DID YOU SAY UPANAYANAM IN LA OR CHENNAI ? 22






 Continuation of my previous 2 blogs 20/21

We were in the US and Los Angeles in particular  for the
Upanayanam of Shri Rajagopal and Bagavathy mami s Grandson Abhinav  . Mr and Mrs Rajagopal were also inmates of the Madura Coats Colony and we are all well acquainted with each other  . Mahesh , Ganesh and Kamesh are their sons and Lakshmi Chandrashekar their Daughter .
We knew them from their school days in the colony .
Kamesh later on became my son in law and Mr and Mrs Rajagopal are our Sambhandhis . We were in the US for the Upanayanam of Ganesh s son Abhinav alias Montu .

In our community the Upanayanam or the THREAD CEREMONY is a very important function , where the youngster is introduced to the rituals particular  to  our com. Its importance is no less than the marriage Ceremony .

Ganesh had arranged for our stay at a place called EXTENDED STAY AMERICA in Lake Forrest . This place is some 50 miles from Los Angeles airport . For some reason Americans still measure their distances in Miles and not Kilometers as is the practice in most other places . By their standards , this was very close and the 12 lane highway  ensured that we reached the place in roughly 45 mts .  There were some 25 of us in the lodge and the food brought from outside was excellent . Ganesh had made all arrangements in an excellent way and seen that every minute detail was well taken care .

The Upanayanam Function was held at Anaheim Gayatri Hindu Temple just a very short distance ( 25 miles ) from Extended Stay America . Disneyland is so to say just a stones throw from this place . The traffic was heavy but we still covered the distance in 25 minutes , one cannot afford to drive slow here and go unscathed .
The Temple has a very well arranged hall for coducting such functions . The kids had a roaring time playing in the courtyard .
The ladies took care of all the decorations with flowers , kolam and coloured chalk sticks .
The Shastrigal conducted the function , reminiscent  in a every way to the one conducted in Chennai or any other city .
A sumptuous lunch awaited us and the  evening was spent with cultural presentations by the kids and elders . The singing etc went quite late into the night .
I have nurtured a nagging feeling of guilt when i realize that we in India do not value our customs and culture whereas it is followed with all seriousness thousands of miles away in far off lands .
As night approached we could hear the music and the dazzling night fireworks from THE DISNEYLAND , which we had planned the next day .

SO RAJAGOPALAN MAMA AND FAMILY
( MAHESH/JAI KAMESH/ANOO AND OFCOURSE GANESH AND VANITA  )
A BIG THANK YOU FOR HAVING US THERE FOR THE FUNCTION .

Tomorrows Blog : DISNEYLAND

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