Trisa's Barathanatiyam Rehersal

Hi friends,

I know it has been long while. And i should have posted it well before. But due to few other travel plans i was not able to connect with you all. Sorry about that.

Here are the pictures of my final rehersal. The show went on very well. And my parents were very glad about my performance. Hope my dance teacher Mrs Smita Auntie was also very happy about my performance. I will post my video in my next post.



Till then, its bye my me,
Ummmaaaaaaaa.

Kaarthigai Deepam 2008

Kaarthigai Deepam 2008( Festival of lights) celebration went very well at my house in UK. My mom made me to wear a new Pattu langa and beautiful jewels...My dad said i looked very beautiful. My mom decorated our house with nice beautiful bright light, which looked fab. We were invited for dinner at Ramesh mama's house and enjoyed our rest of our day at their palce.

LETS KNOW:

Kaarthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Kaarthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Kaarthigai month which coincides with Krithikai star. It is also considered as the extension of the Deepavali festival. In some houses, they double the number of lamps every day from the day of Deepavali and this way, they end up with a number of lamps on the day of Kaarthigai Deepam.

It is celebrated in a special manner in Thiruvannamalai. Lord Shiva asks Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu to find out the exact location of his head and his feet. Since Lord Shiva takes a gigantic form, they are not able to find out anywhere. Then Lord Shiva takes the form of a jyothi (light of fire) on the hill of Thiruvannamali. Therefore, this festival is also known as Annamalai Deepam. Here, a special torch is lighted on the zenith of the hill and it is believed that Lord Shiva's jothi will be visible on this day. Lord Muruga took the form of six babies in a lake called "Saravana Poigai". On this day, all his six forms were united by Parvathi(his mother) and this way, he had six faces. Special poojas are performed to Lord Muruga.

On this day, people clean the houses. In the evening, they draw kolams (rangoli) in the front of the house and also place some lamps on it. The lamps(Agal) are placed in the pooja and lighted. Then the Deeparathana is done in which the lamps are moved to different places in the house. The lamps glow all over the streets on this day. The lamps are arranged near the doors and windows and also in the balconies. In this way, people of Tamil Nadu celebrate Kaarthigai Deepam for three days.

Kedareshwara Pooja ( 2008)

This is the puja(nombu), that is done in our family for years, during the time of diwali amavasai. My grandparents use to perform this puja and send the nombu thread posted to UK. But last year as my grandfather expired, we were told to take the nombu for rest of the up coming years.

This nombu is performed to LORD SHIVA. One of my mom's fav god. So on the year 2008, we did our first nombu offically. The day for so nice, that i was made to wear my traditional dress and my mom too dressed up in saree. All the puja items were washed, and decorated with flowers. Fruits and flowers were offered to God. As my dad kept reading the slogan and story, my mom came around the kalasam and offered flowers. The puja went very well, as per the procedure. My mom and dad were fasting till the end of the puja. It was totally a different experince for me and my parents.

A short NOTE :

This Nombu is also known as Naraka Chaturdashi(the day Narakasura was killed by Lord Krishna) Dhanalaxmi puja is also done on that day; some do instead dhanya laxmi puja; Kedareshwara vrita was performed by Gauri to obtain the half body of Shiva. When the pramatha gana brangiriti did the pradaxina for Shiva without including Parvati. Shiva explains on enquiry by her that those who know brahman have nothing to obtain from you hence they do not do the circumambulation. Parvati, in a huff of anger leaves the place and enters the forest. Encountering the sage Gautama she asks the sage a way to obtain the half body of Shiva. He asked her to perform Kedareshwar vrita. It starts from ashtami(8th day) and culminates on amavaasya day. In practice however, it is generally done on the last day. So it is the worship of Lord Shiva and the name is Kedareshwara vrita.All pujas call for some austerities like fast or semi-fast on fruits or milk or juices. There is no exception for this.

Our Diwali Dhamaka ( 2008)

Diwali - The fetival of Lights........Is there any one who does'nt like diwali or bursting crackers.????..........I dont think so.......Yes, it is a fetival that is celebrated with full joy and josh...

Yes , i love diwali , i love bursting carckers , wearing new dress, meeting friends and sharing our sweets and enjoying with other friends. But you know what???.........Being in country like UK and dreaming of bursting cracker for diwali is not always possible. To overcome this problem, my mom and veebha auntie decided to organise a party with all our friends.

Yes...........our diwali 2008 was a great success. They planned to celebrate it in by hiring a hall. The Pavilion hall was booked. My mom designed the invitation card and e-mailed it to the list of people they decided to invite. We aslo had dinner which was shared and preapred .

