The second of the Holiday Party was hosted by the company I work for. This time I hosted a fashion walk titled Walk With Pride. We had a Diwali party a month ago at work (check my post here) and everyone liked the theme. We picked the same theme but tweaked it a bit to suit the audience here. All in all it turned out well.

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First of the Holiday parties this season opened doors for me into newer avenues. Aptly I am kicking it off with the most sung and played during the holidays, Santa Clays Is Comin' To Town. Original song was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934. Here's the earliest known recording by Harry Reser and his band with vocals by Tom ( Read more... )

From the 1977 hit Hindi film Gharonda ( = The Nest) Sung by Bhupinder and Runa Laila. Music composed by Jaidev and Lyrics penned by Gulzar and Naqsh Lyallpuri. A very simple song that relates to every common man who have the ambition to make a home for themselves somewhere underneath this beautiful blue sky. There is a sad version of this song in ( Read more... )

Interesting that the day before Hindus celebrated Karthika Pournami which is one way of thanks to the lord who killed the asura Tripura (one of the versions behind the festval) and this day people in US and Canada celebrate the day of giving thanks. In US it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. More about the festival here.

A lovely ( Read more... )

Kartika Pournami is celebrated on the Full Moon Day day or the fifteenth lunar day of Kartika (November-December) by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. It is also known as Tripuri Poornima and Tripurari Poornima. It is sometimes called Deva-Diwali or Deva-Deepawali - the festival of lights of the gods. (More about the festival here)

Here is ( Read more... )

Another Diwali celebration, but this time it's by the local Telugu Association of CT group. Again I got a chance to perform on the stage with my friends. The fact that we spent not more than 8 or 10 hrs to prep for the dance (finalizing the songs, steps, sequence and then practicing the actual dance), it felt immensely satisfactory when we could ( Read more... )

We had another Diwali party at work. This time around it was our department hosting a Diwali-Thanksgiving Potluck inviting everyone to enjoy the yummy food and also socialize with colleagues that you don’t get to meet every day, building relationships. That is one of the beauty of such festivals and gatherings - networking and learning new cultures ( Read more... )

It is so ironic that the day before there were attacks on Paris and this day is celebrated as Children's Day in India. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary is celebrated as children's day since he had so much love for them. It is true one is born with so much innocence that one cannot do nothing but love the child. It amazes ( Read more... )

The third-day of the five-day festival is the main Diwali, the festival of lights. Just like the day before this day is also filled with puja and offerings to god, family gatherings, feast on scrumptious food, meet friends, light diyas and above all play with fireworks. This is one festival that I always want to be in India just because of the ( Read more... )

The five-day festival of Diwali starts off with Dhanteras  / Dhanalakshmi Pooja (celebration of Goddess Lakshmi. More here). This is followed by Narakachathurdasi / Choti Diwali. On this day the asura (demon-king) Narakasura was killed by Lord Krishna, his wife Satyabhama and her avatar Goddess Kali. Pre-day for main Diwali, this day is also ( Read more... )