FESTIVITIES

Part of our summer was pretty busy this year. Both kids were involved in a couple of performances for India's Independence Day celebrations. Ds' dance and singing rehearsals happened during weekday evenings, and on some weekend mornings for the past few weeks. And dd took up an ambitious project of 'arranging' some Indian tunes/songs, and training a group of kids of different ages to play it in their western violins.

It was not a big deal that she was able to play the Indian tunes in her western violin. In fact both ds and dd can do that pretty well like many kids who can play by ear. The music teachers believe both kids are musically gifted. But I think it is more their interest in music and focus that gets them to perform extremely well. Dd was able to play by ear even before she started any formal music lessons. She used to play the keyboard just by listening to the tunes, as a 3 and 4 year old, without having had any formal lessons on keyboard or piano. Both kids teach themselves piano and can play all the violin songs in their piano even today. Ds spends a lot of time composing complex music, which dd plays in her violin in some of her solo concerts. When both started formal violin lessons, it became a even bigger hobby to play all the Indian songs on their violin to their Indian relatives and friends. What was impressive with this year's performance was that dd mastered the new pieces/numbers that she was never exposed to before, in a matter of 15mins on her violin. Dh was highly impressed, and he does not get impressed that easily at all:) I mean, his standards are real high:)

She then 'arranged' the music in such a way that the other kids in the music group she formed could learn it easily. She also performed a solo piece. Not only that, she planned the practice sessions, schedules etc by phoning each of the families; she gave instructions periodically to the kids, telling them how to practice the pieces, both by email and via phone; and she even made arrangements for the kids to be picked up and dropped off for practice sessions, without disturbing all the families' busy schedules. She just called and figured who was available to do the driving and allotted the different adults each time to do the job of drop offs and pick ups. Since dh and I were sick for part of their practice sessions, I was amazed that she still managed to find a way to get hold of some responsible adult to bring the kids and keep the practice sessions going. Her practice sessions ran from 9-11pm in the nights. Dd loves being busy, with end to end things to do, (wonder where she got that gene from?:)). I mean, asking her to do nothing and just relax would be seen as a punishment by her. She had an online class, and a paper deadline to deal with along with her regular violin classes, symphony practices, vocal classes/practices, meeting with her math buddies, online chat discussions, tons of reading, preparation for her Lit club reading for Fall etc. She was also in the process of applying to the univ and college courses for this Fall. But not a single thing was left for the grown ups to deal with, in all that she planned and orchestrated to deliver a high quality performance. The other parents were amazed.

The point to note personally for me was, that she survived a much harder lesson and experience in the past couple of months, by means of having to deal with the kids of varied ages and interests, and having to keep them focused on a common goal. A couple of the kids were losing focus and acting goofy during the practice sessions. Ds felt that he saw a side of his sis whom he had not known before. I think for dd who is always seriously focused on a task, and has fun being so, it can be a huge challenge to deal with such kids who are not like her, without being irritated and losing the cool. BUT she managed to remain cool all through, while keeping the other kids focused. She learned an unbelievable amount by just taking up this project this summer. The kids listened to her, and respected her highly and accepted her as their leader, while she led them as a fellow musician more than as their leader.

I think they all learned a whole lot about working with each other. I saw a side of her which indicated some wonderful growth and maturity, which I was proud of, but at the same time I was saddened to see her grow up so quickly. It's a pretty strange feeling :) She did the interludes and complex sections of the music as a solo, so as to not to burden the other musicians who were new to this since they were unable to keep up. And her brilliant strong violin strokes in her solo sounded so beautiful. She also requested her brother to accompany the other musicians, and not to accompany her, even though he was able to play those interludes along with her, being sensitive to others kids' feelings. I am amazed at that growth, in both children, and I don't think this could be learned any other way. And no book would have taught them this. She has more plans to continue this violin performances every summer. The other musicians are interested in such future performances and learning. We will see how that goes:)

***Here is the recording of one of dd's solo pieces, played in her violin ('Vaseegara' Tamil song from Minnale, which is also 'Zara Zara' in Hindi).

Oh I forgot to mention about ds' performance. Ds had a ton of fun in a dance and singing program, along with his violin performance with his sister. He is a gifted singer and a musician. What we did not realize until this celebration was that he is also a gifted dancer! He got so many compliments from the audience. People were surprised to learn that ds was not in any formal dance school. I got a ton of advice and suggestions to get him into some formal dance classes. I have gotten offers for him to be in some such classes this fall. Wow! And he says he *loves* dancing. He wants to learn all sorts of dances. I was pretty impressed to see him dance:) I mean, I knew he is gifted in music like his sister, but I did not know about his ability to dance so well. He is a handsome geeky looking boy:). He got a lot of attention during this event, while he tried to keep away from it all. Ds does not do well with such attention at all:) Oh well, I learned that there are some hidden talents in my kids that are yet to be discovered. And I have this feeling that I am going to be learning quite a bit about it all in the years to come.

