dashami

a little taste of tika day. between bagh bazar, patan and gyaneshwar

the day started out a bit brighter than nawami. the sun did peep through for some time. here reflected in the bata bird bath

a bit of blue sky in between the clouds

muwa getting her dakshina ready for the days ahead

the puja kotha with the kul deuta puja line-up ready to roll

the ghada...

and ganesh smothered with flowers..

pakku also arrived in time to be part of the puja

the kul deuta's puja nearly complete...

each diety had his/her own offering that included peda, misri, and janai, supari on sal ko paat...

... as well as pairs of daneura and tupke each (cooked fresh in the morning!) plus fruits and paan

great grandmom and great grand daughter...

rajan offers prasad to the family, starting with muwa

then the tika began.. everyboday putting tika with muwa first and taking their place in the line-up! here's mami...

.. and baba getting his tika and jamara...

... and paying his respects to muwa in return...

baba then moves over to mami...

while i go over to muwa!

mother and son...

swami ko 'shy' charan with bheti!!!

pakku ready for getting tika with her mama

after the tika was done.. mama and bhanji check out baba's new acquisition.. the led tv...

... and then share brunch together...

every dog has his day.. here's kutu showing off his tika...

and munu.. while kutu literally posed for his picture, it was extremely difficult catchig munu is a frame.. realised she doesn't sit still for even a second (baba says i share that common trait with munu!!!) this picture is something i cropped from a picture taken from a distance!!!

after our bagh bazar tika.. we headed towards patan.. at ratna park people still had their wares strung on the railings for last minute sale!!

first stop at bona didi's

then kanchhu didi...

where we met himesh and neeharika after many many years... it was such a pleasnt surprise to hear neeharika so fluent in nepali.. she in turn it seems was mighty surprised to hear dada's fluency in gujarati after 6 decades of learnign it in kolkata!!


then it was off to buludidi's where we had intense discussion about bijuli gaadi and its charging services, or lack of thereof!


after a trip to babi we then went to dada deviji's. deviji's recuperated from her bout of illness with viral flu.. but was asleep when we were there...

daji, also recuperating from a recent fever, fell asleep on the couch...

sasura and jwain chatting

daji decided that he'd do tika with a twist this time.. he pretended to be an invalid...

thus while his hands with the tika stood stationary, i had to move my forehead backwards and forwards instead!!!

same with the jamara!!

then it was tika time with sandaji and shanta

with lots of aashirwaad and promises about 'incentives' for baba!!!

back home we caught up with the kids on skype..

was a pleasure seeing all three kids together (nanu and cholu have both gone to their daju's for dasain)

and the foursome.. with rehna.. only ravi's missing!

prabha and rajendrababu also chatted with them

and mami too...

then it was off to gyaneshwar to mahesh mama's where everybody put tika with everybody else...


pretty maidens seated in a row...

after meals (and even before it) the youngsters gathered to play cards.. some in a small 'marriage' khaal...

.. and most in a bigger teen patti khaal

while some were busy raking in their jeet

others took the opportunity to take some medical advice...

while some managed to catch a wink...


...while little dakshina (sing sing, her chinese name!), here with her grandpa, is wide awake late into the night...

the juwa khaal ended with paltai pharas.. the last round is when my cards of meem joot won.. here's baba raking in the gaanth!!!

iti dashami!