NRI Maami

People I personally know who frequent the blog have been asking - ‘So, where is the post on the Chicago Thirumanam’. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing it, but thought people would be bored to read it. But, if you are interested, go ahead and read this, or don’t.

 The Chicago thirumanam went off really well, to everyone’s happiness and satisfaction during the thanksgiving weekend. Yes, it’s now more than a month.

We tried very hard to keep it as close as possible to what it would have been in India. Of course, many of the specimens mentioned in this post, were definitely missing.

We had 2 sessions - the previous evening was the Nischyathartham/Reception. That was followed by the wedding ceremony the next morning.

The crowd was close to 100 people. Most women turned up in silk sarees, and wore the jewellery they had access to in the US. The reception desk at the entrance was unmanned, because there were few young girls in the crowd, and those that could have done it, found it odd to stand by the entrance. All the same, we had a plate full of colourful daisies and sugar or chocolates to sweeten the guest’s mouth as they entered.

In true desi style, like all other desi parties, everything was delayed by a minimum of one hour. Thankfully, the priest who was skilled at either reciting quickly or conveniently omitting the extra frills, managed to have the thali tied, 2 minutes before the end of the muhurtham. Thanks to starting so late, our guest were in time to witness the ceremony too, else we might have had a handful of people, 80% of who would have been white-american. The poor chaps had no idea about the Indian Stretchable Time concept I guess.

In preparation for the wedding, some of the interesting things we did were:

Welcome Board & Vethalai Paaku  bags - The welcome board was handcrafted in exquisite Red gift wrapping paper and adorned by gold glitter to display the names of the bride and groom. No place for the word ‘Welcome’ when I finished. We made sure it was displayed outside the mantapam on both days.

The vethalai Pakku bags were white paper bags. We used half-page labels to print out the bride and groom’s names with the date of the wedding and Thank you written. We had it done in marroon and blue (for women and men). The stickers then were easily applied to the bag. In all I have to admit, it looked very professional. What went inside the bag was- For the men, apple and Bakshanam(Karasev and laddu) bag. For the women, there was manjal, kumkum, apple, ravikai thuni(blouse piece) and a gift.

Nischyathartham plates - Found $1 trays in the local dollar store. Filled them with an assortment of stuff and sealed and tied them with Cling wrap and red and gold ribbon.

Vratha Bakshanam - More $1 trays from dollar store.  No Kai-Murukku experts here, so managed Mul-Murukku in large sizes, Nukkal, Therati paal (from Ricotta cheese), Om-podi, Appam, and bought out Laddu and Mysore Pak.

So, that in brief is a little of what happened those two days.

Two posts ago, I ranted about how much I missed Deepavali in India. To somewhat offset my self-pity and bitterness at being away in ‘America Naadu’, I decided I would take extra effort to make Deepavali enjoyable. So, I took it upon myself to make available 3 sweets and 3 kaarams - that would definitely bring home the Deepavali spirit. With the help of my experienced MIL who made Thenkuzhal, Ribbon Pakoda and the ‘Veetuku - Veedu’ popular 7-cake, and Badushah bought from a Bangalore Iyengar Samayal Kaarar at $1 a piece, I reached my goal by myself making Manankombu a.k.a Mul Murukku and a fancy sweet called Lavanga Lathika (the name of which many people had a hard time remembering). So, by Deepavali day, we had plenty to eat in the area of Bakshanams.

On the morning of Deepavali, all of us had new clothes, Deepavali marundhu. We videotaped the ‘Ennai Sasthram’ of my daughter who was quite amused by the whole process.

My office is well represented by the TamBrahm clan. We stand at a dignified 100% of the total office population. So, all of us decided there was no harm whatsoever, and that in fact it made absolute sense to have a ‘bada khana’ of good pandigai sapadu. The women folk in the office decided we could skip our business casuals and show up in salwars. We planned a very satisfying menu which started with bisi bela bath and ended with theratti paal for sweet. I don’t want to earn the ‘vaitheruchal’ of those who had a busy Deepavali at work by describing the menu in detail. I think it will suffice if I say, all of us had a hard time keeping our eyes open for the rest of the day.

I also learnt from a friend, that fire-crackers are available around July 4. Next year, I plan to stock up in July, so I have nothing to yearn for but the company of my family in India. Next Deepavali will be even better.