"Shivaya"

I have just recently recovered from my Los Angeles experience. I never realized how much I miss the simplicities of the heat, the ocean, the 405 and my extended Rangoli family. It started with attending a performance at the Temple in Calabasas, where I was overwhelmed with faces known and unfamiliar (well everyone was in full makeup and costume) but nonetheless I felt spirited in the surroundings. Our rehearsal schedule intense as the triple digit temperatures while the camaraderie and support for the task at hand was as abundant as the delicious food provisions. Old friends surfaced as I visited old stomping grounds Club Zanzibar, Electric Lodge, Robeks and Johnny’s Pastrami while new edifices glisten The Santa Monica Place Mall and Library where I was greeted with enthusiasm by a former Connecticut student thanking me for her dance instruction. Eternal gratitude to the friends who welcomed me into their homes and comforted me with more simple pleasures of love, food, conversation and laughter.