Where is Matt? (2008)

What an interesting idea! It apparently took him 14 months to make this video.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) @ Yahoo! Video

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Take a Seat : An Ingenious Idea!!

Take a Seat is a concept where a chair follows a person around a library. The way it works is that you swipe your library card on the square on the front of the chair. Once that has been done, the chair will go where ever you go; the magic courtesy of an RFID chip. Dutch designer Jelte van Geest created them for the Openbare Bibliotheek Endhoven Library Design project.

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Le Idiot : Watch and Enjoy

Here's a clip of a guy on the French version of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

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Halloween : 2008

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Diwali, The Festival Of lights : 2008

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Harshul's First Birthday Party

It was an evening to remember. Harshul turned ONE on August 26th this year. So we decided to throw a party to celebrate this major milestone.

After much searching we decided on a venue. It was hard to find since we were particularly looking for Saturday evening. So it was going to be Mayuri Indian cuisine in Santa Clara on 27th of September. Now that the venue and date were fixed, I could start inviting people.

This time I took the easy route and used Evite to invite people. That's where the trouble started. That's because Evite just then launched their new version. I was thrilled to use it because they were letting me customize the Evite. I liked the idea of customizing since I enjoyed doing that. So instead of using their old version I chose to use their new version of evite. God was it buggy. I'm not sure why Evite decided to release it to public without testing it well. There were lot of instances where some of them did not receive the evite and many other bugs. The most worst of all was failure on evite's part to send out the reminder 2 days before the party. I did not anticipate that one. That threw us off completely. So because of that reason alone at least 40% of people missed the party. When you put so much effort in organizing a party we want to be sure that people show up. It really bugged me.

Anyways the theme for the party was brown and blue. So I went all out on that theme. I made a birthday banner in those 2 colours. Then I made a bunch of number 1's again using the same theme and used them for centerpieces along with balloons. Since the chocolate coloured balloons were not available in the regular party stores, I ordered them online. So the centerpieces were 2 blue and 2 chocolate brown balloons tied together with the number 1 stapled to the tie. If you see the pictures you will get some better idea.

Also I made some cupcakes in the brown and blue and packed them in some plastic bags and gave a couple to each kid in their goody bags. Talking about goody bags, again I was lucky to find these beautiful gable boxes in my colour theme. Every child was happy to get one of those goody bags.

Since it was a first birthday party we wanted some older kids to perform. So there were 4 different performances. The first was by Sindhu. She danced for an old Hindi classic, "Apalam, Chapalam". Everybody enjoyed the performance. My mom especially liked the song. She did a great job. Next Hrishika and Ashi performed for a medley of 2 songs, "Mauja Mauja" from Jab We Met and "Maria Maria" from movie Partner. This was the first time Hrishika ever performed for a Hindi song. She did a great job. Both the girls were so well synchronized, I was extremely pleased with their performance. Also their outfits were adorable. Next Sindhu and Vinay performed for a song they learnt at their school. Followed by Vinay and Teja's performance for a medley of 5 songs which culminated with the "Pappu can't dance" number for which Hrishika, Sindhu, Ashi and Gowtham joined in. It was a memorable performance. Thanks to all the kids for their hard work and effort.

This was followed by cake cutting. I ordered 2 cakes for the party from Satura cakes. This place was recommended by my friend Veena. I ordered a Satura short cake and a Chocolate souffle. Both the cakes were very yummy. Harshul enjoyed cutting the cake. This was followed by dinner. Everybody enjoyed the food and the cakes.

The dinner was followed by some DJ music to some popular Hindi songs. Everybody was on the dance floor. Hrishka and Ashi danced for hours. Finally by 11:30 p.m we started winding down. By 12:00 at night we left for home and called it a night.

Happy Birthday my dear Harshul!!!

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Stand Up To Cancer!

On September 5th there is a big television event to raise money for cancer research. This is our chance to do something to make a difference for cancer research. You can find all the details at their website. So tune in September 5th at 8 p.m. to ABC, NBC or CBS to watch this special event.


