Sydney Stories - Week 55

Hello,

An almost event less week which was of course made up with the weekend. It seems like one can fight reason, but quite a challenge to fight stupidity (or something like that). If you know how to do that (win over stupidity) do let me know.

Weekends are becoming busier than ever. Nandhitha is busy with her swimming and Tamil classes. In the swimming pool, Indian men have a very unique way of presenting (or un-presenting) themselves. Almost every desi guy out there jumps into the pool with a t-shirt on, whereas you can see the fair skinners being quite comfortable baring down - regardless of their "form" to just their swim trunks. Is that a cultural thing? (Comments on men only) ;-)

The Tamil class is another interesting thing happening here. There is an Australian government funded Tamil School (chain of schools actually) being run for the past 33 years. It is primarily run by volunteers, but the government funds some part of the expenses. It was run in one of the public school campuses around here. There are 4 such schools in Sydney which runs their classes through out the year. I hear that the scores obtained in these classes can even be used for +2 (year 12 as they call it) scores. One of our friends is a principal in one such school. It was funny to see a "principal" running around in shorts and t-shirt with slippers. :-)

While the kids were busy learning Tamil the parents were catching up in the "cool" 42 degree weather. Felt like being in Phoenix that day. The temperatures dropped to 20s today. What a drop!!

Working with North Indians these days I get to know something interesting regarding Punjabi culture. Not everybody in a family belong to the same religion. Apprently the first son born is considered a Sikh - dedicated as a warrior to the army and the rest of them are Hindus!!!

Our recent spice addition to our kitchen is Kecap Manis - an Indonesian sweet soya sauce. The noodles came out pretty well after using that. Nandha was also impressed that he even slurped up the left overs the next day.

Oki doki.  Have A Great Week!!

Chetty