Remembering 2011

As all the TV channels are showing of what all happened in India & rest of the world last year, I also got tempted to jot down what all happening happened with Singampallis :) I am listing them down and everybody is welcome to add to the list. I feel the last year had been very good for all of us, and I thank god for every thing!

So here we go...

-Lavi topping her 3rd year(actually this is not even a news this happens every year :) )

-Raghav's arrival

-Sarda attah's retirement

-Arjun's arrival

-Madhu's baby news

-Sumi's Job placement

-Laavi's job placement

-Kanth's promotion

-Sarda attah's Kavali home coming

-Kavali home AGAIN completely ours :)

-Visham babai bought house

-Krupa's promotion and job shift to E-bay

-Poonam & Krups shifting to their new house

-Sarda attahs new house purchase

-Vishnalayam work got over

-Ma completed 60 years!

-Mriduls MS completion

-Adi's successful culture trip

And last but not the least William & Kate got married! :)

Great Barrier Reef

Back in US, recovering from Jet Lag. I will post the whole trip details in a couple of days, but wanted to share my experience at the GBR, which merits its own lengthy post. There are NO PHOTOS. We were so focused on the incredible scenes around us that we did not stop to take pictures, the thought simply did not enter our mind. I will try to share similar photos / videos by others to give you a sense of what we had experienced.
Our trip to the GBR started from Cairns where we boarded a catamaran by Reef Magic Cruises. On board, the people from the cruise company shared the possibilities to explore the reef including Snorkeling and Scuba Diving. I signed up for both immediately.
http://www.reefmagiccruises.com/

For the uninitiated, Snorkeling is where you wear flippers, a face mask with goggles and a breathing tube, so that you can float over the water's surface and look into the water while breathing through your mouth.

For scuba diving, you wear an oxygen tank on your back and you are completely submerged under water, breathing through your mouth.

Now that the technicalities are explained, let us dive in (pardon the pun!!!!)

I cannot really find words to justify the experience. Amazing, incredible, awesome....somehow they fall short at describing the magnitude and magnificence of the coral reef and its marine life. A natural reef that can be seen from the outer space, the GBR is home to millions of different species. I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of this living, breathing and growing organism filled with all possible colors one can imagine.

The catamaran took us about 60km into the ocean, to the outer reef. Here we changed into our wetsuits to get protection from the jelly fish, which could give you a nasty sting. Then we all donned our face masks, and Aditya and Srinivas joined the instructor for a guided snorkel tour( I will let Aditya share his experience in his own words). I took a detour to the scuba diving station to get fitted with my inflatable vest, oxygen tank and flippers. The instructor took a group of 4 of us to an underwater chamber to practice breathing through our mouth from the tank. After overcoming the initial panic of not being able to breath through my nose, I got used to the scuba tank. One of our party did not feel comfortable and left. After 10 minutes, the guide took the 3 of us into the ocean, where the rest started panicking....In 5 minutes, the guide pushed us back to the platform and said we were not ready for scuba diving :-( But even those 5-minutes were so thrilling that I have decided I will come back some time in my life and try it again. Here is a video of what the scuba dive would have looked like.

So anyways, I gave up on the scuba dive and went for the snorkel instead. The first trip was the guided snorkel in the protected lagoon area, where the water is about 30 feet deep. Here, an instructor will guide you around while you hang on to a life preserver. The scenery below the water was exquisite, with corals in the shapes of brains, balls, stag horns and many other shapes which I cannot name. I saw the large Wrasse (the big blue fish pictured above) and a big green sea turtle (crush), caught a moon jelly fish in my hand, saw an anemone with Clown fish inside, and countless types of fish such as parrot fish, blue tang, orange tang, banana fish to name a few. The corals were all sorts of colors, orange, green, purple.......It was a feast for the eyes.

This video is very close to our experience, as this was filmed in the enclosed area of reef magic.

Being a bit more adventurous ,I signed up for the adventure snorkel, that takes us out of the sheltered lagoon, into the open ocean for a 45-minute snorkel near the edge of the reef, where the huge drop-offs are and where giant schools of fish and sharks swim. A snorkel boat took us from the pontoon where our catamaran was moored and dropped us off in the middle of the ocean, from where it took us about 45 minutes to swim back to the pontoon.

This was even more incredible than the first one, where I got to experience those vistas one sees only on National Geographic or Animal Planet. There was a huge school of banana fish swimming in a long column, surrounded by larger tuna fish attempting to break the formation, and a shark swimming on the outer fringes. There were even more coral polyps in all different colors of the rainbow, large crevasses and deep gullies with giant mollusks that snap shut when touched, giant parrotfish staying absolutely still trying to lure prays, colonies of sea anemones with white and red clown fish darting in and out, a ray that was swimming lazily by....It was watching Finding Nemo in real life.....

