Vikram's Daily Prayer

Whether he will continue this ritual of praying/talking to God before going to bed. I think I will let him continue with it till he starts asking "Momma, what/who is God" :). Here are two of his recent funny late night chats with is "friend". The first one is before we left for Hawaii and second was from after we came back :).

What he said in Telugu:

"Good Night Sami. I love you. Nenu good boy la untanu, andukane Pilot gentle ga drive chestadu. "

What it means in English:

"Good Night God. I love you. I will be a good boy, and so the Pilot will drive the plane very gently."

What he said in Telugu:

"Good Night Sami. I love you. Thank you so much sami. Good boy la untanu. Ammani satayinchanu. Repu school ledu. Intlo amma work chesukuntundi, nenu living room lo adukuntanu sami"

What it means in English:

"Good Night God. I love you. Thank you so much God. I will be a good boy. I won't bother mom too much. There is no school tomorrow. Mom will work at home and I will play in the living room."

Oh and don't fall for this cuteness :)

Hawaii Trip - Part Deux

After relaxing, enjoying the resort and their Luau, we headed out to visit Akaka Water Falls. V kept calling it "Kaka Water Falls". It was funny because "kaka" in Prabu's mother tongue means crow :).

On the way out we stopped by to get some fresh coconuts to drink and also got to taste "Ice Cream Dates" for the first time :).



V kept posing with his "Shaka" sign for me.


Local cafe recommended we visit black sand beach on the way back to the resort.


We headed to Kilauea Volcano the next day. I had to pick up a book for kids on volcanoes because V loved and appreciated what he was about to see more when we sat and read the book together:). You can see the volcanic ash emission behind him in this picture below.


Here is moi at one of the steam vents:)


Prabu and V on their way to the viewing center to see live lava flowing into the ocean.


And the fireeeee ;).


What did we do last 3 days there? R and R baby! We hung out at the pool, beach, enjoyed sunsets by the beach :).




Here is a link to all the pictures.

Hawaii Trip - Part Uno

People talk so much about certain places they visit that makes you wonder if it's really worth visiting it. I am not big into visiting National Parks (I know, Kill me now) nor was I blown away when I visited Grand Canyon for the first time. But Hawaii, baby is whole another ball game :). Vikram and I fell in love with the Big Island the second we landed. May be we were deprived of the trees, beaches living in the desert for last few years or may be we both needed the much awaited vacation. I mean how can you not love driving on roads that look like this.


Marriott upgraded us to a beach front room and we were in heaven. As soon as we walked into the room I had to lie down because I wasn't feeling well for a couple of days before our travel and the day we landed I was still a bit sick. V covered me with all the pillows and blankets and said, "Here are your gifts momma"


Half an hour after we took this picture we were on our way to the ER in Kona. Couple of hours there and I walked out with negative for flu and a dose of "Just keep taking the Tylenol for your chills and body aches. It could be just something else in the air" from the ER doctor. Thank you very much :)

Next day and rest of the few days we stayed in Hawaii, V would get up and immediately run into the balcony to make sure the pools, hot tubs and the beach are all still there :).



Resort hosted a Luau that evening and V got all excited watching the hula dance, fire dance and their singing skills.

Pictures From Day 1

Pictures from Day 2

Birth, Death And An Engagement

Before I start bombarding you all with a million pictures and a trillion posts about the Hawaii trip, I wanted to share some good news, bad news and some exciting news :). My cousin Keerthi had a baby girl few weeks ago. I finally got hands on the pictures and the name :). Here is Pragnya Kollipalli. Both mom and baby are doing great :).



My mom's aunt passed away in Delaware last week. She was suffering from alzheimer's and it probably sucks to say this but everyone was a little relieved because she truly was at peace finally. I don't think any one should go through that kind of suffering. It was hard on the whole family to watch her go through the pain. The funeral was yesterday and unfortunately I couldn't be there.