On the day of diwali, guest started to arrive on time. (Members : Sathish uncle, devi aunti, My mom, my dad, Vinod uncle, Veebha aunti, Ramesh uncle, Sibi, uncle, Sangeetha aunti, Vipin uncle, Beena aunti, Giri uncle, Aswin, rajapandian uncle and his friends, Prasadh uncle, sathish uncle and devi aunti's friends and Bala uncle) We first had some dancing session, where we all had nice gala time in dancing. I really enjoyed dancing with vedhika. As everyone was dancing , the moments were captured in video cam by Beena aunti and by sibi uncle in still camera. As the time passed, we all decided to burst crackers............heyyyy there comes the fun. Its was cold outside, yet we did not mind...we unpacked the carckers and started to bust it one by one........wow, it was really nice to see those colourful shot in the sky. As we were too young for gaint crackers, we just stood on a side and enjoyed seeing our parents bursting it.

Well...then comes our bit. Yes we kids were given sparklers..........almost every kid enjoyed it. We all kids ( Me trisa, vedhika, prasanth, kavya, other 3 kids of sathish uncle's friend) stood in a row holding colourful lighted sparklers. But nithilan was not allowed ( Don't owrry nithilan , you can do it next year......ok....) It was really great fun to have a day like this.

Then after the crackers session was over, we went for dinner...wow...........the food was tooooo yummy that everyone enjoyed it. The menu is as follows Starters : Hot and Spicy chicken wings and Veg samosa. Main Menu : Chapathi, channa masala, chicken curry, chicken biriyani, veg biriyani with ratia, palin rice, sambar, potato curry, cabbage thoran Dessert: payasam and fruit juice, coke, kids juice and chips.

Chicken biriyani with raita and veg sambar - prepared by my mom ( lavanya)

Potato curry and payasam - Prepared by veebha auntie

Veg Biriyani - Prepared by sangeetha auntie

Chicken curry - prepared by Devi auntie

Channa masala and cabbage thoran - prepared by Beena auntie

As every thing went well. We decided to take a group photo to remember the day.................................

Sooooo SMILE PLEASE..............CLICK..........

Everyone enjoyed the day and we kids are waiting for the next diwali to come soon..................

My dad's Birthday celebration ( 2008)

My dad turned a year older on OCT 17th 2008. He is my World's Best man and a very best friend of mine...........

Every one in this world loves their day. Because they made us come to his world, see this beautiful world and enjoy our days. So.......I Love my DAD !!!

On his birthday celebration, we had a cake cutting in the evening, were friends gathered and wished my dad. I really had good time with my friends ( Vedhika, Kavya and Varsha).

I really enjoyed eating the delicious cake and singing birthday songs with my friends......

Well......mummy...when is my birthday ?????

My Second Birthday

As they say time flies, that really true. I already turned two, days went so quick. It has not been long that I saw this beautiful world… It's crazy, being two now I started to talk, count 1 to 10, utter alphabets, make dad & mum crazy to run after me, jump, make rollovers etc….

Well, talking about my second birthday, the days started with sweet caress from dad & mum with my birthday present. Dad had taken off for the day to help mum to organize my birthday party. Mum had made a spectacular decoration in our living hall full of colour with balanced composition. Throughout the day I got numerous calls from friends & parents for blessing me… Dad & mum had organized for a small party at home with close friends. We had Sibi uncle, Sangeetha aunty, Nithilan, Nithi thata & Nithi pathy to turn first, getting blessing form Nithi thata & Nithi pathy was special, I was thougfull of my grand dads & grand mums…

Then came Ramesh mama, Satish uncle, Devi aunty, Narmadha aunty, Kalanithy uncle, varani aunty, Vinod uncle, veeha aunty, Vipin uncle, Beena aunty, Kumar uncle, Kiran aunty, Andrew uncle and Lilly aunty.

We had cake cutting around 8.00pm. It was really nice to see everyone singing birthday song for me. Devi aunty and sibi uncle helped in distributing the cake to everyone with chips and coke/ fruit juices. I had great time playing with my friends (Vedhika, Nithilan, Ryan, Prasadh, Kutti kavya, Kavya and Varsha).

Then we moved on for the dinner, here is the menu, Starters: Veg Spring rolls, Spicy chicken bites, Main Course : Chapathi, Channa Masala, Ghee Rice, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Biriyani, Raita, Plain rice, Yogurt, Desert : Rasmalai.

( A special thanks for Ramesh mama for getting the food from Jyothi and Jimmy spices).

Last but not least, a special thanks to all friends who came and made my day more colourful. Well...thats how i clebrated my second birthday. I know its just few months left for my next birthday hahahah.......