I especially liked the idea of launching a star in honour of someone diagnosed with cancer.

http://su2c.standup2cancer.org/

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Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Wow what an inspiration to us all to live our lives to the fullest. After losing my dad to liver cancer very recently (February 27th, 2008), it felt good to watch this video.


Here is the link to the speech .....

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

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These are a Few of My Dad's Favourite Things.

• My Mom of course makes it to the top of the list.
  My dad always said that he was lucky to have her since she always took very good care of him till the end.
  
• Grand Children.
  There is no denying that he loved all his eight grand children. He would do whatever they asked him to do, like playing board games, taking them to the park, playing ball games, singing to them, helping them sleep and the list goes on and on .... The grand children loved him too. I'm very fortunate that my dad got to see Harshul, the youngest of them all.
  
• Meditation classes.
  My dad was a member of Brahma Kumaris Spiritual organization for more than 25 years of his life. He enjoyed it immensely.
  
• Singing Songs.
  My dad had such melodious voice. He loved to sing all the time. He used to sing a lot of Telugu movie songs ( especially Ghantasala ones). In fact he was learning a Hindi song to sing on stage for Rakhi celebrations at his Brahma Kumaris institution.
  
• Mathematics.
  My dad's love for Mathematics passed on to all of us. He taught us all Math and made it look very easy. In fact when 2 of my sister's were visiting him, he said I'm very happy 50% of my daughters are here, instead of saying 2 of my children are here. That is how much we used math in our everyday terminology.
  
• Cricket.
  He loved to watch one day internationals. He even got to see a few of 20/20 games which is the latest trend in Indian Cricket. We feel sad that he did not get to watch any of the IPL matches. Else I'm sure he would have supported Bangalore Royal Challengers.
  
• Tennis and Soccer.
  He would be on top of the latest happenings in the Tennis world. He was usually supporting Federer in the recent matches. I remember him watching Soccer matches at odd hours at night.
  
• Sudoku.
  The numbers game. He too got the Sudoku fever. As soon as he got the newspaper, the first thing he would do is solve Sudoku. Later I showed him the daily sudoku on Yahoo games and he started doing the online version.
  
• Mahjong
  This is another Japanese board game of tile matching. He enjoyed playing this a lot on the computer. I'm not sure what his best timing was, but I'm sure it was under 5 minutes.
  
• Music.
  He learnt to play Banjo (a musical instrument) in his 40's. He loved to play key board and piano. My Mom tells us that he learnt to play Piano by watching his sister during her Harmonium classes. He never got any formal piano lessons. In fact the last time he played piano was at my friends place. He played a Hindi movie song, "yeh apana dil to awara".
  
• Smile.
  He loved to smile. Whenever I visualize my dad, I always remember his smiling face.
  
• Roasted Peanuts.
  He loved to munch these any time of the day, especially in the afternoons.
  

The list just goes on .... As I remember more I shall add to the list.

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Homage to my Dad!!

It's been a while since I blogged. This is one of the hardest things I'm trying to write. It is hard since I lost my dad recently. My dad passed away on the 27th of February this year.

Where should one start when it is your parent who passed on. There are so many great memories which words don't do justice in describing them.

Let me start at the very beginning. I remember when I was little we lived in Hyderabad in a building called T.V. Nivas. I remember my mom making hot lunch right in the morning and she would serve it to my dad on a small folding table. It used to be a piping hot meal. To cool it down we used to use a small portable fan. My dad would eat it before he left for work. Also every morning right after his bath my dad would offer his prayers to God. On Saturdays he would chant Suprabhatam to Lord Venkateshwara. I also remember fondly the days my dad got his paycheck. We all would know it was his pay day because on every pay day he made sure he got all of us sweets (either doodh peda or jilebi) and something savoury. I always used to swap my savoury stuff with sweet from my eldest sister Sharada. She loved spicy stuff and I on the other hand loved sweets.

