Today

Australia gave us a good licking at cricket and to lift our spirits up I made apple strudel. It was symbolic because our boys were really baked.

In the evening I went to the Uttaranchal Mela at the cultural Center.Its a cultural fair featuring the hill state of Uttaranchal.

I bought

1. Tiny candles and earthen oil lamps called diyas.

2. Herbal sweets and meethi supari made with the betel nut.

3. About 2 pounds of flour made with grain only grown in Uttranchal.One is a mixture of 11 grains. And a packet of cookies made with the madua grain.

4.From the Rathasthani food stall I had them pack us dal and onion kachoris -stuffed pooris (fried bread) and a huge chili bhajji (fritter) with chutney.

5. As a family tradition whenever I went to this fair with Dad ,we used to have dosas (rice pancakes) ice-cream and popcorn...so I had to re-live the past.

There was an open air cultural show going on I sat down and enjoyed that, after calling Mom and telling her I 'd be a little late.

The show began with an ode to goddess Durga. After that there were traditional hill dances which were lovely.The story behind one of them goes something like this. In the month of Chaitra the brother goes to his married sister 's house taking halwa (sweet pudding) , poori (fried bread) and clothes for the family. This year the sister waited but the brother failed to arrive.It was like a mini opera in which the brother and sister converse with each other.I must tell you that I don't understand the hill language, so I could not decipher the meaning of the songs but the MC gave a short commentary in Hindi so we could understand what was going on.