Here is the exciting news.. Ready....1...2....3... alright..lol. Chaitu found a girl who said yes to him (She ddn't tlak to me first , may be that's why ;)). Yes ladies and gentlemen, he found his match. It all happened very fast and I do have only few details that she is a girl ;) and her name is Srujana. That's all I can give out right now ;). I will provide you all some pictures and all that jazz soon. I promise ). Chaitu is in Australia right now visiting Pragnya :). Once he is back I might have to fly down to NJ just to see his face and make fun of him (oh yes I will). I spoke to him yesterday and I could totally feel his happiness. Ahhh... the young new love ;). So yes, I will be a sister-in-law soon and I will have a sister-in-law :).

Get A Clue.. Will Ya?

CNN reported today that Chris Brown killed his twitter account because he is upset that his new album was being blackballed. This sounds exactly like my 3 year old screaming "I don't want time-out". Well you should have thought about that before putting sand in your mouth. I wondered about this. Should Chris Brown be given any more news coverage? Should we allow him to get on TV and tell us his side of the story? Would that really make a difference? Not in my book and I am sure that's the case for several others. He either thinks everyone should forgive and forget what he did or he truly believes what he did was not wrong. I am going to go with the later. People can forgive, but can not forget. The day pictures of Rihanna's bruised face went public, his career was over.

Oh, Mrs. Woods, please don't think I forgot about you :). If you really did hit Tiger Woods (I have seen Rihanna's pictures, I haven't seen Tiger Woods Bruises), you are no less than Chris Brown in my opinion. There is always a different option other than domestic abuse/violence. There always will be a different path to take than raise your hand on your partner. The second you decide not to go with that option, get ready for the consequences.

CEO or Driver?

Chaitu wants V to go to Princeton. Prabu says, "I want him to go to a good school" A.K.A, he better work his butt off and get into an ivy-league. My mom can not make up her mind between wanting him to become a Surgeon or Civil Engineer (Yes,my family is that weird n case you haven't figured out by now). I usually say he will get a bachelors after high school irrespective of where he can get himself into. There won't be "I am not going to college" talks. Honestly I think he is going to grow up, look at us and go, "I am now 18, I have a brain. Let me use it and tell you what I want to do and where I want to go". Honestly I secretly wish he does something different and excel in whatever he picks. Not that I look down on surgeons or civil engineers or Scholars. I am all for people who pick a different road than rest of the crowd.

Yes, I am coming to the point. So V indirectly told me he will be different from anyone in the family. We were chatting the other day about garbage trucks, his current obsession. So instead of keeping my mouth shut, I said "Well, once you eat your meals properly, grow up and go to good school, you can start your own trucking business and you can be the CEO of your company". He slapped me with a super fast reply:

"No CEO Momma. I want to be big and strong and be a trash Truck Driver"

Oh yes honey, no one in our fmaily is a trash truck driver, you so will be different ;).

Here is his tiny collection of trash trucks:

Pasta Bar And Panda Express

I try my best to expose V to different kinds of cuisine. Not that it works wonders all the time. I dream of the day where I take him for dinner at The French Laundry and he will appreciate it as much as I do. Granted he is just 3 and has long way to go before he even knows who Thomas Keller is, I can still dream, can't I? In an effort to get him to have a sophisticated palette, I told myself I will try and take him to "nicer" restaurants and get him used to the kind of food and atmosphere.

Last night I took him to Pasta Bar. This restaurant became one of my favorites here in Phoenix and is very addictive. They have simple menu, pick all their produce from local farmers. My boy liked the atmosphere, flirted with the hostess (Oh yes he did), fell in love with their bread sticks, munched on their cucumber appetizer and barely ate his dinner (he was really busy watching where the hostess was because she said "You are so cute" to him every time she passed by).

Today we go out to the mall in the evening. He wants noodles from Panda Express for dinner. Finishes it off without a word and there goes my kid's sophisticated palette. No I am not trying to offend you Panda Express lovers :), I am just bitchin' about the fact that my boy prefers his 3 dollar noodles soaking with "god-knows-what-oil" than freshly made from scratch pasta with his favorite sauce. Ah kids, I tell ya.

Oh yes, here is a picture of V munching on his bread stick: