sambhar for thanksgiving

I hope y'all are having a very Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are. The day here in Madurai has come to an end. I sure do wish I were home, in the US, right about now -- gorging on dressing and cranberry sauce. But the fact of the matter is, I'm thousands of miles away and feeling homesick. For dinner I had uppuma, taakkaali koottu, pumpkin (hey, that's sort of like Thanksgiving! Except this was sauteed in tons of spices), and eggplant. Quite tasty, but not what my heart exactly desires on Thanksgiving. We ate by candlelight because there was a power cut. I told Chellapandi that in the US fancy restaurants put candles on the tables and she thought that was pretty funny.

The past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster with some very difficult moments. This is the reason I haven't blogged in a while. But before I recount recent events I'm just going to ease back into blogging again by putting up some happy pictures from life in Madurai. I just went through over a thousand pictures today, organizing all the drishti pumpkins and such, and I stumbled upon some nice pictures from the past few weeks. Hope you enjoy.

A new use for okra

Pet sheep in the sari shop?
Haven't quite figured this one out.

A moment of rest in the midst of Deepavali shopping madness

post-saappaadu (rice meals) euphoria

The one picture from Deepavali that sort of turned out.
I have a new digital camera that no one can figure out just yet.

Madurai sunset