My dad lost his dad at a very early age (in his 20's). That put lot of responsibilities on him. Other than taking care of his four daughters, he also had to take care of his 6 sisters. Only 2 of his sisters were married at the time when my dad's dad passed away. So my dad took it upon himself to get the rest of his sisters married and saw to it that they settled down. Then came the responsibility of taking care of his own daughters. I remember in those days when anybody found out we were 4 girls, they immediately would make some comment like, God it must be hard on you guys. It is so expensive to get them married (thinking we would pay dowry when we got married) and so on .... But both our parents never made us feel that we were any less or any different. My dad not once made a comment which would put a doubt in our minds, that we could achieve what we wanted. He constantly encouraged us. Always giving us a positive feedback.

When I was in my 9th grade we moved to Bangalore from Hyderabad. It was not an easy move since we all had to get admissions in new schools and colleges. Also those were the critical years for education. However my parents made it seem so smooth and enjoyable. They always focused on the positives. Whatever needed to be done my dad would just do it instead of getting stressed out. I went to MES college Bangalore for my 12th grade. It was one of the top colleges in Bangalore at that time for those grades. The reason I got into MES college is because of my dad's perseverance. It was no joke getting into that college. Just high marks in 10th grade was not enough to get there. However my dad made innumerable trips to the Principal's place to convince him that I was a good student and should be given a chance. They did take me. I ended up getting 460th rank in Engineering Entrance exam. My parents were very proud of me. I owe it all to my dad for getting me that seat in MES college.

Next four years I did my Engineering at BIT, Bangalore. I remember an incident in my first year of Engineering. I was preparing for my Mechanical Engineering Exam and we had 2 big fat books to learn. I could only get through one of the books and it was almost 8 pm. The next morning was my final exam. I was so frustrated and started crying since I was in no position to finish both the books. My dad instead of scolding me for not preparing in advance, was so calm and he told me to do my best of what I can and use my time wisely. That made me calm down and I made a decision to read only 1 book and leave the other one out. I went to the exam the next day, I noticed that they changed the pattern of the exam that year for my good. Though I read only one book I could still answer the required number of questions and scored 85 out of 100. So my dad really helped me by giving me the right advice at the right time. Instead of stressing me out he calmed me down which worked out for my good.

My dad was big time into sports. So all of us in our house got into sports. We were all great fans of cricket. It would be so intense when we were watching India versus Pakistan matches. It was always great fun when India won the match of course. Also we would watch the Tennis matches and Soccer. I remember when Soccer was being telecast in India it used to be at odd hours. Late in the night or very early hours. My dad would stay up late just to watch Soccer.

My parents made sure we all are well educated. I have done my Masters in Engineering from a U.S. university. Rest of my sisters are all very well educated too. I remember whenever we visited India and when it was time to come back my dad would go out and buy tons of stuff for us to bring back. Sweets, snacks, spices, books and countless other things. I would be like "nannagaru there is absolutely no place left to pack" and his immediate response would be "just try, I'm sure you can fit it in".

Whenever we needed help my parents were always ready. The last trip my dad made to US was when I found out I was pregnant. I was due on Aug 31st, 2007. So my parents arrived on July 3rd, 2007. First thing in the morning my parents would go to meditation classes. My dad seemed full of energy and he would go for his morning walks and meet some of his friends at the Evergreen Village Square. He would help my mom out with cutting vegetables (which he would do so meticulously). He was spending time with my daughter Hrishika helping her with some Math workbooks. He would accompany me for my walks in the evening. He kept himself very busy. We were all waiting for August 31st, my due date.

On August 4th, 2007 my parents and my husband threw a very special "Surprise baby shower" for me. They invited all our friends and made it a day to remember. My good friend from Engineering, Meena even baked a cake for my baby shower. My cousin Stuthi conducted some fun games. All in all it was a very memorable day. It is more special to me because I got to celebrate it with my dad.

One day I just noticed that my dad's eyes looked yellow. I didn't think much about it then. He too said it seemed yellow. Then we thought he should get checked by a doctor, all the while thinking it was something simple like Jaundice. So my dad went to the doctor and she did some tests and she said that he needed some more check ups.

