Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
The Indian Independence Day anniversary this year on August 15th, was the 69th one since India got it’s independence from the British. I had a day off from work on Friday, 14th August, and already showed you Day 1, which we spent mostly in Artesia – LA’s Little India. I love visiting Artesia. Here at home in San Diego, we also have a Little India in the Black Mountain Road area of Mira Mesa, but I do enjoy going to Artesia from time to time.
Day 2 of our little mini-vacation started off at Knotts Soak City, which I already showed you in another post, and now I will show you more pictures of the actual Indian Independence Day Celebration in Artesia (part of Los Angeles).
These pictures were taken towards the end of the evening, and show Bollywood star Raveena Tandon on the stage. The first picture shows when she was lighting a lamp as part of the day’s celebrations.
Raveena Tandon at Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
This picture shows the lighting of the lamp a little bit more clearly
Raveena Tandon lighting the lamp at the Indian Independence Day Celebration
This picture just shows Raveena looking very elegant, and beautiful on this great day.
Raveena Tandon at Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
My daughter Niki and I got to the event at around 5:45 pm, and we thought we were late. We were relieved when we found out that it hadn’t started yet, so we walked around. Here is Niki enjoying having the day off from dancing and being able to watch her friends peform instead.
Indian Independence Day Celebration
We walked around and looked at all the wonderful food, I really should have taken more pictures of the other food stations – there were so many. This picture shows Pani Puri. I remember we used to have these back in England, and called them Gol Gappa, not sure if I am spelling that properly. They would puff up a lot sometimes while they were fried, and when they came out of the fryer, we would delight in poking a hole in them, and would pour tamarind sauce in to the hole in the center, and oh my gosh, that was one of the tastiest treats ever! They don’t make them here, like my Grandma made them back in England. We used to eat them right after she fried them, and they were so yummy! I think Pani Puri are just the same as Gol Gappa, but I do have to question it as they don’t taste as good as my Grandma’s Gol Gappa! I think Gol Gappa might be the Punjabi word for Pani Puri.
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Oh, I have one more picture of another of the food stations
I had a sample of some great chai! Oh, how I love chai! This one was just the way I like it – piping hot and made with chai masala. I ended up buying some mixes as when I am home, I just make tea the English way by brewing it in a cup, and can’t be bothered going the extra step and making Indian tea (chai) properly. However, when I go out to Indian restaurants, I love to drink chai – I want my proper Indian tea then!
Chai Moments At Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
After we wandered around for a bit, it was time to see some performances. It started off with this little boy dancing. Oh, he was so cute. You can see him and the others who performed in the video, directly below his picture (excuse the hand that got in the way).
Performances At Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
Please do watch my video of the Performances, this was the main event of the celebration, and of course, the star of the event was Raveena Tandon.
Then there were more performances, here is an assortment of pictures:
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Indian Independence Day in Los Angeles
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Indian Independence Day Celebration
Did you know there was a Congressman in attendance? Yes, there was. Congressman Ed Royce (R) serves the 39th Congressional District in Orange County and eastern Los Angeles. I made a video of him too, but did not add it to the Performances video!
Congressman Ed Royce at Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
Some more pictures of the performances
Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
Indian Independence Day Celebration in Los Angeles
Then, guess what another great thing happened at this event, they had a great sale and all clothes were only $1 each. Yes, you read it right – just $1 each. I bought seven items and it was so worth it.
Indian Independence Day Celebration
I hope you enjoyed seeing my pictures, and the video of the Performances. In case you haven’t yet seen the video that I made of when Raveena Tandon was made upset, here it is:
I Made A Movie Starring Raveena Tandon
I made a movie starring Raveena Tandon. Raveena wasn’t acting that day, this was real life – I captured the moments when Raveena Tandon was made upset in Los Angeles on Indian Independence Day. The video kind of went viral. It has over 185,000 views now. Also, just wanted to add that I am not a movie maker, I am just someone who likes recording memories – photography and videos. Also, I made very few edits to the movie. I certainly didn’t take anything out intentionally, why would I have done that? All I took out was a few seconds of when the camera was out of focus (example up in the air instead of focused on people).
