Food and Parties

As i came to visit my daughter's place  in DC,  with in a week there was a surprise pot luck party in Maria's place which was planned by my daughter. it was Maria's birthday and it was the day of Yoga class for Maria. Evidently she did not have any idea of ten people coming over to her place with food. Her son tried to contact her by cell, but it was off, as she was busy exercising.
Since it was beyond 10.pm and people have a working day next, so it was decided to start warming the food and eat it. Almost all food was in the the stomachs, there comes Maria!

I was  introduced to her...then some talk before everyone said good night.

I met nice people . My hobby being to read or study the minds of people, I can sit and watch without getting bored.That was my first party with my daughter's friends, with in 2 days of my arrival to US. There was no knowing that I will be meeting different nice people and in the bargain I will taste variety of food. I enjoyed every moment of those parties I went with my daughter. At the same time  I enjoyed cooking South Indian food for them time to time. Of course they all liked my Andhra food very much. It is a different exposure compared to my diffence back ground and my crowd of people.

There was a lunch patry on a warm sunday, in Shirin's house. Shirin just had a baby who is 2months old. It was a sort of get together with her in-laws,and parents of course, friends. Her in laws  are Bangladeshi Pakistanies...her father is UPiate  and mother teaches at National School of Drama.  Her in laws are in US for about 30 yrs.Its was nice culmination of east and west, Hindu,Muslim and I had a  vegetarian food to my surprise! How much do i know any way ? When it comes to the basics , every one is good. After some wonderful conversation , we all came home by 4pm. 

Another party was in a Tamilian house. Which was not very far from my daughter's place.  Since it was a Friday I did not eat any thing. I am doing this fasting for the  last 26 years. They were feeling very bad, that if they would have known they could have had it  another day and all that. I am used to  such things for all these year. Since we were in central govt. job, we were always on the move. and there were parties all the time. either i attend or i will be giving parties. since the week end is on friday for central govt. the parties are always on friday only. so i am used to this. i will attend a party and i will cook for a party on friday but, do not eat. This has become a sort of topic to my friends. What else, God uses it to test my control over my tongue!

My daughter's wedding, House warming ceremony of our flat......what not all fall on Friday. Here i am very strict with my wow. You see this much explanation i give for my not eating food on fridays.  

Anjum a very nice Pakistani lady who is staying with her two nieces in US for a long time, gave us dinners twice. since the first time was friday again, i did not eat. so she invited us second time! Then was a pot luck in Surekha's place for the AID marathon we took cabbage cooked in Andhra style. Nileeni gave us meticulously cooked Mexican food. very tasty. Even Sujatha a Bengali gave us Mexican but hers was a different variety. Prasanna and Vandana  from Bihar prepared for us Sri Lankan  food !!! As usual very tasty. 

Now Andhra student Bala gave us typical Andhra dishes. I must confess that I enjoyed that the most!! After all, this tongue is from Andhra, how ever i like, enjoy other cuisine but nothing like your own. Prajaktha and Nikhil had us sample their Maharastrian food. Now Priya a Telugu gave us a Bengali khana. no doubt it was yummy. Lakshmi and Somu made a Telugu and Tamil combo. Tulika for her house warming ceremony gave us some more varieties of Mexican food!

Yolanda a South African and my ART teacher made some great American food....her way!

 ...........Indira cooks tasty Kannada Chaaru and Pappu etc. Apart from these dinners I had so

many  other kinds  in restaurants, Italian, Thai, Ethopian, Mexican again, etc.......After eating so much in three months time, you must be wondering I have bloated like Americans. but, can u guess what was my gain of weight.......just 2 lbs!!

I wanted to gain more weight .....am i blessed or cursed?

I am a under weight person you see, you tell me now.

My movies

Now i will talk about the movies i had seen in US .Of course on DVDs. My daughter sees that i should not get bored sitting at home. Coz i am an out bird in India with a lot of activities .She feels i may be feeling bored, though i tell her, i am very happy doing a bit of cooking, reading watching movies and sleeping, which i am found of.
Now coming to the movies........again mostly Iranian....but also
1. Iron Island.
2.The Return.
3.Takva.
4.Fireworks Wedssday.
5.Daughters Of The Sun.

These movies r good. Giving me lot of information about the different countries.
Basically i have a lot of hunger for knowledge, but i do not work for it!
I feel it should come to me easily.
I MUST know...everything...truth..of this and that.
How What Where, When Who...like this lot more....I think this is the time....
The man evolved, found out ways and means...to share the info..by Vedio, Audio.and by computer.A fantastic invention, by the man..Blog., Face Book..
What all i do not know my pc knowledge is very poor.

The Japanies movie was also very good ".Watching the Sea " it is about a prostitute who wants to marry a samurai. "Chushingura" is about the time in 1701, of Japan's ruling class and the civil wars.
Cuckoo.....is a name of a war widow who is a lapp. and two wounded soldiers...one is Russian, the other is a Finn Three of them do not know the others language. but they live together. She rescues them, She nurses them, and they love her. they leave after they become alright.Finally she has 2 sons from them and she she tells this story to two boys. Oh! very good.

My daughter is v.good in picking up nice movies, worth watching movies. thanks to her for what i am getting to know.Ya! there r more to read and to see...meet u later.

My reading.

I have lagged behind in writing the blog.
I am basically lethargic, though i think of writing so much, in my mind. but, to come to the system and sit and write is a big task for me. Any way today i said, i must. Otherwise it will take so long. i might forget that what i wanted to put in this blog. Its great to know about Blogs, who ever set up this software, thanks to them..
Now coming to my topics.Ya! Off late i am doing quite a bit of reading to pass my time in the US. I was a regular reader otherwise also. but I used to read a sort of philosophical books or the biographies of the gurus. Before that i was reading lot of fiction like James Hardly Chase. If i go further backwards in my life i use to read a lot my language books, both the novels and fiction in telugu.So this is the history of my reading habit.
Here i am reading more of Iranian stories and other types of books coz of daughter's suggestion.I am bad at picking books on my own but if somebody says that if a particular book is good , then i will read it.
Now i will name the books i read
1.The September Of Shiraz .....byDalia Sofer.
2. Roof Tops Of Tehran.........by Mahbod Serji.
These 2 boks r very good to read written with lot of grit and enthusiasm.
By reading these i could get a sort of understand a lot of the Iranian life style as well their country.
3.Finding Nouf.....by Zoe Ferraris. This book is about Arabian culture which gives the picture of a woman's life in Saudi Arabia
4. The Book Thief.......by.Markus Zusak.
This is about the second world war and how the Jews were treated at that time of Nazi ruling.
If i can go on with the details and about my feelings for these books, it might become by itself a small novel! i think i better stop here.
Meet u again next time with my marathon watching of different langwage movies.
Have a nice time.