Here are a couple of galleries of professional photographs that represent fairly accurately the pictures we might have taken, had we had an underwater camera and the time to think :-)

http://www.reefmagiccruises.com/gallery/?show=slide

http://www.habadive.com.au/reef-snorkelling.872.0.html

Finally, I am sooooooooooooooooooo glad amma and nanna sent me all the way to Vizag to get me swim lessons and Babai and pinni took time to take us to classes.............I would never have had this incredible opportunity if not for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SRMs diary

entries not added

11.14-8-1960 male child(svn)

12. stillborn male child(dont remember date)

Made Brandon's day

We were on a bus, going to Bondi beach. There was this kid sitting next to us. He is on vacation in Sydney. Was asking us where we were from. I told SFO. He was quite excited at meeting someone from US. Had lot of questions about McDonald's and Hollywood celebrities. Just before we were getting off, I gave him a few US coins.......his face lit up like a Christmas tree :-) I am sure I made his day.

Tirups trip

After many false starts, we made it to Tirups this Monday &Tuesday. Amma joined us from Hyd on Sunday. We drove down (round trip : 600 KM in 2 days). Raghav and I got our gundus done and he cried a lot. The barber could have handled it better. We also had some trouble with accommodation,  but Vijaya Pinni had asked Mr Ravi to help out and he found us a reasonable place to stay. The darsanam was good.

2 gundus

On the way back, we visited our old Tirups home...required a bit of hunting to find the place, but Amma persisted with gusto and tracked the place down. The lane looks so small now! The view of the mountain is gone (an apartment house is visible instead). Many of the trees were also gone. But it was still nice to see the old place.

More pics at: https://plus.google.com/photos/106282958929086778800/albums/5691580075011148561

Last day in Sydney

Spent time walking around Darling Harbor, doing some souvenir shopping. Bought a Opera House construction kit for Amma for bommala koluvu. Needs to be assembled and painted( no pain no gain)
http://woodcraftconstructionkit.com/wck-sydney-opera-house.html

PENDLI MUCHATLU-2

SRM’S MARRIAGE

The date and place of marriage is not known, but Grihapravesam at Kavali was on 5-9-1942.

Here are some details.

15 people traveled from Kavali to Nellore by train and then by bus to Tirupati.

Think marriage was held at Tiruchanoor, as was the custom.

Gold articles given to the bride:

Murugulu (bangles) 11varahas

Chamanthi billa 4 1/2 varahas

Ungaram 1varaha 9ginjalu

Vaddannam 44 varahas8ginjas

Chillara (miscellaneous) 2 ¼ varaha1ginja

Total 63 varahas 9ginjas

I think this comes to about 30 sovereigns (240 Gms)

The cost of 8grams of gold was Rs 33 8annas. i.e. each gram costed about Rs 4.

Silver articles given to the bridegroom: thulas (12 Gms)

Kancham (meals plate) 92-7-0

Chembu (vessel)(still used for varalakshmi vratam) 102-11-0

Ginne 18-7-0

Chutlu pillallu to be worn by the bride in legs 2-8-0

Total 218-1-0

Cost of each tulam was 0-14-0 ie each gram costed about 7 paisa.

List of some clothes purchased at Nellore

Pattu pachalu for the boy

Panchalu for fil

White sari

Big sari

Pattu pancha for dholipalla sundara ramiah

Small pattu pancha for bil ramiah

Silk blouse

Ordinary blouse

Jumper

Peddapuram silk pi pancha

Ordinary sari for grand mother

3Cotton panchala chapulu for fil

Cloth for coat

There is also a list of other cloths purchased at Kavali

Whole account was maintained by Dhoolipalla Bhramaramba paternal aunt of SRM

Platypus, Echidnas, Wallabies, Kangaroos, Sharks and Rays

Sydney aquarium and zoo. Off to Blue Mountains tomorrow and back in SF on 30th.

Going to philharmonic in the opera house tonight

Had to twist a couple of hands, viz that of Aditya and Srinivas.

Thank you Amma, nanna, gopal Babai and vijaya pinni

Why?
In Sydney today. Will post more later.

Good time with Kanthanna!!!!

All of us went to nellore to s2 multiplex and enjoyed watching 3D movie Don2.

We went to mamidi tota and BPS and had good fun. Here are some pics:

Me in the garden

Hi! I am Raghav and I like gardening. Here you can see my father and I are busy doing that.

I like gardening because there are pretty flowers. But mostly because I can pluck leaves, dig dirt and touch insects.

My mother is happy because she plucked some grass which she called dhaniya

But when I pluck grass, everyone starts saying NO NO

That is the problem with grownups! Always interfering with fun!

Congrats Mrudula Singampalli MSCS

Mruduls, congrats on graduation. Saw your call but roaming charges will be astronomical if I pick up the call. In Sydney airport now.
How was Seattle?

Off to Australia tonight!

First stop - Great barrier reef.

We will go to Melbourne from there, reaching on the day of India vs Australia test start.

