Monthly Archives: June 2010

About Pleasanton, Culture, Youth Activities

Conversation Hindi Camp in Pleasanton

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Organized by US Hindi Organization (USHA), the Conversational Hindi camp will provide a creative, fun, and interactive environment and focus on developing conversational Hindi skills.

CampHighlights:

· Unique exposure to Hindi
· Practice spoken Hindi through theater, real life situations, indoor and outdoor games and peer-to-peer conversing
· Animation Movies & Songs
· Provides both fun and learning
· Step up to a higher speaking level
· Lots of activities for the whole day!

OPEN TO ALL PUBLIC / Grades K-8 / June21-June25/ 9am – 4pm
code: 94588. Camp. Carden West School.
June 21-June 25 – 9am-4p / $335.00
Instructor(s): Manju Mishra
Location: Carden West School(Pleasanton)
For Registration email [email protected] or call (650)493-1566
Other classes in also being held in Belmont, Fremont, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, San Jose, Sunnyvale
http://www.ssreg.com/usha/

Madhu Bhasha Kendra in also organizing Hindi camps in Fremont, Palo Alto, Los Altos, San Jose and Saratoga
Schedule is here http://www.hindionline.org/tentative_schedule.htm

Or as always, India Community Center has summer camps in a wide range. Check http://www.indiacc.org/culturalcamps

Entertainment, Movies

Indian movie theater scene warming up in bay area

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Watching Indian movies in Theaters in the bay area is a warming up scene – but with all the desi population, it surely has potential to hotten up. For tri-valley folks, not only did recently Naz and IMC got acquired by Big Cinemas, and reopened, at only 20 miles away, the Brenden 14 theater in Concord across the street from Swagat is also beginning to show a hindi movie or two.
(If you can’t find the hindi movie listing on yahoomovies, you will find the timings on fandango.com. You can even get two tickets for 14.99 in Concord, Modesto or Vacaville Costco. There are over 800 free parking spaces.
As an illustration, Rajneeti is playing from July 4 (1:05 4:35 8:10), next to Sex and the City 2. They are also developing some reputation for some sumptuous samasos they have on sale with the Hindi show.)

AMC Mercado 20 in Santa Clara, UA Emery Bay in Emeryville, Century 25 Union Landing in Union City, and Cinedome 7 Newark also show first run Hindi movies.

When Naz cinema closed in Fremont early this year, there were rumours that it closed due to rat infestations! But no, it actually got purchased by Big Cinemas, Anil Ambanis entertainment company which is out there purchasing all such theatres in the US.
For all its notoriety with filth, you could actually book tickets in advance online, and they were also pragmatic enough to often show subtitles. What if bad customer service was part of the entertainment!
The replacement of Naz, Big Cinemas Fremont 7 opened in Feb. They apparently have $5 Tuesdays, Real tickets! (Not raffle tickets!), there is a courteous staff that tells you to enjoy the show, and smiles!! They offer Matinee for all films before 6:00 pm — and they actually have shows before 6pm!

  • Big Cinemas Fremont 7, 39160 Paseo Padre Pkwy, Fremont.
  • UA Emory Bay Stadium 10, 6330 Christie Ave, Emeryville.
  • Century 25 Union Landing, 32100 Union Landing, Union City.
  • Cinedome 7, 6000 New Park Mall, Newark.
  • AMC Mercado 20, 3111 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara.
  • Brenden 14 1985 Willow Pass Road Concord.

Hopefully more can be added to this list soon!

Events, Networking

Relocate to India job fair

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24th June, 2010:  Relocate to India, Job Fair

When: 24 June 2010
6pm to 9pm

http://www.siliconindia.com/ events/june24caindex.htm

Where: Biltmore Hotel , Suite 215 Laurelwod Road Santa Clara , CA 95054

Jobs in India for returning professionals

Companies in India are looking to hire professionals with US experience / education. The SiliconIndia Job Fair 2010 will bring together recruiters, HR Managers and candidates who are looking for that right company and opportunity to return to India You can meet recruiters at their booths personally and discuss employment opportunities. It is not just software anymore; companies are also looking for specialized skills in systems, chip design, testing, senior level project management marketing, business development and much more? This is 7th year of these one of a kind job fairs where professionals returning to India can interview with hiring companies in U.S. only. From our previous events, more then half the attendees’ return back to India in 3 months with job offers. There are half the attendees’ return back to India in 3 months with job offers. There are company’s specific relocation packages to India. By industry estimates, more than 20,000 professional Indians have returned back to India in last 2 years. It’s much more convenient to get the dream job with a MNC in India while in U.S. at SiliconIndia Job fair then looking for a job after landing in India.

Things to do

Cherry or fruit picking near Tri Valley

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Brentwood – which is about 30 miles away is quite a farmland with many a farms for Cherry or fruit picking.  We decided to try it out as well.

From Livermore Costco, its about 30 minutes away, going up north on Vosco. A friend has visited Nunn Better farms for Cherry picking last week, so decided to try out the same.

One interesting thing was that there are no good websites for specific farms – the most useful is a Trail Map here: http://www.harvest4you.com/pdfs/HT2010_mapwcat.pdf

Some Yelp reviews made the place sound like very farm-ish. You’ll get dirty, there’s too much sun, etc. – though it didn’t turn out to be exactly like that.  Anyhow, we went there a little late in the evening (though the best time is to go early morning).  The drive was interesting, with the mostly single lane Vasco Road meandering around a load of Windmills of all varieties.  The Nunn Better Farms is about 3-4 miles ‘inside’ Brentwood – so as you pass some other farms, you’re are like this one better be good. They have posted ample signs directing you to the farm, so that also raised expectations. Over all, it was an OK experience. Not sure if its normal, but a good majority of the Cherries had that line that tends to divide the cherry into two lobes. Not many actually had two lobes.
At USD2.50 a pound, it seemed a little expensive in this cherry season. The cost at the local grocery or Costco is same – with better quality. But well, then, its also some cherry picking experience with the kids (that gets you there to begin with).
They stopped people from coming in at around 4:15 PM – and most of the other farms close at 4:00 PM for U-pick. For the Picked fruit, there are stalls outside most farms where you can buy already picked fresh fruit, but the prices are again no better than the local stores. You’d also find local olive oil, in addition to fruits on the sale. We picked up some white pear and peaches and blackberries – mostly pretty good.

So cherry/berry picking is surely something to do in Summers if you live in Tri Valley.