Onam - 2015

August 28, Friday 2015 :

 Friday evening, onam pot luck dinner at Sreejith's home with Jimmy and Harris' 

 families as well. The mix was perfect as all of us were exactly the same age and it was nice to 

 feel so much understanding in our conversations.

    Jimmy and myself wore traditional Mundu and hence we mostly stayed put on the sofa 

 to keep the Mundu from slipping. Home ownership decisions that Jimmy and Sreejith had 

 taken had paid off pretty well as their respective home prices had increased. While we 

 were driving through the complex, indian families were playing badminton and it almost

felt like we were in a posh neighborhood in India. 

    As has always been the case for such get-togethers with manhattan colleagues, the 

frustrations of overwork at Manhattan frothed up. I could at once relate to it as well 

as see that my life has clearly improved after moving out of Manhattan to Deposco. 

Divya had observed how not a single day passed without me cribbing about work while 

at Manhattan and how that tendency stopped completely after moving to Deposco even 

though Deposco takes more working hours from me. 

    Jimmy was particularly open about his attempts to seek help from books like 

Alchemist , How to win friends and influence people, Simon Senek etc. I could 

completely relate to him. Jimmy/Harris are both avid cricketing sportsmen and are 

clearly particularly passionate about the game. Sreejith stood out a bit as someone 

who was less confused and took life as it came. 

    Then we shared our passion for malayalam movies, talks about going back to India 

and about the children. Generally, we were relating to each other on all these fronts. 

Meera's cousin who had just passed out from Georgia Tech was also with us. He spend some 

 time with us and also played with our kids. 

     Kids were playing. The wives were collecting the pots of curries together and set 

up dinner on plantain leaves at the dining table. All of us were food lovers and we 

enjoyed the vegetarian tradional onasadya followed by three payasams.

    Conversations continued on till sleep caught up. While the guys were talking, the 

 ladies were dividing the remaining curries into ziplock bags to be brought back home. 

We left around midnight and Sreejith's home was a bit of a mess with scattered toys.

Closing the note to take some of the packaged onam curries out of the ziplock bags 

 for lunch. 

New orleans trip - Saturday - July 4th 2015

 Garden District
 Went to garden district to check out the colonial architecture. It was nice but nothing
 novel. Have seen the same in Savannah, Charlseton etc.

 Street Car (Tram)
  Took the 'tram' service along the historic  garden district. Got down at Audobon park with
 the intent of visiting the insectarium but learned that the insectarium was all the way in the
  opposite direction at Canal street. So, took the tram back slowly all the way back.

Insectarium
  As I got in, there were too many sections on insects which I had no interest in. So, I went all
 the way down to the butterfly garden which felt like an entrance into heaven. Walk in a little further
  to reach heaven. So myriads of beautiful butterflies trapped in conditioned well lit well fed environment.
  In the matrix, never to see the real world. I quickly became a sight myself, standing on the parapets to   photograph the butterflies, photographing butterflies sitting on my nose, jeans, neck etc.
When you look at one beautiful butterfly picture, you can never tell the real physical labor that goes into getting it done.I was sweating, with the heat lights almost touching my neck as I stood on the garden parapets to get better shots.I stopped not because I was done but because I was hungry.

Gumbo
Alligator and Duck gumbo is what I had at the Palace Cafe further down the street.
Then I took the street car back to the garden district and completed the entire train ride.
It was the most inefficient thing to do but it was the best way to squander away time.

Oysters
On the way back, I stopped at a spot that said "Po Boys" as eating a po boy is part of  New Orleans travel. Instead, I took a  Daiquri and went to the next restaurant "Cooter house" where I went to eat po boys but had oysters instead ( fried first but then I realized that what I really needed was raw oysters with the nasal horse radish and I had that. Next, went to a french bakery and had strawberry 'cake' which was really good.
 Meanwhile, the Daiquiri was numbing me and I realized why you should not Daiquiri. I got off from the tram at the  right spot and got to my car.

French market
Drove to French market which was among the sights that Fodors recommendeds. It was again a nice trip to the past. And as luck would have it, it was right by the mississippi river and the perfect spot to watch the fireworks. An elderly Japanese writer-man came and sat by me and explained about his thesis on 'And/Or' which explains everything in the universe. He was a nice smart old man and we had good conversations.

Fireworks
The fireworks is the best that I have seen so far.
There was no disappointment at all which is usually what comes with trying to get wowed by fireworks. I was not the only one surprised.
The crowd cheered in surprise as the festivities in the sky unfolded.

Catfish poboy
From french market, had a catfish poboy. Nice fresh fish, one thing off the list.

Independence day - at Newton park

  Newton park, ten minutes from our apartment hosted an amateurish independece day celebrations.
We were clearly locals at the event and chanced on five to six neighbor families. However, the
 first person I met at the part by chance was Nishchit Shetty, who was my colleague in Chennai
  and I had been meeting him after a gap of twelve years. While we were still meeting, Sundar and
  Anu, who were our neighbors joined in and I made some introductions.
     It was quite warm and sweaty and we found a shade behind the stall and had some indian snacks
 sitting in the shade.  From there, we went to the section where the stage was and regional dances
  of the various states were being played sitting in the shade on top of the small hilly ground.
     On the whole, it felt nice but hardly something not to be missed.

Los Angeles - Malibu - previous weekend - Sunday

Malibu

     Drove to Malibu on the well-know PCH ( Pacific Coastal Highway). It was a great drive with

  ocean on one side and mountains on the other. I missed having a smart phone to take quick pics

  while driving. I was voice recording observations about the place to share with my wife. How the 

   road suddenly wound down and you suddenly see a lot more of the ocean on your left. I had the 

    windows down to let the breeze in. Suddenly I heard wheels shrieking and then I heard a pretty 

  good thud at the back of my car and then I realized - yes, someone has hit me.

