Festival Of India 2010

You all know how much I love this festival. They couldn't have chosen a more beautiful weekend - breezy, sunny, and in the 80's. I had almost forgotten that it was this weekend - what a disaster that would've been! My friend Priya would've reminded me though, as we try to meet there every year.

This is one of the dancers.

When I arrived the street vendors were already in full swing. The smell of Indian food was everywhere.

After eating my plate of oh so good food I met up with Priya and her husband and kids. Here you can see Nikhil (pink kurti standing in front of brick wall), little Sahana in front of him in green, and Aashna on the right in pink and blue drinking from her water bottle. Kids are like cats; they don't necessarily hold still for pictures! Nik actually did a good job here.

Nik poses with Sahana, whether she likes it or not.

She was happy most of the day actually. Look at those big brown eyes.

Priya posing with the kids. Where was Dad? Buying everyone food!

This is the only picture I got of Mohan, in the dark theater with Priya and Nik. Sahana is not visible (she's on Priya's lap) and Aashna was next to me. For some reason I was Aashna's favorite person in the world yesterday and she held my hand the whole time, pulling me from place to place. It's nice to be the favorite.

Fashion show.

One of the models.

Often the dancers who exhibit the various forms of Indian dances are quite young. The Indian community in Charlotte involve their children in the culture of the home country to keep it alive, important, and real, as they grow up in the US.

Rajasthan has some of the most colorful fabrics.

Rajasthani folk dance.

This girl was older and doing a much more complicated classical Indian dance. Below this photo is a bit of video of this dance.

Classical Indian dancing, Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh I think:


Some young Bhangra dancers:

After the dancing I wandered around the clothing and jewelry vendors inside. I also went to a table where a famous guru had me fill out my meditation wheel for the year. I drew a card from a pile for each month of the year. Each card had a virtue written on it. He explained that as I meditated and went about my daily activities that this was the virtue I was to focus on for that month. Sounds good. Apparently he was in the Twin Towers and survived 9/11, so he definitely seems to have some sort of special karma. It was so crowded around his table I couldn't get a picture of him.

Lovely.

The festival was at a new location this year, the Knight Theater. It was as good if not better than past locations.

In front of the theater is a sculpture of a firebird.

It was the favorite place for families to take pictures.

I snapped this a second too late. This man, now getting up, was taking a picture of his wife and daughter.

Cute mother and daughters. Her husband was probably off getting food too!

No Dad -- this way!!

Young couple sampling the yummies.

Last chance to grab a good deal on a colorful Kurti.

Evening now, the sun behind the theater, and a parting shot of a wonderful day in beautiful Charlotte.