Easter Egg Hunt

After BA's addition to our family, we are making an extra effort to follow cultural and religious traditions. When we were in India, this meant eating plenty of good food (why, what did you think following religious traditions meant ;-)?) during various festivals. Now, in the US, we continue to mark the Indian festivals. In addition, we try to attend various American cultural events as well. Thus, it was going for the fireworks displayfor 4th of July (a bad idea in retrospect. Infant BA was startled by the loud noise and cried non-stop for the entire 15-minute display), selecting a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch for Halloween, shopping for Christmas, I mean photo with the mall Santa for Christmas and so on.

This month was the turn of the Easter Egg hunt. I got a notification that our local park had an Easter Egg hunt and we decided to go. We have never been to an egg hunt before and we had no idea what it entailed. Still, taking BA to a place filled with children seemed like something he would enjoy and so, on to the Easter Egg Hunt (EEH) it was.

The EEH was on a Saturday. It was supposed to start at 10am. S and I made mega plans to leave the house at 8.30a so that we could find parking and then be well on time for the EEH. Nice, solid plan, no?

Only hitch was, we got up only at 8am and by the time all of us were fed, watered and dressed, it was 9.30am when we left the house. We found parking fairly easily and walked at a fast pace towards the EEH area.

We could see that the area had been demarcated for kids of various age groups. We made a beeline for the under-2 area. It was 10.03am when we entered that area. We looked around and saw clusters of toddlers and parents sitting around collections of plastic eggs.

Hmm - where had they got all the eggs from? There were absolutely no eggs to be spotted on the ground other than what the other families were already holding on to. We walked around the area just to make sure. Yup - no eggs, zilch, nada.

S and I were feeling vaguely disappointed. BA on the other hand kept racing around and stopped by the various families, curiously observing them. One such family saw his empty hands, smiled and handed him a plastic egg. BA after examining it for 30 seconds handed to us and continued racing around. I opened the egg with great curiosity and saw a tiny eraser, the "gift" in it. Oooooh - this is what an egg retrieved during the egg hunt would look like.

Then another couple with a toddler girl spotted us laughing about the eggless state of the ground and said,"Yeah, the eggs were gone as soon as the whistle went off at 10am. We were just parking our bicycles and by the time we got in 'poof - no eggs'". Finally - we at least knew what had happened. We had been late!

At 10.15a, the volunteers started packing up the dividers. By 10.20 other than an occasional flapping sign, there was no sign that there had been an egg hunt. We picked our empty-but-for-one-egg bag which we had brought along in lieu of a basket for the hunt (ha ha ha) and made our way to the face painting area. From there it was back to the car. As we walked, I looked at my sport shoes, specially worn for the egg-hunting occasion. Really - what exactly did I think an egg hunt for a toddler would entail that I would need to wear sport shoes?

Still - it was a fun experience overall. If not anything else, it has taught us to never be late for an egg hunt. Good lesson to learn *before* finding no eggs on a hunt starts mattering to BA!

Happy New Year!

Chai in a earthenware tumbler that I bought at a handicraft fair over the weekend:

Wah - chai!

So cute - I know!

How are New Year wishes connected to tea you ask. Well, drinking tea makes me happy and comforts me too. My wish for you for this new year is: May you not face any trouble this year that cannot be eased by drinking a steaming cup of strong chai (or insert your favorite drink with appropriate adjectives).

Happy New Year folks and here's to your hopes and dreams coming true in 2012! *clink*

Only in India

For the past three days, celebration (read, eating plenty of yummy food) has been in full swing in honor of Pongal, the harvest festival.

I ate sugarcane today after eons. I still remember the days of yore when we kids used to spread plenty of newspapers on the ground and then seat ourselves in a circle around them and chew and spit the sugarcane husks away to glory. This was probably a negative calorie activity since tearing away the sugarcane's outer layer, chewing the inner layer, spitting the husk out and navigating through the sugarcane eyelets (kanu) used to be quite energy-consuming. This was the macho (and time intensive) way of eating the sugarcanes - the cut and cleaned pieces were for sissies. We kids used to enjoy this ritual a lot and it was one of the highlights of Pongal.

Today, maattu (cow) pongal day, as I stuffed yet another vada into my mouth at my parents' place, I was thinking about how Pongal has mostly lost its significance for urban dwellers. After all, hardly anyone living in a city is tending to farms in their backyards that they can give thanks to their hardworking farm-animals or for a bountiful harvest. Still, considering that Pongal comes with its share of festival food and celebrations, I really was not complaining too much.

Later in the night, as S and me set off home, we bade good bye to my parents and took the elevator downstairs. We were about to walk out of the building when the strangest sight met our eyes. Standing outside the building was a cow and her calf!

The cow had tiny bells tied to its horns. Both the cow and the calf looked resplendent in the silk clothes covering them and the garlands of flowers and glittering paper hanging around their necks. In front of them stood one of the ladies of the apartment complex, venerating them with aarti as the animal-caretaker looked on.

So what if we can't give thanks to our own cows? Just rent-a-cow :-)! Still, it was great to see maattu pongal being celebrated in its true spirit!

There is still one more day of Pongal left tomorrow. So:

Wish you a very Happy Pongal!

I'm waiting

Now I know what I have been missing for the past nine years:
(in no particular order)

• Deciding what fireworks to order.
• Planning for the arrival of guests.
• Happily braving the crowds to get new clothes shopping done.
• Visiting sweet shops buzzing with activity, busy handling advance orders.
• Seeing offers on sugar, ghee and other such groceries so that the ladies of the house can get a head-start on the sweets and snacks prepartion.
• Reading newspapers filled with pages and pages of special offers.
• Navigating through temporary platform shops selling mud lamps.
• Watching TV inundated with ads hawking everything from sarees and veshtis to discounts for refrigerators and TVs.
• Feeling the festive spirit all around, Indian style!

Yes, Deepavali is fast approaching! I can barely wait! So much so, I am even eagerly waiting to get up at 4.00am to have the traditional oil bath. Really.

Yes, it feels great to be home for Deepavali!

Ayutha Pooja

Happy Ayutha Pooja!

Remember the part about being in India to celebrate festivals that I had written about in my moving to India post? Here's one of the whys:

That's the absolutely delicious home-cooked Ayutha Pooja special lunch at parents' place today. Shown in pic: Medu vada, sundal, beans usili, arbi fry, sankegourd kootu, potato pal-curry, poori and appalam. Not shown dal, sambhar, rasam, rice, curds and payasam.

Burp!

Onam

One of the best things about marrying a person from a different regional background is that you get to celebrate more than the usual number of festivals to honor traditions from both regions. Other than learning about different customs you also get to eat more than the usual amount of yummy festival food.

So guess who is mighty thrilled that it is Onam today? Me, me, me! My very first Onam celebration - yaay! In the morning I prised my eyes open earlier than usual so I could go and asist my niece in drawing the "Poo-kolam". We had a great time decorating the floor with flowers - finally, lamps were also lit.

Looks gorgeous or what?

Besides dosas/chutney/kurma, these are the Onam special dishes I had for breakfast. Unniappams (those small puffed ovals) are something I have never had before - they are very tasty.

I had a super yummy lunch as well. Burp. And oh, I am dressed in the traditional Kerala cream-colored saree. Yup, my cup of joy overfloweth :-D!

Happy Onam to all :-)!

p.s. Though S is technically a Malayali, he was born and brought up in Tamilnadu. So he is more Tam than Mallu. But happily for me, all the principal cooking members are true-blue Mallus - hehehhe.

August 15

For the past few weeks, the newspapers, TVs and radios are filled with special Independence day offers. I have also spotted Independence day decorations at various commercial establishments. Of course, special Independence day TV programs are lined up on the various TV channels with a much longer line-up of sponsors for those various programs.

What a far cry from the days when Independence day meant dragging yourself out of bed on a holiday just so that you could have the pleasure of seeing a "Chief-guest" hoisting the national flag at school followed by the highlight of the day: a single piece of candy doled out to each of the captive students once the flag hoisting and the national-anthem singing was done.

It has been thundering and raining out here in Chennai since morning today. Ain't I glad those going to school days are behind me! Instead, I can wrap my hands around a warm mug of chai and cozily settle down to watch the Independence day advertisements and their attendant programs on TV.

Happy Independence Day :-)!

2010 is here ...

