Rain & Wind …house arrest says dad... Optimistic mom says time to enjoy leisure!

30th November 2010 :    

        The early day has been business as usual and it was good catching up with a friend over lunch. For past two days, I have not been pushing hard on Dad about his breakfast timings. Dad seems to be glad about this and continuing with his usual routine of having breakfast at 12.15pm .After trying to play certain videos in the afternoon, they still seem to have some more time.

Dad would have gone out for a walk and a ride to Elsternwick if the sky was clear. However, Sun seems to be on a long break. Hence, he could not go to Elsternwick .I tried sending some movie links thinking it will keep them busy. I called up in the afternoon when dad was showing mom on how to put the continuing parts of Gopuram videos on the Laptop. After a while, dad messaged me saying they were planning to go for a walk near by.

We reached home at 6.40pm in the evening. We asked dad...” how is it going?” he says, “It’s been a house arrest  ... Couldn’t go out on tram.” Well mom says …”I slept in the afternoon…why cannot you sleep in the afternoons as well…”After freshening up, Sravan placed our personal laptop in the front room. This laptop contains Van’s marriage pics. Talking to each other, we watched the photos and videos .At the same time I prepared dinner. Dinner was cooked by 9.30 pm and we ate by 10.15pm.

Although, we could sleep early but we chose to chit chat for a while. Slowly went to bed at 11.00 pm. Sravan had workshop the next day at 9.00 am …I am guessing he would not take bath tomorrow. We both slept tight …targeting  opposite …”Sravan to get up and leave early”…”Me ..nevermind …the bathroom wld be occupied..hence I can get up 5-10 mins later than Sravan”

Baby Spinach no more a baby … Mom says its purslane (Bachali) leaves !!!

 29th November 2010 :

   Both of us in Monday blues dragged ourselves to office after missing the 8.35 am train .It took us a while to catch up with the work. Well I was preparing for the workshop and as always, Sravan engaged himself in some or the other meeting. It was 12.30 that I finished my workshop and was relieved to see that half a day has passed by .I had another workshop post lunch for which I had to prepare. Though finished work at 5.30 pm, I kept blogging while I waited for Sravan. After few minutes, Sravan gave me a call asking if we could leave. I said I would meet him in 5 minutes. Heavily dealt in blogs, I started at 5.50 pm and saw Sravan talking to his friend.

We reached home close to 6.45pm …and logged in the system .We found Vandana online .Ever since mom n dad came here Vandana’s laptop microphone stopped working. Hence, we get to see Vandana responding to our interaction with expressions only. Though she tried hard but each one of us, the other side interpreted in four different ways and she had to end up typing what she meant. After trying to troubleshoot her system for quite a sometime, we said lets talk over the phone. Well we continued watching Vandana over webcam but spoke over phone. Busy with her daily activities, she could hardly speak to us for couple of minutes saying she had to go to complex to buy some vegetables. Mom and Dad thinking who else to talk to … Van is busy and so is Keerthan. Mom wanted to talk to Rajani attaya to enquire about Shilpa’s vodibiyam function. However, this thought of her lead to a garam discussion between dad and mom. Diverting that topic, we tried to play uttaran which according mom is hardly played by dad in the mornings …: P

In order to make complete use of 1 kg baby Spinach, we thought we would make Aloo Palak. With the leaves big enough, mom disagreed to the fact that this is Baby Spinach. According to her, they were Bachali Kura. Irrespective of difference in views, we decided to prepare aloo and greens. Withstanding everyone’s direction of “Not to prepare Rotis’, I started kneading the roti dough. Mom continued to knead further to make the dough supple. Sravan and I continued preparing rotis. It was 10 pm; everything was set for dinner .By 10.30pm we finished our dinner.

We had a catch-up with one of our friends at lunch the next day, hence we need not worry about lunch box. By Now, Monday blues seem to have vanished and we were back on the roller coaster ride .This means we should fall asleep at the earliest to avoid being late to office the next day. Hoping we will have Tuesday green after eating so much greens at dinner we drowned into the ocean of sleep.

Do you care if it rains today …?

28^th November 2010 :

It seemed to be as early as 6 am and there was no sun light when I saw through the window. Getting back to sleep my eyes rolled on to the clock ticking 9.15 am. I said to thyself “Why can’t you take a Sunday break … you monster”.

