Maithry Onam committee had been formed and the kickoff meeting had been held. The committee had agreed on a date and venue!

Maithry's Onam'09 celebrations will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at the Santa Clara High School cafeteria and theater.

We are planning to have the Onam Sadya from 11:30 - 1 PM. (Please note, the sadya will end promptly at 1 PM, and the cafetaria doors will be closed at that time for cleanup. It is highly encouraged that everyone who plans to participate in the Sadya get there on time!)

Cultural programs will be held at the theater starting at 2 PM. After the cultural programs we will have an opportunity for some more mingling at the Maithry Social Hour with tea and parippuvada!

At our last Onam program we had such a great help from all the volunteers and we are looking forward to even better enthusiastic response and support from all Maithry members. Please contact the Onam'09 committee and enlist for volunteering.

An evite (invitation) had been sent to all Maithry (primary) members' email IDs as shown in the Maithry Address Book in our Yahoo-group. Please accept the evite, and make sure to include the number of adults and children in your party. Don't forget to add the children's ages as well. If you haven't received the evite, check your spam-folder. Please make sure your contact details are current in the address book. Also, please send an email to the Onam'09 committee to have your email included in the list.

The Onam'09 committee is looking up to the Maithry community to help identify potential sponsors for this event. If you or your friends have leads, please pass them on to the committee.

Maithry Onam'09 committee can be reached at onam09@yahoogroups.com

Updates:

For those of us who are interested in signing up for presenting items at the cultural/databases will be open on 6/23/09 at 8 PM. The links to the signup forms will be provided below.

I am sure some Maithry members may be interested in visiting Yosemite National Park. This spring and summer the park is going to be awesome with great waterfalls due to this season's abundant snow fall. Make sure to take the family and spend and enjoy the beauty.

Although there are accommodations outside the park, I highly recommend staying within Yosemite. Accommodations range from campgrounds where you pitch your own tent, unheated canvas tent cabins, heated cabins, standard hotel rooms to luxorious 4-star accommodations at the Ahwahnee and Wawona Hotels. Bed and breakfast options are available too.

If you are considering staying inside Yosemite, make reservations as early as possible. They accept reservations upto one year in advance. You can cancel it without penalty upto 7 days before check-in date.

Reservations (upto 361 days in advance) can be made via http://yosemitepark.com/ or by calling 801-559-5000 (call wait times can be long, so try the online booking!) You can cancel upto 30 days prior to checkin to get a full refund, so plan ahead and make a reservation.

If you have any questions, please respond to this blog post. We do have several people in Maithry familiar with the park who can assist you.

Please note, the park can be very crowded on July 4th weekend (and summer in general), so plan your visit accordingly! The best time to visit the park is in the spring, (May and early June) as that is when the waterfalls are full due to melting snow.

For kids, there are Junior Ranger programs. Call ahead and get them enrolled. Kids always love these. There are ranger-led hikes too, for families and individuals.

Park has a $20 vehicle entrance fee that is valid for 7 days. We can also get annual passes.

If your party has a senior citizen, who is a resident of the USA, for $10 they get a lifetime National Parks pass that enable them to enter all US National Parks for free! Since the pass is for the vehicle in which the senior citizen travels, load up that minivan and go visit our national parks! (We have used it visit Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion etc.)

Make sure to follow all the rules of the park, and go have fun!!

Video of Yosemite in summer: http://vimeo.com/3921179

MAITHRY KARAOKE/SOCIAL NIGHT @ MAYURI CUISINE

WEDNESDAY, NOV., 26 2008 (night before Thanksgiving Day) 

MAYURI CUISINE, 2230 El Camino Real, Santa Clara CA 95050 

Maithry Family got together at Mayuri restaurant to spend an evening to socialize and sing some songs and have a good time. We had great food and had fun chatting with other Maithry members.  Maithry notes our appreciation to Mayuri Cuisine, who have been enthusiastically sponsoring Maithry's Onam and Christmas/New Year events, and for providing the food and facilities for this event.

The highlight of the evening was the Malayalam Musical Quiz program by Anil Nair. Anil incorporated songs from the 80's, 90's and from recent years and had everyone enthusiastically participating. The audience participation was great! The karaoke singers then sang Malayalam and Hindi songs and thrilled the crowd.

We hope to organize more such events in the future. If you are interested in participating in the organizing committee, or if you have ideas on putting together a unique and exciting show, please send email to the Maithry moderators.

Song by Diva from Kuttappan on Vimeo.