I do want to say that Raveena looks just as lovely when she is upset. What would we all give to look like that when we are upset? On a more serious note, I want to add that guests need to be treated like royalty.
Have you seen it yet? In case, you haven’t seen it, you really should take a look.
We Must Celebrate Indian Independence Day & We Did Celebrate!
We must celebrate Indian Independence Day, especially if we value freedom. To be given back a country like India that is as rich in diversity, culture and heritage – what’s not to celebrate? This year was the 69th Anniversary of Indian Independence. It has been 69 years since the British gave back India to the Indians. That is reason to celebrate. So celebrate we did! First, I took the day off from work on Friday, August 14th. If a country won’t give us our own holiday (I guess we can’t expect it here in the USA), we must give ourselves the holiday.
So, we drove up to the Disneyland area and were supposed to go to Knotts Soak City today, but the kids said we had arrived too late as our arrival time was about 1:15 pm, and they would only have about less than five hours at the Water Park, they wanted the entire day from 10 am until 6pm, so we decided to just go to Artesia and have lunch somewhere. We really like Ashoka The Great, and have been here before many times, so this is where we ate lunch.
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Ashoka The Great Restaurant in Artesia
Ashoka The Great in Artesia
Ashoka The Great in Artesia
These are my three kids enjoying the buffet at Ashoka The Great
Ashoka The Great Restaurant, Artesia
This is me and my three kids
Ashoka The Great in Artesia
My little girl Chandi loves fruit, and Ashoka has a great selection of fruit for her right after she eats enough of the other lunch items. I love Khadi Pakora, it’s my favorite curry (the yellow one below) and I love Saag (spinach – right behind the Khadi Pakora).
Ashoka The Great Restaurant, Artesia
Ashoka The Great Restaurant, Artesia
Ashoka The Great Restaurant, Artesia
Then we walked around a bit, and went to a few different stores. I bought some bangles for Chandi and Niki, and decided it was time for a visit to one of my favorite Sweets & Snacks restaurants – Ambala Sweets & Snacks! The kids had just enough space for banana milkshakes, and I had space for a cup of tea, and one of the sweets from the assortment that I bought – see the picture of sweets in the box below. The rest of the sweets I could eat at the hotel or back in San Diego (if there was any left).
Ambala Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Ambala Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Ambala Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Ambala Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Then we headed to the car which was parked in the parking lot of Bombay Sweets & Snacks. I had to go inside, and get another cup of tea. I sometimes just love the atmosphere of different restaurants, and when they have TV screens that play Indian movies or music videos, I just love relaxing there with a cup of chai. Chandi just hung out with me while my other two sat in the car, even though it was an extremely hot day – they were fed up of me and my cups of teas. I love the food at Bombay Sweets & Snacks too, but how much can you eat after a buffet? I sometimes stay full all day after a buffet.
Bombay Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Bombay Sweets & Snacks, Artesia
Our stomachs were full, and we got to the Hilton Garden Inn in Anaheim at around 8 pm. What a lovely hotel, and the service was very nice.
Hilton Garden Inn in Anaheim
Next morning, I had coffee in my room, and then enjoyed another cup in the lobby, before we headed out to Knotts Soak City.
Hilton Garden Inn in Anaheim
In my next post, I will continue writing about our celebration of the Indian Independence Day. We started celebrating one day early, and celebrated all day Saturday, and then Sunday too!
Fantastic Indian Independence Day In Los Angeles, CA – Some Videos
I’m just recovering from a crazy week after Indian Independence Day in Artesia, CA (in the Los Angeles area). I loved the craziness actually, and why not? After all, it’s not every day that my videos get over 100,000 views in a matter of days. Well, this time it happened, but it was quite unexpected. Currently, my video has 178,895 views.
I shared my video a few days ago (the one that got all the action, and attention), so I won’t share it again here. However, I would like to share my other videos, and hope you will watch them.
