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January 29, 2005
day 3 ~ last full day para mi amigos!
wake up early to head to pike place market ~ we grab some phiroshky's ~ and walk along the cobble stone street dodging shoppers, tourists, vendors and delivery trucks. while stacy and alex explore the shopping; i stop by my favorite haunts there; the maps place and left bank books!
we grab some crepes and head out to greenlake where we eat and watch others run, jog and blade the trail around the lake. from here; we drive by the lenin statue in fremont and then onto the troll that lives under the aurora avenue bridge. fremont is a very eccentric neighbourhood of seattle. there have been numerous calls ( and the latest one here last week) to remove the statue of the dictator but the city of fremont has come up with what i think is a valid response (as mentioned in the linked article) to this controversy.
we cross the lake and head to chateau ste michelle in woodinville; a local winery and do the 30 minute wine tour along with free wine tastings. skipping red hook brewery which is right opposite because of fading winter daylight; we drive rural and windy highway 202 to arrive at snoqualmie falls! hike to the bottom; the falls are strong because of unseasonal winter melt! the view from below beautiful; the incline on the way back up above worth every sweat of it.
from here we head to ikea since our midwestern amigos havent seen one :)! alex gets some swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce while i go for potato soup and rice pudding with lingonberry sauce. after two hours of shopping; we head to savoy; where alex feasted on lamb briyani two years ago. much to our disappointment; the buffet sucks, the biriyani's are aweful and the restaurant seem to be going under.
we hang at the edgewater for some time. in search of a cooler mellow bar; we then walk around capitol hill and pioneer square~ no luck! these places seem to be super noisy with too many kids about.. we head back home and chill with some chateau st. michelle semillon and the boob tube before calling it a night.
Posted by ananth at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2005
day 2 ~ for the tourists
early morning drive to the ferry dock to catch the boat to bainbridge island and drive from there to the olympics; we arrive at sol duc falls about 3 hours or so driving through windy roads along beautiful lake crescent! my geo prism handles it fantastic~
catch the kingston - edmonds on the way back and head to rays boathouse in ballard for good grub..stacy feasts on rockfish and a lindemans framboise, alex blasts at the seafood sampler with the local manny's pale ale while i have a huge portabello mushroom sandwich with sweet potato fries!~ to go with a columbia valley gewurztraminer!
head to meet ben and his friends at the sunset tavern to get some local music;..while we miss the performance by 'the math and physics club'; we get good stuff from cantona..another local band! after; we drag along to the old town ale house where we are joined by nate and tina; two architects~ more hoegaarden beer, framboise and some discussions later on public money infrastructure projects, debeers, wilbur smith, africa travels and bens stomach of steel for his upcoming trip to asia; we head home..only to stop for food again in wallingford by famous dicks since alex and stacy get hungry with the smell of burgers!!!
Posted by ananth at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
three winter days to show seattle~ day 1
alex and stacy decided to vist here! three winter snowless short days to show around..hmmmm! where do you start!
a lunch buffet at udipi palace (at crossroads, bellevue) for some delicious south indian food; make a thali- idli, vada, roti, ,upma, and to finish it with spilt pea payasam
we head to downtown to start with the free stadium and south view from the seattle municipal tower 40th floor~ while i head to work; alex and stacy walk 5th Avenue through the new seattle public library (photograph gallery here) by Rem Koolhaas ~ and then on to the monorail to EMP (photo gallery, story here) designed by Frank Gehry and the space needle while soaking on the shopping enroute!
we meet after my work day ends and weave through traffic to see if we can catch the sunset..damn winter days! it gets dark so soon~..we do get a downtown panoroma from west seattle and the dark aliki trails~ return to feast at agua verde with shon and lena; mango margaritas to go with mango quesadillas (ricota cheese, scallions, and mango over a chipotle tortilla); and with some to die for salsa with chips.
grab some beer and do some sing-a-long at chopstix~ yawn! we call it a nite after a couple of hours!!
Posted by ananth at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2005
aecs, anushakti epilogues
and as i move back to the present from dwelling on the wonder years~
and as much as we hope it well remain what it was; or close to what it was; it seems to have lost something with every visit~ crowds, concrete, cars...
jeered by many bombay locals; at times we cursed the colony complex. shielded well from big citys ills and stresses; many of us went through a sense of shock at various stages of our life as we were thrown to the outside world....some post high school, in hostels; post marriage, study abroad and post retirement ~
at times however; we equally cherish the vibrancy of a diverse community; importance on education; a respect for the sciences; scientific thinking balanced with spirituality and amazing exposure to arts along with sports. clean air, spread out greens; peaceful social life and good transport to the city; what more could you ask.
yes it was a bit upper middle class..but most families were conservative, and it was a simple living with a ultra friendly community. schoolhood times; the peer pressure felt a bit stifling but the brotherhood; the friendships, the relationships over early long stable years remain priceless.. more so in these transient times; as we adopt foreign lands; live busy lives and go about our dharma.