On August 25th was Raksha Bhandhan. So my uncle Gowri Kumar and his wife made a visit to our home, so my mom could tie a Rakhi to her brother. It was a tradition in our family. Unexpectedly even my husbands' sister's family showed up too. So she tied a Rakhi to Rao and so on. Then we all had dinner and we were chatting. Suddenly something felt funny. I went to the bathroom and realized that my water broke. So immediately my husband and I rushed to the hospital and I was admitted for delivery.

The next morning I delivered a baby boy. I found out that my dad too was admitted in the county hospital for further examination. After couple of days I returned home with the baby. My dad was still at the hospital. He came home after 5 days. He looked very pale and weak. I could not control my tears, when I saw my dad so weak. He looked very tired. He was given lot of medication. Still my dad managed to smile through all that and said he was OK. I said he didn't look like my dad with overgrown beard. So next morning he shaved and said, " tell me how do I look now? Do I look like your dad?". I said most certainly.

The doctors had advised that he leave for India immediately for further treatment. So in a hurry Rao changed their tickets and my parents left the very next day. That was the last time I got to speak to my dad in person.

Next day they reached Bangalore and my sister Kalyani was already waiting for them in Bangalore and had made arrangements for his admission in Manipal hospital. So he was taken straight from airport to the hospital. I have to say my Mom did a superb job of taking my dad to India all by herself. It was no easy task.

The next few months I was in constant touch with my parents through phone. My dad was in and out of hospital for various procedures. It was a tough time for everybody to see my dad go through all this. My dad always put a brave front. Whenever I got a chance to chat with him on the phone and ask him how he was doing, his answer was always the same, "I'm OK". Never once did I hear my dad complain about a single thing, even when he had to endure so much pain from all those various procedures. My sister's Sharada and Kalyani took turns to be on my dad's side when he needed them the most. They are so lucky to have gotten to spend all that precious time with him.

In January of 2008 my parents made a very tough decision to go to Hyderabad to see a doctor in a reputed hospital to undergo a very important surgery. Once my dad went through that surgery he could not completely recover. His body was too weak by then, with all those previous surgeries he went through.

On February 22nd I received a call from India asking us to come right away. First thing we did was to apply for an Indian visa for my son, Harshul who was just 6 months old at that time and my husband went to San Francisco the same day to get the visa stamped. We left for India on Monday, February 25th and arrived midnight of Tuesday February 26th. My little sister Malathi and her family too arrived on the same day an hour later than us. We went directly from the airport to the hospital where my dad was admitted.

When I saw my dad that night at the hospital, my heart sank. He was hooked up to all that machinery for oxygen, water etc. He didn't look anything like what I remember of him. It was almost like looking at a stranger. He was just skin and bones. I cried a lot. I could not control my tears. It was one of the hardest moments in my life. After spending sometimeI had to head to my sister Kalyani's home to shower and take care of my son's needs. I fed him some Gerber rice cereal and handed him over to my husband.

All my sisters and my mom's sister Padmaja we all headed back to the hospital in the early hours (around 4 a.m. or so) of February 27th. We left all our kids with our husbands at my sister's home. Once we got there we were all very sad to see my dad in that condition. Then my aunt Padmaja gave us a brilliant idea. She said, "All of you take turns and tell your dad what you want to from your heart. He is definitely listening. He just can't respond back". We took that idea to heart and took turns and spoke to our dad. Instead of just crying, we actually started telling him all we wanted to say to him. For that I have to thank my aunt.

After couple of hours or so my mom ( it was I who convinced her to go home to just get a short break. She was by my dad's side all through out.), my aunt, my sister Kalyani and I returned home to take care of kids. My sisters Sharada and Malathi stayed back at the hospital. Later that morning we got the dreaded news. At that time in my mind I felt that it was the right thing. I could not see him in the state he was in. I felt that the soul had to be set free from that body. I know in my heart that my dad was waiting patiently as always for my sister Malathi and I. He gave us that most important opportunity to meet him one final time. For that I will be forever indebted to him.