The next thing brain alarmed …” huh... Should get up otherwise it would get late for Costco.” Unaware of all these triggers , Sravan was diving deep and deep into his dreams when he heard the most irritating voice on the earth .That was me saying “Sravan lets get up we need to go to Costco , it would get late “.He was like “hmmm…paanch minute …hmm”. Me waiting for a external force to get up couldn’t convince Sravan to get up .Slowly after few minutes Sravan says “hey is it 9.30 am already ...?” … Denying the authenticity of the ever awake clock, I said  ...” well that is what the clock shows”. We watched dad slowly walking into the living area from his bedroom. Well dad must have thought within “let the bacche sleep, they must be tired “.Breaking his thought was my greeting “Good Morning Pitashree  ...” Hard to hear was his response back to us “Go.. od.. Mor.. nin.. g”

Now that everyone was awake, there was a demanding traffic situation at the rest room. However, each one of us kept ourselves busy with certain activities to minimise traffic. We decided to have early lunch than having breakfast, as the diet was not proper the previous day. It was quite a challenging task to decide on the recipe, as there were many vegetables available at home. I had to prepare lunch as early as possible , hence decided to make Tomato rice .While I busy preparing tomato rice I asked Sravan to prepare Salad .Mom and Dad have lately started having considerable quantities of salad in their diet. Therefore, we had cucumber, Lettuce, and avocado for Salad. We realised there was lots of Salad and little rice left even after servicing appropriate amounts. All three most proactively said; “well we are done for lunch.” Left with no other choice but propose a deal .I said “well Sravan you have 2 choices, either have all the Salad or the rice  ... I said you could opt for the lesser quantity of rice and I will have Salad.” After stressing his brain for a while, he says, “I would prefer rice than salad.”

While we were figuring out driving routes to Costco, Mom & Dad were separating the stalks of the greens we bought from Dandenong market the previous day. We wanted to avoid the King’s way confusion hence figured out a route from

Burke Street

to

Bakers Rd

then to Dudley and straight to Costco. We could see through the window the Trees swinging in the wind .We asked mom to wear chudidar and dad denim, as this will guard them from wind to some extent. Dad initially was not very excited to wear denim, thinking he can manage without it. He happened to go to the balcony to take the towel, which is when he realised how pinching cold is the wind. Immediately he dressed into Denim and a Roger David Jacket...: P .With the intent of going to Iskcon and capturing lots of photographs, mom resisted to wear chudidar .We convinced her to wear chudidar saying …”With this cold wind, we shall not go to Iskcon …Also Costco is not a place to take photographs .“ Well she wore chudidar and a sweater, but she would not wear the jacket. We carried her jacket in car, just as a back up.

We had to clean the car a little after which we got into the car. Sravan hardly drove for 5 minutes that it started raining and the car was warmer than outside. The windshield of the car was fogy and we had to do something as we were in the middle of the road. We tried to put on the AC it dint work; we tried to turn on the heater it does not seem to be working. Finally, we pulled down the window glasses to let the cold wind enter and this time it worked. We reached Costco and as usual, it was hard to find parking. We saw a car coming out of the parking slot. Although not sure, if we will be successful in parking our car in that slot, we waited .Once the other car vacated the slot, we aimed at parking. Sravan did a good job and soon car was perfectly placed in the slot. We took the Costco trolley and waited near the jumbo lift as mom wanted to avoid the wind while walking through the front. We just had 1.5 hrs before the shop closes and we had to show everything there. Slowly we kept walking across the aisles when I wanted to capture photographs. I could not capture single snap of mom as she kept hiding herself behind dad or sravan. Just because she was in chudidar, she did not want any photographs of her.

After shopping for a while, we sat for five mins in the dining area. We found out a simple way to Iskcon and we headed towards ISKCON. We reached there at 6 pm .By the time we could figure out a car park; mom & dad had already entered the temple. We parked the car and went inside the temple. It seemed to have usual strength of people .We enjoyed the prasadam and Kirtan there .Mom participated in gopika dance while kirtan was full on. We started at 8pm to head back home and we reached home at 8.30 or so. It took us close to half an hour to arrange all the groceries we got from Costco.Next day being Monday all of us ensured we sleep early.

