The Spicy Indian Blog

After staying on for another four unscheduled days in the US, I returned back to Bangalore for good. This homeward migration of mine occurred 3 years and 5 days after I had taken off for San Francisco. Mentally, I was boarding the train back where I had disembarked. People, Places, and the Times, however, had moved far off in the meantime. So, every moment was a surprise of some sort; whether because of the humungous rise in prices, or the developments in the places that I had known, or the metamorphic transformation of the company I worked at, or the changes in the lives of people around me. Every moment implied recalibrating my understanding of things. That still goes on. Wish there was a simple F5 to life. It will still be some time, though, before it reveals to me how relevent I and my accruals over the last few years stand in the context of today here.

Today, the 1st of Jan 2009 is Shubham's First Birthday...! Here's his First Birthday Cake : The Cake is Two-Themed : Mickey and His Gang Plus Nemo And his Friend !!! Got custom made at the HyVee SuperMarket here in Rochester...! Ain't it cool? A Wonderful Cake For A Precious Boy...! Kulkarnyancha Diva aaj Ek Varshacha jhaala. Celebrate !!! We are already off to a Party!!!

There would surely be some relief for me that I would not be in the Midwest for the worst part of this year's winter...! I have had more than my share of the cold last year. This area gives new dimensions to the word FRIGID. This part of the world could be a candidate for the place where the phrase '...and the hell freezes over' was coined... Fingers turn into popsicles before you can even say 'freeze'... :-(... You see, with temperatures feeling like minus 38 degrees celcius, if we come to India to a temperature of 30 degrees, that entails a temperature jump of nearly 60-70 degrees. Interesting, eh... This is just the beginning. Aage aage dekhiye hota hai kya...!

Shubham got his first haircut today the 2nd of Dec 2008. This was nearly 11 months after his birth. We went to the Supercuts in the Marketplace Dr. It lies in the same complex near Panera Bread and Chipotle. I guess Papa would remember that. He has been to the complex a few times. The lady performing the haircut did it niftyly. So the experience was good and not at all tiresome. Shubham was a bit uncomfortable when she attempted to cut the hair near his ears. But otherwise, but Mugdha and I were talking to him all the while, and he was ok. After the haircut, he looks a bit grownup now. This prompted me to change my way of talking to him and the way I look at him with mind's eyes. His first locks, as per the family tradition, need to be deposited in a river. We chose the Mississippi, no less. The next time I travel to La Crosse, I would stop by the beautiful Rest Area (the first one on the Minnesota side while returning from La Crosse). The Mississippi is usually frozen at this time...

They say a Picture is worth a Thousand words.  So this article would be worth atleast 6-7000 words. Let's see if they convey what I had to convey about the landscape when I was clicking these.

Last Saturday, I ventured to do something I had stopped doing for quite some time.  Open an hitherto unopened window.  And then enjoy the new vista. I attended a concert in Western Classical Music at the Mayo Civic Center Theater in Rochester. It was a concert featuring Beethoven's Fifth symphony, the beginning of which has  been used for great effect in many a dramatic situations. I began listening to western classicals more intently during my long to and fro drives to La Crosse. Listening to the Minnesota Public Radio became a habit. My ear became accustomed to the concertos and symphonies played on throughout.  In fact so much that my first instincts after sitting in the car, apart from confirming the position of the rearview mirror, were to confirm I was on FM 91.7 . This is not to say that I understood the technicalities at all, but simply that I used to like listening to these classical strains.  I recently got a 'Classical Music For Dummies' audiobookfrom the Public ...

On the 16th of April, we crossed the milestone we had planned for so intricately over the last year. This effort towards this goal was probably driven by the same parental instinct which motivates you to try and have the best for your kids. At least, to the maximum extent possible, have the best options available for them to select from. We recieved Shubham's passport, a US one, this day. Shubham is now a US national, born to Indian parents, who wish to remain Indian yet themselves. I guess I am part of that expanding tribe of some of the Indians, which wants their progeny to be US citizens, but shy away from that commitment for themselves. At the end of the day, this tribe is happy to go back to their motherland, for whatever it holds in store for them. Yeah. Sure. But this blogticle is about Shubham's US passport and his US citizenship. It would be the first time in the Kulkarni clan, or in related families, that anybody would have his motherland and nationality different ...