Sydney from there to see some exotic animals like Platypus, Echidna and Wallaby.

Back to US on 30th.

Higgs Boson: Sci-Fi?

Recent experiments at CERN (if you don't know CERN, time to dust out your Angels and Demons book or DVD) have been positive towards proving that the Higgs Boson exists. All the hubbub made me curious about the Boson and I looked it up. The whole thing reads unbelievably like science fiction:

- The Standard model of particle physics says an invisible energy field pervades the whole of the universe
- The field was created because of the Big Bang
- As particles travel through the field, they experience drag, which manifests as the particle's mass
- So the field is the reason why particles and hence objects have mass
- More drag, more mass for the particle
- Now the problem is to prove the existence of this invisible field
- Wave particle duality means that every particle has wave form and vice versa
-  So for this field to, there must be a particle- find the particle, prove the field exists
- The Higgs Boson is that particle, which the whole physicist community seems to be chasing with great energy for some time
- The CERN accelerator recreate conditions of the Big Bang at a microscopic scale by colliding sub atomic particles at high energies
- They sift through the particle debris of the collision for evidence of the Higgs Boson

The last set of experiments apparently gently strengthen the possibility of the Boson's existence- but they do not prove anything...but everyone seems very happy.

The whole thing sounds like sci-fi to me! An invisible energy field that pervades the universe- doesn't sound like Ether, the favorite of 19th century physicists which was later debunked and replaced with vacuum?

If you dig deeper into the theory, there seem to be some more outlandish claims, which probably make sense in mathematical language, but not in reality.

Do they teach these theories in 11th class nowadays? Does it have any practical applications? Would be interesting to know.

Nanna Kavaali!

Nanna! where are you?

HBD SUMMI!!

Hi Divya! Many happy returns of the day.

Belated Happy Birthday Peddamma!!!!

Successfully completed a 300 piece puzzle in 4 hours

Never give up, never surrender!!!
( if you don't get the reference look up Galaxy quest in YouTube)
Now I just have to figure out how I can upload the picture I took with my iPad to blogger....

our own celebrities

sent by krupakar some time back.

Looks like Krupakar Mama!

I ordered a Wii Topspin game that came in the mail today. Aditya came to me super excitecd, saying "Amma, this guy looks like Krupakar Mama!!!!! For a second I though Krupakar mama is a famous tennis player."

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer/boxshot.php?pid=605748

Virtues of berry trees

There are three trees in front of the house in Bangalore:

1. A young Tabebuia (tree that fills up with pink flowers, much like the Jacaranda) just flexing its floral muscles
2. An yet unidentified tree that grows slim and tall in front of the balcony (maybe seesham)
3. An unidentified berry tree, which the study windows  overlook

This AM, sipping tea, I sat at the study window, admiring the Sunday weather. It is my observation that the weather gods are kindest to Bangalore on Sundays. The miasmic air that pervades the city the rest of week is on curfew on Sundays and a bright but benign sunshine sashays forward. This morning was no exception. To quote Bertie misquoting Tennyson:

“In the spring, Jeeves, a livelier iris gleams upon the burnished dove.”

A sunny winter Sunday in Bangalore competes well with a Spring morning of London any day. But this morning, some other lines from the same poem seemed to apply as well:

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;

 In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

in the sense that birds were up and about as if they owned the place.

As I sat with the tea, I heard an unfamiliar bird call and looked up from the Hindu. On the berry tree outside, just two arm lengths away, was sitting a Common Iora, worrying at something, as birds do. This was the first time I saw this beaut in the layout, so an unexpected treat.

But this was just the beginning- I realized that the berry tree is a half way place to many a visiting pilot. So from the control tower I watched the following birds busily land, have a quick breakfast of berry & nectar and take off, all in the next 5 minutes:
The berry tree from the window:

A common Iora (all snaps beyond this are from the web):

A Loten's Sun Bird and mate, shining brilliant purple in the sunlight:

A purple-rumped sun bird & mate:

A Great Tit, with its delicate hues:

A lone Golden Oriole:

A Drongo:

And a Green Bee Eater did a fly past:

I also saw an unidentified Babbler (I think), across the road. Add to that list the fact that I saw a Greater Coucal earlier in the morning on the same tree, one realizes quickly how much life a berry tree supports. No wonder our elders revered the Banyan and Raavi (Peepal) trees- if the tree outside the study was a small town airstrip, these giants are like the International airports of the birding world (not to mention mammalian, reptilian and insect life)!

Kudos to the berry tree, and may more of these be planted than cut in Bangalore.

Book Report time - For Adi or for IS?

Hard at Work

Finished Product

TIGER!!

HALLO (WEENY) TIGER! HOW DO YOU DO?

Raghav

He loves the water

Cowboy getting ready for Texas

Australia Here We Come!!!!

I just booked a vacation for the 3 of us to go to Australia from Dec 20-30th......Now to plan......