Not very inclined to go to work the next day, we thought within  ...” Can this Sunday be tomorrow as well…”.Not left with any more options or excuses we surrendered ourselves to the goddess of sleep .

No weekend away... where should we go with the hired Car?

 27th November 2010

    With no plan on how to utilise the car, we got up in the morning. Unable to decide on whether to go to Mt Dandenong or to Costco we kept our morning activities on the go. Since it was cloudy and raining, we were not very sure if we should drive too far. However, Sravan was confident that he could beat the rain with his driving skills. This is when mom’s ultimate hidden prayers came into action, we decided we would go to the Dandenong Market and then to the Dandenong temple. Since we had to go to temple mom made sure, she wears washed sari and so did dad.

I started preparing Vermicelli upma, which I thought would be a solid breakfast as we were not sure if the lunch would be proper. Meanwhile three of them had to shower and get ready. We targeted to start as early as possible which often becomes as comfortable as possible. Mom and Sravan started their break fast while dad started his pooja. It was my turn to shower for sure and there was no chance of escape coz we had to go to temple. Well dad wanted to finish his breakfast before I join him. Unnoticed he took the paper plate and put some vermicelli .He started gulping it as fast as possible before I approached the table. I reached near the table and started helping myself with the vermicelli. I noticed dad had put very less break fast and the next statement was “Dad  ... have some more”. In addition, I put the vermicelli in his plate too … he says “I wanted to finish my break fast before you come  ... I knew this would happen”…: P: P

Though we borrowed the gps from one of our friends , we checked Google maps as we had gotten used to gmaps .It is very well said that Google is world’s most user thoughtful company. Highly comfortable with Google maps iphone application we started from home towards Dandenong Market.Sravan seemed to be comfortable on the

Princes Highway

drove smoothly and we reached Dandenong market at 1.30 pm .We could not find parking for a while as all the spaces were filled. We never imagined such a crowd in such a bad weather. However, we managed to get a place that was quite a cakewalk for Sravan to park there.

We had never been to this market; it seemed to be twice the Victoria market. Soon after we entered the market, we heard the thunderstorms and it was pouring. Not so worried about the heavy rain we continued purchasing groceries. We found certain vegetables and fruits, which are close to extinct in Melbourne such as guava, ponaganti Kura etc.We ensured coverage than quantity and made sure we bought almost everything. Our trolley was overloaded, making sure it would not burst we held some bags in our hands. After walking for 1.5 hrs we said to each other “I think we are done now “.Then we went to the seating area were hardly 2 seats were vacant with a small table to hold two places and two glasses. We asked mom n dad to sit there, meanwhile I tried to get donuts for them. Mom ate these and said “everything here is sweet  ... So sweet …hardly any salted “.She had enough of sweet and she couldn’t each more than one small donut filled with jam…J Well me never interested in jam donut tried to eat and could not accept dad’s generosity of giving me another Donut.Finally, dad and sravan were the fall guys of sweetness ..:)

It was close to 3.15 pm, we thought we should start now .It was still raining and we had to walk for at least 5 minutes to the Car park. We asked dad and mom to walk slowly with the umbrella and we said we would rush towards the car. Moment after that dad says …”Lets all four of us share this umbrella”…We thought, well we agree umbrella is a big... but not so big to fit 4 people and a trolley....We set ourselves for a walk and reached near car ….not sure if everything would fit inside the rear of the car we started settling everything. To our surprise everything was well fit .It was time to seek favour from iphone, we checked the route to Dandenong temple .We saw it would take only 13 minutes to reach there. It was just 3.20 pm and the temple opens at 4.05 pm, what would we do reaching early there…? Thinking what great we would do at Dandenong Market when market closes at 3.00 on Saturdays, we set ourselves to Dandenong temple .We reached there in 25 mins and we were there 25 mins prior to the opening. We thought we would go to Vel Spices.

