Marriage celebration
Japanese restaurant (Harima 播磨) and Lord Shiva temple at Mudukuthere
Most of the days in November I spent at my homeland - India, to attend a special celebration - my sis marriage. Thanks to my prof, I could get a fairly long vacation of nearly a month. As expected everybody at home were jubilant, busy in various preparations and eagerly awaiting for the event. I landed home a week before the actual celebration. Though I expected last minute tasks to be handed over to me, thanks to my dad, brother and rest of them that I didn't have to do anything other than taking photos or videos of pre-marital ceremonies, accompanying them to shopping and inviting my friends. As for me, the pre-marital ceremonies were itself hectic with lots of interesting rituals (Shastra ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ) happening at home. Some of them include dressing the bride each day in a new saree followed by ritual blessings from married women, bangle wear ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ, coconut leaf-roofed marquee (ಮದುವೆ ಚಪ್ಪರ) in front of home, applying henna (ಗೋರಂಟಿ) on hands and foot and so on. Those are some of the most enjoying and memorable moments as everybody in the family and friends come together and celebrate in unison.
This blog is an exploration of my unique experiences in life - Memoirs of my cherished memories for my friends, family and all well wishers. Feel free to leave your comments.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Halloween ghosts and Halloween kids
Posted by Lohith at 6:59 PM 0 comments
Aerial view of Shirakawa-go town and Close-up of Gassho zukuri houses
My eco study group and Japanese paper (Washi) in the making
Posted by Lohith at 5:42 PM 0 comments
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The Beautiful "Taal" volcano and Mall of Asia
Tricycle rikshaw and Our Group
Posted by Lohith at 11:21 PM 0 comments
Labels: Philippines, Travels
Sunday, October 07, 2007
I just now explored the way to input kannada in my computer. Its simple and easy. Just follow the instructions given here. In order to install phonetic Kannada script one needs to download Indic input IME from www.bhashaindia.com Its amazing and works superbly.
ಗಣಕ ಯಂತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಭಾರಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯಲು ಈಗಷ್ಟೆ ಕಂಡುಹಿಡಿದೆ. ಮೇಲೆ ಆಂಗ್ಲಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಗಣಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೊಫ್ಟ್ ವೇರ್ ಇನ್ಸ್ ಟಾಲ್ಲ್ ಮಾಡಿ.
Posted by Lohith at 1:20 AM 0 comments
Friday, October 05, 2007
My first Baseball batting and M-chan batting
The pitcher and Our Baseball Group
Posted by Lohith at 5:51 PM 0 comments
Labels: Sports
Friday, September 28, 2007
View of Downtown Manhattan and Ground Zero (site of former WTC twin towers)
Skyscraper and Statue of Liberty
Posted by Lohith at 5:40 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Its been a long time since I posted. The days were busy enough to keep me off from penning down. On August 11th I attended a fireworks festival in a nearby portal town called Mikuni. As every year this year too huge number of spectators (~200,000) had gathered for the brilliant fireworks spectacle. I, along with my international friends went by a crowded train, reaching there late evening. After a swift food shopping at the local tents, we groped for a suitable place and fortunately got one of the best views.
Posted by Lohith at 6:48 PM 0 comments
Labels: Fukui, Japan Festivals
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Koshino Beach and Barbecue party at Kunimidake Camping site
Enjoying fireworks and Scenery on the way back
Posted by Lohith at 7:26 PM 0 comments
Labels: Travels, University of Fukui
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Fu-magazine cover and The cuisine page
Recently, I had a request from Fukui news paper (Fukui shimbun) agency to make an Indian curry dish. Come August, the japanese summer begins and for nearly one and half month the weather gets hot and humid. Interestingly, in this season the japanese favor spicy and hot flavors in contrast to their orthodox neutral flavored japanese delicacies. The logic behind this is eating hot and spicy food causes more sweating, which results in cooling the body. Anyway, I was surprised to get a call for introducing Indian spicy cuisine. The Indian dishes are generally conceived here as one of the most hot yet delicious. I am amazed about the popularity of Indian curries, so much so that when I introduce my country of origin, the obvious next question will be on Indian hot curries. Due to their much popularity, I was told by Fukui shimbun staff not to introduce curry but something else which still has hot spices as its constituents. After some deep thoughts, I planned to make a version of Alu parata having a mix of usual locally available spices like coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and cumin. Though my experience in making Alu parata is limited, to my surprise, on the D-day of my cuisine showcasing, the paratas turned out mouth-watering!!!
