Diwali celebrations!

This year Diwali celebrations began early, and we(seattle-folks) met for our traditional Diwali get-together on the weekend before the official Diwali weekend. So the tradition continues, this time with different hosts, different dishes, different sarees and kurtas shimmering .. but the spirit of celebrations is just the same! I am amazed at the energy and enthusiasm that Diwali brings with it, no matter where you are or how busy your mundane schedule is, the celebrations always find a way to light up our lives.

The menu for the Diwali potluck was adorned by dishes like dabeli, frankie, cutlets, methi malai matar sabji, dum aloo sabji, parathas, pulav, raita, srikhand, and gajar halwa. From the chaat appetizers to the amazing entrées to the delicious desserts ...it was a grand food fiesta! Need I say anything more about the food?? :) This party also marked the farewell of one of our friends who is leaving Seattle for good as she has found her life-partner in a sunny state and is soon gonna tie the nuptial knot. So a session of hearing her thoughts and memories of each one of us was another highlight of the evening. As much as we tried to keep the session emotional, the efforts predictably resulted in the opposite sentiment of humor and laughter riots. After a round of non-democratic non secret voting for some not-to-be-published-here predictions for this group, everyone joined the mafia(game) bandwagon, another tradition that this group have been following. This game is always intense and brings out the true colors of each player and highly entertains a large group like ours. It was a strange coincidence that like last years mafia session during Diwali, this year too I was the mafia for all the rounds.

The real Diwali weekend that followed was no less exciting. Friday evening was spent with a couple of friends at home over dinner, games, talks and food of course! The Diwali element was added by the row of lamps lighting up the house and the festive lights garland that decorated our patio. The next day was a shopping day, when we shopped till we dropped dead in the night. Shopping is such an integral part of the Diwali celebrations back home(in India) that we were glad we continued that tradition this year in Seattle as well. Last but certainly not the least, we celebrated Diwali with many others at a family friend's house on Sunday afternoon. We met a lot of people from several diverse cultures of the world, and I was once again overwhelmed by the spirit of everyone who came together to celebrate this festival. The delicious traditional Indian food prepared by the hosts, modern rangoli made out of M&Ms, the enthusiastic and energetic kids running around, and warm exchanges of cultural insights with the guests at the party were the highlights of this afternoon.

May this festival continue to bring all the joy and prosperity and brightness to everyone as always!!!

My first trip to a third country!

Besides the country in which I was born and the one where I live, I had never stepped out beyond the airport lounges of any third country until last month when I set my feet on the Canadian soil in its Victoria city in British Columbia. The journey was very short, a 3 hour ferry ride operated by Victoria Clipper and so was the trip - less than 48 hours long!

We reached Victoria before noon on a beautiful sunny Saturday and set off on a bus ride to the famous Butchart gardens. The guide on our bus gave some interesting facts about the city, which unfortunately didn't interest us a whole lot! And so I know why I don't remember any of those! The gardens are huge and beautiful, it is in fact a collection of several smaller gardens like rose garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, sunken garden and many others. Before we toured these gardens and got engrossed in photography and posing, we got some coffee and ice-cream, though we had lunch just about an hour earlier before we hopped onto the bus! We laughed at the obvious thought, expressed our dislike for the non Starbucks coffee and laughed again and ate all the ice-cream and then toured the gardens.

The city is a small pretty tourist destination! The Fairmont Empress hotel and parliamentary buildings are the pride of the downtown. An afternoon hight tea at the Fairmont Empress is one of Victoria’s grandest traditions, but we are not tea-lovers and so we are among the less than a percent of people(my guess!) who did not experience this tradition in their Victoria trip! We walked through the small downtown, capturing the city in its touristy busy, and picturesque look! We also walked though its Chinatown that has flamboyant gold tiles and red pillars at its entrance and we enjoyed a delicious Asian meal. The Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown is the narrowest lane in Canada (only 0.9 metres wide), which is a much hyped place to see than what really looks like a narrow crack between 2 red-brick buildings!

The trip was a milestone in my life since I visited a new country! And we left Victoria with some great memories of a scenic, beautiful and relaxing weekend.

A tale of 2 cities!

Last couple of weekends were spent in San Jose(again this year!) and Seattle respectively! Though Seattle happens to be my home-city, this weekend did not fit the just-another-weekend in Seattle category!

Another San Jose visit was planned without any hesitation by a huge fan of the God of music - A R Rahman - a fan who has always dreamt of hearing the maestro live! But when the weekend came, our excitement was dampened by the postponement of the concert. The trip still remains amongst the memorable ones for it will be remembered by the times we cherished with friends. After a long, long, tiring drive to the Bay area, I will not be exaggerating if I say that my spirit for the trip was regained just at the sight of my friends when we reached there. From there onwards, there was no looking back! We started with a grand lunch, followed by a barbecue party at Half Moon Bay later in the day. The beach, the beautiful sunset, the talks, the jokes, the pranks, the food, and the drive through the dense fog were all the pieces of a "dream evening" collage! Some of us were engrossed in food, others in the talks, one of us was busy capturing these moments in his lenses, and some of us gave memorable poses for his collection! Even nature couldn't stop itself from portraying one of the best sunset pictures in front of our eyes!

The next day in the Bay area was spent visiting friends and family and catching up on all the latest and greatest happenings in everyone's lives! A post dinner session of desserts and more talks with certain not-to-be-named Indian television shows in the backdrop and a successful attempt at a "Hum saath saath hain" snap was quite an unusual but memorable time from the trip!

No sooner had we gotten over the hangover of this trip than the long weekend followed and this time a couple of friends from Bay area felt like teasing the Seattle sun but the sun hid behind the clouds for most of the time! The weekend began with a soccer game that happened while I was still dreaming, and then a drive to Mount Rainier that I distinctly remember since I was driving :) Snow fights, in fact snow war along the Nisqualy Vista trail interspersed with posing for our cameraman was not easy for me, especially since I was the sole warrior defending the Northwest side, but nevertheless was full of thrill and chills !!! In the peace time, Mount Rainier showed its true colors and left us marveling at its majestic look all over again! I wouldn't be doing justice to what we saw, and so let the pictures convey here. Our next day seemed to fly by with a drive to the Alki beach, Readhook brewery, Canam pizza and a certain not-to-be-named Indian movie with Independence day fireworks show seen from our deck!

My eventful but no suspense filled story of the 2 cites ends. If you are still there, you wouldn't mind a happy note that its mid July and finally the sun is enjoying outside daily while we are enjoying as well!