Presenting our Gold Sponsor for the CIC Diwali Gala - Trinethra Supermarkets

We are pleased to showcase our Gold Sponsor for the CIC Diwali Gala, Trinethra Supermarkets - Our neighborhood Cambrian Indian Supermarket serving all our grocery needs.

Kishore Muvva, owner of Trinethra, epitomizes the entrepreneurship spirit and has been a strong supporter of CIC Diwali over many years. There are now four Trinethra stores in the Bay Area - Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara (Brand NEW location at 3379 El Camino Real) and our very own Cambrian San Jose store at 4436 Pearl Ave.

On behalf of the CIC Diwali Gala team, we are very thankful to Kishore-ji for his generosity and we are confident that the community will continue to support and visit the Trinethra Indian supermarket for all our grocery needs.

CIC presents Positivity Rocks sponsored by Dance Pulla

We are excited to present a brand new event called "Positivity Rocks" sponsored by our local community business "Dance Pulla". 

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Sponsor Details

If you’ve got a kid that can’t stop tapping their toes to the beat, then Dance Pulla has got a class where they can dance their socks off! We’ll introduce your child to the mix of Bollywood & Kollywood dance techniques while allowing them to express themselves through creative movement and continue to get better their dancing skills. Kids will have a great time learning Bollywood steps every session while improving their confidence in dancing, body coordination, flexibility, and focus. Please visit www.dancepulla.com for more information.

About the dance teacher Vijay Sivalingam, a resident of CIC

Vijay's passion is to dance and he has been dancing for more than 15 years for various dance groups like Sanhiti, Visweta, BATA, Nach Ke Dekh in Bay Area.  He has been involved with CIC ever since he moved to Cambrian Park in 2012 and has been actively participating in all the CIC events by choreographing a dance for kids (and adults too). He recently started his own dance school called Dance Pulla to continue teaching dance and instill the pleasure of dancing in kids.

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Event Details

Event: Positivity Rocks

Date: Sunday, Aug 12, 2018

Time: 8am - 10am

Venue: Belgatos Park

Participants: Children ages 5 and up

Fee: $10/child

Activities include: Hiking, Sun salutation, Placing the rocks and eat breakfast

We will leave behind painted rocks during the hike and around the play structure to brighten strangers’ days.  The rocks can be taken home, admired or moved from one place to another. Aside from making someone's day, another amusing part of the project is seeing where the colorful rocks land after they are dropped off by their maker(s). Interestingly, it’s been found out that people will take them on vacation and leave them in different states, countries even.

Closing out CIC Discover India 2018

Thank you to the entire community for showing up at the fourth edition of Discover India. It is our smallest event of the year and designed to foster bonding and collaboration. The setting is intimate and the competition and camaraderie are so wonderful to witness. We had our largest participation turnout ever this year and it was fantastic to see so many new faces. I hope we gave you a good experience that will bring you back for more such events. I am glad I live in a community that gives me a platform to do this every year.

As always, this event was not a solo effort. It took many people doing small and big things at the right time to make the event successful. The Cambrian Indian Community has cultivated a culture of shared responsibilities and this event was no different. As a quizmaster, I stand proudly on the shoulder of giants who help in every step of the way. To new members of the community, I strongly encourage you to consider volunteering or signing up to organizing your own event, however small it may be.

Here in CIC, we take our feedback seriously. After every event, we share a feedback form for participants and guests to share their feedback anonymously. Wherever possible we incorporate improvements based on feedback for future years. Here is the full report of this year's event.

Many thanks to our sponsor, Vimana for supporting us.

Until next year, stay curious!

CIC Discover India 2018 - The Rules of the game

It is almost here. We are just over 24 hours from the fourth annual Discover India presented by Vimana. Before we get to the rules and all that, let me remind everyone about the event.

Date and Time: Sunday, 2 pm at Cambrian Library (please remember to set your clocks for Daylight Savings tomorrow)

Venue: Cambrian Park Library, 1780 Hillsdale Ave, San Jose, CA

Duration: 3 to 3.5 hours based on how quickly we go through the rounds.

Entry Fee: $5 per team. Can be paid in cash at the venue or as a check to Cambrian Indian Community (cash preferred)

Snacks: There will be small snacks (and chai) for purchase. Please bring change.

