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!!!

Diwali weekend

Diwali used to be the biggest and brightest festival back home for me! My favorite part was making rangoli at the door of our house! And of course enjoying a whole variety of sweets and bursting crackers and visiting friends and family and shopping and .. and .. I could just keep writing!

Now that I am away from all the actual festivities back home, we have our own variation and scaled down version of celebrations! Keeping our tradition (2 year old) going, we all (seattle-folks) met for dinner this weekend at our friends place who have traditionally been our Diwali party hosts! Though the gang meets often for dinners and birthdays and get-togethers this one is quite unlike others. This is only time in the year when our traditional clothes come out of hiding from the bottom-most racks of the closet! And everyone dressed up in their brightest and colorful sarees and kurtas, we could almost pose to be at a wedding in Bombay or so! :) Being in Seattle did not stop us from posing for snaps, we came up with different group definitions for the sake of group snaps! From all non-Mumbaikars to Windows engineers to Gatech rejects we had a snap for every group! :) After the snap session the night was long and intense with everyone engrossed in our all time favorite gang game - Mafia :) My stars changed position this time and its really worth putting this down here that I was Mafia for more than 1 round!

Needless to mention food and festivities are inseparable! Our hosts had made delicious dishes that we all relished! Now that I am reminded of that dinner, I have to mention the dishes .. sabudana wada, methi matar, paneer, biryani ... I wanna go back in time! If you have reached this line, I am sure you are feeling hungry too! Time to end this here...

Indian Ocean's new fan!

A few weeks back we attended the Indian Ocean concert at Seattle. I have not been a big fan of their music so far but that could be attributed to the fact that I had not heard most of their songs.. till I heard them live.. and I am now a fan of their songs!

My recommendations for all those who haven't heard their songs yet:
Bandey from Black Friday
Ma Rewa from kandisa
Bhor from Jhini

Mini golf at Willows Run

My first experience at golf was with a bunch of my colleagues at Willows Run Golf Course. We played mini golf at the Rainbow Run Putting course at Willows which is a themed 18 hole putting course. I liked the design of the course that was adorned with pretty lake, bridge, cave, and waterfalls.

It took me quite some time to settle into the game and it was no surprise that I used all 6 chances during the initial round of the 18 holes. But the best came at the very end, when I scored 2 and 3 in the 17th and 18th holes!

Overall I enjoyed the experience and I am glad I am no longer gonna be a first timer at golf!

In Lake Washington!

In spite of having enjoyed the beauty of Lake Washington for more than a year now, we had not found any chance of being IN the lake. Till August 2009 of course when the seattle-folks decided to dive in :) literally!

We rented a boat at Yarrow Bay Marina park. The best part about getting a boat license is that you have to give no test! So anyone who has registered to be a boat driver can zoom on water! Since we were more than a dozen, we has 2 boats for us (each could fit 7). We could now officially race amongst ourselves! After some initial instructions from the rental company guy we were all set for the aquatic race.

Speed on water is really not the same as on road! In this case you can take a sharp turn almost dropping your friends on the edge of the boat or simulate speed bumps with the waves. Its like creating your own path for an amusement park ride and you can choose when you want the bump or the turn unlike an actual roller coaster. The only uncontrollable aspect here is the height! Our friend got her elbow stamped(bruised) during one of these bumps that she later displayed with pride to prove the speed factor!

The 2 hours in the lake were the most eventful with a surprise birthday celebration of one of our friend, cop catching us for speeding in a speed limited zone of the lake(yes they have cops on the lake too.. we didnt know how to pull over in a boat so we only stopped where we were :)), most of us diving into the water to drive the point of being IN the lake.

One more thing added to the todo list for Kirkland visitors :)

BBQ weekend

"Seattle-folks" (that's how we like to call ourselves) met for an evening of Barbecued food and fun this weekend. The hosts found an excellent opportunity to gather all of us on their huge deck and almost a dozen of us jumped in having done our pre-preparations of sorts, shopping for almost all things that could go on the grill. Our hosts welcomed us with the best home made guacamole and chips and salsas that we relished for so long that some of us had to be reminded that the long long grilling session was the real theme for the evening!

The "grilling event" couldn't have had a better start than our very own Mumbai-style "makai bhuttas" (grilled corn cobs) smeared with lime and salt and spicy paprika! (Secret ingredients like pav bhaji masalas can do wonders ..sshhh). Next came on fire the yummy semi-boiled sweet potatoes again smeared with the spicy powders and then coated with maple syrup based rub. Garlic bread couldn't be left far behind either in this burning race. The irresistibly delicious looking paneer tikka on skewers for the vegetarian junta and the shrimp equivalents for the rest was the star of evening! Of course no bbq party can ever be complete without the sausages and burger patties topped with molten cheese and hidden between the bun and its green accompaniments (read lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes). With every new dish that was prepared on the grill, each one of us took the opportunity to display our barbecuing skills and do our bit of cooking and serving for the evening .. Of course the sprite, coke, vodka, whiskey, orange cream (the best new addition to the list) glasses were filled at regular intervals!

After a perfect barbecued multi course meal that we relished to our heart's content, little did we know that an innovative surprise dessert was awaiting us! No prizes for guessing that it had the grill effect too.. Grilled pineapple slices drowned in caramelized sugar and cinnamon accompanied with pure vanilla ice cream was the show stealer that redefined the dessert bliss!

One of us rightly portrayed the motto for the perfect evening - 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happy hour'.