The justifiable hiatus?

First up my sincere apologies to all my readers for the perpetual vanishing act that I seemed to have mastered on this blog, what with the lack of updates. But at least for the last month I have a valid excuse. The whirlwind activity-packed trip to India of course! Of course there were a few sparse updates on MindBlogging that must've clued you in on that. But none further. However we just got back to Paris and I successfully snuck in an unwanted visitor back with me - Mr Flu!

With the flu having a hold on me it's been a disastrous 10-12 days of nose blowing, vapour inhalations, endless tablets, multivitamins, hot teas, samahans, kashayams, coughing, phlegm and all the gross components of the package. And the best part? There's no relief yet. I am indeed posting this blog smelling of a potent mix of Amrutanjan and Axe (potent to me but evidently not to the cold itself). BTW who knew that blowing your nose every few seconds could drain you of so much energy?

Be that as it may, there's so much to do back here in Paris! The PhD isn't going to finish itself, nor are the endless lines of abstracts, reports and experiments. Add to that cooking for yourself after a month's break of eating all the yummies in the world, it's like be transported back to mini-hell. On the other hand, it is Pillayar Chathurthi today! So lets ban all the negativities, look out to the brighter side of the grass, wish for good things and hope for the best for all!

Happy Birthday Ganesha!

The Ganesh pooja post-completion. 

 Ganesha up-close.

Happy Birthday Ganesha..

Happy Pillayar Chathurthi to everyone! Incidentally, it's Happy Birthday Chennai too! Yes, Madras/Chennai turns 370 years old today but I am not going to ramble about the city's statistics in this post. This post is just a synopsis of my festival-ridden vacation month here in Chennai. It never struck me when I was young that all these festivals occurred pretty close to one another or maybe I didn't care because of all the holidays we got starting with Varalakshmi Nombu, followed by Avani Avittam (which occurs in Aadi, by the way), Gokulashtami and culminated by Ganesh Chathurthi... It's only after growing up a bit (or maybe it has something to do with marriage) that I've realized that apparently Aadi (the tamil month corresponding to mid-July to mid-August and is probably called something else in each of your respective linguistics) is inauspicious for conducting any major "good" function like weddings or grahapraveshams or the likes of it. And because we Indians (read Tamilians if you will) are a well-renowned lot of foodies, Aadi got ridden with all these festivals during which the pious junta make all the goodies from kozhakkattais (modaks) to vadais to what not.. Ah yummy.. As they say, we only need an excuse to eat.. and devotion is as good as any other reason. If you can't go to weddings for a plateful of food, make it a festival to invoke your own devotion. Do the neiveidyam (the practice of offering the food to God first) during which you think you're pleasing the poor Gods (who obviously don't eat anything) and then feed yourself. Foodies rule! Happy Eating!

PS: This post is in jest and not meant to hurt anyone's religious sentiments.