Jaipur Trip

Ladies, I am organising a trip to Jaipur for a small group who would like to take the opportunity to explore this fabulous pink city.

The dates have been planned to coincide with the Jaipur Heritage Festival which incorporates daily craft bazaars, music, theatre and dance. We will also take in the sights of the Amer Palace, where you can take an elephant ride up to the palace and fort, as well as visiting the City Palace, Palace of Winds and, time permitting, a trip to the Anokhi museum.

The dates are as follows:-

Depart Chennai on Monday 14 January on either of the following flights (availability permitting):-

Kingfisher Airlines
Chennai-Bombay 0650 0835 Rs 3900
Bombay-Jaipur 1040 1225 Rs 4500

Jet Airways
Chennai-Bombay 1415 1605 Rs 3100
Bombay-Jaipur 1755 1930 Rs 3200

Returning Chennai Friday 19 January on either:-

Kingfisher Airlines
Jaipur-Bombay 1300 1445 Rs 4500
Bombay-Jaipur 1705 1850 Rs 3900

Jet Airways
Jaipur-Bombay 0825 1000 Rs 4975
Bombay-Chennai 1105 1250 Rs 3600

We plan to stay at the 3 star Madhuban Hotel, which is a small heritage hotel situated in Jaipur. This has been recommended to me by an OWC member who stayed there earlier this year.

Prices/room grades are as follows and they have twins and doubles in each category. I would suggest that we take twin rooms to minimize the cost.

Suite (per night) Rs 2592 (this includes 8% tax)
Super Deluxe Rs 2052 “
Deluxe Rs 1512 “

I have made enquiries for 6 rooms (max 12 people) and at the moment they can accommodate us.

To check out the hotel online go to http://www.hotelsjaipur.com/ and to check out the festival go to http://www.jaipurfestival.org/ .

Please note, transfers, food and any tickets to sights/festival have not been included.

However, if you are up for an adventure then please contact me by December 8th.

Jo Frogbrook
9840891824

JANUARY BOOK CLUB

The next book for discussion:16 January 2007
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
There will be no book club meeting in December do not have a host for the book club meeting in January. Any volunteers! Please call me or email me so that i can inform the members.

email-ajit_jaswal@hotmail.com

tel#-9940183839

RegardsBalveer

Marge

As many of you have already heard, Marge passed away last night. I just wanted to say a few words about her and invite others to do the same. I met Marge at a lunch in 2003. I had only been in Chennai for a couple of months and was, of course, lonely. I felt too insecure to try to make friends with what I then considered the 'fancy' ladies of the Overseas Women's Club since most of them were older, lived in huge bungalows and had husbands who worked for major corporations at very high levels. My husband and I were trying to start a business and felt like a bunch of bunglers at that time. But Marge was nice to me. She was open and funny at the lunch and said some hilarious things about her life in India. She made me realize that we all had the same problems adjusting to our new home. She mentioned that a cat in her garden had kittens. Being Marge, she already had the mother cat sterilized and the other compound cats, as well. She had even adopted two of them and was now looking for homes for these kittens. I ended up calling her and adopted two of the kittens. When I came to get them, she was again open and friendly. Like a breath of fresh air to me at the time. I remember her sitting in her garden sipping coffee. She looked stylish, cool and timeless in sunglasses and a T Shirt. We became friends at that point and I learned to appreciate Marge's open and uncritical take on things. She was the person you could always go to if something was wrong and she wouldn't judge and she would actually listen! And she was funny. Every lunch I had with Marge and our friend Cathy was pure hilarity. We laughed about the absurd things that happened to us. Marge never let anything get her down too much. Her spirit was too fun-loving and light for that. To this day, I don't know how old Marge was. She wasn't my age, but she could have been. She was just cool. For any age and anywhere, and I loved her and I know a lot of other people did, too.
Please use the comment feature of this blog to write something you remember about Margaret.
-Natalie

CRAFT MEETING

 For those of you who came to the Christmas meeting and saw our Christmas tree's that we had made (painstakingly, and by hand!) and are interested in doing the same...read on!

Suzanne de Haes is holding a 'master class' on November 27th at 2pm at her residence, Kannan Apts, 4B Ganapathy Colony, Alwarpet (2mins from the Park Sheraton).
Suzanne has the necessary materials which can be purchased from her.
Come along, and impress your friends and family with your sewing skills!!!

