Taste of Asia

Over the past week, I have been to a multitude of places and had a lot of fun... And yes, I did take into hibernation, more out of laziness and loyalty to my good old diary than anything else. This past week was a 'Global Village' kind of thing in UC where they showcase the variety of arts/crafts/food and essentially cultures from different places. We had this Chinese fest which was a short n sweet affair on a crisp Thursday night...

It was a festoon of color, costumes, music and pictures. To me, all the clothes seemed beautiful and authentic and the women, lithe and slim and the men, just as flexible and nimble.. It was a short n sweet portrayal of what seemed like the best portions of China. I went with the intent of sampling authentic Chinese cuisine (fat chance, given that I am veggie) and ended up being drawn by the performaces... really nice and new and a class apart from what I had seen. Most of all that struck me was that they started at 8 and ended at 9 -- unheard of in Desi functions!! It was sweet... And as expected at 9, there was nothing I could chew on, but my thoughts :)

And come Sunday, it was 'Taste of India'. It was an aptly coined name coz the food they gave was basically just enough to 'taste'.. Lol... But that apart, I think, the AID chapter @ UC deserves to be applauded for their continuing efforts as whatever they did... I was an active volunteer last year and have become a bit dormant.. having done enough for the ISA!

The above pic was not @ Taste of India.. was at Deepotsav.. and the basic idea is to give u a feel of the Desi touch @ UC.. And true to Indian standards, the fest itself lasted from 12-3, followed by a movie (RDB again) in the campus theatre... a day's events planned for people like me, who awaiting their stuff to arrive from the likes of Fisher-Sci had nothing better to do! Well, to keep the crowd entertained, our organizers played multilingual songs... And they seemed to have the same DVDs paavam as last year. In fact as I entered, I heard 'Poonkatrile' from 'Uyire' and I was pretty sure it was the same song that had played as I had entered the premises last year. And as for Tamil there are a million, seriously million wonderful songs and guess what was being played next? 'Oi.. enadi Kappakazhange' from 'Dhool'. To the westerners, Rima Sen probably came across as sleazy... what a showcase to India! But the stalls were nice - a lot of colorful mehendi and other merchandise being sold.. including some pretty baubles for women like me... After some food and some timepass, it was some performances. I donot speak ill of children who 'try to perform'. The key word surely here was 'try' because it certainly wasnt 'perform'! Lets just say, Lady Grace didnt grace us at all!

Soon it was tie for the movie... Rang de Basanti @ campus theatre. I expected no one but jobless souls like me to be there (my faithful comrades bade me goodbye coz they all had something better to do! Sob!) but was pleasantly surprised when I walked into an overflowing theatre! Lotsa forgeiners and ofcourse desi public. Having waded in alone, I was even more pleasantly surprised to find Aravind with an empty seat next to him.. I plonked next to him to enjoy the movie a second time.. And enjoyed it much more I must add...

The end of the movie brings me to the end of this blog.. Just a coupla quick thoughts as I conclude --

1) Its very easy to be critical. Having organized a bunch of programmes like this, I can tell you that when you do things, there are somethings that will always get screwed up -- Its Murphy's law. So, when you havent done any arrangements, atleast dont crib!

2) The spirit of a country is always underplayed when you belong to it -- That would explain why I enjoyed the Chinese function far more than the Indian one. The Indian function could never live up to what the 'spirit of India' is to me - I'm glad for that...

Jai Hind!