Sravan and mom had decided to skip their lunch as they had planned for the temple’s canteen food. Hence, we did not stop by Vel spices. However, I thought we should have something to survive until 5.05 pm when canteen opens .Not left with any other option but agree to me, everyone agreed to share two plates .We went back to Vel spices and had our semi lunch/snacks. It was 3.55 pm when we reached temple premises and it was still raining. I went inside through the side door to check if it is ok to enter the temple before the main doors open. I stayed inside the temple that was indicative enough that it is fine to be inside, when mom & dad as well as Sravan washed their feet and entered the Temple. Mom thanked god for the second visit to this temple and she prayed that she should be visiting this temple the third time as well in this trip. We had plenty of time for the canteen opening; hence, we gave mom the complete liberty of her paying visit to every idol inside the temple. Mom and Dad finished their pradakshina’s when mom asked us “Thirtham teeskunnara , shivudu degira , venkateshwarudu degira ?”. We went to take holy water along with mom and made sure we had prasadam .We sat there couple of minutes and it was 5.05 pm already. We came out of the temple and walked towards the temple. We noticed that poor peacock’s feathers have been removed .We felt how one could ever remove such a beautiful thing from the poor creature.

Well we went inside the canteen and found a place to sit. We ordered 3 plates of Vada and a coffee for us except mom. Mom opted for her favourite Masala dosa and she wanted coffee after a while. Thinking that each plate of vada will contain single vada we waited for the order .Our stomachs were filled after seeing 2 vadas a plate are being served. They were quite tasteful and enjoyed them. Dad also had a sip of coffee and said “coffee is really good “and so did I .I forced Sravan to taste the coffee and he loved that too. Well 2 cups of coffee shared among two is not really my type. I asked for another cup, when sravan stopped me from buying and said, “Your stomach would be upset.” Well ….dad said, “The coffee is really good and you would miss such one later in Melbourne…if you want to please go ahead and take “… Now I had a supporting vote that helped me persuading Sravan. Finally, I managed to get a cup of coffee. I enjoyed my coffee while rest three were busy packing up for the travel back.

Sravan wanted to drive more and said, “We should also cover Sai Baba temple at Camberwell. “ Well his rationale being, if we have to take mom & dad later without car there would be walking and tram involved. We all agreed to it and we started towards Camberwell temple from Dandenong. Thanks a ton to iphone, which is reliable in showing us directions.The clock, struck 7pm when we reached near the temple. We searched parking slots, but all the slots were for Permit Holders .We decided to leave mom & dad near the temple and hunt for parking. We managed to seek a parking across the

Toorak Rd

near a house. Making sure we are not blocking the entrance of that house, we parked our car. It was continuous drizzling and we walked towards the temple. This temple was quite pleasant and relaxing place to be .Once upon a time this temple was a church. Mom made sure I captured every idol there. We sat there for couple of minutes and headed back to our car.

We reached home close to 9.00 pm and it was still raining. There was a unanimous decision of fruit diet on that night. Sravan played the online movie “Chak De” which mom & dad had already seen. Last week we had gone for lunch when he watched part of this movie at Delhi rocks while eating. It must have kept ringing in his brain and I knew one fine day Sravan would play that movie, which is peculiar of Sravan…J Meanwhile I started collating stuff for dinner. So our dinner was small quantities of mixture, kaju katli, piece of guava, left over vermicelli, nectarine…well dad saw this and said was this supposed to be a fruit diet.. :) We had fun watching the movie, it finished at 11.30 pm. The next day being a Sunday, we were super relieved, aimed to get up late, and we went to sleep. While going to sleep we started planning for the next day’s trip …and the planning went on in our dreams .Early morning at 9.30 am I got up and said “Sravan lets et up we need to go to Costco , it would get late “

You are on a holiday break ..you should Relax, Enjoy and be happy!

25th November 2010 

Prior to the arrival of mom & dad, both of us used to have regular discussions on their stay here. Both of us shared a common thought that this is the perfect opportunity to provide them a relaxing and reviving break from the social obligations, pollution, population, physical and the mental strain undergoing back home in India. Never in their life did they go for such a break, when they would forget about everything but being happy and relaxed.

The day they arrived, we tried to explain them the objective of this trip .Sravan gave the caption to the break of 3 months as “EAT, PRAY, & LOVE.” Mom seems to have started resonating to this frequency .Soon we realised dad is still tuned to the high frequencies of financial worries, mental stress and slowly started to influence mom to come out of her resonation.

