Chariot Procession in McMurray

It was a thrill filled with gratitude towards Lord Jaganath (krishna), Balram and Subhadra,as said they come out on the streets to meet their devotees in a chariot once every year in the beginning days of the downpour in India.Since everyday a hindu devotee goes to the temple for prayer and on the arrival of monsoon showers once every year Lord Krishna visits people.
Its just impossible to participate in a chariot procession in Puri,Orissa or may it be Ahmedabad,Gujarat in India,due to huge crowd.Though I have seen the live telecast of it but never dreamed of it coming true.
My cousin in Fort Mcmurray told me two days prior to the procession day and so I had enough time to well set to participate.
Early that morning we went to the place from where it started and it took some 3 hours to return back from the streets.All excitement poured in me walking with a vibrantly decorated chariot having deities inside with all the devotees in Indian outfits.
People played the different musical instruments and the music merged with the chanting of 'Hare Krishna Hare Rama' For a moment all this took me way back to my home town in India.People offered their gratitude by doing volunteering of sweeping the road before the chariot rolled over,by pulling the rope attached to the chariot and distributing food offered to the deities

This unique celebrations filled the air with romantic feelings

and the joy was doubled up by ending with a great vegetaranian indian meal, for me the day was full of enchantment.I thanked the lord for such a nice day!

Art in Fort McMurray

Going to Fort McMurray was something like going to meet an unknown and strange person and to live with him.Even at my middle age I became feverish and full of excitement when my husband told me that we are moving to Fort McMurray,Alberta.
I started reading about the new place on web and started asking about it to friends from Ontario,who had already migrated over there.
The review was a mixed one,some liked the span of winter,some hated it, to some the extended day light up to 10.30pm was full of enjoyment and some with awe spoke about the Northern lights and so on..
But than I thought it would be my personal opinion that would count as every person is different.
Our family friend Jayesh,his wife Manisha,their children Vaishvi and Dhyan are warm welcomers.Our stay with them in Alberta will be a memorable one.
As I had dreamed,Fort was like that.A place having a hilly terrain with Athabasca river flowing,just like North Americas' land scape.Its a short time to give a review but in short I liked the place and people here.
The most awesomest guy being little Dhyan.Its his vacation time and I am allotted the work of improving his
hand writing and art.I really enjoy, him becoming naughty and start arguing when not in mood to do the exercises and sometimes obedient like a regular student finishing the art work given by me.

To me, its' the exercises of fingers, by doing patterns and strokes of colours,the improvement in the art and handwriting would be certainly there and am pretty sure about it.Keep it up, Dhyan.

As spring arrives

very slowly and gently the days of blosom has arrived leaving the cold winter days behind...
the whole scenic view swirls around,the colors of branches of trees have changed due to flowers, near a river side where a cuckoo sings melody every morning.

seeing all this my heart started humming that,"oh folks, come togather and let us sing the song of love,"

A sudden enchanment arose in me, as this is the charisma of spring and a spiced Indian tea.

It was the time of early morning while sitting on a swing in my open balcony with a warm cup of mint & ginger tea.

Half a cup of water,with the remaining half of milk,spoonful of sugar,a tea bag,grated ginger, couple of mint leaves,bring all this to a boil in a pot and than strain it with a strainer in a cup and that is it.

This tea is really a miracle to make your heart sing while enjoying the coming spring days.Try it as it is a very good energizer for body and the spring adds the peacefulness to soul.

bringing seasons inside

Colors are gifted in abundance by nature, to the flowers as spring arrives.By enjoying the seasons and flowers a special feeling arose in me,like Red giving me fullness,Yellow bringing glory and brilliance,Green giving the feeling of excessiveness and of course Blue imparts vastness and all the colors when blossomed in flowers are of course cheerful and gay.This beautiful spring gives me a message of adopting variety and diversity to make life more interesting.
Which inspired me to bring seasons in my living area as it was the time for makeover.
Another thing to note is we are gifted by  the nature to enjoy the coming of migratory birds in November,December,January as it is the winter time in India.Sea gulls being the most common in my area.It is so exciting to see them enjoying the savory Surat food like "bhusu" and "ganthiya".They are being fed by the localites,when they are especially
seen flying in assemblage over the bridge on river Tapi.Once I captured them in my camera and made them the concept of my paintings.

I hung these paintings on the wall which I painted sap green escorted by lime green in the 3 side walls of the living area.A bunch of colorful Gerberas brought in the vibrancy to the place made me feel that indeed I have brought the seasons in my habitat.

booties for the babies

Nowadays our family is rejoycing as our niece is expecting a baby after two decades of marriage.The couples' joy is unimaginable.
As her gynaec adviced her to rest more,we all were in dilemma for her,as how would she kill her time and at that time I remembered one of my friends from South Africa told me how they were practising an early childhood education, thinking ofgoing a step ahead,I thought of keeping my niece busy by doing some interesting exercises related to babies.
So apart from her reading some religious books I handed her a book of Japnese puzzle "sudoku",but that was not enough as she had still an ample of time.So after remembering my time whenI had conceived my son and howIhad made a wardrobe of baby clothes. I gave my niece a ball of wool and knitting needles.I wanted her to knit booties,but for thatI had to recollect the method.So I started knitting...this is how I started.

After knitting a rectangle of 5"to 6" X 3" which would cover the legpart of the baby,I divided the next coming line in to three..I started knitting the center part up to some 2"which would cover the foot part and then by lifting both the side lines or sections, I knitted a couple of lines more for the sides and the base...and Oh my God..It turned out to be a cute little bootie.And of course it would be cool exercise for the mom to be. 

a delightful appetizer

November,December,January,February are the winter months in my country.Green veggies and fruits are available in abundance and it aids to inspire for the evolution of different kinds of cuisines.While preparing a pickle of fresh lemons obtained from the market with ginger and some local veggies,an idea evolved to me for making an appetizer with lemon and ginger,as a big dinner was to be followed by, in the evening.

After grating and making a paste from a chunk of ginger added to which was

half a teaspoon of cummin seed powder,a pinch of black pepper corn powder, a pinch of salt.

 half teaspoon of turmeric powder,two tablespoons of honey added to it was a glass full of luke warm water and lemon was than squeezed as required.

wow, to my surprise it really turned out to an amazing drink.So delicious and yummy,and to say more,it was indeed a great appetizer as it made me eat my dinner with full appetite.

The next day I narrated the story of this delightful drink to my age old mom,she told me that this drink could also be good for colds & coughs as all the ingredients were favourable for it.

 So viola,a new drink delightfully tasty,should be tried by every one.Enjoy it and after trying please do not forget to write me back about how you liked it.

tips to develop social relations

Utrayan,is the day when people spend their day flying kites in Gujarat...while enjoying the festival on my terrace I realised that the kites which were bright in color were prominent and the lighter ones merged with the clouds above and at that time I thought about the clouds,they keep on changing their attire every moment and are never the same....but yet they are known as clouds.Also their individuality changes with whom they are...like in the morning at sunrise they glorify themselves with a golden color and become one with the rising sun rays...at noon they are milky white and at night in moonlit they glitter with lustre...though with different looks all the times...they are still called the clouds.

If one notices, that they are steady and milky white in Summer & Winter and in rainy days they become dark, bountiful,full of water and as soon as rain falls,they become clear and transparent...their quality of being noticed, is due to their mingling with what ever they are with and still remain distinctive and peculiar..and yet they are called clouds..we can learn so much from nature.... and let me conclude by jotting down..to become known in this world we should adopt the quality of clouds and than see the change.....