24. VaraMahalaxmi Friday

The day was fully busy in friend's house for VaraMahalakshmi Pooja. Got up, got ready, did pooja @ home and started to Shipa's house. Shilpa is one of my good friends in US. By the time I reached she had completed her main pooja.

We started preparing feast for guests. She had almost prepared everything. I lend my hand in few of the items. Cooking in group is also fun.

Once the cooking was done, all of us started to get ready for arati. When I was in India wearing saree and managing it was a difficult thing but after coming here I eagerly wait to wear saree. I love wearing during festive times. Shilpa also requested all to wear saree. So we all were dressed traditionally in ethnic outfits.

Finally the guests arrived one by one. I got to meet many new faces,  wonderful mothers, pretty kids.

Once everyone arrived, Shilpa started the arati. Varalaxmi Vratham is popularly followed by married women in South India and also few parts of Maharashtra. On this auspicious first Friday of Shravan month, the goddess of wealth and prosperity i.e Laxmi is worshiped. This vruth is mentioned in Skanda Purana.

Few minutes passed with bhajans and aarti setting complete spiritual space around us.

After pooja, we enjoyed the festive feast. Hope you like few of the clicks of the day.

23. Missing great Time

My cousin Swathi’s betrothal ceremony. This time, I desperately wanted to be @ homeland. I was waiting from past one and half. But finally I’m not able to make it. That's quite disappointing.

My maternal home is completely drenched in wedding mood. I always wanted to be the part of this great time which is awaited for a long time. I missed it.

The time before wedding is all time fun.  Being with the family in such a beautiful time is really a great amusement.

It’s a beautiful time for both bride and groom till their wedding day. For few hours I had gone back to my days before wedding which was so filled with beautiful feelings each and every moment.

I wish both Swathi and Sandeep Congratulations on their engagement. Live each and every moment of this time and experience this beautiful venture.

I have uploaded few of the mobile clicks sent to me.

22. Jowar Roti

One of my favourite bread Jowar Roti.

Its my first attempt preparing it. My mom used to make once in week. But after coming to US I never got chance to eat. I had thought  it is a tough job to make jowar roti. But finally a fine day I made mind to prepare it. And the attempt was successful. Initially the rotis were little thick but as I got the trick the rotis were in appropriate shape. 

People follow different method. But I followed Vahchef's recipe. The traditional method follows the hand pressing, means rotis were moulded to shape in using bare hand. It was difficult to manage for me with bare hand so had to use roller. I would like expertise the traditional procedure.

This bread is from North Karnataka. And is very high in fibre and healthy. Lots of people prefer to eat regularly in Summer. This goes with Dal, raita any curries. But I prefer eating this yummy roti with spicy eggplant masala.

Finally Jowar rotis with hot and spicy eggplant masala with crunchy onion bite made my day.

21. Antique Necklace

Handmade necklace with antique red and yellow beads and antique thai silver pendant.

The beads are embedded with thai silver cap.

The front half part of the necklace is with red and black beads and the rest part of the necklace towards the end are with silver beads.

From the chain strung a arc shaped thai silver tube pendant which has flower and leaves engravings.

I picked up these beads and pendant from bead show happened in the town lately. The store has got beautiful collection of antique jewelry stuff. I make sure to visit the store whenever the show happens.

20. By Sharath

Was standing in lab monitoring the work. Suddenly I asked to stand in place for some time. After few minutes I had this beautiful gift by a novice. It was unexpected, I felt so overflowed with happiness.

 

 

Whenever I miss Bangalore days, this is one of the thing which rewinds the memories. Miss the people I met fun I had and the wonderful time in Bangalore.

This beautiful surprise was given by Sharath an artist from Kerala. An excellent hand. He just took 4 to 5 minutes for this sketch. His real art works are amazing. When he did wall painting, was so amazed to his talent. This is one of my old click of his work.

 

 

19. Choco Darling

FInally was able to make to my sweetheart Choco Lava. Was dreaming from noon, thanks to darpan. 

The quickest place to find the best ice creams is Cold Stone. It was a lucky day, the store is open till 11pm, which is supposed to close by 10 pm. Felt as if the store was open just for me.

The hot fudge over cold vanilla ice cream melts in mouth. The soft brownie  filled with ice cream and fudge tastes heaven. The smell of brownies drizzled with hot fudge is irresistible.

Make your summer perfect eating yummy ice creams ;)

18. Heisler Park Laguna Beach

Beautiful evening in Heisler Park Laguna Beach. It was saturday and  we both thought of hanging out to a beach. It was best choice made by Dapran. The ride to beach through Pacific Coast Hwy was so amazing with perfect background score.

As the car glasses slide down, the cool breeze of the ocean made us mesmerize. The songs in I phone were so well matched with mood of the weather and made me feel heaven.

