Halloween Candies!

A humorous incident happened just a little while ago! Someone was knocking the door! I opened the door and what I see is two girls standing outside with orange bucket of pumpkin shape in their hands. Then they said, "Halloween Candies ?"

I thought they are offering me candies. So I tried to pick a candy from the bucket, and here are they, both of them shocked and surprised :D! Suddenly, I realized something is going out of order here! Then thought, I guess I am supposed to give them candies ;). So, went inside, apparently there were no chocolates/candies inside. Din't know what to do now! Fortunately, I had bought oat meal cookies yesterday, so thought of giving those, otherwise it would have been very embarrassing! So, took advantage of the night and sneaked in a cookie into each of the pumpkins! I hope the girls din't notice it :P.

Laughed a lot after closing the door and still laughing! Now, I realized why they sell lots of candies in Halloween! Anyways,

Happy Halloween!

Kaushal

Kaju katri or Fish??

Everyone brings in some food stuff and puts it up as a biting for others at my workplace. As Diwali is approaching I took a packet of Kaju roll my parents had send from India….
Well I know it would not be very much welcomed but to my surprise.. people first thought it was Fish……………
Secondaly there was silver foiling around the Kaju roll and it also had saffron in it… So these guys ask me if they had to remove the silver foil or not…
I had a difficult time explaining them , that it was an edible silver foil…….
The most hillirous part….
Table manners to inke khoon me hoti hai.. so these guys got a fork and knife to cut the sweet and eat it… That was heights…
At this point I felt I should have got something spicy for them instead of such delicious sweets!!!!!

Jersey ki sabse choti prem kahani!!!

Shantanu, Hemal, Chintan and myself were at Jersey City garba at Elizebeth High School on 10/22/05….
I must say , we did see some amazing girls… wearing some stunning traditional outfits…
The atmosphere was thrilling and everyone was dancing with full energy…
At this time Hemal (Golu) was dancing with a couple of his friends from NJ and their girlfriends..
Suddenly out of the blue a simple but sexy girl dressed in a Black Punjabi style salvar kmezz came and joined their dacing group…. Hemal had his eyes set on her.. and was dancing with extra enthusizm…
In between Hemal also did a chance pe dance kind of act…. And had fundedi with this beautiful girl… Ya her name was Sheetal….

Ok at the end of garba everyone was scattering and this girl came up where we were standing… and tells us that she has seen us over there from the previous three weeks….
What crap… this was the first time we had gone for garba in Jersey.. but the girl was interested in talking…..
The suddenly there was a pause and no one was talking…. Golu wanted to get the girls ph. No. but was waiting for me and Shantanu to ask it….
So as the pause prolonged instead of asking for the Ph. No.. I said ok good bye…. (well did not know that golu was so much interested!!) and hence we parted even without taking any contact info….

Later on Golu told that the girl was working in Philly and Shantanu also got so disappointed that he also missed an opportunity…………..

Now for our Mr. Golu he did not ask the number because if he had asked the number then to store the number he would have to take out his good for nothing cellphone and looking at golu’s cell definitely the girl would not have given her number… So it was a nice popat of golu… and we laughed our hearts out

Trip to Philly

Last weekend I went to Philly for a weekend trip. Hemal was also there from Virginia. As usual the flight to Baltimore was delayed by 30 min. which was not bad. At the airport Hemal was there to pick me up. He did get some food stuff from Taco Bell for drive to Philly. We reached Philly around 11PM. And then the usual TP started. After a long time Shantanu had a chance to cook some delicious Dosa for us and let me tell you.. He has not lost his touch for dosa. Because of some mishaps in supply chain… there was no chatni but the sambhar was equally good.
Meeting friends after a long time (1 month) sleeping is the last thing on mind….. (Except for golu) so we went out for a drive in the pouring rain… drived through some famous downtown streets of Philly…. Had a coffee in between from a gas station and came back home around 3:30-4:00.
The next day in the morning I had to go and visit some of my relatives. So we got up by 9:30 and then my uncle took us for a coffee at Dunkin Donuts…
We all got together at a Mall around 2:30 and did loads of shopping but at a very cheap price. Then headed to Baja Fresh.. A Mexican restaurant. It was my first visit and I really liked the Mexican food over there. Especially the fresh salsa bar out there.