Posted by Lohith at 10:08 PM 0 comments
Labels: India, Indian cuisine
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Mandolin concert and Harp performer
Posted by Lohith at 7:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: Music
Keimo School kids and Taiko (Japanese drums) performance
Posted by Lohith at 6:34 PM 0 comments
Labels: Japan Festivals
A Shinto ritual and Soba
Soba making and Kyudou (Japanese archery)
In the last week of June, I had an opportunity to participate in a 1-day trip in and around Fukui city. The event was organized by Phoenix association of global exchange for japanese and foreign residents of Fukui. I was fortunate to get the chance at last minute as I was in waiting list during registration. The trip began with a visit to the nearby Asuwayama mountain, where there was a special ritual of Shinto tradition. According to the priest, the ceremony is held every 6-months to drive the evil forces and clear oneself from the sins that had accumulated in the past. It was an interesting ritual where in one has to wave a bunch of grass reciting a japanese poem. All the foreigners and locals were allowed to have a slice of shinto ritual practice.
Following that, the next stop was at Miyama Choju Soba making center on the highway to Ono city. This was my third time to make soba, so I had minimal trouble in making one. Nevertheless, the soba guides were of great help too. Though there are several varities of soba, the one we had for our lunch was Oroshi-soba.
The most interesting part of the tour was visiting a Kyudou (Japanese archery) center, in fact the major reason for which I had registered in the tour! Though the demonstrators performed in absolute brilliance (hitting the target of diameter 50 cm, as far as 28m), our group of novice who were given a target of 1m diameter and as close as 10m proved futile as most of our arrows could barely hit it. My six trials yielded only two hits:( Nevertheless, it was the most interesting event of the day.
The final visit was to a tea house in a local park where each one of us could get a chance to savor Japanese tea ceremony.
Posted by Lohith at 4:58 PM 0 comments
Labels: Fukui, Japanese cuisine, Travels
Monday, July 09, 2007
My poster and Award Certificate handover
Certificate and Present
On June 28th and 29th, there was Japanese Society for Molecular Imaging (JSMI 2007)conference held here in Fukui in which I had submitted my current research work as poster presentation. It was a national level meeting organized every year and this year was its 2nd meeting. I had a surprising moment when I was awarded in three of the best posters of the event. I was much delighted to recieve the award from Dr. Fujibayashi, the president of the society, who is also my chief supervisor. My sincere thanks to you Sir.
Posted by Lohith at 10:22 AM 0 comments
Labels: Awards, Conferences, Molecular Imaging
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Just last night, I had a surprise visitor on my car- Spiderman. Spiders are so common in this season that it is rare not to spot one on a day. Interestingly, the spiders over here are so vigorous that they build large webs (>10-fold larger than the above) in no time interconnecting the trees lining the sidewalks. It is not uncommon to strike its web while passing on sidewalks especially at nights while cycling back home. Even a overnight rested bicycle can be seen entangled in the web on next morning! A day's parking of my car near to my center had a Spiderman conquering the antenna. I decided to give the Spiderman a ride with its web intact. On reaching my home (a ride of 2-3 min), I had a look at the guest on my car top.
I was surprised to find it still hanging strong on the antenna but had lost its web. Wish I could capture the movie of its fight (flight) against air!
Posted by Lohith at 9:02 PM 0 comments
Labels: Exceptionals
Multinational Cuisine and My contribution (Chicken Biriyani)
Our multinational group and party begins
Last Sunday was a birthday of one of my dorm friend (N.ya-san) and we all dormmates celebrated the event with a delightful dinner. As japanese guests, I had invited T.shima-sans (two distinct families with same family name-T.shima). After the party, the usual post-dinner chats began. The majority of discussions centered around cultural habits of individual countries. Such a topic involving diverse countries can never seem to end and we had to call off reluctantly when somebody pointed at the time reaching 11pm.
Posted by Lohith at 7:04 PM 0 comments
Friday, June 08, 2007
Kuzuryu festival and Traditional dance
Yaki tori and Fireworks
Last sunday there was a festival on the banks of Kuzuryu river very close to university campus. This festival is an annual event held on early June and is a one day event. It is celebrated by most people of Matsuoka and probably is the only time when one can see such a big assemblage over here. It includes performances on the boat, parade, dancing, singing and finally finishing off with brilliant fireworks. Some of the food available in the outlets were mouth-watering and I couldn't resist buying twice!
Posted by Lohith at 7:48 PM 0 comments
Labels: Fukui, Japan Festivals