Madhu & Mandy's wedding

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, April 30, 2006, Madhu and Mandy got married - beautiful bride, handsome groom, pretty daughter, wonderful weather, green garden, great ceremony ... but why don't you see for yourself:

Tea party Saturday afternoon

The wedding, Sunday, 12:30 p.m.

Signing the kethuba, the Jewish marriage contract ...

Madhu, Mandy, and Mandy's dad

Equal Partners (sample text)

This ketubah witnesses before God and all those present that on the ____ day of the week, the _____ day of the month of ____ in the year five thousand seven hundred and _____ corresponding to the _____ day of the month of _____ in the year two thousand and _____ the Holy Covenant of Marriage was entered into at _______ between the bride,____ daughter of ______and _____ and the groom,____ son of ____ and ______ . And both declared: According to the traditions of Moses and the people Israel, we are consecrated unto each other. We desire our lives to be intertwined forever and for our love to be eternal. We shall treasure, respect and honor each other. We shall support each other in achieving spiritual, intellectual and emotional fulfillment. We promise to be full and equal partners in life and to do everything within our power to permit each of us to become the persons we are yet to be. Together may we create a home that is rich with wisdom and caring, built on Torah and acts of lovingkindness, a home filled with love, learning, and generosity. May we celebrate the flow of the seasons and the passages of life with joy and reverence. May our lives together be illuminated by our people's heritage. From this day forward we are as one. Accordingly, we enter into this covenant of love, companionship, peace and friendship. And all herein is valid and binding.

The wedding took place at Mandy's dad's house - a wedding set up just like in the moves (that's just my impression ;-) )

The bride has to circle the groom seven times ...




For all pictures, click here for the photo set:
Madhu & Mandy's wedding

Laundry duty

Laundry duty during the week? And why? Because I'll be going to Madhu and Mandy's wedding this weekend! :-)

While I'm waiting for the washer to finish, I'm standing in the kitchen, with a glass of wine, reading the Survey on New Media in the Economist. It's a very interesting piece on everything citizen-journalism: blogs, wikis, "folksonomies" ...

I particularly loved the intro (and here especially the last sentence... :-) ). Good old Gutenberg ...

THE next big thing in 1448 was a technology called “movable type”, invented for commercial use by Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith from Mainz (although the Chinese had thought of it first). The clever idea was to cast individual letters (type) and then compose (move) these to make up printable pages. This promised to disrupt the mainstream media of the day—the work of monks who were manually transcribing texts or carving entire pages into wood blocks for printing. By 1455 Mr Gutenberg, having lined up venture capital from a rich compatriot, Johannes Fust, was churning out bibles and soon also papal indulgences (slips of paper that rich people bought to reduce their time in purgatory). The start-up had momentum, but its costs ran out of control and Mr Gutenberg defaulted. Mr Fust foreclosed, and a little bubble popped.

And another German anecdote:

Conversations have a life of their own. They tend to move in unexpected directions and fluctuate unpredictably in volume. It is these unplanned conversational surges that tend to bring the blogosphere to the attention of the older and wider (non-blogging) public and the mainstream media. Germany, for instance, has been a relatively late adopter of blogging—only 1% of blogs are in German, according to Technorati, compared with 41% in Japanese, 28% in English and 14% in Chinese.

But in January this year “the conversation” arrived in Germany with a vengeance. Jung von Matt, a German advertising firm, had come up with a campaign in the (old) media called “Du bist Deutschland” (“you are Germany”). The advertisements were intended “to fight grumpiness” about the country's sluggish economy, said Jean-Remy von Matt, the firm's Belgian boss.

But German bloggers found the idea kitschy, and subsequently dug up an obscure photograph from a Nazi convention in 1935 that showed Hitler's face next to the awkwardly similar slogan “Denn Du bist Deutschland” (“because you are Germany”). In the ensuing online conversation, Mr von Matt's campaign was ignominiously deflated. Outraged, he sent an internal e-mail to his colleagues in which he called blogs “the toilet walls of the internet” and wanted to know: “What on earth gives every computer-owner the right to express his opinion, unasked for?” When bloggers got hold of this e-mail, they answered his question with such clarity that Mr von Matt quickly and publicly apologised and retreated.

And for the rest of the new media articles you need to either subscribe, or buy the latest print Economist... remember: online media is not for free (yet) ... :-)

Menü des Abends

I'm so proud - I prepared a really lavish dinner tonight: how is this for an after work preparation?
Note: Navin forgot to tell me that he'll be late ... but I was smart enough to NOT put any dressing on the salad and to NOT heat the warm stuff I had :-) ... he'll hopefully be here soon.

Menu of the night

APPETIZER

Small slize of baguette with a hint of butter and freshly cut chives, a summer Brotzeit from Dani’s childhood

Pre-MAIN COURSE

3 grilled shrimps with orange scented couscous, a DiningIn lunch from Dani’s work

MAIN COURSE

3 chicken wings with fresh BiRite baby salad, self-grated carrots, cucumber and red wine/olive oil dressing

OR

Chicken Thai noodles from Dani’s lunch with fresh BiRite baby salad, self-grated carrots, cucumber and red wine/olive oil dressing

DESSERT

Surprise

WINE

BiRite “FUN” Californian White Wine, Sauvignon Blanc

Vegas baby, Vegas ...

Boy, it's been 2 whole weeks since I posted the Mallu video. Time is certainly flying by, I can't believe it! So, what's new?

New is that I can't pack light anymore. I'd say that it took me almost 2 hours to pack a little bag for the weekend Vegas trip with Navin's company. What's wrong with me? I used to travel with the same little bag for 3 months all around India! Maybe because it's the fact that you actually want to look good and fashionable if the invitation says: "Dinner at Studio 54 - wear your most fashionable outfit!" Now what is 'fashionable' in Las Vegas? Mini skirt and top? Jeans and high heels? Grunge look? Suit and flip flops? What the hell??? Anyways, I think the fact that I had two glasses of red wine with Martina, the mama, and some other Sparksters on an empty stomach before I came home added to the confusion.

Now I'm all packed though, and no, I'm not really convinced I'll be fashionable, but then: I don't really care either - I DON'T WANT to be fashionable. Actually, I'd rather take off in direction India tomorrow, with my little bag full of basic linen clothes, no make-up, flip-flops, and, very important: a digital movie camera! :)

Mallu Rock Band!

Ha ha! You'll love this - well, at least if you've heard typical Mallu music before, because this is definitely not the standard Malayalam song ;-)

... hot Mallu runner ;-)