A Halloween Encounter

My 3 year old had a lot of fun in school, a day filled with a snack party, the parade and a bucketful of treats. He was finally home taking a break with his favorite snack - milk & cookies. 

Just then, there was a knock at the door and out there stood little heros & princesses ready for some treats. There was excitement at both ends.. Ansh scooped out a bunch of candy bars for each kid & I had to slow him down to handing out 3-4 to each.  Next thing I knew he was all ready to head out himself! 

We excitedly visited our neighbors and a few other homes. He even offered candy to other kids walking by. His innocence at the concept of sharing treats tugged at my heart. After a brief stint around the block I convinced him to head home to add some layers as it was getting cooler. That was when the most exciting encounter happened.  

Down the road came a police car and Ansh instantly waved it down. The officer waved back & stopped. As he rolled down his window Ansh greeted him with "You are just like me!!!". The officer laughed and got out saying, "I sure am, I must get a picture with you." Yes, my little dude was dressed  as one of his favorite heros - a cop

The officer handed me his phone and posed next to Ansh. Ansh in the meanwhile was busy observing all the artifacts the cop carried. The officer was super nice and waited patiently till Ansh was still and posed looking into the camera. Finally he willingly sucumbbed to Ansh's ruthless interrogation.

Ansh with Officer Hunt

A gist of the curious conversation, 

Ansh - why don't u have a badge like me 

Cop - I have another uniform with the badge. Right now am wearing a vest with lot of pockets filled with stuff

Ansh - Why do u have scissors (somehow he noticed them in one of the officers  many pockets)

Cop - for medical emergencies. If someone is hurt, I need to cut off their t-shirt 

Ansh - nooo u don't do that; a doctor does 

Cop - <smiles> well cops do a lot of things to help when there is an emergency 

Ansh - <making a dejected face> I don't have a gun like u 

Cop - you don't need one, that's what I am around for

Ansh - why are u here

Cop - to keep an eye on little guys like you and watch out for bad guys

Ansh - u keep us safe? When I become big I will be just like u and get a gun. 

Cop - you don't really need a gun, the radio is good. You can always call me. 

Ansh - Where is your partner? Can I ride with you? 

(Short while ago he had asked if he can go for treats alone and I had explained how cops have partners to watch their back. I was his partner and so we had to be together) 

Cop - how old are u?

Ansh - I am just 3 but I will be strong when I am big... right mommy?

Me - <smile back & nod>

Cop - <smiles> I ride alone but would be good to have a partner; maybe once you are bigger you can ride along

Ansh - <holds out bucket> do you want some candy 

Cop - oh thank you for asking, but you should keep it 

Ansh - you know my dad is not here, he is working

Cop - Aah, let me tell you a secret. I am working too but since I live in town, I can go and watch my kids trick-or-treating during my rounds. 

I started thanking the officer for spending so much time and answering the whole lot of questions; but Ansh tugged at me saying... "he is my friend, let me talk mommy"

Finally it was time for goodbyes and Ansh relayed his final message "You keep us safe ok. If there are bad guys in my house I will call you... You have to come and  rescue me!"

Whispers to me, "Can I give him a hug?"

Me - of course

Ansh - and a kissi 

Me - <smiling> sure, do ask him though

Ansh - <excited & loud> can I give you a hug & kissi???

Cop - of course!!!
And they tumbled into a bear hug 

Two very happy and excited boys headed off in opposite directions. And then there was  me... the happy hen who couldn't stop smiling watching her chick clucking away in joy about the whole encounter. 

Thanksgiving - adopting a tradition

I had never grasped what Thanksgiving meant for the Americans before I arrived in the US.

On Thurs evening of 2007 when I wandered around the streets of Manhattan, for the first time I noticed a difference. Restaurants closed, stores shut down and the only people on the streets were few tourists! Living in close proximity of Manhattan, most of my weekends are spent haunting these very same streets. I have  always found a large mass of people walking around, sometimes actually suffocating me

So it struck - it is indeed a big deal! One day in the entire year when people travel long distances to be home with family. If you go to an airport on Wed night you are sure to see hoards of people all around rushing from one end to the other rushing to catch a flight.

So here I was with my hubby at 10 pm, no plan in our heads continuing to wander around aimlessly when we saw a group of people... No no!!! A queue of people with tents, sleeping bags and every possible equipment that would help them get thro' the night. Atleast 60 odd souls were comfortably camped on a sidewalk outside Bestbuy, one of the famous electronic stores.