FAQs on Rules and Logistics:

What time should I be there?

You need to be there at 1.45 pm. We will start getting people split into teams and seated immediately. If you arrive after 1.45, it is likely you will end up in whatever team with openings. The plan is to START the event at 2 pm. The later we start, the fewer the rounds we can run. 

I signed up as an individual (or as part of a partial team). Who will be my teammates?

We will sort all of you into teams at 1.45pm tomorrow. So please arrive on time. While it won’t be truly random, I am thinking of keeping things interesting by doing an on-the-spot pairing exercise. 

Will there be a break during the event?

Yes, we will take a 15-minute break around 3.30 or so. There will be chai and some small snacks for purchase. Please bring change. 

Can I bring my kids?

There is limited space at the library community room, specifically for kids to run around. If your kids can bring a book or activity to do and hang out among adults, it will be perfectly fine. 

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So about those questions…..

How many rounds will we have?

There will be 6-8 rounds of movies based trivia depending on how fast we roll. We will finish no later than 5:30 pm. Earlier if possible.

Will all questions be focused on Bollywood movies?

No. The questions are designed to cover the broader Indian spectrum. That being said, some rounds are more Bollywood centric than others. Three of the rounds will give teams a chance to pick from a selection of Hindi, Tamil or Telugu movies. So you can play to strengths in those rounds.

Should I be a movie buff to do well? Will the questions be from the black and white era?

You don’t need to be a movie buff but it will help if are someone who occasionally watches (or used to watch) Hindi/Tamil/Telugu movies. If I were to plot a Bell curve, the healthy center of the distribution will be movies from 1985-2005 which coincides with the time many of us used to watch a lot of movies.

Will the questions be hard?

For folks who have attended earlier edition of Discover India, this year will be the easiest by every metric. My goal with this event is to ensure that over 85% of questions are answered by participants. This year will be no different. I expect the hit rate to be higher than 90% this time around.

Are there only direct question type rounds?

No. There will be dumb charades and Pictionary in addition to audio and visual rounds. The event is designed to keep you on your toes.

Should I prepare?

Not sure how you can prepare. If you want to look at my earlier responses and do some prep, you can but it will not make a huge difference one way or the other.

Are there prizes?

In the first year, I offered gift card prizes. There was overwhelming feedback that participants preferred no prizes. So keeping with that, we will not have prizes but you do get valuable bragging rights until next year's event which is a bigger deal than any prize I can give. 

Parting thoughts?

Be prepared to meet new people, hang out with old friends and have a lot of fun in a very intimate setting. It gets crazy in a good way. Discover India is one of our smallest events designed to have people crammed into a room and feed off each other’s energies. 

CIC Diwali Mela 2017 - Feedback Summary

Thank you all for being a part of the incredible journey that was the CIC Diwali Mela 2017 held on 4th Nov at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. We had over 500 attendees, over 100 participants, over 50 volunteers and over a 1000 hours collectively spent preparing for the grand event. Ably led by PNG team comprised of Pallavi, Nekzad and Geetha and supported by a great team of volunteers, we had a program that by many measures was out biggest. Like we have done in past years, we solicited your feedback and you responded enthusiastically with very candid opinions of where we did right and where there is an opportunity for us to do better.

Here in the Cambrian Indian Community, we take your feedback very seriously. The event you saw this year was a result of a lot your feedback over the past years and this year will be instrumental in shaping how we approach the event next year and in future years. To that end, we will share what you shared with us in two parts- the first part is this report on our blog with all the raw data and feedback you provided us on every aspect of the program. The second part is an in-person feedback session that will be scheduled soon (once we get everyone’s calendars aligned) where the Board will discuss your feedback in more specific terms and discuss how we will learn and improve from it. So, without further ado, here is all that 72 of you told us about your experiences with Diwali Mela 2017. I am presenting them here without any commentary. 

