Weekend

On friday, there was a farewell party to one of my teammates and the pizza I had for lunch was amazingly delicious.In the evening, my new friend and spiritual companion Rajesh picked me up from hotel,for a dinner at his place.Very enjoyable moments, those.. We talked a lot about each other's families, backgrounds, spiritual journey so far , world politics etc..He has a little kid aged a year, and incidentally, his name official name is akilesh, which is my name@home...hyper active kid..His official name is Giridhara gopalan, and true to his name, he loves the sound of flute. I whistle, when he gets into an irritable mood, and he starts smiling..only Ramanand sagar's ramayana/mahabharat is played all the time at their house..its the right environment for a kid , i thought ..
Then I had some authentic south indian food after long...dosa...sambar..chutney...wow..oasis after a long desert walk !!We were soo immersed in our discussions that, it was 11.45 PM already ! He dropped me back.
On saturday, it was plain goofing around, watching videos in youtube,listening to music, reading a book on spead reading. I was joined by another friend for a visit to Costco store, which is Saravana stores type in US-wholesale giants.MY friend got a lot of choclates... I got some monster-size apples, and some small gifts..I'd got a reading lens, with LED fitted, but LED wasn't working..Turn around the pack and its "MAde in china" !! No wonder !!
Towards the evening, it was getting boring, and I watched back to back movies-"Vettaydu vilayadu" and " Happy days" again. I can't get enof of this movie..
Got up quite late on sunday, and after normal routines, did long meditation..In the evening, Rajesh called up and had made a program to visit a Hanuman temple..So, started at 5.30 PM, reached his apmt, picked up his family and headed to temple..Well its this jounrney which was most enchanting..We were exchanging stories of saints' lives and miracles by them, back and forth about Shirdi baba, seshadri swamigal, gyaananandar,paramahamsa yogananda, shri ramana..a true satsang in the car...I was imagining the temple to have a typical gopuram etc, the typical temple architecture. But to my surprise, its normal building, which housed a hanuman murthy, surrounded by Shiva, navagraha idols on its side..But what captured me most was the veda adhyayana going on there..My mind almost always enter a peaceful state, once I start hearing vedas..A student was learning the prayoga of navagraha homa mantras, from his guru..My mind was fully absorvbed into the sound vibrations..It was great to see such adhyayana going on in US also..
I went into a speechless meditative state for sometime, and then we started ..Time to shift from yoga to bhoga !
We headed straight to Mysoreveggies, in Lowell..Its very close to the famous swaminarayan temple. But it was too late for us to visit that temple..We chose to order Iyengar thali, and boy, the plate was about 2 ft diameter, and filled with lots and lots of cups with items galore..my ! how am i gonna eat this..I took full 5 mins to get hold of all the items.. rasam, sambar, pickle, avial, paneer mutter, salad, some onion curry, brinjal roast, 2 papads, some sweet pongal, tomato soup, some mor kozhanbu..uff..stoped counting..And it was unlimited thali, with puri/chapathi/dosa along with it...I chose dosa..it was masala dosa..and I don't think I ever tasted this kinda stuff in India before..Awesome !!I got greedy for more dosas, and also added chapati to the order..in the end, my friend ordered mango lassi..and it was cap in the feather..It tasted just like mango milkshake, and it was again the best I've ever heard !! God..am becoming a big-time foodie here..But I left the place wondering , whats the lassi part to this name? There was no taste of curd..
And it was just 13$ . I had a buffet lunch in one of the indian hotels near-by, but its taste would be a few light years away..Folks, if you wanna taste authentic indian food, come to to Mysoreveggies, and your tongue is sure to be treated to an unforgettable experience !Whatta way to end a weekend !

Chinmaya temple