Oh,yes, Just a couple of days left as we complete the 7th & final week. We pack our bags home Sunday evening and should be home at 5am, Indian Time, Tuesday.
It was a wonderful time. I plan to capture a summary of American life as I saw it. Also with few happenings (If so) over next few days, as a final post of this trip, once back home.
Regards
Karthik.
1) We celebrated Shravan, Lalitha and Eshwar's birthdays this week. (29th June, 1st and 6th July) We had dinner at an Indo-chinese restaurant at Historic Murphy Avenue @Sunnyvale . The Chinese food was delicious. Lalitha worked Kheer- (A sweetened condensed milk slow boiled) for Shravan,her routine birthday menu for Shravan; in fact last year she sent the same across through Radhu to the USA, as she landed here on 27th June 2022)!!
2) Summer is picking up at last. It is 34C with 35% humidity and also the UV Factor of 11, makes you tan and you become tired very quickly like the case in Bangalore. (It has since lowered to high 20s in the past 2 days.) Nights are pleasant, a bit cold too at a low of 15C. (60F)!
3) Shravan cooked an Italian Dinner for us as well as arranged to get dinner from Apple Park Cafeteria. The food tasted great. Apple cafeteria opens post 7pm for people working late at subsidised rates. The Apple cafeteria opens at 7-8pm window and serves about 3000 people for take away. Shravan says, the dessert gets sold out in 1 min flat at 701pm. (Monday was an exception due to the thin crowd due to 4th July holiday-Tuesday!).
4) Lalitha visited San Jose, Rose Garden. A 1/2 acre facility with tons of roses. Generally I found roses grown aplenty across with both tree types and bush types.
5) It was great catching up with 2 of my college mates Thirumalai Rajan (Tracy CA) and Chidambaram (San Jose) at Thirumalai's home at Mountain Head (60 Miles from Cupertino). Both moved to the USA in Mid 1990s. We met after 40 years. Thirumalai has a fabulous garden with 10s of varieties of fruits, flowers, vegetables (I saw for the first time, Green Apple and Peach trees). Thirumalai's wife cooked an awesome dinner. 90 minutes flew by. Thanks to Chidambaram who drove us there. On our way, we visited the Shiva-Balaji temple at Livermore. This was the first temple (Today there are more than 10) established in 1977 in the Bay area. The temple is unique in that it follows rituals that are exactly followed in ancient temples in South India, so it is a special place for us.
6) I watch one English movie a year. (2022 was Captain Maverick- Top Gun) 2023 is Indiana Jones -Dial of Destiny (V Part) Shravan worked the plan. We enjoyed the movie at an Imax theater at Sunnyvale, (July 4th). This is my second Indiana Jones movie after Riders of last Ark (1981 @Casino, Madras). While I found seating here a class apart (Similar to business class flights) Shravan said such seating exists in Indian theaters too.! Another aspect here is that the movie has no intermission, so it is 21/2 hrs hard grind,(Imagine that for a lousy movie)! Oh Yes, I plan to make an exception to one movie rule,this year, as I plan to watch "Oppenheimer" releasing on 21st July. (I would watch it in Bangalore)! Oh, yes Like Indian theaters, they tortured us for 20 min with advertisements and trailers of upcoming movies!!
7) 4th July was the 247th Independence day here in the United States. We enjoyed the parade, and spectacular night fireworks (20 min non stop) set up by Cupertino City at the Creekside Public Park. My memory goes back to 1976, seeing color photos of the 200th Independence day in Indian newspapers. Everything about America has changed a lot since then. I am not surprised by the flag waving, flag fixing at home by Americans as well as the huge crowd gathered for the event.!
Finally ,Family caught me napping!! hahahah! (As happened before, in Radha / Shravan's wedding in the marriage hall!!)
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