Puppets and chaat

Armed with an arsenal of recipes from Mom's collection of yet-to-be tested recipes, some unknown sources even, it was decided that chaat party it would be for LilC's b'day. The guest list kept growing and on a wet November day, the main-door had to be blocked to ensure we could fit all the people in. A last minute surprise trip by bro/sil meant we'd be firing on all cylinders even with P's almost fractured ankle - a station for masala puri (R), for dahi-vada (P), for waffles (A/V), for orange-juice (R). The piece-de-resistance being B's cake with meringued tops, complete with marzipan bugs, bird and cuddly bear crafted by LilM and the much sought after "ganja" infused tea, fought to the very last drop!!

When visiting MoMA, had picked up a set of balloon animals that were too cute to resist. The older kids put these together and there was just enough for each of LilC's friends to take home. Penney's puppets put on a show "Lilly, the catepilly"  but LilC couldn't care more or less except for the "bussesly".

Sparkle and rejoice

 

The cadence of festivals has been well-paced and very enjoyable this year. Just in time for Deepavali, unexpected time-off from work meant it could be celebrated the way festivals are meant to be, on the day of the festival without having to dodge work despite taking the day off. With the sun shining in and out, managed to get some fall cleanup done alongside all the preps. Abundance of mums in the fall garden resulted in rangolis inside and out. Beautyberry, cosmos, chinese lanterns, peppers and even some persimmon twigs made for some fabulous fall displays.

With Amma here, obbattu was inevitable. A work-potluck turned out to be a pleasant surprise with the sportive guys rising up to the challenge of bringing a dish they had cooked - rajma, vegetable korma, paneer burji, mushroom biryani and above all, vada pav - all equally tasty, portions need some more practise.
The obbattus were devoured standing around the table, in the traditional Bangalore style of eating obbattu first ahead of all the spicy/savory food. The dinner was then moved to picnic blankets on the floor with everyone sitting around the spread, passing around the food and enjoying the easy talk.

 Much against the green freak in me, we stocked up on some sparklers and flower-pots over July-4th for this very day. For the first time ever, the kids got to "enjoy" the fireworks...ie, with BigC pinching hard on her nostrils and staying behind the wind to stay away from the smoke and LilC up in Appa's arms. The consolation being this phase too shalt pass with precious nostalgic memories for later.

in the garden - mums
 

 

October Blaze

Hard to believe that October blazed by without a single post - all credit to the virus that brought down everyone and the treacherous back-2-work. Mum arrived from India just in time to help us through the sickness and her favorite festival - Dasara. We celebrated a week late with "Bombe mane" - display of dolls and the flowers from the garden were again the star. Even managed to sneak in an impromptu night of Dandiya.
Fall colors arrived overnite with enough rains for the entire year. BigC wanted to be a ghost and witch this year and the graduation gown from a decade ago was put to good use. The school convinced BigC to "beg" for money for UNICEF than candies and they were very successful at that - raised ~$20 and no wasted candy. Its also time for the b'day - wiser or not, definitely, older! Lunch at Mingo of chili prawn salad with the girls and hazelnut cake with roasted pears by B

in the garden - loaded asian pear tree

Green Ganesha



B's Ganapati

Over the past few years, we have been blessed with a friend who's celebration of Ganapati is to be seen to be believed. There's no effort spared with an elaborate lunch and dinner - including obbattu. Her hubby has been making rather, sculpting the Ganesha from clay for 12 years now and the son made the "cool guitar-wielding" mooshika.
Ganesha is known to be Gana Priya - one who likes talents and there was plenty on display besides the sculpting itself.The mil embroidered a spread for Ganesha's table, the friend made tomato-chutney give-aways for Gowri-Jevan and the kids stamped brown paper bags to hold the jars. Friends brought Maharastrian style lemon pickle, dahi-mishti and pedas moulded as modaks. The rains have kept away means the flower-beds of marigold and dahlias have been on fire taking just one harvest of the front yard to make enough garlands for her. With the kids acting up, could not follow through on promise of more garlands and rangoli from back-yard.

At home, amid all the ganesha-hopping, tomato stashing and long-overdue work on the house, got around to making kadubus for the pot-bellied gourmand a little after, surprising BigC and S who then went on to mold the very forgiving pot-belly with an elephant face from turmeric. All of 10 minutes were spent with promise to do better next year. Only time will tell.





in the garden - lily bowl going strong with water hyacinths

Varalakshmi

The time to invoke the Godess who grants boons (vara) came a little early this year. As the days drew closer, fears rose that there would not be enough flowers from the garden like previous years. But, at the end of it all, there was more than enough to deck up the swing, for some rangolis by BigC and me and to share with friends. Even the new cactus Dahlia and lotus bloomed just in time for Her. Lavender, lilies, marga and pathre (scented geranium) lend themselves divinely to create the scents of a pooja.

 As Nanny and me conjured up the rangoli, BigC got impatient and was setup with another board to make her own. She did pretty well drawing inspiration from ours. This was followed by a week at Grace Art camp from where a set of Peruvian dolls joined our BombeMane.

in the garden - nasturtiums, parrot's beak, black petunia and calibrachoa in the hanging baskets