The best movie going experience ever...........

On Friday night we finally made it to the Inwood Theatre screening lounge, we saw Star Trek, which was a fun movie and does not require you to be a Trekkie fan to enjoy. However the real highlight of the night was the screening lounge, the best movie going experience ever! As W. pointed out, now that you have seen a movie this way, how can you go back to normal movie theaters? Just as an FYI we did have the front seat, and it was the best! So comfy, squishy, relaxing and fun. I am even more excited by the new Potter movie, in the hope that they show it here! Fingers crossed! Jigna

PS: Potter 6 was great at the Inwood!

Introducing Texans to hot tea, one by one

We are British and of Indian origin which means that our hot tea (with milk)/chai drinking is really rooted in our heritage, culture, background, basically in all that we are, (when I say we, here I mean my husband and I). When we arrived in Texas we were astonished to find that some people had never heard of drinking hot tea (with milk), imagine our shock, our horror! 

We have since introduced a few Texans to hot tea with milk (well, okay one). We switched cable/internet service providers, they had to come out to connect it all up and the nice guy that came out, entered our home just as the kettle was switched on (serendipity, happy coincidence, fate or kismet?). As he had never had a cup of hot tea (with milk), we offered him one and he accepted. It was a chilly day (yes they do happen in Dallas, once in while!) and so he really appreciated the hot drink. He really enjoyed it, and we polished off his cultural experience, by offering him a chocolate digestive - we showed him how to dunk. Jigna.

Vital cocktail information:

Vital cocktail information: please refer to Victoria Moore's article/blog on the Guardian website, thank you Ms Moore. Mmmmm could murder a G&T. I dunno why but the tonic water in the US just tastes funny, I have to get the imported expensive kind from "special" shops? Jigna 

Picture credit: screaming-eagles.com/ 2009/03/benny-and-the-nets

The politics of identity

I began to write a blog about, Sikh week at Texas colleges, as reported in the Dallas Morning News, a friend brought in the section for me, (surprisingly I am not a regular reader), it is a very interesting and revealing story. I think we can all applaud this effort to educate people.

I then started to think about this Cif (by Sunny Handal in the Guardian), regarding the politics of race and identity. I am concerned that often in our effort to reclaim,claim, explain,define etc our identities we distance ourselves from our shared humanity. This also coincides with my firmly held belief that I don't think we should be defined by just one aspect of our personalities. Whilst certain aspects of our identities may be more important to us or others in defining us, it is vital to look to ourselves as a sum of our parts rather then being defined by one characteristic, especially when you consider that the one characteristic, may be something that we have had no control over i.e. our race, gender, place of birth etc.

This leads me to another point after a certain age, religious identities are usually chosen, and so it is not the same as a racial or gender identity, which is something that you are born with.

I think that the differences do not have to mean "everything". Those differences can be what you pin your identity on or they could not be. Maybe that is a sign of a "progressive and open" society, that the differences I choose to identify myself with, are chosen by me and not enforced upon me.  Jigna