Scranton PA

Folks,

Yesterday (10 Aug) I had been to Leela Ajji's place at Scranton PA. Alok (Leela Ajji's eldest son) graduated from Univ of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is moving to NC State for his Doctoral study. So for the good wishes and blessings from God, there was Ganapathi homa and the yearly Durga Namaskara pooja at their house

We left early in a hurry. It was raining a little bit. Amma and Ammamma tried hard so that I would not get wet in the rain till I reach our car. Pappa had loaded most of the things into the car before I sat in my "seat". I don't like to sit idle in that small seat you know. It makes me uncomfortable. But it was for a short period. Pappa started driving and things whizzed past me at great speeds. I was counting "one tree" "two trees" "three trees" ...zzzzz..

I don't know what happened in between. When I woke up, we were at Leela Ajji's place. It was my lunch time. So Amma fed me and then I sat near the Ganapathi homa. Alok, Megha, Ashwin (Leela Aunti's children) were looking cute in different type of dress. After the homa, it was Kadubu (Coastal Karnataka version of Idli) lunch. I could hear everyone chomp chomp... I also met Raj Ajja and Rohini Ajji. I said thanks to them for their wonderful swing gift. I like it you know. It makes good (sometimes funny) sound in the middle of all cacophony to relax me and make me sleep.

I slept well till evening but then something happened during the evening pooja. I cried non stop for half an hour and wanted only Pappa to hold me before going back to sleep. Pooja was over and everyone had their dinner. Good food. (Gosh - my parents they can't stop telling about how good the food was at every place we go. They talk about food, food and food. Just teasing them. I too should have my moments. Don't you think)

We all started in a jiffy back to NJ. We had two traffic jams, but made it safe and sound back home by 11:30. I was half asleep. As amma was feeding me, I dozed off dreaming of the beautiful day and making a promise that I would go again to Scranton another day.

Ciao

Legend:
Ganapathi - Elephant headed God
Durga - Goddess
Idli - Rice dumpling
Amma - Mother
Ammamma - Amma's Amma i.e. Grandmother
Ajja - Grandfather
Ajji - Grandmother