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Chuchu's 5th year of becoming stardust

Dear Yama/Chitragupta -

Another year has passed since you took Chuchu away from us. 5 years. A very long time. Memories begin to fade, visuals of past start to be come blurry, brain tricks and forms new non-existent events into memory, and we slowly begin to forget. Humans' bane - sometimes a boon too. My memory of Chuchu is getting past the 20-20 vision. Distant items are becoming blurry. I hope I can retain some of his associations until I join him. Hope is all humanity has got - I am no different in this.

Does this happen to you all? How old are you all, anyways? Is it like The Matrix where you live? As in, you get to have a new manifestation of yourself with memories preserved but a new 'you' takes your place. Kind of a whacky idea! If so, couldn't you have lent your secret to Chuchu and let him stay here for longer? What was the point in taking him anyway? He's just a burden to you all. There are more dead people than living, isn't it? Hmmm... Or dead things. Do all the dead come to your department or just humans? Chuchu would have advised me to read the vedas/puranas to find or understand that nuance. Speaking of 'nuance' (sootchamam), is Babu Mama around with Chuchu?

In any event, the portions below are for Chuchu to read.

Hello mama - How are you? Since you are a "stardust", you must be fully mobile. How many worlds have you visited? Are you able to claim a world for your self just like how a buffoon south of the border is claiming that the Moon is theirs? "Narayana, intha kosu thollai thaanga mudiyala. Yaar yaarukko saavu varuthu, aana ivanukku onnumay aagarathilla." Any new information about the buffoons impeding demise, please let me know - just like how he hedges and makes billions, I would like to make some money out of his departure from Earth.

We visited New Zealand this year for Skanda's 11th birthday. It all happened all of a sudden - no "years of planning". Just under 2 months - we decided - booked - and left. Just like any new place, I visit, I always think: "Wouldn't it have been nice if Chuchu was around?" NZ is a fantastic place - worthy of every dollar we spent. Unforgettable. I was telling Skanda that I want to retire in NZ. Though very expensive, the nature makes it up for that. Skanda was not thrilled about the idea. He was quite shocked when we were looking up home prices in the vicinity of the places we visited. He was not happy! But, he enjoyed and loved NZ - just like us.

Skanda is starting 6th grade today! He's now 5ft tall. Still lanky. Not well built. Still a voracious reader. Videogames a lot! Speaking of video games. Amma was here for 10-12 days. She came to help Shruthi and Naren out with Adhiyan. She fell sick - rashes all over her body - 2 days after landing. Praneetha took her to Urgent Care, they gave her some medication and Praneetha got her cream to apply. It all went away before her departure. Couldn't go anywhere - except for the museum you went. I showed her Niagara on the day of departure - we left her at the airport in Buffalo - so we had to cross the Rainbow bridge. Thus, Niagara. After leaving her at the airport, we came back to Canada and cycled around Niagara. Skanda got a new cycle - since he's grown taller, his existing cycle is too small for him. We cycled 22kms. Bought some fruits: Peaches, Plums, and Grapes. It was a very pleasant day.



What else ...? I stopped drinking specialty coffee on a daily basis. Retained it only for weekends. No great harvest this season: Just a lot of cucumbers. We are trying to grow Banganappalli and Rumani. Retained a few Mango seeds from this year's gobbling that Skanda did.

We did not go for Adhiyan's 5th birthday. Just didn't like to stay or travel to US. What a terrible place to live?! Sent him a lot of gifts with his "Domini". Wonder what name he would have kept for you? :-)

Skanda now has more friends than last year. I made a communication device for him to stay in touch with his 4 friends. An intercom I built using AI - Claude. I also made an adjustment to our dining table - the same table that we at Warraich Biryani and Paneeer back in 2019. Converted that table to his study table with a Piano stand. His computer, his homework, and his music stays together. Here is a video you will enjoy!

Mine and Praneetha's work is going OK. Nothing great to write about. It is a turbulent time to look for a change unless and until you a stability in a domain.

But, that doesn't keep us away from taking some adventurous trips. This year too saw us camping. Heavy downpour over the night, and a big tree branch just missed our tent. Things would have been totally different. This provincial park, was by the Lake Ontario (the buffoon renamed this lake too) - Skanda, Sreeram, and I went fossil hunting and found trilobites - 450M years old. Wow! 

Oh! BTW, we get Perambur Sri Srinivasa Sweets' mundiri pakoda, and other savouries. I thought about you - and how we used to go to Mylapore to get pakoda from Mathalakaaran theru. Or Sri Rama's pakoda from the high road in Purasaiwakkam.

There is so much to write about - all the things I want to write, I forget. Just like how memories of you are fading away, everything else does too. I don't know how next year will be like.

Take care and take a good care of us. Keep a watch on Skanda - as you always do. Help him be better person than he was the previous day!

Bye. 

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