Dad seemed to be worried that dollar amount is so very high and that each and every thing here is very costly in rupees .Also worried by the fact that there is nothing much to do here in terms of physical strain , when most of the activities are automated. The most important aspect of dad’s worry being mom tuned to not doing work and relaxing.

Somehow both us convinced dad and mom to relax and enjoy their break. To keep themselves busy during the day, the couple keeps doing some intentionally created work or some dusting activities. I guess this is the only time when things at home get the privilege of being utilised optimally, which they seldom are. Mom has been enjoying sweeping with the Chinese broom that resembles an Indian one. Mom says we might have to buy a new one after they travel back b’coz by then the broom would be dead.

After return from work, we tried playing Sri Krishna Tula Bharam online. However, it played for minutes after which mega video displays “You have watched video 72 minutes, please wait for 54 minutes more to continue watching.” After a tiring and time-consuming search we realised there is no fun on relying movie sites to watch them online. Hence, we decided to put on a DVD, which we borrowed from our friend “The Mouse Hunt.” It was quite a fun and cute movie to watch. While I was busy cooking Veg Noodles and Bhagara rice people were busy laughing at the funny scenes of the movie. Everyone excited with the news of forced leave policy at Amdocs, started convincing Keerthan to plan for holidays .We asked him to come over so all of us can spend time here. Mom started asking Keerthan if she should pray for the leave approval… and Keerthan says pray for onsite. Well with his no, mom started planning for a trip to Oneness University along with Keerthan after return from Australia.

Well it was 10.30 pm when the movie finished after which we had to eat dinner .Mom tasted my noodles and says its very tasty and this is the first time she is having such noodles with veges.Dad says “excellent, marvellous”...by the way this might be the resultant of Sravan’s tip. On the second day, Sravan enlightened dad & mom with a tip... He says “Whenever you eat Poonam’s cooking don’t forget to say wah wah  ... wah wah wah…otherwise you wouldn’t see any cooking from that moment onwards”

After the cleanup activities, it was time to straighten our back. It was 11.15 pm …when realised I still had one activity to do … i.e. drinking my ayurvedic medicine. Wishing if Sravan could mix that in water for me , I asked sravan…”Life mein sirf ek hi favour kar saktein ho kya … “…he grinned at me and said “kya bolo”.. I said “sirf ek favour …” in a low tone “aaj ke liye .. is pal ke liye” … “mere liye who medicine paani mein mila doge kya …plzzzzzzzz”… he says “theek hain”.This is the best part of Sravan… whenever I am tired so much so that I cannot even sleep .. He does me such favours at the 11^th hour. I love him for that ….

I made sure Sravan gives iphone to dad to watch Oneness TV on you tube at night before he goes to sleep. Otherwise, Sravan would kill his lovely hours of sleep watching stupid interviews of film actors…Finally we went to sleep, and then the next thing I see is the day light striking my eyelids pursuing me to get up. In sleep, I told them …”Hey … the alarm hasn’t rung yet …so let me sleep “

Heaven anticipating quake very soon ….with these skyscrapers

24th November 2010-Photos : Eureka Skydeck , Southbank

With these builders or billionaires investing in skyscrapers, poor heavenly entities are getting worried if these buildings one day would touch heaven soon….Even though its was just 88 floors in Eureka Sky deck , it felt as though we were well raised above the earthly matters. I am sure our next generations will see 2000 storey building.

 The onset of the journey began with dad & mom reaching Glenhuntly station. Dad in his own sophisticated way guided mom to board the train unaware of the fact that mom by now has got used to boarding trains and noticing train stations..:P

For the first time on Melbourne trains on their own, with a little worry I had called them when dad said they reached Toorak. I said wow you reached Toorak, you are close to city. It was 5.10pm or so when I had to work for another 20-mins.I could not start a new task and neither did I have mood to continue existing task. At parallel Sravan was busy amusing himself with his entertaining work related discussions with his mates.