Overall Experience

Ticketing and Registration

Auditorium, Seating and Other Logistics

Program Quality

Snacks and Break

Volunteering

Next year

A Few Thoughts

Often times it is forgotten that every single volunteer in this event committed their time willingly for the benefit of the community. To that end, we see this feedback not as an opportunity to find faults at how individuals functioned but more as organizational successes and failures. We fix where we didn’t do well. We repeat and double down on what was well received. Sometimes we realize that there are problems with no practical solution or only sub-optimal solutions that will not appease everyone. In those circumstances, we bias towards the solution that either hasn't been tried before or the one with the least inconvenience. How a particular aspect of the event is perceived by an audience member is different from that of a participant which is different from that of a coordinator. The time commitment varies vastly between ferrying their kid to practice sessions versus someone else who spent every Saturday and Sunday for the 3 months leading up to the event working on a focused role. There is literally a few hundred hours of difference in time spent working on the event.

We received a lot of valuable free form feedback on how we could do this event better. We value those inputs. In addition, we request members of this community to take an active role in future years of the event so they experience first hand the active debates and deep-dive sessions that happen among the core team prior to making a decision- whether it is the duration of snack time or seating arrangements (easily the most complex effort this year) or ticket price. This helps in understanding why certain things were done the way they were. This is not to explain away any lapses in execution but to provide context on what happens in the background leading up to the event.

Conclusion

As you can see, given the sheer scale of this year’s event, there was a lot of passionate feedback and opinion and we are thankful for such an involved community. We look forward to discussing the with as many members of the community who can attend the feedback session. 

CIC Khana Khazana 2017 - Chef Spotlight - Chef Manasi

Here is the last Chef interview before the event. This time, I am thrilled to present Chef Manasi. In a way, this final interview for Khana Khazana 2017 was where I wanted to be when I started this effort. The conversation was super casual over a cup of chai and snacks. It was relaxed and the questions and responses just flowed naturally. Over the past few weeks, staying behind the camera has allowed me to listen, and to learn so much about my friends, fellow community members and cooks extraordinaire. I am so happy I got this opportunity to do this video series and am now a strong proponent on the use of video as a means to not just publicize but engage with the community.  Manasi was a wonderful conversationalist and hearing her  thoughts on cooking, I can only imagine how awesome it is going to be on Sunday. I cant stress on this any more. Sign up your family for CIC Khana Khazana 2017. This is going to be super fun and for a good cause.

Please do watch the video to learn more about Chef Manasi and what she has in store for Khana Khazana. Her answers to the Q&A are also below.

I will leave you with one more thing- there is one last blog post coming related to something exciting for Khana Khazana. Should arrive on Friday or Saturday. So stay tuned for that.

Q: What is your inspiration to be a cook?

A: The chemistry of ingredients and varied possibilities with the same inspire me to experiment, cook and create.

Q: What motivated you to be a part of this unique experience Khana khazana?

A: The idea of bringing together our community for raising funds through a gastronomical avenues by the local chefs motivated me to join the bandwagon.

Q: Who is your role model in the kitchen?

A: My aai (mother) is my role model forever. She has the ability to make simple recipes into soul food, I idolize her for that always!

Q: What is that dish you vividly remember growing up seeing mom/dad/grandma/yyy cook and enjoy?

A: I grew up eating freshly cooked home made food made by my mom. My mother makes the traditional layer wheat roti everyday , that to date no one else (not even me) could replicate. Memories built around simple homey food stay forever:)

Q: What experiences shape how and what you cook- is it the place you are from, the city you grew up in, the place you currently live or anything else?

A: I was born and brought up in Bombay. The city's spirit has imbibed in me the enthusiasm, determination and urge to learn and explore. I love my chaats and Pav bhaaji but staying in US has added the different flavors from all over the world into my plate. Hence, the food I cook is a fusion of nuances from typical Brahmin cuisine to street foods to Thai, Italian, Mediterranean, Greek and others.

Q: Without naming the dish, what should people expect from you at Khana khazana?

A: Simple,seasonal, homey yet presentable food and a smiling face serving them with love :)

CIC Khana Khazana 2017 - Chef Spotlight - Chef Jabeen

Here we are with an interview with Jabeen, our third featured chef for CIC Khana Khazana 2017. One interesting vignette to share is that when I started planning for these videos - I wanted them to be very similar. The same questions and how each chef answered it. As you can see from the Q&A below, thats how most of the chefs responded too (with the exception of Meera who wrote a lovely story for us). But as we shot each video, the approach started changing. Instead of sticking to a script, we started having conversations about food and the experiences that have shaped how we have approached it. I learnt a ton about cooking styles, influences, experiences and so much more that I am so fortunate to have been part of this publicity exercise. I hope the enthusiasm of the chefs comes across in the videos just as it did to me when I spoke to them. On a special day, here is a special video from Jabeen. The Q&A responses follow below the video.

