Why?

Really nice song with a terrible video :(

Dream come true!

Espresso + Dark Chocolate :D
Green and Black's - Espresso. Yummiest chocolate ever!

Diwali

What does Diwali remind me of? Diyas, rangoli, music, food, new clothes and decoration. These were always the main constituents of a "celebration" at home. With talented friends like Yashodhan and Arunanshu the music part of our Diwali celebration was easily taken care of. Diyas were bought from an Indian store and the house was decorated. As for food, we are all expert chefs! We also had sweets: gulab jamuns and kheer made by Dipti and Yashodhan.

Before Sunrise

I finally watched Before Sunrise (actually a couple of weeks ago). I think I like Before Sunset epsilon more than this one; but that only says that Before Sunrise is also pretty good and definitely worth watching.

All about Eve

Another movie from the Imdb top 250. The story does not offer anything new but I like the way it was structured. All the actors played their roles perfectly; especially the leads Bette Davis and Anne Baxter.

Noche Flamenca

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Flamenco performance by the company Noche Flamenca. I really liked the powerful body movements of the dancers - mostly hand-clapping and foot-stamping.

Honey lemonade

Yesterday Nyssa got me some honey from Hawaii. I have already finished half the bottle! Most of it was used to make honey lemonade which is easy to make: add a spoonful of honey, a pinch of salt (very important) and a teaspoon of lemon juice to a cup of hot water and stir. This afternoon I also added some peach flavored tea to my lemonade; I liked the result.

It seems that you can get that particular brand of honey only from Hawaii (Manoa honey company). Maybe good old Trader Joe's will have something similar :)

More food

If you are lazy to cook scrambled tofu plus you like Indian food then I highly recommend Deep Foods Inc.'s frozen food. Very tasty :) I have tried many products offered by their various brands and liked each and every one of them so far. Some are listed below:

Tandoor Chef: Their chicken samosa's are delicious.
Udupi : The idli didn't even once betray that it had been frozen for a long time. The chutney that came along with it was also good but I prefer mint chutney.
Deep: I have never had authentic Undhiu but I really like the one that Deep offers. Some Gujarathi friends claim that no frozen Undhiu can taste good ...

And last but also my favourite: Mirch Masala. I really enjoy their Sarson ka saag; again, I have never had authentic sarson ka saag. One thing I can surely claim is that I have had authentic Pav Bhaji many times and of all the Pav Bhaji I have tried in the US this one came closest to the real thing! They also have some Indian-Chinese noodles and stuff which are OK; I was never a big fan of Indian-Chinese food.

You can also find their recipes online :)

Scrambled Tofu

Mash tofu with an egg beater. Then heat some oil in a pan and add turmeric powerder, chillies and onions. Once the onions turn brown add tofu and salt to taste. Mix well and heat for 2 mins. Done! This is what I will cook tonight :)

Computer

I finally got my Dell Vostro 1400. It looks like someone's old laptop that Dell just packed nicely and sent to me. It works well though. The combination of Vista and my paranoid school led to a mess when I was trying to connect to the internet. For the first time in my life working with a computer was so frustrating. I gave up and slept. When I woke up this morning everything was working fine!

Scrabble

Yesterday Gireeja got me a scrabble board. I had bought one just two days ago :) With two scrabble boards in the room we had to play the game! This activity has the same effect on Gireeja as consuming alcohol does. Obviously this led to a lot of jokes ;)

But anyway, I think scrabble is a fun game. If you want to play it online Scrabulous is good.

Bharatanatyam

I started taking Bharatanatyam lessons yesterday. I like it :)

That reminds me to mention a Bharatanatyam artist that I really like. I have attended three Mythili Prakash performances in Pasadena and I really enjoyed all of them. She performs in India, Europe and US. Do attend her show if you get a chance. The only complaint that I have is about her DVD Natya. Having seen her in person the DVD was a big disappointment.

Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats

I am going to miss it this year but I saw their performance a couple of years ago and it was amazing! If you are near Pasadena on 5th October then this is definitely worth attending:

http://events.caltech.edu/events/event-4441.html

Before Sunset

I have not watched Before Sunrise (which is a prequel to this movie) and yet Before Sunset made perfect sense. In fact I enjoyed the slight mystery about the past which is referred to time and again. But having liked this one I am now eager to watch Before Sunrise. Maybe next weekend when I am in Pasadena :)

Ratatouille

I guess everyone has seen/heard of it by now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

Clay

Nice play. Amazing performance by Matt Sax. I could not find the artist's webpage or a wikipedia entry about it.

http://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=4653