Here is my weekend blog documenting witnessing of lunar eclipse during my morning walk, quiet Saturday night dinner with my parents and extended family at Tatva (newly opened fine dining vegetarian restaurant in the town), enjoying mom’s cooking at our “Villa 369”, along with a 45-second video capsule of making of home-made vegetable spring rolls (despite protest from my mom to not to record), my review of Om Namo Venkatesaya last of kind of genre of movies that can be enjoyed by my peer  generation.  Scroll through the entire blog for full write-up and pics.

I woke up at 5AM with the plan of watching Lunar Eclipse, and potentially red moon, and possibly take few clips during my early morning walk.  However, I finally got out of my bed at 5:45AM.  I took a really long walk away from Indu Fortune Fields to find an open field which is devoid of long sky scrapers, where I could see bit of horizon of the sky, and spotted this moon, just 15 minutes short of completion of Lunar Eclipse. It wasn’t really bright red, and I could take this clip on my 6D

It took Sun, Moon, and Earth to line up in a straight line, for my Mom and Dad to agree on for a sleep over at my home @ Villa 369.   They visit us many times during the year, but always resist for a sleep-over, as they are comfortable at their own home of several decades.  Finally, they made to my home this weekend, as Radhika is out of town on a yoga camp.  Here are few pics and video capsule of my Mom’s home-made veggie spring rolls.

Coincidentally Nagarajuna’s brand new flick “OM NAMO VENKATESEYA” was playing at PVR Screen at next door mall.   I was thrilled because I know my Mom and Dad for sure will like the movie.  So I promptly booked the tickets for them and my Sister & Brother-In-Law. My parents were in full bliss throughout the movie.  Movie is well done, however still not easy to be liked by younger generation. It is in same template as earlier flicks from Nag, i.e, Ramadasu or Annamaya (but with less emotional connect in this version).  I think me and my peers would be the last generation who will encourage this type of movies.  I am told this will be last one in Raghavender Rao and Nag combination.

Nig did really well in the lead character role, and you can easily see the sincerity of devotion in his eyes and expressions.  Saurab Jain who played the role of Vishnu was quite awesome.  Reviews said, he is the best suited for Krishna/Rama/Vishnu after legendary NTR. I agree with it.  You would too.  Check out the below still.   There are two songs which are good and evoke divine emotions in you.  Rest, you won’t remember.  Technical values of the movie was quite impressive.  Movie is shot in awesome locales (or they could have been digitised too).  It’s hard to tell, which one is real vs. digital.  Tirumala Hills looked larger than life.  One would definitely would want to visit Tirupati once again, after watching this movie.  Movie also depicts reasonings behind various rituals performed for the Lord Venkateshara

We ended the evening with a nice quiet dinner at TATVA, brand new fine dining restaurant located on Road Number 36 in Jubilee Hills.  Post the movie, we invited kids to join us for the family dinner.  Contrary to reviews, our experience at Tatva was just about alright. Food tastes very similarly to that of food in 5-star restaurants, which is not a bad thing. However, entire family hoping for a much spicy experience, so were little disappointed. Menu Pricing was on the higher side.  Service was attentive.  We might not visit here again, unless someone else is paying for the dinner :-). Here are few pics from our experience: