The six tastes of life

Today is Ugadi, the Telugu (and Kannada and Marathi) new year. We make Ugadi pachchadi (Ugadi chutney) to signify the six tastes of life: sweet, bitter, sour, vagaru, spice and salt. Today is Rohan's first Ugadi. Already the Indian year in which he was born is past :) Time is flying with large wings!

Here is what my pachchadi looked like this year. They say, whatever taste dominates, your life in the coming year will be that way. And spice definitely dominated my pachchadi today. It was spice in the taste and after-taste ;) So I am looking forward to a spicy life this coming year!

I kept the menu simple this year. Just Raw mango pulihara and dadhojanam :)

Happy Ganesha!

As always, this year too, we made our own Ganesha for the festival. Subhash's work entirely, when he is around I do NOT get to do any aristic work at all, sigh! ;)

I think the Ganesha turned out cute and happy looking :) And the festival went great, our first in this new house, all the more special :)

And after 8 years..

..here it is. A Deepavali in India. Of course, I can't seem to get back the same excitement and enthusiasm as I once had (well, I had to come to work today, so what else do you expect!?) but still, its something. I really wish I was in Hyd, but hey, at least I am in India, Hyd can be made to happen next year :D

We bought the usual, flower pots, sparklers, rockets, pencils bhuchakkars etc. Conspicuously missing were the Lakshmi and Hydrogen bombs. Actually even as a kid/adoloscent I never found much for the bombs. They were solely bought for the purpose of entertaining cousins when they came over to burst crakers. Even if I ever entertained the thought of liking those, it was gone for a toss when this Lakshmi bomb once burst unexpectedly even before I could move away leaving that slight beep in the ear. I thought I lost my hearing that day! And that was it, no bombs for me after that ;) The "sivatapakayas" were the only sort of "bursty" crackers I ever handled.

Apartment had some rules about bursting crackers, saying everyone should do it in one designated spot etc. We started off with sparklers in our balcony for a shagun and then took the rest down and bursted all of them. Then spent some 15 minutes watching everyone else and walked back home, content.

We had on off on Monday because in Karnataka its Monday. Whereas for us Telugu folks its on Tuesday. So today I wore new clothes, a new watch, new slippers etc ;) Office is empty and wears a haunted house look and I wouldn't have come here today if it was not for Subhash's "I have to go to work today" majboori. What to do alone at home, better off at work, at least will meet a few souls around here ;)

Happy Deepavali to all of you! May the coming year bring in loads of happiness.

(Please to wish me back the same ;) )

Ganapathi Bappa comes home again..

..yet another year!

Our apartment complex has been decked and a huge "pandal" put up for the celebrations and puja. This evening, they got a huge idol as well but it was covered so I couldn't catch a glimpse of it while walking back home. Will take some pictures and post them soon.

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi everyone! Here is wishing away all obstacles in your paths!

Diwali!

Tomorrow is Diwali. Counts as my favourite festival. I loved Diwali back home because of

1) Lights
2) Fire crackers
3) Food

not necessarily in that order;)

Each Diwali is painful thinking about how much I am missing. Last year was much better as I got to play with some firecrackers if not a whole bunch thanks to my very good friend Vandana :)

This time Subhash's parents are around. And the lazy me is relying on his mom to make all the goodies :D Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

PHENI!!!!

AND while I am at the subject of DIWALI, I think I will dedicate one post to PHENI. Indeed, I have to, how can a Diwali pass by without it;)

I don't know since when I was in love with it, but I think it was from the time my Mom used to give me Pheni every evening when I was in UKG I think. I should say "since" I was in UKG as I have been eating it ever since. An excerpt from a news article about Hyderabad:

"Pheni is a sweet vermicelli delicacy mainly served during the festival season such as Diwali, Ramadan, and Double Ka Mitha. Hyderabad House, Madinah Hotel, Yusufain Pista House, Café Bahar, 555 Hotel, Paradise, and Bawarchi are some of the local restaurants, which serve Hyderabadi specialties."

Now, since when is Double ka Meetha a festival by itself, I know not;) The guy who wrote that seems to have gotten confused;) But I wanted to be true to that excerpt, so not changing it;)

Hyderabad, the one place I love and Pheni so typical of Hyd. I long to eat Pheni, I haven't had it once in the five years I have been here:( I saw it once in an Indian store at Madison but didn't buy it then, it was too expensive in the eyes of an F1 student:D

So last year, I decided to make Diwali at least somewhat special by eating Pheni, now that I can afford it:D My parents were also here and so was Subhash, so I thought, all the more reason for me to buy it. Diwali is my faaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvorite festival, all the food and the firecrackers:D:D Of course, the new clothes. Ah! How I love festivals, but Diwali is thus far my favorite:D After getting here, even wishing people on Diwali used to seem meaningless, in that we hardly did anything on that day, just get to work and go back home. So I decided to introduce Pheni into the routine. But I was too late last year, I went Pheni hunting only on Diwali evening, and all stores had run out of it. I was so sad that evening, I can't even describe it:(

So this year, I decided I HAVE to make the race with Pheni;)

Subhash and I went to Rajjot for Chat two weeks ago on Friday evening, and I saw Pheni there:D I was so happy, Subhash asked me to buy some right away but I thought, nah, its too early, we can buy it closer to Diwali (not as close as last year though;) ). So this Monday I went to Rajjot directly from work and guess what:((:(( They just ran out of it on Sunday, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:(( waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:(( (Should listen to Subhash, he is far wiser than I am ;) ) I was so disappointed, I wasn't even in the mood to go to the 3-4 nearby stores to check if they had some. I just came right back home. And was sulking..but then today I decided to hunt it down. After all if an Indian store in Mad town could have some, come on, California and especially Sunnyvale, could definitely do better. So I decided to start my hunt during lunch break. I started by asking Google

"Pheni, California" --No use
"Pheni, Diwali" --No use
"Pheni, Sunnyvale" -Nope, sorry! (Now I am getting desperate)
"Where can I find Pheni in Sunnyvale" -Google courteously gave me yet more trash;)

Then I decided this was not the way to go, I decided to call the one dozen Indian stores around my place. I asked Google (maata!) what the number of India Cash and Carry was. I got it and called them.

I asked "Do you have Pheni?".
The lady that answered said "Pheni? (now I am getting flustered, so do I have to explain yet again, what Pheni is?), Yes (Yay!!!!!!!!!)".

Then I wanted to be more certain, I could not believe I hit jackpot on the first try, I still remember last year of the one dozen stores I hunted for Pheni, I had to explain to at least 4-5 of them about what Pheni was in the first place;)

So I asked " Do you have a lot on stock?" Can you believe me, how desperate tsk tsk tsk, I hate to think what that lady thought of me;)
She said " Yes".
I said "Ok thanks a lot;)" and then I changed my Yahoo status to:

"I hope that Pheni lasts till I can go buy some [-o<" --The last part is the "Praying" emoticon on Yahoo!;)

So much for Pheni. I am thinking, should I just go buy it now during lunch without waiting for the evening?:D But I am being a little wiser than that. So till evening....

I hope it lasts!!

Diwali Mela..

I thought, while I am at the subject of Indians around the world, let me pen this as well.

When it comes to Indians living in the US, no place beats California:D When I moved here a year-and-a-half back from Wisconsin (huh! Dairy State!) I remember how shocked I was to see the sheer number of Indians. Haven't forgotten the time either when Subhash just came to the US, on his first evening here I took him around and he was shocked to see the percentage of non-desis here, he was like I can see more non-desis in Bangalore than here:))

Its been almost two years now, and I was beginning to think I have seen it all. The desis working behind counters at airport, working at Macy's, all the second, third and fourth gen desis etc etc. It was slowly stopping to surprise me when something entirely unseen before hit me! Subhash and I were driving by Cupertino to get my music books for the piano class. On Steven's Creek Blvd, we saw this huge DIWALI banner across the street just like the ones you find in Hyd advertising the MLAs we must vote for;) "Veerike mee Votu" types. We were so shocked to see it. DIWALI banners on streets, ok what is next?:)) Astonish me Bay Area!:D

I still can't get over that one, the big letters spelling DIWALI and that banner bang in the middle of the upscale Stevens Creek Blvd, made our day!;)

Vinayaka Chavithi, 2006

This year for Vinayaka Chavithi, I decided to be inspired:D I took inspiration from Kaumudi, who has been making her own idols for the last three years, four including this one:) Here are some pictures of my idol:)



Here is Subhash just before the Puja looking absolutely cute:D



And here is our setup after the puja:)


And here is our prasadam:D Yumm!!!

My first try at Mehndi;)

It is "Ashadha Masam" and it is customary for us to apply "Gorintaku" during this month. So on the wise advise of Kaumudi, I went to the store and got a cone. It was my first time at attempting anything with a mehndi cone and the amateur came up with the following;)

I did most of the right hand myself, with the exception of a few expert designs from Subhash on the back of my hand (the butterflies and the circles near the peacock;) ). The whole of my left hand was his piece of art:)

The peacock looks like its draped in a shawl but what the heck! Its my own design;)