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An inspiring visit to Chicago!

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                                                                    We made a quick visit to Chicago!  Sheela, Tara's paternal cousin and her husband Soumitri have been living there for many years. Interestingly Soumitri is also related to Tara! He and Tara's mother are cousins.   They are 96 and 91 years young! In this visit to USA we were drawn to Chicago, especially to meet Tara's uncle, her father's brother, Sheshadri (Gundu) and aunt Swarna (Sonu). They both are in their nineties, and touch wood, they didn't look their age one bit! You will agree with me as you see their picture above!  The evening we reached, an aarthi was performed for Ganapathi. Tara sang a few bhajans, sure enough it included a Marathi prayer and Sonu also joined! I had no idea that she knew Marathi so well. Tara said her memory was amazing and could quote poems and sayings in  both Hindi and Marathi! When we came down next morning, we saw Sonu already active in the kitchen and so was Gun
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Luang Prabang thru pictures.

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Note: Our golf friend Prasanna's recent trip and his pictures and a write up made on his trip to Bhutan reminded me of our trip to Luang Prabhang. Our trip was covered in two blogs! Felt it is easier to share as one blog. Here it is!   Our trip was actually made during Feb. 2009 , a few months  before our move to Bangalore  and not in Feb 2023!! Our trip to Luang Prabang felt very peaceful. While there were more tuktuks and bikes than expected, it was still pollution free. Surprisingly we were stuck in traffic for 20 minutes on our way to the guest house from the airport! People at the guest house were talking about it and it seems about 20 plus cars were stuck in traffic! LP is charming with nice buildings and old Wats (Temples). Absence of high rise buildings makes it very appealing. It surely is ideal for us oldies who like to walk. It is also nice for the young who love trekking, kayaking and other adventure sports. I especially liked the offer to teach us how to be a mahout i
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