Haiku by Jamuna.

11/3/19

Yellow chrysanthemum laid

Over the tombstone

Hungry petite squirrel ate

10/26/19
Dazed by fall colors

walking under autumn trees
in fanciful dream.

Saaya's visit to California

10/11/19 Friday
We had been looking forward to Saaya's visit here in California with her friend Kim. On October 10 FridaymLall and Shobha went to pick them up from SFO, their flight was in time in the evening. I had kept dinner ready for them. 
They arrived at the expected time and I had been waiting for them. As soon as Saaya saw me I could see the sparkle in her eyes, "hi Dadima" she said and walking faster toward me she extended her arms and gave me a warm hug. Responding to her I also hugged her and said,"welcome to California. The memory of the moment lingers and a smile peeps up on my face. It was as if we were meeting after many years but we just met two months back at their place in Woodbridge, Canada. 
During this period of their visit my on line class with Len Leatherwood was going on and I was a bit tense as I had to submit my assignment and do group comments too. I still couldn't figure out where to post the comments for the particular person I was partnered with that week. It was a four week class and very tense but very useful. 

Next day on Saturday Shobha and Lall took them to the city of San Francisco for the city tour.  At the end of the city tour they were shown Facebook Thumbs up  location in Bay Area. Earlier in the morning they had given me ride to my friend Pangila's house to stay the night and also attend the farewell party at her house in San Jose as she was leaving for India permanently.  
The lunch was organized by KB and her husband Sandeep, and many Naga families also I met. Some of them I met before but mostly new. Niang and Bapcha then, Vung with her daughter Isabel came. Jan couldn't come as her husband was down with pneumonia. 

Pangila Wallang from Nagaland

group picture of Pangila's farewell party.

group photo Pangila's farewell party

 Next day after the party I was ready to leave Pangila's place at 9am as I wanted to join the trip to Monterey and Carmel by the beach. Good that I decided to go with them because some of the places I don't remember going there before.

Saaya and Kim on the way to Monterey

Saaya and Kim

Saaya and Kim

Jamuna Advani near Bixby bridge Carmel, CA

going down to beach near Carmel

in the beach

lunch at the beach

Shobha in front of Coffee shop

coming up from the beach

Saaya and Kim enjoying the view on the beach

Lall and Shobha helped me upload the plants Pangila gave me and also a bottle wine for Lall. Out of the left over I picked up some drinks for the trip and some fruits and nuts. I said goodbye to Pangila and joined the trip to Monterey. As we drove by near the seaside along the coast we could hear Kim expressing oh, oh ahah in excitement. She equally excited going on the windy road as well as the sight of the cottages hanging on the steep side of the hills. we drove about a 45 minutes reaching to Byxby bridge in Carmel where we stopped to enjoy the sight.

on the Monterey beach

Monterey beach

birds sunbathing in Montereybeach

in front of the BubbaGump Restuaarant.

view of Apple's spaceship shape head quarters

on 18th evening Lall managed to take us to the Google and Apple locations and the above photo was taken from the upper floor of the store of the Apple head quarter which looked like spaceship. Then we had gone to Google place led by Sean and Kim had a good time taking picture with Google icon. 

google lover.

On the day their journey back home they started early, Shobha and Lall took then to the Winery at Livermore and lunch at In and Out which was their favorite place. That was the last chance for them to have lunch during this visit. Then lastly they were dropped at the airport for their flight back to Canada on October 19, 2019.