Posted by ananth at 06:23 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2005
aecs2
if you tell some one your school was called atomic energy central; they laugh, and exclaim amazement. occasional incredulous stares follow as our neurons narrate our rites of passage through it ~
atomic energy central school number two for most of the eighties and early nineties did kindergarten to standard (grade) tenth; based on CBSE syllabus. it was located between dhawalgiri and gulmarg..and for the lucky souls living here; this would entail a dash after hearing the first bell in the morning; precious more seconds gained on the morning sleep...
~ morning or the afternoon shifts; regardless; the mad scramble to cobble the uniform together~ where is my tie; my shoes are not white enough..quick grab a chalk; mom hurry with my tiffin box~
as i grab me some more chai; put my mp3 player to shuffle~ and as it goes from trance to folk, coldplay to carnatic,and soul to ghalibs ghazals; esoteric aecs2 thoughts run wild... here we go~
Posted by ananth at 05:41 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2005
anushaktinagar
a place in bombay that was like none other..i wonder where i should start for this trip down memory lane~ maybe i close my eyes and picture the past to be present..
do i start with the low lying hills that enclose us?
do i dwell on the various smells wafting thru the floors..spicy sabzees with rich rasams and bengali maachi fries?
do i hear the sounds of music waving through from school two in the evening..tabla, veena, violin and the beats from the bharatnatyam classes?
do i dream on the sunset/rise views from my room windows and the surrounding scapes of vashi creeks?
do i write about the diverse characters; eclectic households, eccentric scientists, envious housewives, entertaining cleaning bhais, that inhabit this place?
do i lie on the green lawns while immersing the solitude of this place?
do i take a binocular and look into gulmarg or annapoorna flats :)?
do i gag on the distant mankhurd smells while watching the trains snake out of the station?
do i run to catch the solitary 371 that use to come inside for the big trip to chembur tation?
do i hear the school bell ring every hour or so to announce the end of schools periods?
do i count the grey barc buses (and the double extended ones) every morning and evening ferrying the smart minds?
do i stand in my class line singing jana-gana in the prayer assembly every morning?
did i forget time when i stood in the balcony pelted with fresh raindrops from monsoons?
as i grab me some oregon chai and set the ambience..;surf to a ahir bhairav (a beautiful morning raga) rendition by pt. jasraj; here we go ~
Posted by ananth at 04:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2005
month of maargazhi
dec 16th to jan 15th every year for the last thousand years has been referred to as the month of maargazhi (pr...maargaayee) and is celebrated in south india predominantly and everywhere else by some distinct customs and traditions..the key one being recitation of andal thiruppavai couplets. thirty of them; one for each day as it culimnates with pongal and the marriage of andal with the lord. couple of sites have english translations of the verses. 1, 2
sri ariyakudi ramanuja iyengar; a legendary carnatic vocalist gave these verses a distinct tune; and as the story goes; by the instance of kanchi peeraval (head of kanchi mutt) to popularise this among the masses. what is fascinating is that each couplet is sung in a different ragam. sri ariyakudi would start his kutcheri (concert) by singing the particular thiruppavai as an introduction to the ragam. more tidbits can be found here on a online recital by his disciple k.v.narayanaswamy. the ragams seem to be perfectly set for each couplet for the emotions and the story they tell. other singers like mlv, sudha raghunathan, nithyashree mahadevan, anuradha krishnamurthy, r vedavalli, sulamangalam sisters all follow the same set of ragams given a occasional replacement some of them like mohanam for darbar/verse 16 & bilahari for manirangu/verse 23.
place/times i grew up; a band of mami's got together and sang the verses; some days at the colony kovil and days at homes whichever mami wanted to host. days they would include thirvembaavai and/or ashtapathi. we hosted on hanumath jayanthi (hanuman's birthday)..while koodaravalli was hosted by lalita mami who made the richest chakra pongal (a ratio of six cups of jaggery to one cup of rice while at home it was always a sedate 2.5 cups of jaggery to 1)..and a potluck of dishes from all the mami's..the climax of the whole season..what a meal..what a celebration of food!
Posted by ananth at 03:20 AM | Comments (0)