We thought of meeting dad at Southern Cross Station however the train reached Flinders Street first. We had to take the tram and do some walking in order to meet mom & dad. Meanwhile dad started his photography, tried to capture Flinders Station, busy Swanston Street, Federation Square, the heritage cathedral, and nevertheless captured mom sitting at the corner of busy streets Flinders and Swanston. We caught up with them at that junction and showed them near by landmarks. As Melbourne city is renowned for its diverse cusines, restraunts & cafes, we wanted to introduce at least one of the diversity factors to them. We took them to the “Lindt” shop, which is located at Collins street.Its in a heritage building with a beautiful ambience. Dad took a photograph of a beautifully decorated entrance of this store. After we had a initial look at the products there, mom was delighted to see chocolates in rabbits, umbrella etc shapes also the Christmas tree decorated with huge lindt chocolate balls. Mom and I queued up at the place where it read “Please queue up here for dine in.” We were made to sit at a table with the menu book. We ordered “Hot Chocolate (milk) x 2”,”Strawberry dipping chocolate “and 4 lindt delices.Mom says “Hot chocolate tastes like bournvita …but its quite good “.Both of them liked everything and enjoyed to the maximum. Mom made sure the camera captures everything about the store.

After a relaxing time at Lindt, we went for a walk towards the Southbank near Yarra River. This walk is enchanting when its evening while sun hides in the sky .At night this river looks as though it has been accessorised with the lit lights. Though it was not dark, still the river and cbd view made the place picturesque. We took multiple photographs until the camera detected that it needs flash to capture moments as real ones. Since it was nearing Twilight, we reached Eureka Sky deck. This is Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform. As soon we bought ticket, we entered the building that took us to 6-metre multi-user interactive 'Serendipity Table' that explores the stories and history of Melbourne. We spent close to 10 minutes here. It appeared quite interesting to all of us and it was fun to operate that.

We told mom that we would have to go to 88^th floor to watch the city. The next statement says, I cannot climb stairs... :)Then we got into the lift, which was supposed to take us to 88^th floor within seconds. Assuming this will be as fast as flight, we though we will experience the same. We were amazed with the smoothness and swiftness of the lift and within the seconds, we were on 88^th floor. Initially we were at a place that was like being in a apartment with transparent walls. The views were amazing; we could see the sea at the border of the city. Slowly it was getting darker and darker, the whole city looked brighter and brighter .We moved to another side of the building where in it was like a balcony with wired mesh. The moderately cold wind was blowing and we could see a clear sky and the well-lit city. There were fixed binoculars, which mom and dad looked through. Amazed by the serenity, technological advancement, arrangements mom and dad were busy watching outside. We showed dad the Melbourne videos playing on the LCDs there.The videos mentioned about diversity and passion in Melbourne. It was close to 9.30 pm when we were down to earth outside the building thinking how small all these other buildings, cars and people looked from top.

Well it was night, we have not thought about dinner yet. We decided to go to the restaurant near Flinders station. Flora is the only south Indian restaurant that a first time traveller visits first in the city. We ordered 2 x dosa meals and masala dosa with the intent of a couple sharing 1dosa meal and dosa.Mom enjoyed the dosa and so did dad. A usual I was full but tried to accommodate my share in my stomach. On top of this dad’s constant effort of putting his share on our plates bloated our stomach. We had tough time pursuing dad to finish his share of dinner. We boarded a train of 10.46 pm and reached home at 11.20pm .Although everyone was tired of the walk and it was time to sleep, we sat for 20 mins to watch the photographs taken today. It was 12 midnight when our house was at stand still, with everyone sleeping tight as if not slept for days together.

First Day to work after 4 days of break with Mom & Dad

22 Nov 2010
The first day to work after 4 days of break . 4 days with mom & dad almost felt like being in India . It was 10.30 pm on Sunday when we had a nostalgic feeling about next day to work....felt wish we were on a longer break with mom & dad.
We made sure we keep our morning activities are close to silent to avoid mom dad getting awake.However, mom could feel the sun on sky even though the window blinds were on.mom got up and slowly dad as well. Till the day before they Were well asleep even after the sun said good morning ... Reason could be sun was playing hide n seek with clouds.Sravan was busy explaining mom on how to operate the microwave oven for warming up the food .as we know mom picks up things fast she immediately Heated the water for dad.
Dad worried about the quantity of oats we were leaving behind for them. At the same time happy within that his daughter in law would go to work n not b there to force him to eat this eat that....:)