Wishing you a wonderful year ahead filled with all possible joy, happiness and prosperity!

*clink*

Pic courtesy here.

Wishes

Some parts of the world are already in 2009. 2008 is fast slipping away in California too. Time to bid 2008 adieu *sniff* and give 2009 a warm welcome *yaaay*.

Wishing you a wonderful 2009. May all your dreams come true. May you have lots of health, wealth, happiness, food, sleep, vacations etc. etc. in the year to come.

Happy New Year!

Wishes

Happy Diwali :-)! May your Diwali be sweet, sparkling and wonderful!

Diwali special:

Tamil colleague stopped by my desk and whispered, "This is for you" as she handed over a ziploc bag with homemade murukku and laddoo in it. She then apologetically added, "Keep it out of sight - I brought stuff only for you!" My face lit up like a thousand lamps as I grinned back my thanks :-)!

Three of us decided on an impulse to put our noon lunches into the fridge and head to Saravana Bhavan for lunch instead as a Diwali treat. The rava dosas/parathas we ordered was awesome. But what totally made the day was when a waiter, in spite of protesting that all complimentary Diwali sweets had already been distributed the previous day, still showed up with three cups of fresh, awesome-tasting kesari, because you know, "You folks asked!" Yup, it was for free.

Happy Diwali again folks :-)!

Picture from here.

Freedom

Happy Independence Day!

I am wearing green clothes, white slippers, kinda-orangy earrings and blue hair-clips. My parents said that unless I wore signs pointing to the latter two, no one is going to notice it. Ah well, its the thought that counts! A few of us desis from work are planning to grace an Indian restaurant for lunch later today.

Dressing up and eating is a quintessential part of any Indian celebration. And I am proud to be doing both for I-day :-D.

What are you doing?

p.s. anyone who says stuff like, "O - I am going to do social service", "I am speaking for India in the UN" and similar stuff will be whacked - hmph.

Mickey Blue Eyes

I have never been a huge Hugh Grant fan (though I loved him in About a boy). Today I finished watching Mickey Blue Eyes. The movie by itself is a total timepass watch. But man, Hugh Grant is super funny. He is the best thing about the movie.

I was howling with laughter while watching one of the scenes where suave, proper Englishman Hugh Grant tries to learn to speak like an Italian gangster because he has been introduced as Little Big Mickey Blue Eyes (!?!) from Chicago to some members of the mafia. To spread the joy, I started to hunt for the clip. And guess what, the good old ever-dependable youtube had the entire sequence.

Spoiler warning: this sequence is perhaps the best in the entire movie. If you have not watched Mickey Blue Eyes before and plan to, don't watch. If you do watch the clip, the best bits are right towards the end. Enjoy!



And oh, Happy Pongal to everyone :-)!

As the year winds down...

I am off to Seattle in a couple of hours. The paranoid person that I am, I have packed my entire collection of winter clothes (plus a collection of summer clothes to wear under them - more layers are better, no?) after hearing reports of snow there. When I looked at all the stuff I had gathered to be packed, I felt like I was packing to move out of my apartment :-)!

After the longest time, I actually have check-in baggage while traveling local. To think that all this drama is for a matter of four measly days - heheheh :-)!

See ya all next year! May the year 2008 be the bestest year of your life yet :-)!

Happy New Year folks :-D!

Be good and safe on New Year's eve!

Benefits of blogging - updated

Remember that tag I did sometime back? An "interview" about my blog? This one? Well, it had a question in it:

Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

I gave some response at that time. But now I think I have the correct answer to the question: Blogging gets me homemade polis :-D!

Here is how:

A few days ago, conversation on gchat between fun blogger Rads and me went like this (English translation of Tamil phrases in italics):

Rads: oy
howdy do
i made polis ;)

me: Good good :-)
enakku venum :-( (I want some too)

Rads: bobbattus = bolis

me: can you fedex some over?
pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaseeeee

Rads: sure
address tha (give your address)

me: aiii nejamaava :-D? (yippeee, really?)

Rads: yes re
address give
yea

me: ooooooooh super cool
aiii (yippeeee)

Rads: give giev :)

me: wait me sending address immediately

**********

Sure enough, yesterday in my mail box, I found a USPS package with Rads' return address on it. In a super sweet gesture, Rads had actually sent the polis I had asked for :-)! I broke into a huge grin and opened it. Inside were nestled three delicious polis :-). They taste absolutely super-duper delicious. Thank you so much Rads :-D!

