Monthly Archives: October 2011

Articles, Festivals, Karvachauth

Karvachauth – Tradition and Fun

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Its Karvachauth time, again. If you live in the Tri Valley area, this year (2011) as well you can head out to Livermore Temple for the Karva Chauth Puja / Katha. There will be three sessions on Saturday, Oct 15, 2011 – including at 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM. The pooja sessions can be joined only in the beginning, else one would need to wait for the next session.

Within Bay Area, Sunnywale, Fremont Temples typically have huge gatherings of women coming coming in the evenings for Thali Puja. In the Tri-Valley area, the Livermore Temple is slowly but steadily becoming a nodal point for this north-Indian style puja as well (even as its predominantly a Venkateswara temple). Karvachauth Moon View 2011

Mehndi/Henna – Putting Mehndi on the day, or the day prior, is also a big part of the tradition. Can’t see someone professional catering to the Tri Valley residents. So its either Do-It-Yourself, or there are other places in Bay Area to head to for about 25 bucks: Lovely Sweets-Tisha (Fremont) – 510-396-7501, or Sadia Fashion House (Fremont) – 5109968062, and probably many others.

There is special food for this festival too. Most of the grocery stores or “Sweet Shops” (like Cafe Tazza) in Dublin/Pleasanton will carry the stuff – Matthi (mostly sweet), Phenia-Jalebi, Cocunut, etc. is traditionally required.

At least in northern India, this festival has become a big fun (and big money and more!) event (beauty treatment and spas in Ludhiana, botox for Karwa Chauth in Delhi,  and and even a Karvachauth mobile app that turns the screen of your phone into a ‘sieve’ / ‘chalni’, through which one can see the moon). There apparently are no big events or get-togethers that have caught up here, but don’t be surprised to see desi women, probably traditionally attired, in movie theatres in Hacienda and elsewhere during the day this time around! Get togethers in the evening to watch the chand (moon) together has become quite common, followed by dinner pot lucks.

The last thing is the big wait for the moon – that, especially on this day, seems always to play hide and seek. Moonrise on Oct 15 this year is slated to be at 8:38 PM for San Francisco.

About: Karva Chauth is an annual one-day festival celebrated by Hindu and some Sikh women in North India and parts of Pakistan in which married (and some un-married) women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands (or future husbands). The fast is observed in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The festival has become a big deal with Indian diaspora, including in US.

Articles, Demographics

Rising Tri Valley Asian Indian Population

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According to 2010 Demographic Profile Data, 11.3% of San Ramon, 7.4 of Pleasanton, and 6.8% of Dublin population is now of Asian Indian Origin.
This is a reasonably high concentration of Asian Indian population in one valley area. And if you live here, its not a surprise anymore if you see an even higher percentage of your desi brethren once you are driving in the shopping catchment area of Dublin, living in a residential cluster like Windermere, or even shopping in a place like Costco, or Babys-r-us (that tells an even different story!)

  • Dublin has 3,116 Asian-Indians, i.e 6.8% of total population
  • Pleasanton has 5,214 Asian-Indians, i.e 7.4% of total population
  • Livermore has 1,578 Asian-Indians, i.e 1.9% of total population
  • San Ramon has 8,179 Asian-Indians, i.e 11.3% of total population
  • Danville has 745 Asian-Indians, i.e 1.8% of total population

In San Ramon, where public schools are excellent and quite some new housing has been built in the last decade, Indians skyrocketed from 1,463 in 2000 to 8,179 in 2010, a jump of 459%.
City of Pleasanton, with good housing and schools, shot up 175.29% from 1,894 Indians in 2000 to 5,214 in 2010.
Dublin, a smaller city really came up from behind, with only 672 (2.2%) of its residents from India in 2000, to a new number of 3,116, an increase of 363%. This is attributable again to good schools, new upcoming housing, and better connectivity.

The numbers reflect the demographic patters of some other dynamic parts of California economy.
Indian Americans now constitute 22.6% of the population in Cupertino, 18.08% in Fremont, 15.52% in Sunnyvale, 13.64% in Santa Clara and 11.46% in Union City. By numbers, the state of California, San Jose remains first with 43,827 Indians, followed by 38,711 in Fremont and 32,996 in Los Angeles.County Population Asian Indians USA 2010
Aaccording to Census 2010 data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Indian American population in California rose from 360,392 residents in 2000 to 528,176 in 2010, an increase of 46.4%. In Counties, Alameda (from 47,194 to 72,169) and Contra Costa (from 13,376 to 18,255).