We were targeting the 8.20 am train which we could not dare to when we saw the clock ticking 8.16... 4 minutes to rush to station which was close to impossible .Hence we started aiming for 8.35 am train to city , we were there at station dot 8.32 am and there was a small notice board which read "the 8.35 am train would not run today and there would be a express train at 8.39 am" .Thinking an express train would take us faster than the usual one we waited for 8.39 am train.The train as expected was overly crowded , another resemblance to Indian public transport.Eventually we reached the station at usual time and we had to rush to office.
Few minutes after reaching office i gave a ring to mom .I heard that they are back to their old routine of having breakfast at 11.30 am .At office Sravan kept himself busy with intentionally setting up new meetings and attending the not so important meetings.Not motivated though , i kept myself with the work i had.
When we called up in the evening , dad said he wanted to go for a walk.It was time to leave office and we had to rush to the Body Shop before it closes (6.00 pm).We managed to reach there at 5 minutes to 6pm.After moisturising our hands with several testers we finally decided to buy "Japanese Cherry Blossom body butter".We also had plans to buy Tea Tree cream  and dad's knee cap from pharmacy .Hence, we walked towards Elizabeth street pharmacy to check , we couldn't find the knee cap which could fit dad's knee.
We boarded a train from flinders street , we caught up with dad on the Glenhuntly road.It was 7pm when we reached home.After having snacks , sinner preparation was on.Meanwhile , Sravan was enjoying watching Uttaran along with mom while dad was watching "Break ke baad" movie trailer on iphone.We tried hard to voice chat with Vandana but we were unable to hear her voice.But we were able to see her in video chat.Sravan's dialogue at this point "Ink em Mata , Autralia lo undi nee kuturu chustunava kada ".Mom's response "hau mari..ikkade chustuna, india unte chusedi kadu,nana peted ledu"..:P.. We also tried to talk to Keerthan .. with mom asking questions and keerthan typing in chat...after 5 mins or so Keerthan had to go with his fren for some work .This gave Sravan a reviving chance to get back to Uttaran.
After dinner and small chit chat we all went to sleep at 11.40 pm.

Nov 19th 2010 - ISKCON & VICTORIA MARKET

19th Nov 2010 :

Photos : Nov 19th 2010 - ISKCON & VICTORIA MARKET

Day 2 of the Melbourne Trip.This day was little sunny hence took dad and mom outside.We started at 12.30 pm ,missed a train then took the tram to city. We went for lunch at Red Pepper on Bourke Street.Mom & Dad liked the Aloo Naan ,Saag & Tandoori Roti. We left to victoria market around 3.30pm.Bought some vegetables and showed them the market.There were not many as it was a closing time. After which we walked till flag staff gardens and spent some time there. We headed off to ISKCON and attended evening prayers .We also enjoyed the Prasadam. Overall Mom & Dad enjoyed their first day out in Melbourne though the wind was chilly with sun out on the sky.

The very next day of arrival - Is this called summer???

18th Nov 2010 :
Photos :Mom & Dad wedding anniversary cake
As it was cold and windy in Melbourne this day, mom & dad experienced a glance of Melbourne winter.They werenot very active as they felt it was too cold. However in the evening after they took bath they felt good . We watched some wedding cds,spoke to india etc.
Since Nov 16th is mom & dad's marriage anniversary , we had a small cake cutting ceremony.The cake was full of cherries and dry fruits which quite filling.

Guess what dad was busy converting the costs in dollar to rupees...:)
Dad kept resisting to whatever we offered to eat.."saying we cannot eat so much as we are not as young as you are"
Dad & Mom must have thought if this is summer then how worst would the winter's cold be.
Thank god we got them in summer.I guess mom was praying for a bright sun the next day.