Yes that's the other thing Thanksgiving is about. Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with family and get in the line for the Friday early morning door busters  when the stores open at 5 am with an abundance of deals. You don't think, just grab lift and rush to purchase. A split sec lost means the object lost

So what did we do? Of course joined in the line! No preparation, nothing to keep us warm on that chilly November night. Just the company of each other and all the strangers who over the duration of the night became good friends. We shared jokes stories and even early morning coffee

But dawn broke out, the doors opened and none of our 'friends' were to be seen. It was a mad scene with everyone rushing into the store. Yes annually there are variety of incidents all over the country - stampede, shooting, use of pepper spray and more.

What did we pick? Two totally non required cameras, just because we got a good deal! Yes that's what it actually ends up being for most. "Is there a deal? well we gotta get it"

Have we made Black Friday early morning shopping a tradition? No! Not that part of Thanksgiving...

Diwali Festivities

Goa - the land of booze and partying with its vast beaches and swinging coconut trees is what comes to everyone's mind. Ask a Goan and they will tell you of the traditions, cultures which strongly bind the people together. Various festivals are celebrated by people of different religions in harmony. Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Id, Christmas... are all celebrated with the same enthusiasm all across

Being outside Goa and India, the urge to celebrate each festival in the exact way as done at home becomes stronger. Its one of the ways to feel at home away from home

Diwali in Goa is synonymous with Narkasur, Fov (Pohe), lots of festival sweets & snacks, akashdivo (latern) and of course crackers!

In the US, of course there is no Narkasur to see on Diwali eve nor crackers to burst. Diwali festivities begin a fews days earlier with the preparation of various snacks like shankarpali, chivda etc Every year I try to add a new item to my list of snacks and this year it was besan ladoo.

Another attraction of diwali is the Akashdivo or latern which hangs in the the balcony. Everyone gets really creative and a variety of colorful Akashdive are seen hanging in the balcony of every house

five varieties of fov & various snacks

On Diwali morning it is a busy busy time! Its the day of cleansing and getting refreshed. A good oil massage followed by application of uthane (uptan) which makes you feel refreshed and smell heavenly.

An inviting breakfast table welcomes you which is laid with all the snacks prepared in advance and freshly prepared varieties of fov (pohe) - dudhatle, rosatle, dhayatle, suke & batata pohe.
This year since I had visited India few weeks before; there was a lot of stuff I had carried back too. So it was a wonderful heavily laid table.

Usually back in Goa Chana usal & Ambadyachi karam are part of the menu. However we are not big fans of the usal and its been impossible to find Ambade hence we have always skipped the two dishes.

Ovalni tat

Prior to having the breakfast comes the ovalni. All of the family stands in a straight line and the eldest lady in the house does the ovalni (aarti) of each member. In return she receives gifts from each one.

Lighting in the balcony

After breakfast its time to get busy cooking lunch however the number of dishes made for breakfast take me quite a while and we always end up having a late breakfast.

Well of course it has gotten quite better over time. It's the 4th year now that we are celebrating Diwali in the US. I can never forget the first time though. I was all excited to celebrate but didn't have the slightest idea how to make any of the dishes. Calling up home and making lots of notes about each ritual, ceremony and dish did the trick except absolute no idea of quantity of food which resulted in enough fov to last couple of days!

Yet its become a sort of a tradition to skip lunch and go out to have an early dinner. So I get enough time to put a nice rangoli on the doorstep. At the time of dusk, all the lights in the house and well as the lighting on the balcony is switched on giving a colorful and festive look to the house. Diwali night warrants for oil lamps to be placed outside though I have adapted to placing tealight candles in my little mud lamps.



Diwali - a festival of lights, color and good food! What more can one ask for

Sunrise atop Fuji-san

After a long time a new adventure to share with you all; our adventure of this weekend - climbing Fuji-san a fond reference by Nihonjins!!!

We took 8:00 Hrs to climb with about 4 halts of 1/2 hr hence though we started at 8:30 in the evening on Saturday, we reached the summit at 6am in the morning on Sunday. It was a good climb at a normal pace initially but the last 100 metres was the longest because of the narrow path and huge crowd! It was a challenge to put even one foot ahead. The climb of the mountain is pretty steep with dusty stony paths and proper rock climbing in between. Couple of times I was worried I might slip off but luckily there were no such incidents for anyone of us. But it was indeed scary with no lights except the headlamps each one was carrying. And to add to it, it rain too which luckily subsided sooon… The cold and biting wind was another issue. So overall experienced all types of weather in one night! To ensure an enjoyable climb u need to be really well prepared, n prepared rgt, not overdo it nor under-do it! No point carrying more than u are able too ;)