I tell ya, if blogging is indirectly giving me such yummy returns, I should seriously consider taking it up full time ;-D!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays folks :-)!

How to easily get compliments

Simple! Wear desi clothes to work. Today is the first time I have worn a salwar-kameez to work. The occasion? Diwali, of course!

I have bumped into three people since morning. And I got "Oh, you look beautiful", "This is so nice", "You look so pretty". Heheheheh :-D!

Ah, the perks of working in a country where the salwar-kameez is not daily wear ;-)!

Oh yes, Happy Diwali folks :-D!

Sculpture

It's that time of the year again. Pumpkin carving time. It is pretty easy to figure out which day the carving needs to be done. The residence neighborhood looks black & orangey, the candy availability in the office reaches epic proportions and I am saddled with a pumpkin when I am exhausted and ready to hit the bed. Yeah, it happens every year without fail.

So last night was the night. When I finally found the time to carve, it was already past 10.30pm. I started to debate whether the carving effort was worth it and then realized: who was I kidding? Since I had already bought the pumpkin, I would wind up doing it anyways - else I would feel guilty!

Mercifully, this year I had printed out some stencils (yes, my original Halloween stencil book has disappeared forever - sigh). So I did not have to do any amateur stencil-art myself. Also, after my treasure hunt of last year, I had learnt my lesson and had put the carving tools in safe place I still remembered. All I had to do was carve. I was set!

At the end of a well-breaked hour and a half, this is what I had:

Does this help?

I won second place at the pumpkin-carving contest at work :-D! More than the winning, I was thrilled that I had managed to take the pumpkin to work and back without breaking the carved pattern off (believe me, if there is a way to screw up something, I can manage it).

Then this happened in the evening: I was showing off my pumpkin to my friend K. He looked at the pumpkin and said "Oh, a ghost?" and then, interested in a closer look, touched it. The next moment, there was a loud snapping sound and my poor ghost's legs (do ghosts have legs - what is the bottom portion called?) had broken away from the frame. So much for all my careful handling. K was highly embarrassed and apologized profusely. But I was too busy laughing. Looks like I am not the only one who is adept at messing up :-D!

It's almost gone. Still, Happy Halloween. And here's to a couple more months of uninhibited bingeing :-)!

San Diego - 2007 edition

Revisited. Two weeks ago.

The yumm moment
Cafe 222 is alive and well. I re-realized all over again why I love that place so much. The coffee was very nice. The 30 minute wait did not seem unreasonable at all. The pecan waffle was wow. As were the eggs benedict and the french toast (yes, two of us ordered three main dishes. The waiter automatically closed his note-pad after writing down the first two orders. It was rather embarrassing to tell him we were not done ordering yet). BTW, Cafe 222's french toasts taste good as a cold leftover too :-)!

The patriotic moment
Balboa park has a bunch of international "houses" - each representing a country from the Pacific Relations alliance. Try as we might, we could not locate the "House of India". However, C spotted her country's house and had a patel picture taken there. As a consolation, I got a picture taken in front of a rose-bush with huge roses instead. Don't ask me how roses are related to India - when it comes to posing for pictures, something is better than nothing, no :-D?

The ah-ha moment
Happened when I walked into the sea at Mission Beach. When the first wave lapped at my feet, I felt like I had attained nirvana. I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear, euphoric and ready to burst with joy. Five minutes later, I still couldn't stop grinning.

In my head, I was jumping around like these kids:


In reality though, I managed to maintain a more dignified stance. But for the broad smile which remained etched on my face :-)!

The nostalgic moment
La Jolla - Same place, same beauty, same take-my-breath-away vistas.



This time around, the weather was awesome - quite unlike the clouds and rains of last year. Still, as I stood on the jetty, I terribly missed both S and A - my companions of last year's San Diego travel edition. We three make an unbeatable traveling trio. Their presence would have made San Diego even more awesome.



The self-appreciation moment
By the time we left San Diego, I had a pretty decent idea about where each place we went to was located w.r.t. the hotel/airport and the general direction to take to get there. I read maps with the confidence of a pro and I re-routed with the expertise of a Magellan. Go explorer :-D!