Puffing Billy - November 20th 2010

Puffing Billy Photos :Puffing Billy with Mom & Dad
By now Mom's prayers were fully answered and sun's rays rushed into our house .Mom and Dad full of energy with the bright day started getting ready for the trip .Mom & Dad by now got used to using Metcards/MyKi for public transport.Also excited with the train facilities , we headed towards Richmond from where we headed off to Ringwood .Then to Belgrave,we reached Belgrave at 1.00 pm .From belgrave we had to board a puffing billy train at 2.30 pm,hence we had plenty of time.Dad & Mom like the puffing billy train journey,the greenery and the houses. We reached lakeside where we took plenty of pictures. Mom and Dad enjoyed this day with full energy... thanks to thermal flask , which kept the homemade Tea warm which we drank while returning. Mom wants me to give her list of places we are visiting along with dates , as she wants to narrate these to her frens n relatives.

The day Mom & Dad arrived Melbourne -17th Nov 2010

The day Mom & Dad arrived Melbourne -17^th Nov 2010: We reached airport at 8pm for the scheduled flight arrival of 8.35pm.Both of us were excited to receive mom & dad from airport, however our excitement led to impatience when saw the flight has been delayed by 1 hour. We kept on watching the clock & crowd .We noticed that there were 8 flights arriving at the same time. Slowly we saw the clock ticking 9 pm and our anxiety levels raised watching the flight arrival timing changed to 9.05 .Five past nine in the night the flight status changed to landed and we were like “Finally”. Assuming mom n dad would take their own sweet time to come to baggage collection area we held ourselves back from calling. After 20 mins or so, we gave a ring and for a surprise dad’s ever green “TATA DOCOMO” rang. We heard from them that they are still at luggage carousel. Finally, after a long wait mom n dad came out .We saw that mom has tied her old and favourite scarf, which she had worn while Sravan was born. Both of them not tired of journey but wait had caught cold due to the flight AC. We took mom & dad to Villa Hut to have HOT Indian Chai Latté. We ordered 2 Indian spicy chai latte extra hot and a macadamia cookie. Mom expected chai to be served in the small glass as in Indian hotels but to her surprise they were give in coffee Glasses which was too much to drink .Hence we had to share that. They felt a little de-strained after that hot chai.We headed off to our home in a taxi, reached home close to 11.30 pm. With all the home remedies to fight the Melbourne cold , mom and dad went to sleep at 1 am after dinner and a small chat.

November 21st 2010 - Karthick Poornima in Melbourne

Photos :MelbourneTripNov2010KarthickPoornima
This day being Karthick poornima, we wanted to take mom & dad to Dandenong Shiva Vishnu Temple in the morning as the temple closes at 12.00 noon.The earliest we could start was 10.17 am, we reached Glenhuntly station. Very soon we realised the train towards Frankston has been delayed. We knew if we take this train, by the time we reach temple we would see the temple doors closed, as the journey time including wait time for connecting trains or buses is 2 hours &15 mins.Hence, we decided to go to Gurudwara at Blackburn, as it was Guru Nanak Sahib’s janmotsav .We reached there at 12.15 noon or so. It was quite good there; mom finished her usual pradakshina’s there as well... :).The Langar was awesome and we headed off to the bus stop. To our luck, there was a direct bus from Blackburn to Dandenong temple with a journey time of 1.30 mins.We took mom n dad to a big Indian groceries shop (VEL SPICES) which is in the walking route to Temple from bus stop.Mom wanted a snap of hers at the Pooja Mandap made of wood at the store. We were showing them the rates of each & every decorative artefact brought from India. They were quite surprised to see that the prices were four times of the Indian rates …: P.We took tea at that shop; mom liked the tea there and said she felt refreshed after drinking that. By the way mom n dad fall asleep in buses/trains/trams within minutes of boarding the transport ...: P.We walked to temple…it was 4.15 pm when mom’s favourite Ganesha appeared at the entrance of the temple. She performed her pradakshinas after which we entered main temple. Mom and Dad were happy to see the Shiva abhishekam.Dad says, “Never in his dream had he thought he would see Shiva abhishekam during Karthik Masam in Melbourne Australia.”Somehow, we managed to get Mom outside the temple, as we had to head back home. The bus frequency is dropped as it gets later in the evening. Eventually we boarded the bus, then train, then bus, then train, then bus again…. The last bus that we took goes to our place, but we missed that stop .Got off at the next stop. We walked five mins more, but this helped to show mom n dad the park (which we did not know there was such a park in our colony).Dad was impressed with the colony. Finally, we reached home at 8.08 pm.