By now you all must have realized that posts come from me in bunches.
So, here is the story about Rudrabhishekam and our 10th anniversary party. Unfortunately, every one was so busy, no one manned the camera, so there are pictures only of the pooja and none of the party afterwards.
The day before the pooja was set aside for preparations, including gathering all pooja dravyams, packing the prasadam bags with packets of dry fruit prasadam, kumkum and turmeric, gift-wrapping the "goodies" for the kids ( I bought about 40 Amar Chitra Katha books about Indian mythology, warriors, freedom fighters etc, one for each kid ) and of course, spending the night playing some poker :-)
The morning started with SSV driving to the temple to pick up the poojari, Sunil and sudha helping in prasadam making, and Neelima and Srinivas dealing with Srinand and Aditya....
Per strict instructions from the poojari, Srinvias, as the "Gruha Yajamani" would perform the abhishekam and would not be allowed to getup during the entire 4+ hour process. Both of us would do the Mahanyasam in the beginning, but I was permitted to leave in the middle of the abhishekham to attend to other needs. So, Srinivas came in wearing his comfortable silk kurta and pajama, prepared for his gruelling pooja session.
Of course, he could not get away that easy. "This is shiva pooja. Absolutely NO SHIRT. And a pancha is a MUST. Go change, go change." So poor Srinivas, struggling with the silk dhoti and pattu utariyam came downstairs and the pooja started.
You can see some pictures of the pooja here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ksingampalli/Rudrabhishekam#A few friends joined us partway into the pooja, including our cook, who is a muslim and our colleagues who are Christians. Sudha sat with them, explaining the pooja and why we are doing it. The kids were fascinated.
Soon, the pooja wrapped up, and the poojari left after blessing all the attendees.
More guests arrived during this time, and while the kids got busy with the giant jumper / slide combo, the adults had leisurely conversations over guggillu (made by our cook) and sodas, with their respective groups: The current/ex Oraclites, SV University; Toledo; Actel; Rainmaker; Berkeley group and neighbors groups :-)
We had a celebratory lunch afterwards with about 70+ people. The food was excellent. We ordered a very telugu bhojanam from a local Andhra restaurant. The owner was impressed by the pictures of our Bhogi celebration with ariselu and aritaku bhojanalu ( he is also my colleague at Rainmaker) , and pulled all the stops to deliver the food and experience.
The lunch menu consisted of : Pulihora, Daddojanam, Pongali, Vadalu, Potato Kura, Chapati, Vankaya kura, Beerakaya Kura, Pachadi, Annam, Sambar, Appadalu and Mysore Pak. We wrapped up the meal with tea and tamboolam.
It was a welcome break for all attendees from the usual party menu of biryani, naan, paneer, kormas, kheer and gulabjamoon and was much appreciated by the attendees.
The ceremonies concluded with a Mangala Harati from Sudha , kumkum/tamboolam/prasadam for adults and book gifts for kids.
It was a nice and different event from the usual gatherings and everyone enjoyed it immensely. And it was a great experience doing it at home, rather than in a function hall outside. And it would not have been possible without the help of SSV, Sudha, our friends Sunil & Neelima and our cook Nabeela and her daughters.
Of course, my house is yet to recover from the event, as I am still putting away stuff from that pooja, and Srinvias made me promise no repeats for another decade.
We had a great day in nandyala. We went to mahanandi.Mrudula, lavanya and swathi played for about an hour in the water. As the obvious aftereffect all of us were tired. We stopped for a minute at the statue of "AP's biggest nandi" and took a photo.
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