Thank you nannagaru from the bottom of my heart. Your presence is always felt in my heart.

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Funny Faces!!!

During my visit to India, my mom cut a vegetable (I forgot which vegetable it was) getting ready to cook and this is what we saw. They looked like happy faces (and some not so happy). So I decided to take some pictures .... Funny isn't it?!!!

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Our Bundle of Joy has Finally Arrived!!!

What an amazing feeling to hold a new life!!!!!

My husband and I decided to keep it a surprise, the gender of the baby. So we had no idea as to weather it was going to be a boy or a girl. My due date was 31st of August, 2007. However my water broke on 25th of August around 9:30 p.m. We immediately rushed to the hospital. It took us half an hour to get there. Thank God that it was a Saturday and late in the evening. There was absolutely no traffic. Once we got there I got admitted and the whole birthing process began. I don't want to get into any details... I remember spending a whole lot of time pushing. Finally the baby came out. The nurse immediately took the baby and started cleaning the baby.... My husband was right next to her watching her clean the baby. That's when my husband yells ... "it's a Boy!!" The baby was born on August 26th, 2007 at 8:26 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs, 3oz and was 21" long. We named him Harshul. Harshul means "full of joy" in Sanskrit.

Then I got to hold the baby for the first time. What an amazing feeling. Words can't describe the feeling. After the long wait you get to finally see the baby.

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Around The World

The following are some of the souvenirs and travel memorabilia from around the world given to us by our family and friends.

When I saw these different souvenirs from different parts of the world, an old Hindi song, "Mera Joota Hai Japani" from movie "Shree 420" came to my mind. So I searched the net and linked it above.

Enjoy.

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School Choir.

Since the beginning of this school year my daughter has been missing her music class the most. That's because this year she started going to a public school and since the funds are low, music has taken a back seat at public schools.

My daughter has been telling me all along that she is really interested in a music class especially a class where she can sing. So just today we found out that her school was offering a beginner choir class for first graders. The music teacher was willing to take just the first 30 students. I was afraid that we may be too late and may not be able to get her enrolled in the class. To my surprise my daughter was the first one to get registered for the class. That was a relief. In fact they already had their first class today. The music teacher is great and my daughter loved the class.

The music teacher told us about the K8 Kid Tunes where she gets all her songs for the music class.

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Visit to the Temple

My family along with our friends went to the Livermore temple. It's been a while since we went there. My daughter was very excited about the trip just because her best friend was coming along. It usually takes us a while to wake her up, but not this time. She was the first to wake up and was eager to get ready and get started.

I decided to make some prasadam to offer to God. I prepared some yellow rice and halwa. We were supoosed to start by 10:00 A.M. in the morning, instead we only left home by 11:00 A.M. However everythng worked out well since we reached there just in time for abhishekam at Lord Venkateshwara. The pujari offered our prasadam to the God.

The atmosphere at the temple was very peaceful and relaxing. It always reminds me of India. After that we all had our prasadam, along with other prasadams offered at the temple and headed back home.

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Starting a New Blog for My Mom.

My mom is one of those people in this world who I look up to the most. She is always full of energy and there is never a dull moment around her. She plans her day to the fullest. She is one of those people who can easily make friends even with total strangers. Whenever she visits (from India) me and my sisters here in the US she makes a lot of friends on her way here.

Anyways the reason I thought I shall give her a blog is because, she is always giving great advice to me. I thought she can give great advice to many more this way. She wanted to write down her thoughts somewhere. I thought what better way to do that than to blog these days. She is technically savvy for her age using email and Internet for all kinds of stuff.

My mom loves to cook. When ever she is here I rarely enter the kitchen. She always prepares yummy food. She is good with coming up with recipes based on ingredients at hand and tries to speed up the cooking process. So I started a "Cook Book" for her. This way I could always refer to her recipes online without having to call her at some odd hours at night or day. Also this way even her grand kids could refer to her recipes.

The picture I have here is from her cookbook. It is from her "Dum Aaloo" recipe (mouth watering isn't it?!!!) Here is the link to her blog ......