Jo

THANKSGIVING LUNCH

I have just returned from Thanksgiving Lunch (stuffed with eating too much turkey and pecan pie!) and wanted to say a big thank you on behalf of the OWC members to Susan Hopper for her generous hospitality.

The food was lovely, the weather was kind to us and the lunch reflected the true spirit of Thanksgiving, that of sharing.
For those of you who are not familiar with the history of Thanksgiving I took the liberty of taking one of the printed sheets explaining about the background, which Susan had kindly put on every table, and have replicated it here.
'Many countries and cultures celebrate harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving. American Thanksgiving traces it's roots to the Pilgrims, religious dissidents who, in 1609, fled religious persecution in their native England. They sailed to Holland, but after several years they thought the Dutch way of life 'sinful' and left for the New World. After a 65 day voyage, they settled in 1620 in what later became Plymouth, Massachusetts.
That first winter was harsh and devastating. Of the 110 Pilgrims and crew who sailed on their small ship, the Mayflower, only 50 survived that first winter. Eventually, a Native American by the name of Squanto befriended the Pilgrims. Since he had visited England, he spoke English. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to tap the maple trees for syrup, which plants were poisonous and which had medicinal powers, and how to plant corn. The harvest of 1621 was very successful and plentiful. They had corn, fruits, vegetables, fish packed in salt, and cured meat. The Pilgrims were at peace with their Indian neighbours. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans.
The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving held after the harvest continued through the years. In the 1770's the Continental Congress suggested a day of national thanksgiving. New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then, each President has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday'.

Jo

OWC Chettinad Trip

With Lakhsmi Chockalingam as the superb guide we explored Chettinad; the old houses of the Merchant families, the temples, the antique shops - and of course the excellent food.

Chettinad is a little gem hidden in the central part of Tamil Nadu app. 400 km from Chennai. Some of the gem´s facets were revealed to us with the help of OWC member Lakshmi Chockalingam whose family not only own the loveliest Bangala (guest house) in the area, but also proved to be a very knowledgeable guide to all the interesting sights.

The beautiful houses
Chettinad is famous for the huge mansions which were built from fortunes made from overseas trading. Nowadays some of the mansions are deteriorating while others are still maintained and in use for huge family celebrations such as weddings. We marvelled at the magnificently carved wooden doors and pillars, wandered through houses that seemed never ending, stood in the inner courtyards trying to imagine how thousands of guests were catered for and listened to all the fascinating stories of the houses, the customs and traditions of the people living there.

The handicraft
There is more to Chettinad than the houses. We watched the fascinating process of tile making. We were introduced to the traditional Chettinad weaving and shopped till we almost dropped on the fine cotton material. We admired the way the silversmiths were shaping figurines. And last but not least we raided through the antique shops of Karaikudi for good buys to bring home.

The Big Temple
We visited a few Chettinad temples before moving on to the “Big Temple” which the magnificent Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur is called. No wonder this monument is on the World Heritage listing as it is absolutely the most fascinating temple I have ever seen. It is the highlight of Chola temple architecture. We were greeted by the temple elephant and then the huge Nandi (bull) created from a single piece of rock weighing 25 tonnes which makes it one of the largest Nandi statues in India. The dome itself weighs app. 80 tonnes and was hauled into place along a 4 km earthwork ramp in a manner similar to the ones used for the Egyptian pyramids - totally amazing! Walking on temple grounds we counted several linga (250 the guide book says) enshrined along the outer walls of the pillared halls and viewed lots of drawings made with natural colours depicting myths and the different gods.

Chettinad hospitality
We stayed in Lakshmi´s family guest house in Karaikudi which was a very pleasant experience, decorated and furnished in accordance with the original house. The food was excellent and the hospitality and patience with all our questions endless. Therefore I would like to say a big thank you to Lakshmi and her family for their tireless efforts to make our trip so memorable.

Children’s Committee News

HALLOWEEN EVENTS
ARTS AND CRAFTS

This was as popular as last year and we sold out of tickets for the event, 90 in total.

