Portland Saheli Second Anniversary Celebration

Date : Dec 17
Venue : Supraja's house
Members present : Ashwini, Amaravati, Bakul, Hema, Himani, Lekha, Meera, Nisha, Shaifali, Soumya R, Sowmya, Trupti

As December marked the end of year 2011..Portland Saheli celebrated its new milestone into the 3rd year. This indeed needed a celebration as every month a Saheli hosting a meeting in their sweet homes and bringing a new friend into the group every meeting brought fresh ideas like book discussion, exchange of views on various issues and current affairs,here and back home. At the end of every meeting every Saheli left home with a smile looking forward for the next meeting.

It was such a pleasure to host this annual event and I thank each and everyone of you Ashwini, Amaravati, Bakul, Hema, Himani, Lekha, Meera, Nisha, Shaifali, Soumya R, Sowmya, Trupti for gracing the occasion in your gorgeous sarees.

The meeting started with warm greeting to the new member Soumya and as we introduced the members, we rejoiced the moments of how we got into the PS and had fun playing games that brought out some amazing sketching skills and the sense of humor in everyone.

We cheered for the Portland Saheli as the newest members cut the cake and decided that we should have a family meet as well to share the fun with family and as well as to get acquainted.

I am sure it is going to be a spectacular year ahead for PS as it is taking up new dimensions with lots of new and enthusiastic members full of novel ideas and the commitment to implement them as well.

January 2012 : Get together

Shaheli's who attended :
 Amravati , Ashwini , Bakul , Hema , Himani , Lekha , Nisha, Supraja, Soumya R, Shefali , Trupti

Venue : Nisha's House

Date   : Januray 10th 2012
Agenda :  Learn a new healthy recipe 

Shaheli's started the new year with a new agenda to learn from each other. And all we took the first step in that direction by learning a  healthy and tasty soup recipe , which was perfect for the winter season. Supraja graciously accepted to share her very popular cream of broccoli soup with the group. She also showed us the step by step procedure and we all got to enjoy the soup .Thank You Supraja for a wonderful recipe.

Cream Of Broccoli Soup


Broccoli - 2 heads , florets separated and washed
Onion - 1/2 of big one , chopped
Green Chili - 1, slit
Ginger - 1 inch , sliced into half
Wheat Flour - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 1/2 tbsp

1. Melt the butter in a deep a sauce pan and add onion.
2. Mix well and let onion turns translucent and add broccoli .
3. Saute for few minutes and add the wheat flour.
4. Mix well and cook for another few minutes.
5. Add 1 cup of milk , chili and ginger .
6. Cook till the broccoli turns just fork tender.
7. Allow the mixture to  cool enough to handle .
8. Fish out chili and ginger pieces and then  puree.
9. Add the rest of milk and water to the puree .
10. Simmer the puree for another 2- 3 minutes   .
11. Add salt and pepper mix well and your soup is ready to serve.

Bakul who is hosting the next meeting will be teaching us yoga and pranayama. Ashwini will be sharing with us some information about the yoga and its effect on human psychology. Soumya is also interested in yoga and is willing to do some group sessions for interested shahelis.Many of us are interested in food and nutrition related topics so we all agreed to share any interesting read online or printed with each other .


Thank you all shahelis for coming and i thoroughly enjoyed having you all over at my place and specially hosting the cooking lessons.

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..!