The funny moment
"The red bus goes to the various terminals". C and me read that sign and stood at the bus shelter in the San Diego airport, waiting for the arrival of the red bus. A red and blue colored bus appeared. But it was not going to the terminals. Ours was supposed to be a red bus. Then a completely white-colored bus appeared. "White? Naaah - our bus is supposed to be red in color". We both were about to turn away when we noticed the bold lettering on top of the bus: "RED BUS". We both collapsed into laughter as we boarded the bus. The next time my favorite white top is in the wash, I am going to wear another top and put a post-it note on it stating "Favorite white top." You reckon it would work :-P?

Yes folks, San Diego continues to rock. As always :-).

****

Happy 60th Independence Day :-)))!

Socket Science

Sometime last week, one of the electrical sockets in my bedroom stopped working. Now, that particular socket is the one the music system in my room is plugged into. I was very disappointed about not being able to listen to music in the room.

Amidst lots of confusion at work, I finally managed to make maintenance request to my apartment Manager on Thursday last week. She said she would send someone to fix it on Monday (yesterday).

Last evening, when I entered my apartment, I remembered about the socket - ah, if they had fixed it, I should be able to listen to music in my room again, yaaay :-)! I looked at the entrance to my room and sure enough, a maintenance info-sheet tag was hanging on the door knob.

I could distinguish some faint notes on the sheet. Oh no, maybe this was a big problem and would take some more time to fix. I peered closely. This is what the lines said:

Need to turn switch on above your bed. Thank you.

All I can say in my defence is the switch is on a wall entirely different from the one where the socket is located. And I have never before had to turn on any switches for the socket to work for the 1+ years I have stayed in this apartment.

I was so embarassed. Still, it did not stop me from collapsing with laughter :-D!

*****************

Happy Pongal, all :-)!

Yaaay, 2007!

Happy New Year :-D!

2006 sure went zooming by - can't believe I am already in 2007! I thought I should do a recap of 2006, but really, what with old age and all, I am unable to remember most of it without putting in some amount of work and you know lazy me :-P. The one thing I DO remember without effort is that I travelled a lot in 2006 and I loved it. Hehehehe - that was a quick recap :-)!

I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned
.
.
.
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

These lyrics are a part of Natasha Bedingfield's song Unwritten which often plays on my local radio station. I love the lyrics and the singer has done a great job of singing the song. The lyrics are kind of appropriate for the New Year with its promise of a brand new start, don't you think :-)?

Today, I made the mistake of hunting out the song's video on youtube. Ladies and gentlemen, *drum roll*, here is yet another example of how a perfectly nice song can have terrible picturization:

I think I could have stood it better if it did not feature a smirking Natasha Bedingfield. Oh well, lets be thankful that she is still focussed on her singing career and has not decided to become an actress yet (as far as I know).

As I was saying, Happy New Year all :-D!

Update:

Alert blog-reader Deepthi has brought it to my attention that the above video is not Natasha Bedingfield's video. In the highly unlikely case you are reading this blog (hehehehe), sorry Natasha for my earlier rude remarks! I think this is the original video:

p.s. While is way, way, way better than the other video, I still think it could have been even better. Oh well, some day, when I write my own song :-P!

'Tis the season

... to stuff yourself.

I went to the office kitchen after lunch to fetch a cup of coffee. There was a small crowd around the table in the kitchen-center. The reason was soon evident - the table was sagging under the weight of delicious looking cookies, candies, chocolates, crackers, cheese and nuts - someone's gesture of appreciation.

Within a space of a few seconds, without even consciously stopping to think about it, I had joined the crowd and had stuffed myself with a yummy mint chocolate rock, a very sticky but super yummy English candied toffee and a butter cookie stuffed with fudge.

Self-control, where art thou? Apparently it is with all the people who religiously stick to salads and always daintly refuse anything which remotely resembles real food.

But ah, really happy people eat real food* :-D - and I am a really happy girl 0:-). That's why I am especially glad that this is just the beginning of the goodie deluge.

Enjoy the season folks :-)!

* I concede - I so totally made that aphorism up. But it sounds true, doesn't it :-P?