On the day we had 80 children turn up to the event along with their parents. The children had the opportunity to make scary spiders, assisted by the lovely "Spider Queen" Jennifer Mauldin, Trick or Treat bags could be decorated, so that the children could collect their sweets on the Trick or Treating evening. We also had pumpkin masks, Halloween lanterns and other colouring activities. Glitter and glue was used with abandon, by both children and parents. In fact, every parent left with glitter on their faces and I believe that the parents enjoyed helping the activities with their children immensely!

The Children’s Committee would like to thank the American International School for allowing the use of the canteen and the cleaners who cleared up the mess! We also would like to thank all parents who brought snacks with them and everyone who was involved in the organisation and supervision of the activities on the day.


TRICK OR TREATING

This was also a sell-out with 90 tickets sold in total. Another great turn out for this event with about 85 children (and parents) in excellent costumes who were raring to go at 1645. Fortunately, the weather was dry for us (the rains started the very next day) as largely thanks to Lakshmi and her family, we had 11 houses in the Kotturpuram area for the participants to visit. We would like to thank these volunteers for opening up their houses to us. I am sure that you would all agree that there were some splendid houses and very welcoming (g)hosts. A Big Thank You goes out to Lakshmi. Without her help and knowledge of who lives where, and all of her relatives and friends agreeing to participate, we would not have had such a very successful evening.


Our next event is BRUNCH WITH SANTA. This will be held on Sunday 10th December at the Taj Coromandel Ballroom at 10am till 1pm. There will be arts and crafts for the children, stalls operated by Landmark and Contemporary Window, a bake sale, a giving tree which supports the social and welfare programme, a special visit by Santa with photo opportunities, a Christmas story and carol singing with a fantastic brunch. Tickets are the same price as last year and are on sale now. Adults Rs 500 Children Rs 300 Children 0-2 yrs Free.

Last year, this event was extremely popular and sold out very quickly. Ticket numbers are limited and to avoid disappointment please contact me, Sarah Woods, as soon as possible. Alternatively I will have the tickets with me at the next general meeting.

President’s Message: November 2006

What a night! I am referring, of course to the Viva La Carnival Ball. We had a great turnout considering the amount of people who were ‘out of station’ and the water logged roads, but those of us who made it on Saturday night had a fantastic evening.

Apart from having a great time we also managed to raise some much needed funds for our charities, so a big thank you to our sponsors and those of you who bought a ticket. I would also like to thank everyone who worked so hard in raising sponsorship as this year’s brochure was a bumper issue. Well done!

Also a big thank you to everyone who helped behind the scenes and on the night; you all helped to make it a success.

A couple of people enjoyed it so much, they asked why the OWC didn’t do two events like this a year; frankly I don’t think our nerves could stand it, but thanks for the compliment.

Now, looking ahead to what is coming up, we have a Christmas Special planned for our General Meeting which will take place on November 8th at the Park Sheraton.

Come prepared! Dig out your Santa hats or any stray tinsel you may have lying around and come dressed to join in the fun. We have a Gift Exchange – please bring a small gift of up to 250rs value – festive food and there will also be some Christmas items to buy – so bring your purses!

For those of us who signed up, we also have the Thanksgiving Lunch to look forward to on the 21st at 11.30am at Susan Hopper’s residence. Turkey and all the trimmings – can’t wait!

And finally….after months of chasing, deleting and updating the new Directory will be available on November 8th, hot off the press!
See you on the 8th.

Jo Frogbrook
President

Marketplace November / December

Electric Grill - 1 year old, used only once, in very good condition.
1000 R

Dishes:

Pottery Dishes
Prices depending on how many pieces you want to buy

Cups 20 pieces
Saucers 20 pieces
Coffee/Tea Pots 10 pieces
Cereal Bowls 20 pieces
Plates 20 pieces
Juice/Milk Bottles 10 pieces
Glasses (Water or G&T -
no picture available) 6 pieces
Cutlery (6-set) Set


Please contact Tatjana Kaiser on 99400 30488 or send me an
Email : tatjanakaiser@hotmail.com

Christmas Parties

OVERSEAS WOMEN’S CLUB OF MADRAS
CHRISTMAS PARTIES – DECEMBER 2006

Year end again and we come to the major content of our Social Welfare programme … The Christmas Parties for our over 1000 beneficiaries. Please join us at one or more of the following events and ‘see where your money goes’. We do need volunteers to help with the programmes as many of our people are either elderly or disabled; they also just love meeting the people who bring them a slice of Christmas joy each year.

