How many laddus - A Baab Tale

A few months back, following a religious ceremony, a large gap between the supply and demand resulted in a large stockpile of <a href="http://www.neivedyam.com/2009/05/100th-post-boondi-laddu.html">laddu</a>s in the house. Dutifully, Baab and Katya's mother corralled* the sweets into the freezer to ensure that they stayed relatively fresh.

Over the next couple of weeks, Baab religiously had a laddu/day in his lunch box as a snack (and relished them, obviously). One day, when he was eating his dessert, his lunch pal could not contain his curiosity: "How many laddus do you have at home?!!"

* <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corral">corral</a>led - the use of the word here might be controversial; however, those who would raise issues with the word do not realize that sweets come alive in the Porcupyn household and develop an urge to fly towards the stomach of the nearest (male) adult. Therefore, the personification is 100% legitimate. Now, whether the freezer can be an "enclosure" is a different argument altogether.

Visit to Four of Southwest USA's National Parks (Part Six of Many!)

[<em>A very old travelogue lurches towards completion</em>]
As I was concentrating on the scenery at the <a href="http://porcupyn.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/visit-to-four-of-southwest-usa%e2%80%99s-national-parks-part-five-of-many/">North Rim of the Grand Canyon</a>, I forgot to share the photos that I took enroute there from Hurricane. Though there is hardly any vegetation on this route, the colours on the ground, the mountains and the hues on the clouds combine to provide a singularly picturesque locale. If it was not so unbearably hot, above 105 degrees F, we would probably have stopped at a few more places and taken photos. As it was, we stopped at two-three places, and the rest of these photos were from within the vehicle. Here are a few of the ones I really liked (I will add captions sooooon) ...
<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1692.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-720" title="IMG_1692" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1692.jpg?w=512" alt="IMG_1692" width="512" height="384" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1696.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-721" title="IMG_1696" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1696.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1696" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1707.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-722" title="IMG_1707" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1707.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1707" width="300" height="225" /></a>
<p>The photo on the right gives the idea of something similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event">Tunguska event</a> (on a smaller scale, of course), which is still a mystery.</p>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1715.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-723" title="IMG_1715" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1715.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1715" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1725.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-724" title="IMG_1725" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1725.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1725" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1732.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-725" title="IMG_1732" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1732.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1732" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1737.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-726" title="IMG_1737" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1737.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1737" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1710a.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-727" title="IMG_1710a" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1710a.jpg?w=225" alt="MG_1710a" width="225" height="300" /></a>

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1746a.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-728" title="IMG_1746a" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1746a.jpg?w=225" alt="IMG_1746a" width="225" height="300" /></a>

Visit to Four of Southwest USA's National Parks (Part Seven of Many!)

We reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon about an hour or so before sunset. However, as we approached it from the east, we got stuck behind a line of vehicles stopped at the checkpoint (I believe to get entry permits or to get them verified). After a few minutes' delay, we re-entered the Park, and decided to spend some time at the first viewing point (see Desert View on the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/grca_pano.pdf">map</a>) to freshen up, as most of the members in the party had had a nice nap along the way.

What was supposed to have been a stop for a few minutes turned into a half an hour pit stop, during which we climbed up the ... and took pictures. As a result, time was running out to find a good viewing point of the sunset. I drove like crazy to cover a few more miles to get closer to the Visitors' Center (our original destination for sunset), but the Sun was faster. So, I had to take the first available viewing point (we probably got to Moran Point - refer to map - but I have now forgotten where we took the turn) to take Sunset photos. Here are some of them ...
[caption id="attachment_1758" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Sunset approaches at the Grand Canyon's <em>South Rim</em>"]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1758.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1758.jpg?w=512" alt="IMG_1758" title="IMG_1758" width="512" height="384" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-753" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1759" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Before this trip, I somehow had the impression that the river cannot be seen from the South Rim; obviously, I was wrong"]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1759.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1759.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1759" title="IMG_1759" width="300" height="225" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-754" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1760" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The lush greenery provides a refreshing contrast to the painted landscape behind. Those are not just shrubs but full grown trees!"]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1760.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1760.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1760" title="IMG_1760" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-755" /></a>[/caption]

<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1763a.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1763a.jpg?w=384" alt="IMG_1763a" title="IMG_1763a" width="384" height="512" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-756" /></a>

[caption id="attachment_1769" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sunlight bounces off the cliffs ..."]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1769.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1769.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1769" title="IMG_1769" width="300" height="225" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-757" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1772" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="... at sunset"]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1772.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1772.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1772" title="IMG_1772" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-758" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1777" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tricks of the camera! Would you believe it if I said that this photo was taken ..."]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1777.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_1777.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_1777" title="IMG_1777" width="300" height="225" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-759" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_17801" align="alignright" width="300" caption="... before this one?"]<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_17801.jpg"><img src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/img_17801.jpg?w=300" alt="IMG_17801" title="IMG_17801" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-764" />[/caption]

People in Portraits - Another Katya Tale

Katya's paternal grandparents live in ATown while her maternal grandparents live in BCity. Though she is currently living in BCity, it is obvious that she has not forgotten "her motherland" as evidenced by this incident:

Last year,we had a full house in OFLCity as the visits of both sets of grandparents overlapped for a week (a very very rare occurrence - rarer than a full solar eclipse). Obviously, to celebrate the occasion, we had gone to a local Portrait Studio for a group photo. A couple of weeks ago, while showing the photo to relatives, Katya identified the people in the photo - "ATown grandfather, ATown grandmother, BCity grandfather, BCity grandmother ..." (and over our collective gasps and laughter) "OFLCity father, OFLCity mother, OFLCity Baab, and OFLCity Me" ;-)