'Suband' -- Co-hosts of the tastiest Chennai Thanksgiving Party, 2008.
We've been talking about this event for several months, but actual preparation only started the night before -- shopping in the monsoon rain! After work I ventured out in my raincoat (no umbrella) and hit up the import grocery store for cranberry sauce and ranch dressing mix, the supermarket for things like flour and of course the fruit and vegetable market. On a good day I would walk to all of these places, but given the rain and the quantity of food being purchased, I hired an auto to chauffeur me around for a whopping 50 rps ($1US as of today's rate). All of you reading this in the US, Japan, and UK might think--'hot damn, what a bargain'. But, I take the bus to work for 5rps or $.10US round trip -- so it's actually very luxurious and extravagant to spend so much for transportation!
We invited people to come at 7pm because Saturday is a working day and dinner is a late affair here. Plus we were hoping to have a rooftop dinner party under a starry sky! Even though I started cooking at 10am, and with all day to prepapre, it was still rushed and we were still cooking even as guests arrived. Sadly, Hamsa is one of the unlucky ones that has to work on Saturday but was able to get 1/2 a day off. While I was sweating buckets in the kitchen, she was braving the rain running around town collecting last minute items: corn, extra plates, a microwave, and twinkle lights.
Most food preparation is done on the floor. At first it seems odd, but actually it makes a lot of sense. It's easier on the back to sit and chop. The kitchen doesn't have a fan and gets really hot. Plus the floor is swept and mopped (almost) everyday, so it's clean!
Every Thanksgiving meal must include mashed potatoes and gravy. This was no exception, although it was a completely vegetarian meal!
Our kitchen fits one comfortably, two if you don't mind bumping elbows and three or more only if you don't mind slow dancing really close!
The final line-up prepared and/or provided by the Suband Team: Fried rice catered from Saravana Bhavan, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, garlic green beans, sweet butter corn, yogurt raita, apple pie filling, applati (apple-chappati pie), banati (banana-chappati pie), and cucumber and carrot sticks with ranch dressing. But because it was a potluck, we also had sambar-idli, dosa, pulao, vegetable curry, rotis, tomato gravy, cakes, pastry items, Indian sweets, and kesari. Our tiny kitchen was literally overflowing with food!
Interesting fact: the idea of 'potluck' doesn't exist in India. So inviting people to a potluck caused some confusion and comments like "Why would I bring my own food to someone's house when I can eat it at home?" Another person thought they had to bring food ONLY for themselves and eat it at someone's house. In the end, EVERY Indian (except 1) brought store or restaurant food, nobody else brought homemade food except the Americans! Considering American culture is often criticized for its obsession with pre-packaged food, fast food and eating out, I found this very interesting.
'Thanksgiving' was a first for most of our guests. So I took a few minutes to explain the different foods. Thank goodness we had two rice dishes in addition to the 'American food'. I think everyone liked to try the new foods, but they were not overly popular with the Indian crowd.
The food did receive 'thumbs-up' from Hamsa's family!
Personally, the exciting thing about sharing thanksgiving in other countries is gathering people with various backgrounds and watching them interact, connect, network and make friends. In attendance we had Indians, NRIs, Indian-Americans, non-Indian Americans, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, doctors, med students, fellows (AIF, Fogarty, & Watson), college students, NGO professionals, HIV/AIDS activists, and education activists. Phew--it was a fascinating mix and many numbers were exchanged!
Pre-dinner lounging while we wait for all the guests to arrive! Sadly, it was raining most of the night and our rooftop idea was impossible to implement. Mr. Christopher (far right) had planned and brought games to play with the group but there just wasn't enough space since we were all packed into our very tiny apartment.
There was more than enough food for everyone! In fact, most guests left with more food than they brought--the true sign of a good Thanksgiving meal!
Our landlord's sons came up and tried the food...although polite, I think it got mixed reviews. They seemed to prefer the fried rice and veg curry options.
In addition to friends and family, we invited lots of our co-workers. This is me, my 'supervisor' (although she HATES that title), and her husband. It was fun to hang-out with them after work.
Food Coma!
I realized last night that I haven't actually celebrated Thanksgiving in the US since 2002! The last six years I've celebrated in India 3 times and Japan 3 times! I don't have any pictures from the 2003 Thanksgiving feast, that was before my digital camera era. But the other events are pictured below. Each year has taken a slightly different twist. In Japan there was always a turkey and apple & pumpkin pie, not to mention the famous door prizes! Last year in Dharamsala, we were unable to prepare food for all of our Tibetan students, so we just served brownies and tea. And this year it was a rainy vegetarian feast! Where will I celebrate Thanksgiving next year?
Nyuzen's First Thanksgiving -- Toyama, Japan 2004
Thank god for technology, for skype, for digital cameras, for laptops, for internet at home, and for POWER!! 10 years ago when I first came to India, email was barely a possibility and international phone calls were not dependable. What will another 10 years bring us?
'Suband' -- Co-hosts of the tastiest Chennai Thanksgiving Party, 2008.
Most food preparation is done on the floor. At first it seems odd, but actually it makes a lot of sense. It's easier on the back to sit and chop. The kitchen doesn't have a fan and gets really hot. Plus the floor is swept and mopped (almost) everyday, so it's clean!
Every Thanksgiving meal must include mashed potatoes and gravy. This was no exception, although it was a completely vegetarian meal!
Our kitchen fits one comfortably, two if you don't mind bumping elbows and three or more only if you don't mind slow dancing really close!
