Happy Karthikai

Karthikai is a second festival of lights type thing celebrated in South India. Without going into too much detail, I can just say that is is common to light lamps through the entire month of Karthikai (in Tamil) which is usually from mid-Nov to mid-Dec of the English calendar, culminating on the full-moon day of the month. And then as with all festivals, there's a whole lot of goodies and decorations, prayers and even crackers left-over from Diwali usually. You can read all about it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karthikai_Deepam. This was my thalai-Karthikai and hence a bigger deal than usual. As the new daughter-in-law, I had to bring in the light into the home by lighting many a lamp and praying for the health and happiness of all. I donned a sari and all and lit all sorts of lamps and burst a cracker or two. Here's one of our clicks from many showing the lamps all set to be set down to light various places around the house in tasteful decoration. Happy Karthikai!

Happy Diwali!

Back we are at the festive helm of things as far as being Indian is considered anyways... The biggest festival is here - Diwali. And yet again I am not where I should be - India doing what I love the most - bursting crackers etc. This time is even more special because it is my Thalai Diwali. For the uninitiated, it is the first Diwali after the wedding. Everyone creates a big fuss over us, gets us all these new clothes and feeds us these array of sweets that would put the sweet shops to shame. Of course we are not in India to enjoy any of these spectacles. Hmph. But the husbad and I did go out and get new clothes a small fraction of the whole package at least to keep up some of the spirit. And unbelievably for the third year in a row, my sentiments remain unchanged from here.

So here's wishing you all a very very Happy and safe Diwali and a fantastic New Year ahead.

And specially, for allll my close friends who also got married this past year, wish you all a very special Thalai Diwali. Enjoy!

And finally, a very Happy Birthday to my husband :)

The Varalakshmi Nombu

Before I get to the post, Happy Independence Day everyone. :)

Today was the first of many things... It was the first Varalakshmi Nombu for me post-wedding. For those unfamiliar with the rituals, here's a synopsis - http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/07/varalakshmi-nombu.html. But this meant I had to shoulder the responsibility of being the 'woman-of-the-house', and cook the yummy treats that I took for granted all the years till now, wake up at 6:00 am to cook everything post a head-shower (I was allowed the luxury of sleeping-in in those premarital days), prepare everything for the pooja, etc etc etc.

Amongst this is what I consider supremely challenging - making the vadais and the kozhakattais (a.k.a modak). And I took down the recipe from Patti and followed it to the P. Who said victory isn't sweet? It certainly is when it's a sweet rice dumpling like the kozhakattai.

Or the crispy vadais (though I didn't shape them too well... hehehehe. There's always room for improvement!)