It is festival season in India, and Canadian Thanksgiving was in the middle of it. So, we gathered the team together at our house for an improvised Thanksgiving dinner.
Adi, our housemate, orchestrated the entire event--or so he says. In fact, he drove all over Chandigarh to collect food and people as we assembled the feast.
Turkeys are nowhere to be found in India so we had to settle for KFC! That was our version of "fast" food.
Friends of the Hindu faith had, in fact, been fasting for the nine nights and ten days of Navaratri. Some of them ate special food during that time which is referred to as "fast" food as well!
Jessica, Ashley and Alyssa (UFV interns working with Dr. Shaw at DIR) had to rush over to our kitchen after their stove ran out of gas in the middle of their veggie preparations. Unfortunately, Sarah was ill and couldn't come, but she had a plateful of dinner delivered to her at home.
Mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy were my specialty. I now have the courage to light the gas stove thanks to Ninni's teaching, but don't have any plans to start cooking meals. The nightly tiffins are working just fine, thank you.
Simlee also joined us for the celebrations as did Dilmeet, Bethany (dessert queen), and Gurneet--with his family (Satbir, Ninni and Ishpreet).
Our large dining table, around which we managed to seat thirteen people, was made up of all large pieces of furniture we had available. That included our much smaller dining table, the credenza and my desk. Once it was all covered in Adi's bed sheet, it looked quite good!
As we all gathered ready for the feast, our "pic was clicked" with the help of Steve Jobs--wherever he may be! Thanks, Steve!
The desserts deserve honourable mention!
Apple Pie from Monica's!
Cheesecake and authentic pumpkin pie (with pumpkin and spices hand delivered from Canada) prepared by Bethany!
This was also the day of the Dussehra festival, but our dinner time coincided with the burning of the effigy of the evil Ravana so we had to miss that event. For certain Good again triumphed over evil at the 40 celebration sites around the city.
This past week included another of the monthly social gatherings at the Canadian Consulate. It does seem that we just attended one.
There were some new faces, as usual, including Logan and Katie who are also CIDA sponsored interns working on a project in Chandigarh.
Two of our favourite people to see at the Consulate are Gurjeet and her husband, Manjeet. Gurjeet is a new bride from Montreal, and her husband is a merchant in Sector 17--and the funniest man in India, I am sure. That is clear from his bright smile and twinkling eyes. They are also our just-about-neighbours across the street in Sector 34.
Meanwhile back at the Chandigarh campus of UFV, the new computer lab, opened last December by Mike De Jong, is well used for computerized components of Accounting, Statistics and Finance, as well as BUS 160.
This dream of Gurneet's came to fruition in a matter of days last year. It is a great addition to this modern little campus.
I am sometimes caught working--surrounded by bottles of water that are my constant companions in this warm place!
Not everyone is anxious to come to my class on Monday mornings, but this woodpecker really was this week. He is so interested in Organizational Behaviour!
I am waiting to have a visit from some of the beautiful green parakeets that live in the trees at the back of the campus.
As the sun sets on the City Beautiful........
Today we finally did have the beautiful sunshine, blue skies and light breeze that we look forward to here in the fall.
At the end of our work day, George and I took a long walk around the perimeter of Sector 44 (well 4.5 km of it) as the sun was dropping down behind the Hindu temple.