The final line-up prepared and/or provided by the Suband Team: Fried rice catered from Saravana Bhavan, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, garlic green beans, sweet butter corn, yogurt raita, apple pie filling, applati (apple-chappati pie), banati (banana-chappati pie), and cucumber and carrot sticks with ranch dressing. But because it was a potluck, we also had sambar-idli, dosa, pulao, vegetable curry, rotis, tomato gravy, cakes, pastry items, Indian sweets, and kesari. Our tiny kitchen was literally overflowing with food! 
'Thanksgiving' was a first for most of our guests. So I took a few minutes to explain the different foods. Thank goodness we had two rice dishes in addition to the 'American food'. I think everyone liked to try the new foods, but they were not overly popular with the Indian crowd.
The food did receive 'thumbs-up' from Hamsa's family!
Personally, the exciting thing about sharing thanksgiving in other countries is gathering people with various backgrounds and watching them interact, connect, network and make friends. In attendance we had Indians, NRIs, Indian-Americans, non-Indian Americans, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, doctors, med students, fellows (AIF, Fogarty, & Watson), college students, NGO professionals, HIV/AIDS activists, and education activists. Phew--it was a fascinating mix and many numbers were exchanged!
Pre-dinner lounging while we wait for all the guests to arrive! Sadly, it was raining most of the night and our rooftop idea was impossible to implement. Mr. Christopher (far right) had planned and brought games to play with the group but there just wasn't enough space since we were all packed into our very tiny apartment.
There was more than enough food for everyone! In fact, most guests left with more food than they brought--the true sign of a good Thanksgiving meal!
Our landlord's sons came up and tried the food...although polite, I think it got mixed reviews. They seemed to prefer the fried rice and veg curry options.
In addition to friends and family, we invited lots of our co-workers. This is me, my 'supervisor' (although she HATES that title), and her husband. It was fun to hang-out with them after work.
Food Coma!
Nyuzen's First Thanksgiving -- Toyama, Japan 2004
In addition to the election excitement last week, I attended an inauguration for a new computer center at a boys high school in central Chennai. Without getting caught up in too many details, American India Foundation (AIF) has a program called Digital Equalizer that focuses on increasing the digital learning opportunities in disadvantaged schools as a way of equalizing educational opportunities and quality across the socio-economic divide. In the last few months, AIF has started its DE program in Tamil Nadu in conjunction with the government. All of the districts selected for this program are tsunami-affected areas in the coastal region. However, an international company called Applied Materials has funded two DE computer centers in urban government aided schools in Chennai.
It was the inauguration of one of the centers that I attended last week. It also happens that Applied Materials funds several AIF Service Corps Fellowships, and my fellowship is one they fund. Before the inauguration I met with the Applied Materials Corporate Responsibility CEO to discuss AIF Service Corps and to tell him about my projects as well as what several other fellows are doing during their fellowship. The meeting took place in the Applied Materials corporate office in Chennai—a far cry from my NGO office environment. They had 5 levels of security: under the car check, building guard and sign-in, office security door, sign-in at front desk (including computers) and finally the security door into the office space. It was a large floor full of cubicles, conference rooms, and had a cafeteria with employees playing table tennis. We met in the conference room and had a friendly informal discussion in conjunction with a Power Point presentation I made. He was quickly whisked off to another meeting while the DE staff and I drove off to the school to prepare for the inaugural event.
During our morning meeting, the CEO was told the inauguration would be a ‘simple’ event. I turned to him and said “It depends on your definition of simple”. He smiled and agreed that in his 2 days of being in India, he realized that ‘simple’ has an entirely different meaning here. As expected, it wasn’t so ‘simple’ from a foreigner’s perspective. But the actual inauguration was somewhat what I expected. It involved lots of pomp and circumstance and formalities. As the guests from DE and Applied Materials entered, the children were lined up on both sides of the drive-way in uniform, some saluting and others playing instruments. Next was a quick meeting and introductions in the principal’s office. Followed by a quick and unclimatic ribbon cutting and tour of the computer center. Finally everyone was ushered into the gym where 300-400 boys were anticipating the pain of endless dry speeches. All of the chief guests, and guests of lesser importance (Prev and I included) sat on the stage in front of the students as we all listened to speech after speech inaugurating their first ever computer center. While the event itself did bring a few yawns to the guests and the crowd, it was very exciting to think that from now on these students will have access (although limited, 10 computers for 1000 students) to the digital world. Even by learning a few applications, programs and how to access the internet their prospects for further education and jobs will mulitple and everyone assumes it will only benefit their self-worth, self-confidence and self-esteem! This is just one of about 150 similar centers that have just opened in the last few months across the state...it is an momentous time for education in Tamil Nadu!
After the 'chief guests' had been ushered away, the students were back in their classrooms and the excitement had died down, I found myself sitting on the steps of the school chatting with teachers and administrators. The conversation centered around two topics: my limited (although apparently impressive) knowledge of Madurai Tamil and my marital status. They could not get over the fact that I speak several words of Tamil with a very clearly Madurai accent. And the fact that I am 30 years old and unmarried (gasp!) left them in a state of shock, even referring to me as a 'spinster' at one point. I tried to explain that in the US it was really everyone's choice what age they wanted to marry at, but they just wouldn't have it. I've missed my chance in India terms. More on that and living as a 'white' woman in India in a later post....lots to reflect about!
Where were you when Obama was declared president? When he gave his acceptance speech?
