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Marriage – Nov 06, 2003

I got married to Harini on this very special day, carefully chosen after a lot of hot discussions and phone calls between the family astrologer and harini’s thatha. I think their efforts were worth it. It was indeed a special day with Rain God honouring us right thru the three days of marriage. We had a wonderful time. Everything went as per plan, except the nalangu function, whcih we could not make it becoz of the delay Registrar office and also due to appa’s insistence that we should go to Kalayana Peruma kovil (Temple). Most of our relatives on both families turned up for the occasion. They had all praise for the way the marriage was conducted with nice coordination and relationship between the familes ( usually there will be some kind of hickups in any marriage, mainly from groom’s folks demanding something ). We all drove back in a mini van back from Kumbakonam to Coimbatore. The Reception went on well too on Nov 8th. We had some last minute delays with video guys and decoration but it ended well with almost the expected crowd turning up, inspite of the pouring rain. Almost 80% of the peope were amma’s friends / Chinmaya mission folks. Everybody said the Food was great (Annapoorna). We also left the very next morning to Coconut Lagoon Resort in Kumaragam, kerala. It was a relaxing and wonderful experience on the lake front in rural kerala.

Engagement with Harini – June 04, 2003

It all happened on a day, a memorable day. I met harini in her home in chennai. I decided right that second, that she was the one. She tells me she kind of felt the same thing. I for once realized that love at first sight, does work. I am very glad that we met on that day. We feel as if we have been made for each other. Hard to believe is it? then trust me, its true.

Part Time BE Admission for Sridhar – Dec 27, 2002

He has been waiting for this for a long time and finally he made it! This is going to be a BIG break for him and hopefully should give him the right sense of direction in his career. He is starting on Jan 2nd in GCT, Coimbatore. Good Luck and Let this be the beginning of great career for you.

The Memorable London Trip – Dec 24, 2002 – Dec 29, 2002

It was just a fantastic memorable trip. Its a great feeling to roam around in london. Though I would have wanted to spend more time and see a lot more places, I managed to see most of the important stuff. The UnderGround system is really good and they have a neat public transport by train, bus and taxis that its just a breeze going across the city. It indeed, is raining all the time, as everyone says!!! And you have to walk, walk and walk…

The Inevitable – The PC – Oct 5, 2002

After contemplating the need for a computer at our home with my parents for almost an year, It has finally arrived yesterday. The delay is also partially attributed to the delay in the completion of the construction. Amma is expected to go Hi-Tech pretty soon. Appa has already started on his computer courses in Kumbakonam and with lots of help from Gayathri, he is typing and sending his own emails nowadays. Krithika, I hear she has already started using it, as she is the most literate in computers as of now. I am expecting Sridhar to be rocking with CAD and design softwares pretty soon. Thanks to Sridhar’s friend, we got a great deal on the computer, with the best/latest configuration for less than Rs.30K.

US Grand Prix, Indianapolis Speedway, Indiana – Sep 29 & 30 2002.

We never planned for this. My colleague, Chris Collins, was telling me that he was going to the grand prix and he told me that this is cheapest Grand Prix anyone could go. I was told that people fly from Europe to see US Grand Prix as the German and Italian Grand Prix were really expensive. I thought I should go. We made it.

It was a fantastic experience. While we have watched it before on TV, the real life experience was phenomenal. Its no where close to what you see and feel from watching it on TV. Schumacher was unbeatable until he deliberately gave up at the last lap to his team mate. I had hard time contemplating the fact that they are driving the cars at 220 mph at peak speeds. We chose to support montoya, but he miserably failed on the second lap but crashing with his own team mate. But he came back to finish 4th, to save some face. Overall it was worth the expensive trip. Dana and Santhosh were with me and we had fun the entire trip.

India Trip July 27, 2002 – Aug 9, 2002

While Appa managed to build our house with his savings, it was just enough for us. Hence this past January 2002 when I was there, We decided to extend it into the next site to make it good for a family of five. The work started in late February. Our in-house Civil Engineer, Sridhar, was given the responsibility of make this dream of ours happen. He finally managed to complete 80% of the construction by end of August right on time for Appa’s Sashtiapdha Poorthi ( 60th Birthday ). I landed on coimbatore, right on time for the function, the next day. We celebrated Appa’s 60th Birthday on July 30, 2002, at ‘Then Thiruppathi’ Kovil in Karamadai, Coimbatore. We were happy to have some of our relatives come over to coimbatore for this special occasion. It was a great two days for me, especially when I was on a short two week vacation from US. The house extension and its civil work was praised by everyone and all the credit goes to Sridhar.

After the hectic two days, myself and appa went on a ‘one day’ spiritual trip to Rameswaram. This is the south most tip of India. It was a different experience, with all the trouble we have had with the tour guides, auto rickshaws, fake iyers, sitting in the ocean front doing fake ‘tharpanams’ etc. It was still worth the experience. We decided to take the early train back and we stopped over in Madurai to visit the Meenakshi Temple. We spent the rest of the day in Madurai, before catching the late night Thiruvalluvar bus to coimbatore. I spent rest of my vacation hanging around coimbatore.

I spent the last day in chennai visting some of our relatives. I met some of my best friends, VPL Ganesh, R Saravanan (Muttai) and Saravana Kannan ( Lufthansa ), before boarding the flight to Germany, enroute to Detroit.