Q: What is your inspiration to be a cook?

A: My mother, grandma, sister, aunts, and friend’s mother.

Q: What motivated you to be a part of this unique experience Khana Khazana?

A: Few lucky friends in Cambrian Park have tasted my food. When Latha Santosh approached me, I thought I would give it a try. I am hoping with some help, I should be able to do it.

Q: Who is/are your role model(s) in the kitchen?

A: None other than my Mother and Elder Sister.

Q: What is that dish you vividly remember growing up seeing mom/dad/grandma cook and enjoy?

A: Dum Biriyani (both veg and non-veg).

Q: What experiences shape how and what you cook- is it the place you are from, the city you grew up in, the place you currently live or anything else?

A: It’s the taste buds and my favorites, makes me cook as close as possible to my mom’s recipes. My son is another driving factor for me to cook as a mom.  I also like to try different ingredients and cuisines if it’s healthy enough, then I adopt it. I have grown up going to markets to buy fresh vegetables, so I am a big fan of the farmers market in bay area. Cooking with fresh ingredients makes the food to go to another level.

Q: Without naming the dish, what should people expect from you at Khana Khazana?

A: Come hungry and savor the mix of Indian spices and veggies with family.

CIC Khana Khazana 2017 - Chef Spotlight - Meera

As with other chefs for Khana Khazana, I had asked Meera for answers to questions to keep things simple for her. She wrote us her story instead. I have read it twice now and I find it fascinating. I am publishing it verbatim here. So read on for Meera's journey with cooking and food. But before you get reading, I also had a chance to talk to Meera about all things food and the interview video is available for your viewing. We did the interview as Meera made piping hot aloo bondas for me- yes I know, I am lucky that way. It was a super fun chat and I think you will enjoy it too. I hope you agree with me that we cant wait to sample what Meera has to offer on the 14th of May at our CIC Khana Khazana.

When color, aroma, flavor, combined with some passion and love for your near and dear ones blend in together, a beautiful dish is born. My inspiration for cooking mainly comes from me being a lover of eating delicious food. I still remember, as a child I grew up in a typical TamBrahm family where the day dawns with the aromatic flavor of filter coffee. I thank the Gods in the heavenly aboard because neither of my parents restricted me from having this pure delight . As the days continues , I would notice my mom zooming around in the kitchen like a tornado , to get breakfast ready and pack all of lunches as well. I was and am still amazed of her swiftness , with which she works in the kitchen. 

Amma grew up in Mumbai and so she has influence from both Tambrahm and North Indian Khana. Even today, I cannot make the Aloo Paranthas and Phulkas with the softness that she has claimed. Her Aviyal and Paruppu Urundai Sambhar with Potato podimas is to die for. These are some of the richness of everyday food that I grew up with. That’s how my love for eating delicious food grew. She is definitely one my role models in the kitchen. My uncle (perippa), was another towering personality whom I have been inspired by. Every summer we would travel from Chennai to Mumbai for vacation and stay with uncle and family. He would royally cook for us everyday, in spite of his busy schedule at work. He always saw that we never went hungry during the stay I have imbibed that quality from him. There were few instances when I have returned home hungry from someone else’s house. I hate to have a feeling to go a restaurant after having lunch or dinner at someone’s! Believe me, I can point out so many examples. My lesson from uncle is never have your guest feel a bit of hunger when he/ she steps out of your house. 

Since I am a connoisseur of food and I hate a hungry stomach, I see to it that anyone who comes to my house, never leaves with a hungry stomach. I cook everyday with love and passion for my son and husband. They are my strongest critics, and when I see smiles on their faces when they like it , the happiness I experience has no limits. So here are two other inspirations and the pillars of my life, whom I dedicate my cooking capabilities, plus they are my scape goats as well :). I discovered a new me, in this country and it happened in the recent past. 

