Shakespeare in town

One of the several opportunities of my education in the US has been the exposure to the arts and culture.
Last week I had been to sitar performances by Ravi and Anoushka Shankar who were accompanied by talented tabla and dhol-tabla players. It was my first experience of a live concert of classical music and simply mesmerizing to see the father-daughter duo enthrall us with their nimble dexterous fingers - moving at such lightning pace stirring up emotions from deep within soul. At one point I could decide if I should be closing my eyes and sinking into the music or simply stare in amazement and the performers - the tabla players induced a trance type of effect on me.

This weekend the Globe theater from London was in town and its simply great to be a student to avail discounts on regularly priced tickets worth $60 and get one for $15 instead!
Again my first experience of a drama - a Shakespearean drama - Loves Labour Lost. At first I was not tuned to hearing the thous and dost and foreswear....but about 5 minutes into the first scene and I eased out and tried not to concentrate on the difference in words. The costumes were simply amazing - women in corseted, flouncy dresses; men wearing breeches and knee high socks with puffed up sleeves, capes and drapes over one shoulder and hats with feathers.
There were musicians who played the flute and drums and deers floating around in the air, sometimes walking past the rows of people in the audience.

Thought it was a good experience and wished I had read some more about the play prior to the evening. Instead I had a Ethiopian dinner with a friend in the Blue Nile. It was turned out that we had an 'all you can eat' feast in the evening. There was a common plate placed in front of us with layers of injera (a type of bread that looks like crepes) with tiny portions of vegetables and meat. There was a huge variety of vegetables mostly consisting of lentils - the spicy red lentils were the best. The lamb was kind of bland but the beef and chicken were cooked in a gravy.
Very good experience but I don't think we broke even as far as the price of the meal was concerned. Wish we had been starving!!

Are you an Indian?

This has been one of the most common questions asked when I tell my name. Variations of the questions leading up to this premise are - which part of India are you from?
Why do you have a Spanish last name?
What is your Indian name? (This is usually asked by the Asians who have an English name in addition to their monosyllabic, vowel devoid native names)

I often end up introducing people the beautiful state of Goa and its brief culture influenced by the Portuguese colonization. its remarkable how interested people can get when they hear about the spread of Christianity in India. I also mention that when people refer to Indian food - they are making a mistake in some sense because every state in India has its own distinct cuisine which is so different and characteristic to that particular state.

Most people gape when I remark that you can instantly make 5 educated guesses about a person based on his/her name in India.
The state they come from, language(s) spoken, religion practiced, educational and and to a certain extent the socioeconomic status. In some distinct surnames you could even tell the caste system they follow.

As I often speak about my culture and country I come to realize the diverse amalgamation of cultures and traditions. Its a great matter of pride to be a citizen of this country and experience such secular ideologies.

I know that is a event next week that I have to attend am sure I will have to repeat my name spiel yet again!

Calling home at 1cent/min!!!

Could not believe the fact that I could call home at such a remarkable price - my dad remarked that this was cheaper than make STD calls in India!
The only catch in the whole deal was that I had to use the entire balance of 600 mins within 45days; which a first seemed impossible to use up - 10 hours on the phone? no way. But given that my laptop was with my sister and having no other means of voice communication with my folks in Goa I thought of taking up the offer.
To my utter surprise I finished the entire talk time in 20days within two weekends and still so much to talk - since my conversation was cut mid sentence.
Decided to recharge my calling plan with the diwali-holi talktime offer of 1353 minutes for 6months. Only after recharging through air-tel did I realize that there was a similar offer through reliance with an additional 96 minutes for the same price of $24.99!
So I immediately call up the customer care and mention that I made an erroneous transaction and the revert the money back - she sweetly mentioned that this has been addressed in the FAQ's - no transaction can be reverted.
So I learn my lesson - no more hasty purchases in the future.

Bridal Shower

Yesterday I had my first experience at a bridal shower. Anne and Sean from the grad group at church decided to marry last Summer and thought of including me in their guest list - I thought it was really very very generous of them to extend an invitation to me, also upped my self confidence that maybe they considered me more than a mere acquaintance!

Besides I was really very keen on having my first hand experience of a bridal shower. In the process of preparing for the event I concentrated more on what to wear to the event, decided a cotton khaki dress would not seem too casual and too dressy either, what I forgot to plan was to carry the gift with me - I saw all these people with large boxes some that might have been moved easily with forklifts. The only other experience I had of a wedding in the US included buying the gift online thorough the gift registry - and I thought this would be the same.

One of my friends later remarked that 'shower' implies a 'shower of gifts' for the bride to me. Things finally began to make sense and I wished I had researched more on the internet about the Shower!!

Apart from the whole event was an experience. The matron of honor with assistance from the brides' mom set up a huge delectable spread of finger foods - cheeses, crakers, cut fruits, breads and a chocolate fondue. There was red and white wine - had a glass each, coffee and a punch bowl that had frozen ice with fruits set in it. As time passed by friends poured in with more gifts, and conversation centered around how the bride would not have any more dates - this is gonna be a lifelong date :)
Then it was time to open gifts - the mother from the 'depression era' diligently made notes of the gifts which were handed down by the matron. Apparently the gifts were purchased from the gift registry set up online - they had the same purple ribbon used to wrap the gifts in the store.
A friend made a bouquet with the ribbons - to be used for the rehearsal dinner.

It was certainly an afternoon to remember - nothing like spending time with friends over great wine and amazing food.