By 5:30 we were heading towards Jersey City for Garba. Reached at Himanshu’s (Kaushal’s Brother) house by 8:00. Everyone got ready and left for Garba which was accutually only 15min away but we lost our way in the confusing streets of jersey and it took us 1:30 hrs to reach there…
The atmosphere in the hall was magistic… for the first time I heard so loud music in USA… and so many Indians together….. The ABCD or migrated girls were looking stunning… but as always said never fall for a chick in garba as all look sexy…..
Chintan was also there along with his parents so it was kind of a small get-together at Jersey. We did some cool garba steps … and especially Golu had great fun with some unknown girls..(Read the next blog for its details!!)
After garba we came back to Himanshu’s house and had some nice gujju snacks at 3 in the night..
Headed back for Philly at 4:00 AM and reached at 6:00 .. Hemal as always had a nice snoring sleep in the car… We all went to sleep and got up at 12:00…
One of our seniors at Buffalo Viral was there and we all went out for Punjabi lunch at Jaipur.. The food was amazing.. and can’t even dream of such Punjabi food in Buffalo.

Then visited Shantanu’s office.. The area is a well developed Business Park... and its very senic…Came back home... did some tp and I and Golu headed back for Baltimore...

In all it was a fun filled and satisfying trip.

Buffalo Garba-2005

Hello fellows,

Navratri is going on and the Gujarati Samaj of Buffalo like each year had their Garba in a Church Hall ( Yes its wired Garba in Church!!) But this time instead of one day… We had garba for two days…. Friday and Saturday…

Not all the Dhamaalies in Buffalo preferred to come on Friday. (which I personally feel was a much better day for playing Garba as there was more space…) But Saturday Garba Rocked…..Hemal ( chotli), Jeetal, Nimesh, Saloni, Kanan, Kavita, Chandresh, Keya ( most of you know her) and myself (Purvin) were there…

As usual there were some discussions before Garba on the difference in the style of Garba from Gujarat and Mumbai…..But once we were there nothing mattered…
Everyone was so enthu for playing Garba that we all jumped into the arena… and were tapping our feet to the gujju garba music….

The girls were doing some kind of spinning popat... which I tried to copy but was not very successful. So most of the times I kept myself to the patent jumping Dodhiyu…
But I should say the girls were very graceful in their act……
Slowly the pace of the garba increased and we also did not disappoint the DJ (DR. Bhupendra Patel) and kept with the pace…

Apart for the Dhamaalies there was a big crowd from UB and guys let me tell you the girls were looking stunning …. As far as guys were concerned I shall let the girls comment on it…

After playing for about an hour and a half... Dandia-raas started which also had its initial confusions... Once again Kanan and Saloni were playing some Dandi raas in which they were spinning a lot and doing everything except for making contact of Dandia with the opposite person.. It was really getting difficult for first time 40 plus uncles and aunty to play with them…but in the end everyone had fun…..

After that we had Maataaji ni Arti… a perfect time for fishing!!!! The dhamaal Guys were successful in their fishing…. And it followed by Prasad or I should rather say dinner.

We had Fafda , Jalabi, Kachodi, Green Chatni, and some shero and other sweets….
I used my Amdavadi skills of gusofying in a line and got plates twice before our actual turn came… This was not enough we had an announcement that Chole-Puri is also there for the bhookhadas.. And we were not behind in getting it…

Well but this was not enough…. Then started the hich(gujju term for jhatka ;)) and again followed by garba and dandia..
Not to forget followed by mango & pista ice-cream…wah kya mazzaaa aa gaya.
It was a memorable evening which everyone shall cherish…
The next day morning was bad with everyone having a body and feet aching….. As all of us had played garba for prolonged hours after a long time…
But the pain was worth for what we enjoyed the previous day….


-- PURVIN

Who is "Jungle Queen" ?

As everyone knows, Kanan is very famous for giving innovative and out of the box names to people and things as well. Ex. mammad, pappad, gangu, baablu, dhinglu....and the list goes on. But she doesn't have a name for herself - so strange, naa ?

