First weekend in Bangalore

The weekend was a typical Indian weekend - couple of festivals, tons of home-cooked "festival" (a.k.a. large spread, not recommended by your physician) food, along with friends and family (and neighbors) visiting.
Saturday was ஆவணி அவிட்டம் (Tamil - reads "Aavani Avittam"), the day men change their பூணல் (Tamil - "poonal", a.k.a. sacred thread) every year. So K's dad and K did their prayers and changed their poonal in the morning, and then had more prayers to follow in the evening. Tradition calls for the men who change their poonals to eat rice (the Indian staple) just once that day - so the men ate a typical Indian meal (with rice) at lunch, but had to settle for idlis (steam-cooked rice cakes) for dinner. K changed into a typical Indian outfit to say his prayers - reminds me of a skirt, except full-length (to the ankles), and in white. He had to go "topless" and bare his under-built pecs!
Saturday was also the day to celebrate the brother-sister relationship. The official name is रक्षा बंधन (Hindi - "Raksha Bandhan") - literally means "band/tie of protection". On this day, the sisters tie a "Rakhi" (simple, or very fancy - many different designs/twists to these Rakhis these days) on their brothers' wrist, thanking their brothers for the security/protection they offer. In turn, the brothers profess their commitment to protect their sisters from any harm, and tell their sisters to rest assured. While this security/protection might not be very relevant in this day and age, this was the basis of how this festival started back in time, and the tradition continues. So K's sister, Lakshmi tied rakhis for K, and his cousins (Govi and Suddu), while Nithya (Abhi's cousin) acted as sister and tied a rakhi on Abhi's wrist. Of course, Abhi immediately removed his and wanted the string off! Here is the big event...


Sunday was Part 2 of the poonal changing ceremony - while the poonals were changed on Sat, the prayers continued on Sunday. The men had to recite the "Gayatri Mantra", a renowned and revered prayer in Hindu circles. They had to say it 1,008 times. While K's dad got done with this early in the day, K was late to start and slow to finish.

Also, here are more pix. I wanted to post these with yesterdays posting but I did not have them loaded yet. Abhi busy playing with cousins Nithya and Nikil...


Abhi with Appa...