Happy Diwali and Sal Mubarak: Justin in KSO Treks

By Justin Owings on Oct 19, 2009 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Behind us is the Swaminarayan Temple, one of the "top ten largest traditional Hindu Vedic stone temples outside India." Note my rubber-clad toes.

Here I am outside the Temple guarding my firstborn (not pictured, inside the Bob Revolution), trying to look cool, and only managing to look somewhat out of place. Note the festive inflatable play-thingy behind me! Kids were going nuts!

That's Tanmay to my left. Hard to see my Treks here, but just look at that line up to the Mandir!

This past Saturday was Diwali, which is the "Festival of Lights." Diwali is sort of the equivalent of New Year's Eve — it signifies the "new year" by the lunar calendar.

My in-laws are Indian/Hindu so I've had the pleasure of enjoying Diwali for a few years now. It usually involves getting the family together and eating Indian food. Last year, I had the opportunity to experience Diwali in India (here), which we celebrated by shooting off (with little regard for our own safety) an untold number of firecrackers at a family friend's house.

As things would have it, one of those aforementioned family friends happened to be here in the States from India this past weekend. So yesterday, we took Tanmay (far right in the above photo) to one of the "top ten largest traditional Hindu Vedic stone temples outside India," which happens to be located just outside of Atlanta.

The Swaminarayan Temple truly is massive, intricately designed, and somewhat strangely set behind a Walgreen's*. As you can see, there were a huge number of people at the Temple, many of which were waiting in lines to go up and into the Mandir. We elected to just stay outside and enjoy the beautiful, if not a bit brisk, day and check out the Temple grounds.

Anyway, seeing as I was wearing my KSO Treks (with Injinji socks), I figured I'd share the experience with birthdayshoes and wish everyone "Sal Mubarak!" That's "Happy New Year" in Hindi.

* Walgreen's really knows how to get their hands on primo-corner real estate!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 754 articles and 302 comments.