Thanks to all of you who came to the Diwali program. It was heart-warming to see all the kids who came to the library and had fun with the rangoli and the diya-making. You can see the picture of the "toran" (decorative piece to adorn the doorway or entrance to a home) that the kids made. I had as much fun organizing the program as you had participating in it.
Come celebrate Diwali at the library on Monday, Oct 27th from 5 to 6 PM. This program is for children in Grades K-4. We will talk about the spirit of Diwali and make a decorative craft.
It was fun cooking in the library setting. The kids and the moms who came with them seemed to enjoy the Indian dishes that I made. We made mango lassi (smoothie), bhel (a snack made with puffed rice, sev, baked potatoes, onions, tomatoes and cilantro) and peda (a dessert prepared with milk powder, condensed milk and butter.) 
Recipe for bhel
Ingredients:
Puffed rice: 4 cups
Sev: 2 cups
Baking potato: 1
Onion: 1
Tomatoes: 2
Cilantro: a bunch
Sweet and tart sauce:
Pitted dates: 10
Tamarind paste: 2 spoons
Brown sugar: 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
In a large bowl, mix puffed rice and sev. Bake the potato in a microwave. Let it cool and cut into small pieces. Chop onion and tomatoes and add to the puffed rice and sev mixture. Mix in the chopped potato.
To prepare sauce, pour 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan; add tamarind paste, chopped dates and sugar. Keep stirring till the sauce thickens and reduces to half. Garnish the bhel with cilantro and serve by topping it off with 2 teaspoons of the cooled sauce.
Mango lassi (Smoothie)
Ingredients:
Fresh mangoes: 2 or 3 (If using fresh mangoes, 1/2 cup of honey or 4 tablespoons of sugar has to be added)
or
1 can of sweetened mango pulp
Plain yogurt: 1 quart
Buttermilk: 1 cup
Crushed ice: 1 cup
Blend mango pulp, yogurt, buttermilk and ice in a blender. Pour in glasses and serve chilled.
You can keep it refrigerated for 24 hours.
Peda 
Ingredients:
Powdered milk: 1 3/4 cup
Sweetened condensed milk: 1 can
Butter: 1 stick
Cardamom powder: 1 teaspoon
Raisins: ½ cup
Pour the condensed milk in a bowl and add milk powder, cardamom powder and butter and whisk them together. Spread on a microwaveable plate and microwave for 2 minutes. Take it out, stir and microwave again for a minute. Let it cool for about 30 minutes and then take a spoonful in your hand and shape into round balls. Flatten each ball and decorate with a raisin in the center. You can keep pedas refrigerated for a week.
Try these recipes and also send in some of your own recipes.
An article submitted by Nikita:
The three major issues that the next president should address in the first term of office is Economy, War and Health Insurance.
Starting with economy including high gas rates, high taxes and less jobs we don't have a stable community. I think the next president should lower taxes and lower gas rates too. Also he should think of more jobs so that we will have a better community through out the whole country. Lots of people don't have jobs so we should think about them first. How will you help them? By helping them get jobs so they have enough money to eat one days worth of food and pay for gas. So I think the next president should take care of that.
Another major issue is Health Insurance. About 47 million people don't have Health Insurance.
Even if they have it they aren't covered fully. Due to these reasons people are reluctant to even go to the hospital when they have major medical problems. Reducing the cost of health insurance is one of the things that the next president should address appropriately.
We also have a war going on. So many soldiers are dying when they could be at home with their family. With all this we barely have enough money to help our economy. This war is so costly, one bomb dropped costs so much money no wonder why our economy is going down. It is important to secure our borders more effectively so that illegal immigrants and terrorists can't sneak in.
These are some major issues we have in our country. If we take care of these issues we will be able to live life peacefully. After all life is so short. As they say “ Live and let others live.”
October is Archaeology month, so we have a whole day devoted to some fun activities related to archaeology. Friday, October 10th is a day off from school, so come in any time between 10 and 4 and participate in a scavenger hunt type game called Could you survive as an archaeologist? This fun-filled activity is for kids in Grades K-4.
There will also be a screening of the movie Spiderwick Chronicles at 11 AM.
We have an Indian cooking workshop on Thursday, October 9th from 5-6 PM. Shrewsbury schools are off the next day, so join us and learn some recipes for easy-to-make dishes. Your supper's taken care of too! This workshop is for children in Grades 4-12.
Did you know that the American Library Association has a week (September 27th - October 4th) designated for Banned Books? This is not to celebrate banned books but to make people aware of the danger of banning books. During this week, children are encouraged to read books that have been banned by some schools and taught to value the freedom to read. Some of the books that have been banned in some places in the US are:
Lois Lowry's The Giver
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice series
Judy Blume's Are you there God? It's me Margaret
Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
J K Rowling's Harry Potter books
Lauren Myracle's TTYL
Would you like to be told what books you can read and what you can't?
