population of Ayodhya welcomed him by lighting diyas. Which is why it is called Deepawali/Diwali)

इसलिए इस पर्व के दो नाम हैं, “लक्ष्मी पूजन” जो सतयुग से जुड़ा है, और दूजा “दीपावली” जो त्रेता युग प्रभु श्री राम और दीपो से जुड़ा है!
(This is why the festival has two names, Lakshmi Puja which is associated with Satya Yuga and Deepawali which is associated with Treta Yuga and Lord Rama).

After lighting and decorating the house, me and Jani went on a drive around the sector to see the decorations which was a lot of fun. Jani wanted to walk but I was tired so we just drove around for a bit till we got tired and cold so we came back home and crashed for the night.

The days after Diwali were a lot of fun as well and I got to meet some old friends and I will talk about that in the next post.

– Suramya