November 2011

Members Present: Amaravathi, Ashwani, Supraja, Nisha, Trupthi, Himani, Shaifali & Hemalatha
Venue: Shaifali's house
Date: November 16th, 2011
Agenda:
To welcome new member- Amaravathi
To share hobbies, venture to start mini skill sharing sessions
To plan second Annual meeting of Portland Saheli- Wow!!
To welcome new ideas for forthcoming meetings
To share contact numbers
Meeting Minutes & Reflection:
It was nice meeting face to face with the Sahelis. Its amazing to see how PS has grown over the past one year! We have 14 active members so far.
We welcome Amaravathi , our new member! It was great knowing you! It gives me great happiness to see new members joining PS. One of the goals of PS when I first started it, was/is to be a support group to the people who are new to the US. I remember when I had come first to Portland in 2005, my world was just my husband and the vacant streets. Its great to see PS grow and welcome new members as they settle down with their life in Portland or the US.
A small not for Amaravathi, I always encourage new members to read the history and goals of PS, which is also the first post of this blog so that you get more famialiar with the working of PS.
During this meeting, Himani shared a wonderful idea of families also getting to know each other. Planning for this will commence in January for the family gettogether. So far, we discussed the possiblility of booking the hall of the offices of either Trupthi's husband or Hemalatha's husband. Suggestions included of doing a potluck.
For the December- winter session, it was decided that we will not have the monthly meeting but instead have the much awaited Annual meeting. Thank you Supraja for volunteering to host this event!
As we shared our skills/hobbies, Ashwani initiated the starting of knitting sessions during her less stressful class period.
Nisha is into cooking, which is fabulous because when it comes to people like me, I can myself learning so much from her!
Himani how about reviving your painting skills ?
I shared having dancing as one of my passions..My hidden desire-:)I have always wished to choreograph-a dance sequence at the India Day celebration in August every year!:))
Trupthi an engineer by profession, has yet to decide her hobby which I am sure is hiding somewhere waiting to be explored. Hang on there, we won't leave you until you come out with that little secret of yours!
Ashwani and Nisha shared their painting hobbies. Amravathi shared her skill of tailoring. OMG, Amaravathi in PDX this skill I am sure is well sought after! How I wish , I would have learned how stitch blouses and do eyebrows way back from India! So, girls-
if you need some stitching done- who to look for!
I am happy to share that we have people from varied walks of life in our group, Ashwani-a Counsellor by profession, so, we know when we need someone to just listen..whom to go to!
Very interesting indeed..I encourage to those members who were not present to please share your hobbies with the rest of the sahelis.
We have started the email thread of sharing your contact numbers only by email. I DO NOT encourage anyone to share their personal contact information on the blog for privacy purposes.
I got to speak with Amaravathi and was so happy to hear her positive reaction towards PS. Amaravathi could you please go ahead and share your experience at your first meeting of PS, in the comment section or by posting a new topic in the blog.
The meeting happened for a good three hours this time!!
Next on Agenda:
Second Annual Meeting at Supraja's place
January Family meeting planning
Please feel free to add your hobbies, even if you did not attend the meeting and comment on this post!
Winter Getaways for December:)
Lego Display at The Children's Museum
Zoo Lights- Very popular
Peacock Lane Lights
Photo with Santa
Polar Mount Hood Express
Did I miss out some more? Feel free to add to the list!:)
Happy Holidays Sahelis!
Shaifali

Portland Saheli, September 2011

Venue-Hema's House

Date-Sept. 28

Sahelis- Ashwini, Divya, Hema, Himani, Lekha, Meera, Nisha, Prajakta, Roshni, Supraja,Trupti,

A wonderful darbar was held on wednesday which fell on one of the aspecious days of Dussahera.

The meet was really worthy to have most of the sahelis coming together.

The topic for discussion "Grandma's tips" bubbled up a thick froth with lots of thoughtful tips.

The tips enlightened us on aspects like beauty, child care and general health.

Fall is approaching with tricking and diwali and dusshera with treating.

So passing on the shivers and chills to the next hostess to make a big deal with the Saheli meet.

Hema

2011 August Saheli Meeting

Attendees: Roshini, Bakul, Prajakta, Hema, Soumya, Lekha, Meera, Himani. Nisha, Trupti

Venue: Trupti's House

What a fun morning we had! Hope everybody agrees on that!
Hema & Soumya surprised us with the beautiful sarees they wore

so elegantly and the Mangala Gouri Pooja prasad they distributed.

Welcome back to New moms Roshini, Prajakta & Bakul.

The new mothers started off with baby talk of course but later

moved on to general topics to join the rest of the group

and we did a good job covering quite a bit of ground!

Nisha is looking for grandma's tips she can add to her food blog

and the Saheli blog, Soumya is looking for hair conditioning tips,
and Lekha is looking for all natural sunscreen.

Many of us are keen on learning the secrets of draping a Sari properly.

These are also recommendations for future Saheli discussions.

After a very refreshing mint lassi and some yummy snacks,

we said goodbyes; until the next time!

If anyone is interested in hosting the September meeting,

please send out a group email.

Glad you were able to make it for a bit at the end Lekha. Thanks everyone for coming!

Looking forward to having tons of fun in the future!!

Trupti

So long Sahelis!

As I head out of Portland, I wanted to wish Portland Saheli all the best for the future! It was great knowing all of you and fun to be a part of such friendly, progressive and thoughtful gang of girls! Thanks to Shaifali forstarting this and for all the others for pursuing the same with equal energy and enthusiasm!  Of all the memories I have of Portland, one of the fondest will be of our monthly Saheli meetings over chai and savories! Once again ...thank you for the surprise at our last meeting hosted by Ashwini at the Thprd park. Okay...time for me to go....but mind you...once a Saheli always a Saheli....this is not a farewell ....I will definitely be in touch with all of you....across seven seas....vide this blog! Good luck ladies! Miss you all!