Monday, 11th December: Afternoon tea for LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR,
3.00p.m. 11 Harrington Road, Chetpet 600-031
(Just past Shoppers Stop Department Store)
Entertainment by the children of St. George’s Creche
And Carol singing by our OWC members.
The 30 children from the Creche are given a snack and gift bag.

Wednesday, 13th December Lunch for the elderly residents of FRIENDS IN NEED
12 Noon SOCIETY and ST. GEORGE’S CATHEDRAL HOME (40)
AT THE MADRAS CLUB For the residents who are sick or too old to attend, lunch is provided for them at the respective Homes. A cash gift of Rs.150/- is given.
This lunch is in association with the OWC GENERAL MEETING BUT BEING A CATERED LUNCH we do need an RSVP PLEASE.
Call Aruna 2453-0556, Lakshmi 2447-0891 or Maureen 2641-3027 Entertainment: Carol singing by the residents and OWC members.

Friday, 15th December Children from THE HOME OF HOPE ORPHANAGE attend
4.oop.m. the final dress rehearsal of The Pantomine put on by The Little
MUSEUM THEATRE Theatre. The children arrive at the theatre about 3.30p.m. and
EGMORE Some help is required to usher them into the theatre as well as
give them a snack. They are also given a tea at the orphanage
and gift bags closer to Christmas. (130 children)

Friday, 15th December Visit to SHISHYU BHAVAN, ROYAPURAM and NIRMAL
10a.m. to 3p.m. HRIDAY, ENNORE, and JEEVODAYA.Hospice
handing out clothes and gift bags for over 200 residents.

Saturday, 16th December Christmas tea for ANDHRA MAHILA SABHA (140)
AMS, 10 Durgabai Deshmukh Children are provided with gift bags.
Road, Chennai 600-028 Entertainment given by a ‘Street Theatre Group’
Just before Adyar Bridge Help needed in handing out the tea and gift bags.
On right hand side. Carol singing by OWC MEMBERS.

Wednesday, 20th December CANSTOP PARTY TEA PARTY for children with leukemia
4.30p.m. and ladies suffering from cervical cancer (200 plus)
DATE TO BE CONFIRMED at THE GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL, HALLS ROAD
EGMORE. 9th floor of grey building behind main hospital.

Saturday, 23rd December CHESHIRE HOME, 23 Third Seaward Road, Valmiki
4.00p.m. Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600-041
Tea party for 100 residents and staff. Gift bags given to children Entertainment by Street Theatre Group. Carol Singing by OWC members.

A visit will also be made to the Children of Mercy Home Creche in Halls Road, Kilpauk.
Date to be confirmed.

Ladies Who Lunch

Our next Ladies Who Lunch Meeting will be:

Wednesday, November 15
12:30
Peshawar Restaurant
Chola Sheraton
Cathedral Road
Chennai

This is a bit pricier than what we've been doing. I'd figure on about RS 500 per person. It's well worth it, though. Really yummy kebabs!
Please SMS or email me if you plan to come
Natalie von Hoffmeister
9884187761
natalievh@gmx.net
Susanne will be back next month!

December Tiffin Club

Tiffin Club December Meeting

November’s Tiffin Club at the Marriott was lovely with Chef Prakash demonstrating a variety of soups and salads. We tasted everything and commented on more!! We now even know how to chop in the BRUNOISE style! Well done the Marriott.

The Tiffin Club December Meeting will feature a COOKIE EXCHANGE hosted by Judy Mason. For this, each participant (maximum of 12 only this time) will make six dozen home-made holiday cookies.

These cookies will be bundled up, 6 cookies to each well presented bag, and brought to the Tiffin Club Meeting.

At the Tiffin Club, we will all exchange bundles so that we each bring home a bundle of every sort of cookie. This is a great way to recipe swap and sample all at the same time!

If you would like to be part of this Tiffin Club, please contact Sejal Wasani as soon as possible for all the details(and in order for us all to calculate the right number of cookies and get baking!!!) on 98840 52575 or sej173@yahoo.co.uk

TIFFIN CLUB – THURSDAY DECEMBER 7TH at 10.30AM
MAXIMUM 12 LADIES ONLY THIS TIME – WARN IN ESSENTIAL.