At the top the crater of Mt Fuji is spectacular and HUGE! Probably as large has half our Infosys campus or maybe more, not sure! I didn't feel tiredness or any other sort of problems while climbing but once on top after sitting there for  sometime the cold and thinness of the sudrrounding air became felt. A slight dizziness also came over which made me feel I am NEVER going to climb down :)). We sat on top for about 2.5 hrs while the others arrived one by one and then started the descent of 4 hours. This was easy but a bit tricky since it was a steep slope over which you could rush down but had to maintain balance to avoid toppling down and reaching the base in minutes ;). But once we started and the momentum caught on it was really easy and fast. The only goal was to reach down and that too as soon as possible. We didn't even rest except for a few mins here and there…

Finally reached down by 12:30 and then waited for the bus back which we got only at 2:15! This was the most trying time. Completely covered with dirt, tired, lack of sleep sitting and waiting for the bus and then the realisation that there were yet 4-5 hrs more before reaching home made me feel more tired then ever. All I wanted to do was reach home quickly, take a nice warm bath and lie down in bed... and  that's exactly wat I did :D

Overall it was a great experience, challenging and required a lot of enthu and determination to achieve it. Seeing the sunrise at 4:50 from the top of the mountain, above the clouds was a very very different experience. Japan is said to be the country of the rising sun and today was the second time I saw it; first was in the plane while I was landing here :)) Something I really wanted to do in Japan and finally did it :). Am really happy and excited at the moment and wanted to share it will all

My Experiments with Radish

Japan is an exotic place with exotic food. But of course we still remember home food and cook that here :). Chicken & Fish u get tons of it. Vegetables also are in-numerous n a variety never known. Now thats the problem, half of what u see you dont know in the first place. So best is play safe n pic wat u know. Now there is stuff which we dont like... like radish.

And this time out radish it it was. Honestly u get real good radish, a kingsize variety. I cant eat any vegetable preparations but parathas wud b just fine. On the other hand Salini cant tolerate radish! So it was a challenge. Well one day she ate it in the fried form. She was busy working so I cooked, she had no choice but to eat it ;). But she did say she liked it; wonder if she really did :) but I honestly did. I m notorious for eating anything in the fried state. Well it was not so a bad combination with Rice and Sambar.

But yes today when I was to cook, she refused outright to eat it again! So I changed tactics. Thot I will make parathas but for that we need it in grated form! We had nothing to grate on so ok... no probs, lets use the mixie! Now the mixie here is great. It knows nothing @ coarse grinding. It just refuses to grind or grinds into a pulp! And thats wat I had a pulp of Radish paste.

So started my experiments. I put in it some garam masala, red chilli powder and salt in this pulp. Took some wheat flour and kneeded it into a dough using this paste. No water was needed. Rolled them into thin parathas, roasted them and added a blob of butter on each. These garama garam parathas with a blob of butter on them were enough to tickle the taste buds. They had even blown up just the way phulkas do :). Eating them with palak, another one of her enemies was a nutritious way of filling the stomach. Wonder if she gonna trust me cooking again.

Laura- Change of mind

Laura, a very aggressive business user was what the image we all had. I was really nervous about coming to Tokyo because was really nervous about her queries which are always numerous. I knew her scheduled departure to New York was November 17, 2005 and I was waiting for that day.

Soon after moving to Tokyo I saw her during my first meeting with the users. I was pretty nervous n barely looked in her direction. In the next few days I did have very limited conversations with her over phone regarding some work.

And finally I did meet her personally on November 17, 2005 at the dinner party in Roy's. This first encounter just left me wondering whether she was the same person all used to talk about. She was really sweet and very nice to talk to. Very jovial and like a small kid giggling and cracking jokes at every behest. I felt bad that I got to know her at the onset of her departure.

The next day I had a short meeting with her where again she was pretty serious n businesslike till we had all the points discussed n at the end of it back to the same Laura I had seen at the party previous day. To mark the farewell we had a small cake cutting ceremony. Finally it was time to bade her good-bye. She did come down to our floor one last time before she left to meet all of us last time.

Perceptions are not to b built without personal touch... I learnt it that day n will keep it with me forever.

Diwali in Tokyo

Just wanted to tell u all about the Diwali here. It was my very first diwali away from home n was feeling a bit homesick but then unexpectedly got an invitation from my colleague, Anurag to visit him home :). My room-mate and me were more than happy and there we had a small pooja, a nice dinner and finally burst crackers!!! Btw we tried a computerized aarti and it flopped miserably so finally Anurag sang! Of course I didn’t try, didn’t want them to repent their decision to invite me….

Crackers indeed :) I had to strain my ears to hear a bit of noise. One of them did make some sound, bit more than others n Anurag’s daughter was in tears due to fright. I can imagine if she ever is in india for diwali wat will her state be.

And imagine already 1 month ahead... the place is getting all decked up for christmas, with all the shops decorated with Christmas trees and mistletoes n other decorations!!!