Dasera in my house

As i mentioned in "my profile", my earlier post, i believe in celebrating every festival as they stand for our culture,they bring people together and they also reduce stress and help people to unwind from their hectic routine. well here is a picture of Dasera in my house.
For the past 33 years i have been living in a joint family where we celebrated Dasera in a very grand scale and now though i am on my own, the tradition, culture has seeped inside me and i continue to try to do justice in the same manner. i love dolls and i look forward to this 10 day event with great enthusiasm. First and foremost i bring out all the array of saris in different colours - my old banaras and kanchi sarees which are now out of fashion, which i had tucked away in my cupboard, play a predominant role in this festival. I decorate the room like a sari exhibition and all the glittering decoration rolls of paper are hung across the room from different corners. They merge together at the center of the ceiling. This is the background for the dolls. in olden days they had long range of steps and the dolls were arranged in a row. The more the number of steps it had, the grander it looked. The number of steps depicted the prestige of the house. But nowadays we make it more realistic. we make lots of tableaus for the ramayana scenes. Tableaus cannot be created on steps. My plants are also used to depict the dandakaranya forest area and we create the Sarayu river across which the boatman guha rowed rama, lakshmana and sita to the other side of the river. We have more scope to make it innovative and artistic when we make tableaus. This is when all our hidden talents come out. I also created a tableau for sita kalyanam. A real marriage scene background is created then we arrange the concerned dolls in it. similarly we create tableaus for ravanasura darbar,pattabhishekam scene and hanuman carrying the sanjivini parvatham. these are excellent sets which look grand if its displayed after creating a grand back ground. we have great tradition and culture which we can feel immensely proud of. i feel it should be passed on to the future generation whether they are in india or abroad.
i invite nearly 100 people to see this dasera doll exhibition i got very good feed back and eulogies for all the effort i put in. what could be a better occasion than this to meet people and socialise?

 

Help life to grow

In what way one can help life to grow?give life to plants see that they grow every where.well ,what should one do about it? simple.we always love giving bouquets to our near and dear ones.what happens after one receives it?some are indifferent to it, some take care to decorate their living room. those who are experts in flower arrangement use their talent to make their house really look beautiful.the next day when it withers away one trashes it. so would you like to spends hundeds of rupees on something which you trash the very next day? well,i have decided certainly i will not after giving careful thought to it.i would instead spend less and buy a sapling instead of a bouquet.that gives permanent joy to the people who plant them ,nurture them carefully as you would do so to a new born baby.
they see life growing around them and when you find that you are responsible for it when you keep giving saplings instead of a bouquet. i hope i have given all of you who read this, food for thought.think about this every time you plan next to buy a bouquet.

my profile and my views

.
.I come from a renowned south indian family which i am immensely proud of. My grand father was Late Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer. I have also opened a blog to publish articles concerning him.Tthe name of the blog is Ekamranivas. My father was a visiting professor to many countries abroad.
I have done 4 courses in French in Alliance francaise.I am a Paul harris member of the Rotary club. My husband is the immediate past president of the Rotary club. I am fortunate to be the charter president of the innerwheel club.I have 3 children. Two of them are in the United states of America.My 3rd son is a student of the engineering college
.I have also have the proud privilege of being exposed to different cultures as I have traveled quite a lot to united states of America. Some other countries being,australia ,uk and European countries like Brussels,Italy,Switzerland, Paris,Germany,Dubai and Singapore. I love tasting different varieties of cuisine. I love continental food the best. I have tasted Greek food,Lebanese,italian ,American cuisine,,Thai food, andChinese food in America,
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But all said and done I am very proud of my traditional back ground and culture.I celebrate every Indian festival. I also feel that today people have no time to socialize it’s a pity one does not know who the neighbours are..People work the whole day they are highly stressed and I feel celebrating festivals ,attending social functions makes a person unwind the routine tensions and relieves stress even the role of a home maker can be full of stress ..she needs time to take off. I find many Indians in the United states expose their children to the Eastern culture like music and dance. I am myself a Bharatanatyam dancer.
One must take the best of each system and culture .The education system in the United States blended with Indian traditions and culture like festivals music ,dance. Don’t you think that is a beautiful combination ?
Parents send the children abroad so that they get the best education and can develop their personalities but my message to those children are to not allow our traditions or culture to fade away .There can be no branches,flowers ,fruits without roots.wWe have to acknowledge and be proud our roots,heritage and culture no matter which part of the globe we are in..

humour

a monkey died in the zoo.the zoo authorities approached a man and asked him to learn all the monkey tricks and enact the monkey's role.they warned him not to be over enthusiastic while performing the tricks as the lion's cage was next to his cage.
the crowd gathered in the evening and soon there was thunderous applause for the excellent manner he was swinging to and fro. he got excited and completely forgot the warning and made a huge jump he found himself in the lion's cage.he was shivering and quaking with fear . the lion purposefully strode towards him .the poor man started saying his prayers with hands folded .he closed his eyes tightly. he thought that his end had come.suddenly he heard a human voice talking to him. he opened his eyes. the lion was speaking to him it said," buddy dont be so nervous i wont eatyou up after all i am a human being just like you. in fact all the so called animals in the zoo are like us."

yummy brown stew

Take some english vegetables like carrot,beans cauliflower,beetroot(absolutely essential), potatoes and cut them long.add peas too.fry tomatoes and wheat powder(ATTA)
add water and then boil all the vegetables simple is'nt it? you have yur brown stew before you just by doing the 2 steps i asked you to. Its not at all complicated.
To prepare a tasty dish one needs the right ingredient. many are of the impression the more complicated the cooking the tastier the dish.Thats not true very simply preparations have really great taste. prpare it and give me a feedback how it tastes.enjoy.Who has the time or energy to spend hours in the kitchen ? certainly not me.

excellent mushroom recipe's secret

For your mushroom soup add spinach (palak) while boiling and when the soup is ready to serve add a drop or two of chilli sauce and vinegar without fruit, taste it .wow its great. so wont you try it?

Teaism

I love tea. Any no. of cups are welcome. I was introduced to teaism by my daughter and son-in-law when I visited them in the united states . I never had an idea that there was so much to learn about the drink I love so much and which I consume so much.

Teaism is three asian inspired tea houses and restaurant in Washington .teaism has varieties of tea. All are classified under black tea,green tea,white tea and oolongs. Each preparation is different.There are 52 teas available.How many of you are aware of it?
15 varieties of green tea are available, for example Japanese sweet green iced tea,Jasmine tea etc these green teas basically are Japanese tea.
Mutan white and Silver needle zhenghe are the only 2 varieties of white tea. They are Chinese tea,
they are made from tender leaf buds.In these above teas you get the best taste when you dont add milk or sugar.
14 blacks are available. Some of them are good for cholestrol,blood pressure etc.
We next have the oolong tea.
Oolongs are often described as the champagne of teas with complex aromas and depth of flavor. There are 6 oolongs .
I have personally tried oolong, many varieties of green tea ,white tea and many varieties of black tea both at home in U.S.A and in the tea shop.
So I conclude saying one must visit the teashop and learn how to drink and prepare each variety, there's so much to comprehend if you are a real tea connoiseur.

tomato soup special recipe

all of you i'm sure know how to make tomato soup but how many of you know adding oregano makes it really yummy.try it .that one ingredient makes world of difference to the taste.so add this magic formula and enjoy your soup.

my first blog

wow, this is exciting to share my thoughts with everyone.