First, let me share another picture of the beautiful Raveena Tandon. I hope she comes back soon to Los Angeles or San Diego, and I hope she gets the star treatment that she deserves.
Raveena Tandon at Indian Independence Day in Los Angeles
Most importantly, I take and make videos because I enjoy it. I take pictures because I enjoy it. I post because I enjoy it, I tweet and pin pictures because I enjoy them, and I attend cultural events because I enjoy them. It’s all in the enjoyment, and it’s all just a hobby.
In the next post, I will share more pictures of the actual event.
Indian Independence Day in Los Angeles, CA – What A Memorable Occasion!
Indian Independence Day in Los Angeles, CA was a very memorable occasion. Why do I care about Indian Independence day? Of course I do! I am Indian, and even though I was born in England, I know my roots. August 15, is India’s Independence from the British. It might seem strange for some of you that I have an allegiance for India, and celebrated it’s independence from my other country. All I can say is I love England, and I love India, and now of course, I love the USA. I am very grateful though that the British gave India back. No country has the right to rule another.
We went to LA and stayed overnight for two days to celebrate my son’s birthday at Knotts Soak City, and then went to visit Artesia (Little India), and get my share of Indian culture. Oh, how I love visiting that area, and having a buffet lunch somewhere, followed by another visit to a smaller place to have Indian sweets and a cup of chai.
Well, imagine my delight when someone told me there would be a parade for Indian Independence Day the next day on Saturday – this was perfect, since we were in the area anyhow. I vowed to visit it, and furthermore, my daughter told me that her group was going to perform, and she wanted to see them. She took the day off from dancing this time, I think it was because I told her not to plan anything this weekend – since it was her brother’s birthday. She knew Raveena Tandon was going to be there in Los Angeles, but she didn’t realize that she was going to be at the same event or that her friends were performing at the same event as where we wanted to celebrate Indian Independence Day. Little do we know! So, when she said “Mum, the event that you want to go to is the event where my friends are performing, and where Raveena Tandon will be!” I thought perfect. Even more of a reason to attend! You may not know about Raveena Tandon, but she is a big mega-superstar, a Bollywood actress with many hit movies. She is an icon of Indian cinema.
So we got to the event at around 5:45 pm. I’m pretty sure she told me that one of her friends was supposed to be performing at 4:30 pm, and her group was going to be doing their dance at 5:30 pm. She was kind of upset that we might have missed it already when we got there and saw that practically all the seats were empty. We didn’t realize that the event had not started yet, we thought it had just finished. When I asked someone if it was over, she told us that it had not started yet, and we were so relieved. We wandered around, had samples of delicious chai and saw all the food vendors, and clothes displayed for sale. What a fabulous event, I thought – even before it began. Later in the evening, I tried the food.
Raveena Tandon arrived a little later than expected, and of course I captured most of her presence on the stage. Here are some pictures. You know I like taking pictures and videos! Here are just some of the pictures:
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
Raveena Tandon at Los Angeles Indian Independence Day Event
You will not believe what happened next at this great event. Well, someone made her upset, and of course I captured it, and I didn’t even know what was happening, as I was busy looking through the lens, and knew that something was brewing. Anyway, long story short, Raveena has seen my tweets of the videos, and apparently is happy that I posted the videos as they show what happened.
Here’s the video of where Raveena was upset:
I just wanted to give you some context of what is about to appear in my next post as for the first time ever, there will not be a single picture in that post. Also, I will not be introducing the Indian Independence Day event, the significance of it, or anything of that matter. That is why this post is being published first.
The organizers are called UFICA, and they responded to her tweets about their version of why the ending was not the way this great event should have ended. They publicized their letter on Twitter, and Raveena and her manager have asked me to publish their letter. That is coming up next.
I do want to say that no matter what – I really enjoyed the event, and I say that in all sincerity. There are always two sides to the story. Also, to read more about the event click here: http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/raveena-tandon-ed-royce-grace-fia-ufica-independence-day-event/article_4e45b512-46ae-11e5-8384-ebe722be66ec.html
luchanik 