Dassera 2011

I've decided to break my silence and finally get back to blogging after much encouragement from Teju and Raji. I'm not still sure if I should close this blog and open a new one or just continue with the same blog.   I never really finished the posts on Europe, I have so many pictures from the trip, it will take days to sift through them. I'm taking Garima's advice and cutting my losses for now, otherwise, I may never get back to blogging. I'm starting with our Dassera celebration last week.  I've amassed a fairly large collection since our last Bommala Koluvu in 2007 so we needed more steps. I sent Prasad out to  buy more planks from Home Depot. Prasad tried to pawn off the job to Raul, our handyman, but I objected, "You have to integrate back into society, you can't just hire someone all the time:-)"  He grumbled a bit but then did an excellent job with Rushil as overly zealous helper. In case you were wondering, the steps we had in India were falling apart, the construction was so poor, last year, we had to screw the structure to our wall or it would have toppled. It had so many sharp edges, every year, I prayed none of the children would get hurt from it, I was happy to be rid of it.  Prasad finished making the steps on Friday. Saturday, my cousin's wife, Namrata came from Sacramento and she and I arranged the dolls and finished sometime around midnight on Saturday.  Everything was scattered all over the house and I had to open many boxes to find all the pieces I needed. Sunday, we cooked and at 2pm, our guests started arriving.  By Sunday night, I was so exhausted but happy that we pulled it off. The dolls are still sitting in our living room, I don't know when I'll get to packing them up.  Now that everyone has seen the dolls and I probably won't be able to add to the collection, what do I do for next year?

I grew grass from methi seeds and Rushil added sand for the pitch and sticks for the wicket.

Grew grass from mustard seeds for the village scene.

Juhi, Kalpana, Nithya and Manju

Manju, Juhi, Sri, Namrata (at the back) and Kalpana

Sri and Prasad

Wish I took more pictures of the kids, there were so many kids that came. Here, we have Nikki, Nithya, Megha and Roshu

Roshu - the zipline daredevil (Zipline post coming up soon)

Namrata .... yes, she's 5'10", you can only imagine how short I feel next to her. She was tremendously helpful... couldn't have done it without her.

Gautam and Garima. Garima looked stunning in her sari and accessories.

Sonu, Garima and Kavita

Rushil chilling with Ajay.

Sweet little Anjali who gave me a peck on the cheek before she left.

Meena and Krithiga