Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:58:28 -0800WeeblyThu, 15 Sep 2011 16:24:23 -0800http://www.shantisanmiguel.com/1/post/2011/09/how-i-learned-to-love-india-because-of-monica-eng.htmlBecause I practice yoga, people assume that's what first drew me to India.

But the truth is that it was an "ethnic color" article by Monica Eng in the Chicago Tribune that led me down the lotus path.
As part of her coverage of the diverse communities in Chicago, Ms. Eng attended the opening of a bollywood film in a local theatre.  Her enthusiastic review was enough to entice me into the theatre myself....and from that moment I was lost.
Pretty soon I was frequenting dusty video stores in Chicago's Indian neighborhood; going home with huge piles of movies.

I became, as the Indians say, "filmy".

I even dragged my Mexican goddaughter to one of the live stage shows that bollywood sends out to the boonies to remind the NRIs what they've left behind in the motherland.

Inevitably, I had to go to the source: India.

Thank you, Monica.






]]>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:55:49 -0800http://www.shantisanmiguel.com/1/post/2011/08/first-post.htmlOur chickens deserve a better home, so we are planning to build them a strawbale coop.  This will be a community project, led by Larry Gonzalez.  As soon as we have our ducks in a row (of course I mean chickens), we'll post an announcement and invite you to participate in the coop-raising/kegger.

We've also started offering churros on demand.  I know they're not Indian (nor Mexican), but let's not quibble.  They're delicious.

As you may know, we have fabulous tents (and hand-blocked sheets and blankets) on order from India.  And when they get here, we're going to have a big party at Moksha and show an all-singing all-dancing Bollywood blockbuster.
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