Bitchslapped By The Cold

Whew, we got back to Bloomington on Monday, Diwali Day, after spending the weekend with family in Richmond. What a drastic change of topography! Richmond is pretty, big, elite, and gas prices are real cheap there :) On a serious note, it's a lovely place to settle with family, not too cold, and is beautifully adorned with lovely huge trees that are sporting an amazing fall foliage at the moment. We missed going to Shenandoah because of bad weather, but there's always going to be a next time. Shenandoah is supposed to be amongst the top rated places in the US to visit during fall. (You must remember John Denver's 'Take me home, country roads')

When we got back to Illinois we were welcomed by a cold slap of gusty wind. Our palms froze before we could reach our car that was parked just right across. Curiosity made us want to check the weather then and there, and it turned out to be 5 degree C with a freeze alert warning issued! That evening, I saw the first ever snow flake of my life. It was snowing off-season.

S usually withstands the cold pretty well. I was amazed to see him shudder underneath his jacket, that evening. I was clad in a saree with no jacket, gloves, or ear plugs and the people around me must have thought I was one crazy Indian who knew nothing about living abroad. Talk about a cold Diwali! We haven't even tried lighting our sparklers because of the constant cold wind.

On the brighter side, I am now a little confident that I'll be able to survive the notorious Illinois winter. Let's hope I fare well for a beginner.

Looking forward to our first ever Halloween party this weekend. There's a likelihood that S will be dressed as Jigsaw and me... uhmm, I don't know.

Happy Halloween.

Cold and Windy Diwali

It's raining here, crackers are banned unless it's the fourth of July, and worst of all - it is NOT a national holiday! Nonetheless, we are on our way to Virginia to spend our grand thalai deepavali with my ma and pa in law, and sister in law. We're eager to cuddle and coochie coo with our darling little nephew whose first ever Diwali it is too. And I just finished cutting out Kaju Kathlis...

If we were in India... Change of scenario...

- The Diwali spirit would already have been in the air... crackers, sky works, sparklers
- Messy roads with debris from all the fireworks and smoky skies
- Crowded movie halls with all the Diwali releases
- Ads on TV that start weeks in advance, about special Diwali programmes
- New clothes, sweets being exchanged, temple visits
- Best of all, a holiday and being with our entire family - considering it's our special thalai Diwali.

We're doing ok, we have mom and pop here, so it's really not bad. We have new clothes. I've made the sweets. We're going to go to the temple on Monday. I guess what we're really missing is the currently slushy, muddy Chennai with cracker stalls in every corner.

Happy Diwali to everyone out there. No matter what part of the world you're at right now, your heart belongs to home on Diwali more so ever than any other day.