Diwali Lunch

So yesterday, Saturday, was Diwali, and I got to celebrate with a new friend named Reena. She is friends with my former classmate Poornima, who introduced us via email. Reena invited me to a lunch that her in-laws were hosting for her and her husband and his relatives to celebrate their first Diwali as a married couple. (She got married in March.) It was such a wonderful time, and her in-laws and their relatives were all so gracious. Their home was beautiful, with white walls and smooth tile floors and ornate pictures and decorative items on the dark wooden tables, but because they furnished with such a light hand, the beautiful dark, ornate furniture didn't overwhelm. It was just lovely. They opened the windows and the door, and a light breeze was in the house, so it was nice and cool.

People spoke mostly English, so I could understand most everything that was said, and I was a little jetlagged, so I sat quietly most of the time and listened. It's so nice to see relatives gathered and watch them laugh and tease and mock-argue and catch up on each other's lives. The house was full of loud chatter and laughter, and I just sat and giggled at the way everyone teased each other. One man told me a joke: "A man told his friend, 'Oh, my wife is an angel.' And his friend replied, 'I'm not so lucky. My wife is still alive.'" As you can imagine, this prompted all sorts of responses from his female relatives. :-) It was a great time.

I did regret not wearing my sari. I didn't know it was "a lunch"; I had thought it was just lunch, so I wore jeans, and everyone else looked so lovely in their saris. So Reena said we'd have to find a wedding for me to gate crash so that I could wear my sari, and then she remembered that one of the ladies there was having a daughter get married at the end of November. So we got to talking to her, and now I'm invited to the wedding and the dance reception the night before, where we'll all dance like in Bollywood movies. I'll need to watch some movies before late November and practice getting my moves down. :-)

Afterwards, Reena had her husband drive me past the office where I'll be working to show me how to walk to work on Tuesday, and then they took me to a little grocery store near my apartment and explained about the various produce I'm unfamiliar with, etc. They just took such good care of me, and I'm so grateful. It was a wonderful time. Below are some pics of Reena and her husband's family and the food, etc. Enjoy!


Below: Posing in this pic are Reena's husband, a lady who lit a deepa and wafted the smoke over us to protect us from the evil eye, Reena herself, the lady whose daugher is soon marrying, and another relative.


Below: In this pic are a relative whose daughter is starting college in Vancouver, the mother of the bride-to-be, Geeta (another relative), me, and Reena's husband's dad.

Below: This is the table with the food we had for lunch. It was so amazingly yummy... The yellow dish on the left was lentils; the white in the middle was a yogurt dish; and the orange-flecked dish was a salad of carrots and coconut and other things. The salad was one of the few dishes I'd never had before, and it was really yummy. All of the food was delicous.

Below: More food. The tray with the little white cups was dahi vada (one of my favorites: a fried dough immersed in cold plain yogurt). The food in the foil below it is like a wheat-based tortilla with herbs and leaves. It was really really good.

Below: This is a digestive that you chew after the meal. It's beetle leaf that's wrapped around beetle nut and some spices that must contain anise b/c it tasts kind of like licorice. Reena said you put the whole thing in your mouth and chew. I thought you chew and swallow and nearly choked when I couldn't get it down. But, no, you're supposed to chew and chew and chew for a long time. Whoops. Fortunately, they got me some water...

Below: I thought this was one of the coolest, loveliest things in their house. It reminded me of a porch swing, only inside rather than outside. They told me that these indoor swings were common many years ago, but now are fairly rare. Man... If I could, I'd love to bring one of these to Randy and mama; I could see them putting it in an enclosed porch for sure.

Below: Reena and me posing on the swing!