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Friday, July 2, 2010

Minneapolis Desi style

Back from the Twin Cities!! I finally got the meet the famous blogger, Sita-ji, from Bollywood Food Club. She was one of the few who welcomed me in the blogging world, which was two years ago!! She's also on Twitter. In addition to her, I got to meet Jill from Bollywhat & Twitter who loves Indian cinema, particularly Telugu films & Jenna from Twitter who not only loves Indian cinema, but also Korean movies and music!! I love social networking. It helped me meet wonderful people like them.

They were so hospitable, trying to show me some Northern love while talking about my Southern accent, hehehe. Yes, this Hmong chick has a slight Southern accent with shades of roughness.

Sita-ji is definitely a wonderful tour guide. I was very impress with her knowledge because she knows Minneapolis inside and out. Then combine that with Jill’s knowledge too since both love the city and grew up there. Jenna lived farther but was able to meet me for a few days, which I thought was extra sweet of her!

Now, I have plenty of family in MN but was very surprised with the Desi population in the Twin Cities! Wow! Look, there’s even a temple!


Their website - http://www.hindumandirmn.org/Home.aspx

No surprise that I am a huge John-Bips fan but I was unable to find their magazine cover in Atlanta. However, I found it in Minneapolis.


 On Twitter, I tweeted about how different Filmfare is now. Granted the last magazine I bought was in December 2008 because John-Bips were on the cover too, but still! What I was most impressed with is the Surya article and then right after that, a section with South Indian stars from Ram Charan to Allu Arjun to Rana to Trisha to Ileana to Priyamani! I will scan these this weekend and share.

There are not many Mom-and-Pop Desi stores in the area I live in. I may have to go to a different area. There are a lot of International markets that have Desi, Hispanic, and Asian items all in one. I took pictures of what I saw at the Desi stores there.



And look, a few with Juhi, Shahrukh, & Madhuri.


And found a vintage Akki poster :D



On top of that, I found Telugu and Tamil dvds, with English subs. What’s impressive is at the back of the dvd, there’s a distributor in the MN area. Wow!



Look, Bunny & me...excuse the paleness...the sun was in my face.


Or is this better? Tweeters say I look too serious since I usually smile in my pics...


Okay....how about this? Pic taken before the wedding I attended in MN.


South Scope rocks! :)


My Leader review is coming up soon after my scans. I did post on Twitter that I am going to be on a hiatus but that has been delayed. Although I'm no longer on hiatus, I won't update as much and keep up with others tweets. Sorry for that. Feel free to unfollow me but I will reply those who @apunbindaas me :)

 
A toast from Sita-ji
Thumbs Up, Limca, on mural from Patel Groceries on 18th and Central Ave., Minneapolis, MN, USA 

9 comments:

cmleigh said...

I think it is great that you got to meet the ladies from up north. I'm impressed with the desi stores because even though we have a large community here if you go into the stores you will usually find only Bollywood movies . :-( I mean come on there are more than just North Indians in this area. I'm waiting for your visit to LA. :-D I thought I was going to Georgia in August but will be in Las Vegas instead.

Anonymous said...

Nicki-ji,
Behan, thanks for the sweet words, I was delighted to meet you in person and had so much fun hanging out with you. Here's another picture to add to your post:
http://twitpic.com/21vlvp
Talk to you soon.
All the best!
Sita-ji

p.s. y'all should know Nicki's accent is real sweet.

Anonymous said...

yay! Pictures! I was so happy to meet you as well. It was great to spend time fan-girling over Korean stuff as well as our beloved Indian cinema! Happy arrived today so either I'll go dancing at the Desi party or watch that, depends on my mood & if people I know are going. Wish you were here to go with!
<3 Kamala-chan a.k.a Jenna

jjake said...

I had a blast meeting you and hanging out with "y'all" too,
dontchya know. :-) Love the pictures too, such a nice reminder of your visit. I am going to try look you up at Christmas down in ATL too. Have a nice hiatus. We will wait patiently watching Tollywood movies untill your return.
Jill

Home Remedies said...

I think you are so fond of indian telugu cinema than indian actors.

Yoga

bollywooddeewana said...

ahh how sweet, i have that magazine too, it was nice seeing the southern stars but they weren't so new to me and i remember you coming to mind when i saw them

Sonia said...

I didn't know that Filmfare is now having a section on South Indian cinema! Maybe I should start buying Filmfare.... (I usually don't buy it because they charge way too much when they sell it in Hong Kong)

Nicki said...

cmleigh - It was great to meet them. No worries, Sita-ji and I both plan to go to LA together :)

Sita-ji - You are the best! Seriously! Words cannot describe how awesome you are :) Thank you for everything!! I mean it.

Jenna - I was so happy to finally meet someone who loves Korean music/movies just as much as Bollywood, and now you're open-minded to South Indian too. You go girl. You have a big heart. I wouldlove to go with you ladies to a Desi party next time :) I cannot wait for you to watch Happy, do lemme know what you think :)

Jill - Yes, I had fun hanging with ya'll :D Yes, I say that lots, lol. When you come down to ATL, do lemme know. Working at a payroll company is tough to get any time off but will hang out at least on the weekends :) I live near the Hindu temple and the Indian mall :D

Yoga - Hmmm, that's not fair. I think you just recently started reading my blog, you should go back and read some of my other posts,then you know, I love India in general :D Did you miss my Ranbir or John Abraham posts?

bollywooddeewana - yah! You thought about me when you saw the South Indian stars in Filmfare :D

Sonia - I don't think Filmfare is having a section on South Indian stars monthly. I think they had that article first on Surya cause of his Hindi debut, then right after that, it was a small section of all the South Indian stars. I'll scan and you will see :)

Anonymous said...

you look cute