I hosted a memorial day party in Sunnyvale, and bravely invited close to 80 people! This was the very first time I cooked for a large number of people, with a lot of variety , and that is when I figured I did love to present or showcase what I cook! I was to see thrilled to see the happy faces of my friends and their kids! Kids ate with no complaints! There was no excess food! All plates and faces happy! Now it has become a family tradition to host a Memorial Day party, my friends know it and block their calendars :). 

I want to see the same thrill and excitement on the faces of my fellow Cambrianites, who have given me so much in the past two years! So when Latha proposed to me the idea of Khana Khazana, and cooking for almost 200 people, the bar is raised and the challenge is here. I am super enthusiastic to challenge myself for this big day, and all of you be ready to cherish the softness of a Madurai Jasmine flower with a Kerala delight condiment to go with it, and a chilled delicacy dunked in yogurt blended in with flavors from mint and coriander with a dash of spices!

CIC Khana Khazana 2017 - Chef Spotlight - Santhosh

We are kicking off a spotlight series on the wonderful cooks in our community who will be your chefs for CIC Khana Khazana on May 14, 2017. Each of these chefs were provided a set of questions to which the responses are below. We also shot a brief (~5 min long) video interview which is well worth watching. In these interviews, the chefs reveal their motivations, their role models in cooking and some really cool things you just have to watch. Without further ado, presenting Santhosh.

Chef Santhosh

Q&A with Santhosh

Q: What is your inspiration/motivation to be a cook?

A: To experiment and add a twist to a dish. Also, to make my partner stay away from the kitchen now and then.
 

Q: What motivated you to be a part of this unique experience Khana Khazana?

A: Love to eat Chaat, Love to meet with Friends - so why not make a chaat item to make my friends Happy!  Kill two birds with one stone - oh - sorry!...not killing anybody here - dont worry! 

Q: Who is your role model in the kitchen?

A: Hmmm tough question -  who is the Model I would love to be in Kitchen with?  -  IRINA SHAYK
What? Wrong question? Oops

Q: What is that dish you vividly remember growing up seeing mom/dad/grandma/yyy cook and enjoy?

A: Awalakki Uppukari - a snack made of poha/parched rice with special blend of spices, cooked by my mom.  Mmmm - my mouth is watering just mentioning about it!

Q: What experiences shape how and what you cook- is it the place you are from, the city you grew up in, the place you currently live or anything else?

A: Vegetarian dishes I have come to enjoy and love from different Cuisine's - Mediterranean, Italian, Mexican and Desi!

Q: Without naming the dish, what should people expect from you at Khana Khazana?

A: The most popular Indian snack in America - with a twist of course! and a sexy name. 

And here is the interview with Chef Santhosh. 

Welcome to CIC Khana Khazana 2017

Some matters are best said in a video. This event is going to be spectacular. You will want to clear up your calendars for the 14th of May. More videos to come in the next few days. Get excited. It is the real deal.

PS: The future videos will feature cooler people. For this one, you are stuck with me :)

Are you ready to Discover India?

In a little over 12 hours from now, the Cambrian Indian Community will assemble to remember all that they know and to discover new facts about India. The third annual CIC Discover India event is here and promises to be bigger and better than the past two years.

Nine teams will compete tomorrow for the title of “Discover India champions 2017”. On behalf of the CIC, I would like to invite one and all to attend the event and experience the magic. The event will start sharp at 1:15 pm and will finish by 4:15 pm. Snacks (bhel puri, chai and cookies) will be available at the venue for a small fee (please bring cash).

Game Rules

There will be up to 9 rounds (time permitting, we will conduct all of them). There will be two quizmasters - Prabhu and Srividya and their decision will be final. 