We had to park the car on main street as the parking near park was full. The walk towards beach was also pleasant.

We reached the park relaxed for a while on grass ground. Many folks with their families were spending whole day as a  get together and  barbequing.  

As i neared the beach I saw beautifully dressed brides and handsome groom posing for photographer. Totally there were 4 pairs with their photographers.

The beach was filled with families and kids playing, surfing, partying.

The water was calm and beautiful. Naughty Seagulls were playing with tides and trying to catch the seafood. I too started teasing Seagulls amusing the tides. Playing with tides and being intimate with nature is such a wonderful experience.

Beautiful tide pools here and there were so eye catchy. The disappointing thing is I did not capture any tide pools as I was little scared to carry the camera into water. But I could have tried with little care. I regret it now. Hope I don't do the same mistake in future.

As it got dark, we walked back via Oceanic View path to the car parked, capturing few interesting and curious things.

17. Rice Sevai

Sunday special brunch Rice Sevai, one of mine and darpan's favourite. This one is very easy recipe which can be made in short time, and can be served for breakfast brunch or  as evening snack. 

These sevai are kind of noodles made of rice. I got the pack from K Mart, Korean store. The Korean rice noodles are quite different from what we get from Indian stores.

The Korean rice noodles are kind of transparent to look as our Indian rice noodles are opaque, but no difference in taste.

You can prepare it just like vegetable upma adding vegetables. But as we both like lemon flavoured noodles, I have not added any vegetables in this dish today. Just did the seasoning with more peanuts and lemon juice. 

These yummy noodles can be served with pickle or chutney or chips. We love to have it with veggie fries. Lets cook, eat and enjoy.

16. Timepass Painting

This is a time pass acrylic painting on handmade paper. 

I have not started this paint with any serious intention, initially started drawing circles in circles, finally ended up with this pattern.

Even the colors choosen are random. But when I looked at it, I felt kind of satisfied. 

Some times our efforts comes out in unexpected way. This is one of my favorite painting. I finished it off in a hour. Hope you guys like it.

15. Cord Neck Laces

These are the simple cord necklaces. Each cord is hung by a beautiful stone pendants.

As you see in the pictures, I used 3 different colored cords for each necklace like Black, Brown, Beige. Out of all only 2 necklaces are multi corded and rest all of them are single corded. I have not used any  braiding techniques to finish the necklace, infact I just knotted the cords to place the pendants in place.

The stone collections are from India. It took so long to give them proper shape and usage.

Skull shaped stone, beautiful fish shaped stone and a stone painted with gold and green color are ceramic stones. The other is irregularly shaped silver coated stone. One more is circular black stone surrounded by silver carvings.

Among all of them, carved elephant which is in milk white is my favourite. This particular one is the collection from mysore. The shape of elephant is carved from marble stone.

These cords look very well with simple casual wear(both Indian and Western) and also be prefered to wear on formals too.

14. Ferrari ki Sawaari

Last night we happened to watch Ferrari ki Sawaari. After a long time darpan was despo to watch this movie as it got Sachin Tendulkar in its reviews.

The movie gives freshness as in munna bhai and 3 idiots. It bears dreams of middle class, ferrari, cricket as a family combo, which makes clean movie for family evening out.

Rustham who is a clerk at RTO and father for a motherless kid Kayo who plays a key role in whole movie. Bomman Irani as a old man delivers awesome performance. And rest all characters justify their roles with balanced performance.

Comedy and drama go in balance throughout the movie.

Twists in the movie are so expectable and few scenes in the movie are beyond real which makes us feel simple and good movie. 

But darpan really missed the real ride with Sachin in his ferrari in movie, which little disappointed him. But I really enjoyed the movie. A good movie to be hang out with family.

13. Rudraksha Bead Necklace:

Handmade necklace strung with rudraksha and plastic bone shaped milk white tubes.

Most part of the chain dominated with beautifully engraved stainless steel beads along with bone shaped milk white tubes.

Towards the ends of the chain, the wooden beads adds the extra elegance.

3 Rudraksha beads in the centre completes the whole necklace.

12. Patio Beauties

After I moved to USA and got free from my working life, one more hobby I pursued is pot gardening.

Gardening is my long time dream. Initially I used to play virtual gardening through Farm ville in Facebook but now finally able to make it real, though it is in pots. I’m planning

to have my own garden in future.

I have 4 pots,2 gifted by a friend and the other two gifted by Darpan.

In 3 pots I’m growing rose plant and in the other one I alternatively grow Cilantro leaves and Fenugreek leaves.

Watching them daily makes me feel fresh and happy. And reminds me the quotes of

David W. Orr (Professor in Environmental Studies)

“When we heal the earth with green , we heal ourselves”.