So, today I christen her as "Jungle Queen". Wondering ? To know the reason for this name please look for "Kanan" in Gujarati-Gujarati dictionary.

Everyone please say "Hi" to our new Queen of the Jungle!

Kaushal

This one is for Gandhi - Vishal Gandhi :)

Hey All, Say hi to Vishal Gandhi
Vishal, meet all these people... they are known as dhamaalees ;)

Now everyone must be wondering why this formal introduction even after Vishal is a part of dhamaal. Well it was very much required. Vishal has been regularly reading the blog , and has been a silent admirer. However, he confessed that he doesnt know the dhamaal people much so does not feel free to comment on our postings.

So Vishal, here is a formal intorduction & an open invitation to feel free & post blogs/comments. A request to our moderator to give him posting rights. And yes be ready to give & take crap :)

Aapka iss duniya mein hum haardik swaagat karte hai. People please give him a round of applause...! Heres introducing... Gandhi - Vishal Gandhi ...tede tede ted te te (Was suppose to be Hindi movie musical effect ;))

p.s. I also dunno many dhamaalees really well, very new to them. But what the heck, I can still make an effort & so can u vishal :)

Made a 'PITT'- Stop

The debate started with should we leave at 2:00am or 4:00am. Was indeed planned for 2:00am but as usual the delays led to a 4:00am start ... and there we were on I-90. After a 4 hr. journey we reached Pittsburgh. Took 4 hrs. due to some wrong lefts-n-rights. And yes, not to forget the PP-emergencies ;) Chintan,Shantanu, Golu, Purvin, Kanan, Kavita & myself finally met each other at the Sri-Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh, PA. Was a great feeling to meet old friends after months :)

At the temple, we enrolled for the Archana...did the 'Archana' pooja and spent some peaceful time at the mandir. Then had our breakfast comprising of upma, tamrind rice & bisibela bhaath, sweet-boondi, etc. Then headed towards Jain Temple. Shantanu got a car-pooja done for his new Black Nissan Altima. Felt like we had really become gr8 bhakts...atleast for yest. ;) Too many temple visits, and good acts!

Then was the wonderful lunch at UDIPI. (One regret, noone treated me:( ) Oh man...by now we were so full, too lazy to do anything. So we decided to sit at one place & chat. We again drove to the temple, and took rest under the shade of a tree, on the grass. Everyone let their thoughts flow, we were just generally talking. Since Chitu & Golu had to get back to work today morning, we departed pretty soon. At about 3:30pm we departed...and back to Buffalo.

We 3 girls had a gr8 time irritating Purvin during the course of our journeys, which he refers to as raping, harrasing, torturing, etc. Thanx to the Navigators & drivers, we had gr8 safe journeys. Once we were back, we had Batata-wada(brought by Shantanu) at my place (21 Merrimac). I slept like a log last night. Slept at 11...and woke up today morning at 10...wow it was good.

All in all, one more memorable day of my life came to an end:(
Oooff...Cant really get out of the mood still :)

Highlights of the trip : Masti-dhamaal & Food.

p.s. Shanatnu would put up the pics soon, so havent added pictures to this blog yet.
Also, everyone please feel free to add ur version or any comments about yesterday.

International Food Tasting Festival at St. Joseph Church

Hi people,Check out this photo album:
http://community.webshots.com/album/463108865gVAZYd

This photo album is of a truly multi-cultural event at St. Joseph church in Buffalo. The event was called 'Taste of St. Joseph' and featured food, dance, music, crafts, and displays by people from different countries. Our group (Indians) made Bhel, Besan laddoos, and Indian Tea. In addition to this we had volunteers putting 'Mehendi,' which eventually became a major attraction at our table. Towards the end, vishal and saneel's band played a song from the album 'Indian Oceans' and Amarja Desai did bharat-natyam on the popular song - 'Omkar Swarupa.' All praise to the volunteers (Clive, Nikki, Sujeet, Brian, Medha, Purvin, Kanan, Saloni, Amarja, Sonal, Sandeep, and Hanson) for remarkably show-casing the Indian culture. Especially the efforts put by Clive, Nikki, Sujeet, and Brian are laudable.

Chandresh