The other celebration we had at our home this week was Gokulashtami / Krishnajayanti / Janmashtami (Lord Krishna's birthday) celebrations. This is celebrated both in my in-laws' as well as in my parents' home in a grand manner. This is celebrated on different days by brahmins depending on the subsect (Iyers and Iyengars) they belong to. We follow the Iyengar traditions. I am no means religious, but we just love all the traditions, festivities and celebrations:)

This year celebrations were even more sweeter, as kids helped me with everything around the house from picking flowers for the puja, to helping me in the kitchen with savory and sweet preparations. Festivities were a big part of our childhood days back home. Considering that the Hindu calendar has festivities strewn all through the year it is not a big surprise. And it was a load of fun. Especially this part of the year all the festivity fun begins. Because one after another in the coming weeks, the festivals will begin with Lord Ganesha's birthday celebrations, (Vinayaka Chaturthi), followed by our big and much awaited celebrations of the year, Golu and then Diwali , all in matter of a few weeks in between each of the festivals; the kids just can't wait to celebrate it all:) In fact, Vinayaka Chaturthi is on Sunday, Aug 23rd, and it is my ds' most favorite festival.

During Krishnajayanthi, drawing the feet of baby Krishna free hand, from the entry of the home to the Pooja room, was always a fun affair. It is symbolic of Krishna walking into the home to where the puja takes place. Drawing the feet using the rice flour paste is not an easy task., especially on a shiny floor. While my mom was very good at it, we siblings used to bring in the neighbor's little toddler to walk as baby Krishna after soaking his feet with wet rice floor paste to get the perfect feet patterns :) Of course in my own home here in the US, my two children took turns of being little baby Krishna models for a while. This year, my ds was really looking forward to being the model for Krishna. Though he is no longer a baby, I let him walk the pattern much to his joy. Dad and son had so much fun making patterns all perfect (see pictures below). (Only after seeing the dried up feet patterns on the floor, I realized that my ds has really grown bigger and no longer can be the model from next year onwards:)) I may have to go back to drawing the patterns by hand:)

You see the dark floor in the picture? That is a granite called Emerald Pearl. I have it in my entry as well in my kitchen, as counters and on the back walls. It has beautiful gold flecks throughout the stone. Dh fell in love with the look of this granite called Blue Pearl in the hotel where we stayed during one of our visits to Norway. It was a such a gorgeous granite, with beautiful shiny silver flecks present through out the stone. And then we came to know that Emerald Pearl was the greener version of the same family of granite. We loved the granite so much that we decided to use both of these versions in our home when we remodeled. Little did I think about the kolams I wanted to draw in my entry when they laid these dark green shiny stone floor :) Though the floor is stunningly beautiful at all times, regular white dry powder kolams or color rangoli on them do not turn out as nice. But this year, I made a thicker rice flour paste to make the feet pattern appear a bit brighter. It is still bright even today:). I also made quite a few 'bakshanams' (Sanskrit for snacks) for our celebrations.

There are a few of the ds' pics below. During the puja, the kids sang a beautiful Krishna slokam much to my surprise. Apparently, their Carnatic vocal music teacher, ( I really hope she is reading this:)), who is a good friend of mine and a wonderful singer, taught them the song to surprise me and dh during the puja. It was heavenly to hear the kids sing it. Thanks to the wonderful and thoughtful 'paattu' teacher:)

Thenkuzhal (spicy savory) and pooja preparation photos

Though I used my mom's recipes for all my preparations, I have linked some fabulous recipe blogs with each of the items below. I hope you have fun browsing :)

The thenkuzhal press strainer patterns. The dough, when put in the tubular press
with one of these strainers, will make the pattern of the dough to be fried in the oil

Picture taken by my impatient ds, even before the dough was mixed fully :)

The press and strainer making the designs

Fried thenkuzhal

Feet patterns of ds.

The floor looks blue although it is dark green

Thirattu pal(milk based sweet), cashew biscuits, murukku, semiya payasam,
cheedai, ribbon pakodda, fruits and flowers for puja

Big and small Krishna idols.
Krishna is on the oonjal(swing). Though not a baby Krishna,
the kids wanted to display it.
It is definitely going to be placed in our golu this year:)

Books and videos:
Animated mythological videos about Krishna, Ganesha/Ganapathi, etc. can be seen here.
Some wonderful children's books on Krishna are here in Krishna.com.
For more choices check Indian Mythology as well as Indian comics