Sahelis in June

Venue: Lekha's House Date:June 21, 2011

Members who made it to the June Meeting:

Ashwini, Divya, Hema, Lekha, Soumya, Supraja,Trupti and Prajakta for a little bit.

And of course juniors Athmay, Nirmay and Sreemayi who

attended their own fun club away from us, the noisy moms!!

Only agenda we had last meeting was not to have an agenda and

free flow with whatever subject that came up! So we touched kids,

schools (of course:)), Bangalore real estate, Parents and life back home,

Divya's imminent move to India, Portland summer attractions(!!) etc to

name a few. That brings me to the topic of U Pick farms.

Fruit picking season is upon us and there are tons of farms

around here you can visit with family and friends.

Now, if you want to cut short all the hard work, go to the farm stand at

185 & West Union crossing for a good selection of local, organic berries.

Congratulation to New Moms Roshni & Prajakta!

We were delighted to see Prajakta come out for the first time

after the birth of Dhruv last month.

Roshni looks equally good and daughter Maahi is treating her mama well,

for the most part.:)

Got a surprise call from a probable new member Nisha

who requested that her email id be added to the list.

Thanks to those of who made it to the fun meeting in June.

I like the fact that I come away with a happy face every time.

Hope to see a bigger Saheli family in July....Adios..!

Minutes of meeting - May

Better late than never ...I thought let me key in the minutes of the last meeting in May.

 Date : 05/09/2011

Venue : Divya's house

Members present : Roshni, Lekha, Supraja, Sowmya, Trupti, Hema and Divya. 

At the meet-up:
We welcome our new members Hema and Trupt and hope to see more of both of you in the upcoming meetings.
Missed our other Sahelis esp. Shaifali who is busy with finishing school and one of our most regular members Prajaka, who has been blessed with a baby boy! Congrats!
For a change, we didnt have any story to discuss...but we girls are the last ones to have trouble starting a conversation....right? So it was two hours of chat session with no-holds-barred....diverse enough to give the ladies of "The View" a run for their money!
Thanks to everyone for making this meeting happen and hope to see you all again.







                


 

Minutes of the March saheli meeting

Friends who joined: Ashwini, Divya,lekha,Prajakta, Ramya ,Roshini, Smita, sowmya, Supraja.

Our conversation started with everyone sharing their memories on how they met their life partners. All of us had really a good laugh on this topic.

The book for discussion " The The Scream by H. Briscoe " triggered lot of discussion around our own lives growing up as siblings. Most of us jogged the memory lane, remembering those adventures,school days, competition with each other, silly fights and missing those unforgettable days of life.

Shared individual views on pros n cons of delivering and raising a baby in US Vs in India.

2 hrs just flew like minutes, and I wished if we could continued the session for some more time. Thank you all for making it. It was a pleasure to host this session of saheli meet.

Our next meet will be hosted by smita

Welcome New members!

Its great to see that our Portland Saheli Family is growing!
Sorry for my continued absence from the scene..I am waiting to come back in June after I am done with my commitments.:) I am happy to see that, lot of people are taking interest in the goal behind the Saheli gang! Which is very much reaching out as a community, supporting each other in our respective endeavours. I thank all the members of the PS family for keeping the meetings every month and coming up with a new theme everytime!
Signing off for now- with best wishes and hope you girls have a great Spring!
PS- Isn't it time for another girls-nite out? and yes..I heard Supraja mentioning about a picnic too..:) I am sure it will be fun planning!
Keep going....:)))

Restaurants - Try it and you may like it!

I thought our earlier post for restaurants needed an update for 2011. So please feel free to suggest any restaurants you've been to.

Minutes of the February Meeting

Date: 02/28/2011
Venue : Suprajs's place
Members present : Supraja, Prajakta, Sowmya, Smita, Roshni, Lekha & Divya

Agenda :

• Short story discussion
• Sharing and exchanging of tips on travel, shopping, recipes, heath, etc.
• Include presently active members as contributors for the blog.

At the meeting :

• We welcome our new members into the PS family! Lekha, who got a preview of the PS meeting the last time and Roshni who sat through the full episode this time!:-) Anyway, we hope to see you more.
• We missed our sahelis Shaifali and Ramya.
• Discussed the short story titled "Dusk" by Saki.
• Discussed, debated, imparted, learnt, shared and exhanged numerous tips on various issues related to women, shopping, travel, food, kids, and activities around Portland!
• Last but not the least, relished the tasty snacks dished out by the host.

Resolved to

• Keep the blog active.
• Make the necessary changes to include our current members as contributors.

Next meeting venue : Sowmya's place.

Minutes of the first meeting of the year- 1/30/2011

Venue : Prajakta's house

Members present: Prajakta, Supraja, Sowmya and Divya, our newest member Smita.
We were also joined by Prajakta's friend was interested in the PS family - Lekha.

At the meeting:
Read & discussed a column in the Time ( Oct 26th 2009) by Nancy Gibbs titled " Who am I to you?"

We welcomed our new member Smita into our Saheli family.

Enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of girlie gup-shup over a delectable lunch dished out by Prajaka!

We missed our other Sahelis - Shaifali, Ashwini and Shilpi.

Resolved :
To seriously work on keeping our blog active.

Resume short-story discussions.

Next meeting in Feb hosted by Supraja.