First Diwali

We were invited today by our family friends' Avanti aunty and Niranjan uncle to celebrate 'Diwalsan'(first Diwali as a married couple)! We drove off to their place in the evening and enjoyed a nice chit-chat in their backyard which they have recently renovated.

They have a beautiful house located in a suburb called 'Waterways' where the sea water has been channelised all around the suburb. It is Australia's only suburb to have 40% water and 20% parkland! Their house is just perfectly located to see the reflection of the dipping sun in the calm waters. It was soo scenic and left us spellbound.

Avanti aunty prepared a special dinner for the occasion. She made khavapoli, mutter rice, cabbage veggi, tomato soup and dal rice. Post dinner they both showered us with loads of blessings and wished us for a happy married life.

Extended celebrations

We invited our friends today to join us for the extended Diwali and birthday celebrations. All of them have been extremely supportive and have helped us settle down when we were new to Melbourne, so we thought of treating them for dinner with the preparations of Paani puri, Rosagulla, Crispy Potato Fry, Methi Mutter Malai, Bundi Raita, Tawa pulao and Chapatis.

Paani puri was a hit amongst all the dishes and we dint realise when a pack of 60 was over within minutes!

We talked about a whole range of topics until late night till our friends felt they are too sleepy to head off home!

In the limelight!

Last week, I got a picture from my family of my first voting experience even before I was an year old!

I had much heard about this pic that was published in the newspaper and recall my dad saying how lucky we both were to get captured on that day leaving the rest! The news reporter had tagged the photo in Marathi as 'अधुनिक पेहेरावातील एक गृहिणी आपल्या तान्ह्या बाळाला बरोबर घेऊन प्रथमच आपला मतदान हक्क बजावताना'. I was not able to translate it exactly, but the best could be 'A homemaker dressed in a contemporary outfit casting her vote with her newborn for the first time' (I know its sounding too funny!). 

I am thankful to my grandfather who preserved this periodical cutout so that I could see it when I grow up.  

End of Internship

Me and Praveen have been volunteering as IT Interns since last year at the Eastern Community Legal Centre in Melbourne and today we successfully handed over our work to them.

We had been working on the centres' database to add, modify and update client details and suggest good customizations to the existing CRM system to reach out to a wider client base. We felt glad that our inputs have added value to the centres' operation. Being our last working day, we delivered a training session to the staff on the changes implemented and navigated them through all the improvements that have been incorporated in the system.

They were really appreciative of our contribution and gifted us a thank-you card with beautiful messages along with a movie gift card!

We both felt a sense of achievement for accomplishing the given task competently and at the same time contented as we could offer our skills in some possible way for the community development.

11/11/2015

Today was a special day for us as we had three exciting things to celebrate for: Diwali, Praveen's birthday and our 8th month anniversary! It was a good coincidence to have all these three come together on the same day. The day started with Praveen receiving loads of wishes from family. Once he got a bit free, we phoned relatives and friends in India and wished them for Diwali. It was nice to hear from each one of them and get their wishes and blessings for our future! Going by the time lag between India and Australia, we just dint notice how time flew by as it was evening by then. On the eve of Lakshmi pujan, we lit up diyas and made the house get a festive feel.

I tried my best to merge the festivity with some birthday decor and carved Praveen's name on chart paper. It was looking bright and nice than what I had expected!

We baked a choc pudding cake to enjoy the evening with some other Diwali special varieties.

We thought that it would be a long day with lots if things to do but all just got over in the blink of an eye!

Thoughtful message

This is a true story that happened in Japan. In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan breaks open the wall. Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls.When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck because a nail from outside hammered into one of it's feet. He sees this, feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail, it was nailed 5 years ago when the house was first built !!!

What happened? 

The lizard has survived in such position for 5 years!!!!!!!!!! In a dark wall partition for 5 years without moving, it is impossible and mind-boggling. Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 5 years! without moving a single step--since it's foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it has been doing, and what and how it has been eating. Later, not knowing from where it came, appears another lizard, with food in it's mouth. Ah! He was stunned and touched deeply. For the lizard that was stuck by nail, another lizard has been feeding it for the past 5 years... Imagine? it has been doing that untiringly for 5 long years, without giving up hope on it's partner. 

Imagine what a small creature can do that a creature blessed with a brilliant mind can't!

Sugary Treat

Today Rayyan's mom, Shamsun gave us a variety of delicious homemade sweets.

She made Gulab jamun, Cham-Cham, Rosgulla and Mango yogurt. All of the sweets were simply mouth-watering!

Their family hails from Bangladesh so most of the dishes are known to me but have slight different names and preparation. It is often that me and Praveen join them for dinner or other festival celebrations. We feel soo nice to have met a family who is warm-hearted and always there for us!