Diwali Bakshanams, Weekend Party and a Movie.

Whats Diwali if you are not in India? Hence no posts from me. Especially since Ashu had celebrated her first 2 Diwalis in India, this year was all the more disappointing. Hd had bought few dresses for her from London and that was it. And oh, my lame attempt to make Diwali Bakshanams. Since I was planning to make Gulab Jamuns for the party in the weekend, I decided to make Thirati Paal. That came out OK actually. Then my mom had to ask me what savoury Im making and insisted that I have to deep fry something in oil for Diwali. I should have stuck to Papads. But no, I thought Maida biscuits and Banana biscuits would be the easiest. So saw recipes, made the dough and just before rolling out, remembered that I do NOT have a rolling pin. I forgot to bring it from India and never got around to buying here. What self respecting house wife would nt have a chapathi kuzhavi, you ask? Say Hello to your friendly neighborhood blogger - Me! I could nt believe I could be this stupid! Then wondered what to do and started rummaging the kitchen draws and shelves to look gor a rolling pin look alike. Nothing! Then stumbled on a pair of wooden chop sticks that Hd had flicked from a Chinese restaurant. and yes, ladies and gentlemen, I used a chopstick to roll out the dough and though the banana biscuits were so-so, the maida biscuits turned out to be yummy! My wrist is still hurting though, with all the chop stick rolling! (Have you finished laughing yet?) My mom would be proud of me, so laugh all you want!

The office party on Saturday was fun though. Loads of food, my jamun, pasta and curd rice was appreciated. A friend did a small puppet show for the kids, another friend brought sparklers which was lit in the balcony. It was close to -5* C with terrible wind chill and it was quite an experience. The four kids all below the age of 4, were nt intimidated though. Between them, they emptied half a dozen packets of sparklers! By 9.30, the kids went to sleep one by one and we 12 adults played 3 card poker and gambled. I play cards but do not gamble except with close family and that too a meagre Rs.1 or Rs.2 bets, that's all. So this 1 Franc and 2 Franc bets put me off. I decided to team up with Hd instead and blame him if he lost any money. But luck was on "our" side and "we" won loads of money in the first few rounds and then "Hd" lost most of the money as "we" did nt want our friends money anyway! ;) But we played for hours until 1.00 am and I had so much fun after a long, long time!

Could nt sleep long on Sunday as we had a 11 am show to catch. Om Shanthi Om! Hd and Ashu stayed home while I joined 3 of my friends to watch the movie. The movie was nt great but then with us 4 gals, any movie would have been fun. We were just goofing around and laughing aloud sharing our own private jokes! I had read Nehas review of the movie before I watched it and was wondering how badly they would have spoofed the Tamil movie shot. But got to be honest, I laughed the hardest for that scene and every time SRK said, "Rascal aa! Mind it!", I was rolling on the floor and I had tears in my eyes. I dont know why that silly scene cracked me up so much. It was hilarious! I liked Main Hoon Na except the dragging climax. OSO was as good as MHN or as bad as MHN, if you did nt like it.