Photos: Sept. Social Life

(All photos by Kevin this week!)

Krishnajanmashtmi, the Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Krishna, began on Monday, August 27. In a nice coincidence, one of the students as YoSan University where I get acupuncture is from Fiji. Her name is Jyotika Karan, and she works the front desk at YoSan nearly every day. Jyotika introduced us to her temple, the L.A. Geeta Ramayan Mandali Mandir, just off of Venice (which is NOT the Hare Krishna temple, but a temple specifically for Indo-Fijians).

Kevin had a brief bout of a cold, so we weren't able to go to the temple until nearly the last day, Sunday, September 2. I wore a sari, bangles, and bindi. Thanks to the wonderful Raju family in Sigatoka, Fiji, not only did I have a gorgeous sari for the occasion, but I even knew how to tie it properly! (Okay, it took me half an hour, but that's actually an improvement...)


Everyone assumed I was Indian. Kevin, for his part, looked very authentic in a guru shirt and slacks. In fact, he was the most authentic-looking one there since, as is typical, the men wore all-Western clothing.

It's difficult to sit through a religious ceremony that takes place entirely in languages I don't understand: Sanskrit and Hindi. I also feel self-conscious as I constantly shift position on the floor, while little old aunties next to me sit with perfect poise. Another tense moment is during aarti, when everyone ritualistically offers money, flowers, and camphor to the deities. Now that Kevin and I have such long gaps between these ceremonies, we are always afraid we'll forget how to do it properly.
Nevertheless, we had a good time and met some very nice people. We had typical prasad — fruit and sweets that are offered, then consumed after the ceremony — then dinner around 10 pm with puris, rice, and curries (including my favorite, pumpkin). It was just like being in Fiji.

The next day, Kevin, our friend Haan-Fawn, and I went to see the film The 11th Hour, an enviro-flick produced and narrated by Leo DiCaprio, who is finally starting to look older than 15. The movie covered a lot of ground already presented in An Inconvenient Truth, but at the end it highlighted architects and designers, in particular, who presented do-able solutions that kept the film from being too grim or leaving the audience feeling hopeless.

Later, Haan-Fawn's husband Steve joined us, and Kevin and I put on an Indian feast at our place, with lobia, a cow-pea curry (usually made with black-eyed peas, but they had fresh cow peas at the Saturday Farmer's Market), ginger potatoes, and long beans (both courtesy of Madhur Jaffrey's fabulous recipe book). We served it with basmati rice, mango and imli (tamarind) chutneys from Fiji Friend, and delicious lime pickle from the Raju family.


Having friends over for dinner at our place makes us feel sooooo grown up!

Later that week, my weekly walking companion, Zara, dropped by with her adorable six-month-old, Nora, or "la puce" ("the flea" en français), as she and her husband have nicknamed the little mite.


I got to spend more time with Nora this past Monday, since mommy needed a check-up and asked me to look after her during the appointment. Nora seems quite fond of "Frère Jacques" — yes, the song taught in every elementary French class in the U.S. What can I say? She kept smiling while I was singing it. I am going to miss them terribly when they move to Maryland in November. For more adorable photos of Nora with Zara's amusing bilingual commentary, see Zara's blog.

In other news, Kevin and I are trying to tame our office, which has been a disastrous no-person's-land since... well... for longer than I care to admit. We are tired of working in the dining room and living room, and we'd like to have guests stay with us again, so this month is dedicated to purging and organization. I've been making use of Freecycle, an awesome listserv with several regional locations where you can give and get things for free and keep stuff out of landfills. We use the one for Santa Monica and the Westside.

To this end, I've suspended seeking new clients for my business, but I'll start up again when the UCLA quarter begins later this month. I'm also slacking off Actions, since I'm feeling a bit spiritually exhausted at the moment. I will keep updating personal news, however.

That's all, folks!