Accident

       I slid to the turning lane as did the guy behind me. A sweet young student apologized and 

  sent me snapshots of the damages and a truthful record of what happened to my email. While he 

  was talking to his parents whose car he had hit me with, I called up Remit who advised me to 

   inform Hertz which is what I did and Brandon informed Geico and Geico called me and told me that

  Geico would cover me completely and that I can say as much to Hertz so that there is no possibility 

  of me losing any money on this. 

Mountains

      We parted friends and Brandon said that I am going to love moving to Caliornia. I drove on to 

  the state beach that I was going to. As I reached there and it was still afternoon, I decided to try out 

  the mountains on my left which was really attractive in it's mystique. After driving around for an hour   or so, I drove back to the beach.

Beach

      The beach was awesome as were some houses by the beach. One of them in particular looked like 

   a house staight out of "Hansel and Gretel". The beach had huge boulder rocks on them and it was an    interesting dynamic between the waves, the rocks, the reef and the boulders. I have always been a   back bencher in life and wanted to do something. So I took off my shoes and tshirt and did fifteen 

  minutes of yoga on the beach which felt very refreshing. 

      Malibu presents a different variation from Santa Monica and a worthwhile difference to 

  keep the interest up.

LA week - July end 2015

Los Angeles week

Monday

 I checked into the embassy suites hotel at El Sedundo for the week. While it was priced about the same as the other Hilton hotels, it was a much bigger room and felt very luxurious.
 They also had a happy hour every evening for snacks. I decided to use the evening
after work to try out the snacks which turned out to be not much.
   Tried out a greek restaurant nearby which was pretty good.

Tuesday
Mayura restaurant
 As recommended by my college friend Remit, tried out a malayalee restaurant named Mayura.
The restaurant did not scale up to the kerala restaurants that we had tried in Atlanta
 but it was good that there was one available pretty close by.

Wednesday
Venice Beach
  Venice beach was one of the locations as well that figured. But I reached late and
everything was closed. But then the day I drove over there, Bruce Willis was being shot
 in a movie.  Over an unplanned week , I had run into two icons - the doors through
 the whiskey club and Bruce Willis on the streets. Clearly celebrity is in the air.


Thursday
Sunset boulevard.
   Drove from office straight to sunset boulevard. Was impreseed by the happeningness of the place.
Ate Sushi at Sushya restaurant. Strolled the boulevard. Went into some book shops which were very
 impressive. Also, chanced on "The Whiskey" ( where the Doors used to play). That was a nice moment for me. Went into a childrens store to be shocked by the prices in hundreds of dollars.


 Friday
 Santa Monica Pier
 This ranks as the best evening I had at Los Angeles. The beautiful white sands and the possibility of
making this a part of our everyday life was very very appealing. Beautiful wide stretch of white sands
 and the pier with rides and life to keep the kids busy. Ideal for a family evening. I had dinner at
  Bubba Gump Shrimp and I had about an hour of waiting time. Except I could order at the bar without  having to wait. I took that option. Again, an atmosphere of frenzy as the waiters and waitresses  catered to the heavy density of activity.


Saturday

Apartment search

Looked through apartment.com website and tried calling apartments but none of them had any units available.Finally I got one and went there. As I entered the leasing office, the stench was striking. The office in charge took me to the two bedroom that was so unimpressive that I don't recall any details from the visit. Next, I went to a town home which was much better. But hardly saw any Indians in the community. Next, went to Santa Monica  to check out the apartment where Remit had stayed. I could not get to it. But I walked around and found one apartment that I liked and it was way over budget for me and with less than optimal living area.

LACMA (Los Angeles County  Museum of Art)
 After completing my apartment search for the day, I decided to give LACMA a visit even though I just had one hour to spare before the museum closes. It was a real mammoth museum but it was well worth the visit.
Since there was no way I could see all the buildings. So I took advice from the girl who sold me the tickets and visited three spots
  1) Islamic Art
  2) Noah Purifoy : Junk Dada
  3) Another section with unconventional stuff.

Islamic Art
  Started off with Islamic art which had an amazing set of photographs. The photographs spelt out so much
life that you felt that you were in an islamic nation while in the gallery. That is when Aslam returned
 my phone call. The style was nicely uncluttered and presented one poignant point.
    Soon after the Islamic section was the section about India where I heard an american dad teaching his son about Vishnu. I could sense an admiration in their conversation of the gods.

Junk art ( Noah Purifoy)
Next I reached the junk art section by the artist Noah Purifoy which was pretty curious. It was less
ethereal than the islamic section and it brought out curiosity. Reminded me of my childhood when I have
played with junk stuff a little bit. To me, all pieces were successful experiments in curiosity done by
 an adult who maintained his sense of childish curiosity.

Post modern gallery 
 I forget it's name. There was one huge section with nice curves that you could walk through. Felt like
walking through the art piece - getting into the art rather than watching it from outside as a perciever.
Then there were dead crows on the ground. Starts off actually with a grid of tvs playing one big movie of
 people throwing juggling pins around. I was rushing through as there was hardly any time left.

 Clearly, LACMA can take quite a few weekends should I move here.

In-and-Out Burger
   This was recommended by Fodors and it really struck dirt. Probably the best burger I have had in US    and priced at McDonalds level. Extremely crowded and I was struck by how incessantly all the girls   had to work there and how hard it must be for the girl at the counter to keep smiling at each of her customers  with hardly a few seconds break between one customer and the next.