1. Teams have been playing a teaser round over the past week and have accumulated points that they will carry into the event tomorrow. Based on their scores in the teaser round, teams will get to pick the place where they would like to sit. 
2. Once seated, the rules will be explained and the contest will begin. 
3. No cellphone use will be permitted during the event. 
4. Non-participants are not allowed to help (kids under 9 are ok to accompany parents). 
5. The first round will begin in the clockwise direction with Team 1 and make its way to Team 9. The second round will go anti-clockwise and so on.
6. For every question, teams will get to pick a number from 1-9 and the quizmaster will ask that question from a numbered list. 
7. While every effort has been made to standardize the questions to the same level of difficulty, some questions will appear easier to some teams while others will find some hard- purely based on their exposure to the said topic. Teams are allowed to randomly select a number so that the questions they get are purely their luck and no more.
8. For most of the direct rounds, teams will get 30 seconds to answer the question. Only one answer will be allowed. So teams should carefully discuss before providing an answer. 
9. Each correct answer to a direct question will earn the team 20 points and for most rounds, there will be no negative marks.
10. For 7/9 rounds, questions will not pass if the team provides an incorrect answer. The audience will get a chance to answer the question.
11. For 6/9 rounds, there is one double question in each round. The double question allows the team the choice of doubling their points in case of a correct answer (or losing 20 points for an incorrect answer).  
12. There will be surprises along the way!
13. In case of a tie between two teams in the end, there will be a tiebreaker question. Rules will be explained during the game.

There is a ton of very interesting trivia for the participants and the audience to learn and share. So be prepared to have fun and learn something new in the process.

See you all tomorrow.

CIC Discover India 2017

It is here. The third annual CIC Discover India will be held on March 19th from 1:15 pm to 4:15 pm at the Vineland Public Library in San Jose, CA. This year promises new rounds, new teams and a ton of opportunities to make new friends. If you are interested in participating, send an email here. Or if you just want to watch folks participate and have fun, come on over.

Road to Cambrian Diwali 2015: Shubharambh

Last Friday, a few of us got together to formally kick off the preparation for CIC Diwali 2015. In the coming months, the activity will pick up pace culminating in the largest event of the year on Nov 7th at the Seven Trees Community Center from 2 pm to 6 pm. This blog and our website launched last Diwali and we have been using it to communicate as often as possible. This year, we will have frequent behind the scenes looks at how such a large event comes together, purely by volunteer efforts. Stay tuned to this blog for frequent updates on the road to Cambrian Diwali 2015.

Cambrian Diwali 2014

2014 was a big year for our community since the number of families exploded and the size of our Diwali event literally doubled. We had to scale rapidly and learned a bunch of things in the process. Participants from last year were also kind enough to share their feedback and we want to make sure we are addressing as many concerns from last year as possible, while retaining the best parts. For those not familiar with how Cambrian Diwali works and to everyone else who is curious, here is a brief timeline of how things will unfold.

Feb-Mar 2015: Visit multiple possible venues and finalize venue. This year, we have been fortunate to book the main hall at the Seven Trees Community Center for our Diwali celebration. This was possible due to the tireless efforts of Latha, Sonal and Krithika. 

May 2015: Planning kicks off. We will look at how we want to do things different from last year. Some broad ideas and themes will emerge in terms of what needs to change. For example, this years event is scheduled in the afternoon. We will not have dinner as part of our event. This will help us address a lot of feedback from last year. We also started looking at other broad issues as total event time, parking, childcare, and more. 

We will identify the core teams needed to drive the various components of the event and then solicit volunteers and coordinators for as many activities as possible. One of the key goals for this year is to have as many new people participate in event organization as possible.

June 2015: Once the coordinators are identified, we will put some structure around the performances and then solicit sign ups for choreographers, volunteers and participants. Parents please note- event participation is very popular in the community and slots will fill up rapidly. We will communicate in advance to get folks prepared.

July/Aug 2015: Summer time. Nothing major will happen unless choreographers can pull their crew together. Sponsorships will have to be locked in.

Sept 2015: We will start planning the flow of the event with slots, timing and such. Event magazine (Cambrian Khabar effort will start) We will have meetings periodically with coordinators. Coordinators will choose the cadence of their meetings with their teams.
We will also open the event ticketing. The CIC Diwali event tends to get sold out within a day or two. We will give ample advance notice before we open up ticketing. But be aware that tickets will sell out fast.

Oct 2015: Rubber meets the road. Everything comes together. Much more on this later.

We will add details as we move along. 

If you are interested in helping out in any way possible - let one of us know. We will formally open things up soon but you can always let us know you are interested.

Exciting times ahead!