Family Visits and Sankranthi

Prasad's uncle and aunt from Carbondale Illinois visited us last week for a few days. Sadasivam uncle was here last year but we had not seen Yashoda aunty in a few years so it was nice to catch up. They are both doctors and lead very busy lives back in the US. I had some interesting conversations with Yashoda aunty as she works as a university psychiatrist. It seems there are a lots of students that need help in handling the stress at school. She sees 30+ patients a day (mostly followup) and 70% of the students stay on the medication till they graduate. There are counsellors and other support staff but she is the only psychiatrist on staff. Sadasivam uncle is a neurologist at a veteran's hospital and also has a busy schedule.

The last evening they were here, there was a bonfire (bhogi manta) at the complex to celebrate Sankranthi. Last year, at the other house, we had lit up a bhogi manta in in the early morning hours before the sun came out, since there are so many people at the apartment complex, it was environmentally friendly to have a combined bonfire although even that was frowned upon by some. The next day, we went to my cousins place for a mouth watering Andhra lunch and they had the bhogi pallu function for the children. They showered the mixture of puffed rice, regi pallu (something like cranberries), and coins on each child's head. It seems the regi pallu protect the children from the evil eye or dishti. This ceremony is typically done for younger children but since this is only the 2nd year we've ever done it, Sindhu and Rushil were willing and enjoyed the attention.

That evening we went to dinner with some friends at Toscanos at the Forum Whitefield Mall. The dinner was delicious, it had been a long time since we had authentic Italian wine and food.

Unfortunately Sankranthi landed on a Thursday so we were back at work the next day. Next year, we'll have a long weekend for Sankranthi.