Becoming religious

Today a friend asked me a question which led to considerable introspection. I had called her to ask if she wants to accompany me to an iskcon temple in Brooklyn as it is janamashtami and though she said yes, she also asked "what has happened - why the sudden religious streak?". The question sort of took me aback as I haven't really mentioned anything or done anything religious (known to her) recently. I guess the root of her question was why celebrate the little known festival as being away from home you really tend to focus on holi and diwali and durga puja if you are a bong. She was eerily right -

1. I started my monday fasts. I know it is supposed to get you a good husband and I already have one. However, these fasts help me focus - don't ask me how. My morning puja is slightly longer and I light a diya after I come back home and I feel good about it. Also I believe little pain (hunger?) is good for the soul.
2. I did think a bit about janamashtami this year, though past 5 year the festival has come and gone without me even realizing. I actually made besan ke laddoo to offer as prasad as I wanted to do something to mark the day.

Now coming to the key question - why? I thought about it and I think it is because of my job. I have been so frustrated with my work lately and as I have complained before I can't move because of visa issues. So I needed to clear all the negative aspects from my mind and focus on positives - that it has been a lovely summer, I love my husband, my house, have a great group of friends to hang out with. In short, life outside of work has been really great. Praying helps me focus and think clearly. I decided that if nothing gets decided within the next 2 months, I am going to leave my job and chill for a bit - take cake decorating classes, go to India etc. I know the economy sucks etc but I have to take a risk to do what I want to do. There is no second way about it.

The second reason for this sudden enthusiasm towards janamashtami I think is because is was a big deal when we were growing up. My sister and I used to decorate the jhanki (tableau) depicting parts of kishan leela. We had and idol of vasudev carrying baby kishna which used to be placed over a blue painted river, some toy animals which used to be placed on a patch of sand to depict forest and a mirror to show a pond. All our god idols were also placed there completed with a baby kishna on a jhoola. Everyone used to gather around to pray in the evening. Ma and Pa used to fast for the day and go to the temple at 12am to get prasad. Before that around 4pm teatime we used to be served fruit chat and lemonade - don't remember why but this used to happen every janamashtami. Now for most years living abroad, I wasn't really sure how to mark this festival. However, when recently a friend mentioned this iskcon temple, a light bulb went in my head - this was the perfect way! Apparently the temple is not far, easily accessible by subway and is really beautiful. I am looking forward to it!

10 Things I did this summer

• Walked across the brooklyn bridge, waited for pizza at Grimaldi's, had icecream from brooklyn ice factory in the meantime, admired the manhattan skyline from the other side and walked back in perfect weather. Better description here and here.
• Had burgers at Shake shack in Madison square park (I love these!) and ambled over to listen to a brazilian jazz performance. Great weather, good company and excellent background music. Wrote about it here.
• Spent girl time - this is a big deal for me as it has been really really long since I have had a close girl friend living in the same city. But one of my closest friends moved to NYC last year and this summer I went shopping with her, we met up for brunch and went for Mama Mia, very girly day and I had a fantastic time! There is something very freeing about talking to a person who already knows you so well that nothing is out of bounds.
• Dark Knight - I know it is just a movie and I saw countless others over the summer but I have to document this one. I absolutely loved it and it is something since I usually don't like superhero or 'violent' movies but as I try to explain to everyone - it hardly falls into any of those categories. The psychological aspect on which the movie works is far above most of the movies I have seen (admittedly haven't seen Silence of the Lambs - too scared) and the dialogues are phenomenal. " Either you die a hero....or u live long enough to see yourself turn into a Villan... " - oh totally cool!
• Went for Pilobolus - S' university gave us free tickets for a show and to be honest we had no idea what it was. Somehow none of us got time to read much about it either so we went a little anxious after our Burlesque experience. The first act was weird - less dance and more facial expressions by which they were trying to convey something which I totally didn't get and told S that we will leave after act 2 if it doesn't get better. But boy, did it get better. The gravity defying dance that the link talks about started and we were pretty much spell bound for rest of the show. How do they do it!
• Attended a wedding in Breckenridge, which is a ski resort in Denver. It was beautiful - the wedding was outside and the backdrop was snow covered peaks. Met up with with old school friends, went for long drives in the mountains, did a mini trek. Managed to pack in quite a bit in the 3-day memorial day weekend! The town itself was beautiful and very European with cobbled streets (I love these!) and small cafes. Our room was like a ski lodge with a fireplace and heavy wood furniture. We had crepes for breakfast in one of the cafes down the road from our hotel. One evening as we set out to explore town, we discovered these tiny stands selling waffles and crepes with a small fire lit around which you could gather and eat those choc dripping delicacies. It was perfect!
• Tried new restaurants - ilili, Himalayan café, Angon, Indian Bread co., Popover café, Hudson hotel bar, ayurveda café, Barrio Chino, Grimaldis, Supper. Ideally, I should have posted the reviews of all these places here but have been too lazy. If I had to recommend one, it'll probably be Ilili - we went here for restaurant week and rarely have I found such an excellent combination of food, ambience and service. The place is quite big by manahattan standards so you are not jostling for room with your next door neighbour. I still remember the fresh from the oven pita. While it is too expensive for me to go here outside of restaurant week - I would definitely recommend you to make reservations early for the winter restaurant week. Oh - for anyone missing the Delhi University momos - Himalyan café is the place for you.
• La Bayadere Ballet performance - One of my friends booked the tickets for this perfromance at the Lincoln center and I just went along. I am glad I did. La Bayadere which means Temple Dancer is a Russian ballet based on an Indian story. It seemed like a hindi movie with colourful costumes, melodrama n all just that everyone was doing ballet - it was beautiful!
• Went to Bahamas - while this in no way is a ranked list, Bahamas still comes relatively low in the list as we realized that we are done with beach-y vacations. There were 2 lessons learnt from this trip - one, there is only so much lying on the beach doing nothing I can take. I started craving activity after day 2 and there weren't many walking spots in this country and two, I don't have the palate to appreciate fresh seafood if it is served without much seasoning. We found a local joint famous for Bahamian dishes and as fresh as it can get seafood. My bong husband gobbled up the steamed fish they served while I craved for more salt, more pepper, possibly even chili powder and garam masala on mine! :)
• Walked - I know I am ashamed that I am scrambling to put down 10 things but there are so many small things which I had fun doing which I am not sure count for one whole point in this list. Like the time we went to a friends house for dinner on the upper east time and had a great time. Anyway, I digress - so I love walking and given how lazy S is I usually have to drag him even to walk 2 blocks. However, this summer we walked all over the city - maybe because it didn't get oppressively hot and the intermittent rains kept the weather just perfect. We had plenty of after dinner walks, after brunch walks, evening walks and no purpose walks! NYC is one of the best places for people watching and the city comes to life in the summer. Every bit of sidewalk gets converted to 'outdoor seating' for restaurants and you can get to know what is the in-thing this summer by simple people watching around the park. Of course - this summer it was dresses (just when I managed to complete my skirt collection!) and gladiator sandals.