Amma's Cook Book

Enjoy!!!

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Back From an Interview......

Interviews are stressfull no matter what. Just got back from my second round of interviews. I had my first round a couple of days before that. I was interviewing for a hardware engineering position for a company in Silicon Valley. Why is it that you think you have done well in the interview and the result says otherwise. I could never figure that out. I was told that even if one person out of all the people who interviewed you does not want you to be hired, then the interview falls through. Not fair isn't it.... but then... who says life is fair.

I thought I was a good fit for the position they were looking for and had the right experience. Then I get this call from the hiring manager, who said I may not be hired as one of the managers who interviewed me thought, my experience was not what they were looking for... bummer. I was kinda surprised to say the least. Also it kinda upset me. I don't know is it just me or does everybody take these interviews to heart. To me it is like failing a test or something. I take it too personally. My husband always says it is the company's loss if they did not hire me.... just to make me feel better... but it doesn't seem to help at all. I'm sure I will feel much better about this whole interview thing tomorrow (or worse).

In the mean time since I'm done with both the interview rounds I shall relax.

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Steve Jobs Commencement address at Stanford University

Photo Courtesy : http://www.stanford.edu/

I have always been a great fan of Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. I love all Apple has to offer. Such innovative products. Mac is simply awesome. The iPods are cool too. Steve Jobs is so innovative and always one (may be several) step ahead of everybody else in the industry. Apple is the first company to introduce color to the computer world!! Having said all that when I came across this speech delivered by Steve Jobs at Stanford university's commencement address I wanted to share with others.

Here's the link to his commencement address .....

Video of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address
Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address (2005)

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Winter Olympics February 10-26, 2006

The winter Olympic games came to an end a week ago in Turin, Italy. I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics, be it summer or winter Olympics. It is great to see the Olympic spirit among the athletes. I think sports are the best way to bring the world together and forget about all the acts of terrorism and war that has become part of the day to day news these days.

As always there had to be some drama surrounding these games. This time it was between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick of US speed skating team. I personally support Shani Davis in his decision, not to pursue the team event. He became part of history by being the first black athlete to win a gold medal in winter Olympics, winning the 1000 meters speed skating race. The other event which I found a bit odd was the silver medal for Sasha Cohen of US in spite of her falling twice in figure skating. Anyways who am I to judge!

I wish one day India too has an Olympic gold.....

Looking forward to the summer Olympics of 2008 at Beijing!!!!

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Just Got Back From India!

I just got back from India. Wow! That was a great trip. I last visited India 2 years ago. Way too many changes in India this time around. I had been to Bangalore and some parts of Andhra Pradesh. Suddenly Bangalore feels more like Bombay with way too many high rise apartments any where you look. Lots of new shopping malls (Garuda mall, The Forum, Central mall ... just to name a few) all over Bangalore. This is the first time I felt as if I don't know this place anymore. That's odd since I spent most of my growing years there and I visit India every other year.

The other big thing is the economy in India seems to be booming. It does feel like silicon valley with respect to companies, since most of the big names have an office there. However there is one thing that needs immediate attention. That is the roads almost anywhere in the city (even around the airports) need to be improved drastically. So what used to take 15 to 20 minutes to commute previously, now takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. It could only get worse from here on once all the new apartment complexes get filled up. That would be a real nightmare

Overall there are lots of positive changes in India and economy is boo........ming!!!

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Ghirardelli Chocolate Company : Collectibles

Living in Silicon valley, we are lucky to be so close to Ghirardelli Chocolate Company based in San Francisco. Each year during Christmas season the company chooses a new way to package their candy and sell it at Costco. This year it was a horse carriage, the old west style with all the details.

The details on the carriage were amazing. They had 3 metal tins made to look like treasure chests filled with variety of candy.

Here you can see the metal tins placed inside the wagon.

I happened to own a horse made out of bronze, which my in-laws got from India for us. I just wanted to see if it fits. Voila ... a perfect fit. A match made in chocolate heaven. Wouldn't you agree?!!

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