i'm robert handa, your host for our show here on nbcme bay area and cozi tv. thank you for watching our 150th show. we are proud of our milestone, and grateful to all of our viewers who made this run so successful, and, we hope, enduring. speaking of enduring, we focus our 150th show on the enduring celebration of holi, one of the major holidays of india that celebrates the arrival of spring and is one of the biggest bay area celebration, and it's taking place in cupertino. we will talk about what you can expect and why it's so big here. then "asian pacific america" goes on the road to visit the sangeetha restaurant in sunnyvale to look at one of the most popular dishes for holi and how it ties into the celebration of family. after that, we'll present a community calendar featuring

some of the other holi events going on around the bay area, and we wrap up with our traditional artistic cultural performance with the bhangra dance put on live here in our studio by sk studios. bhangra is a fusion of music and dance which originates from the punjab region of india and pakistan, but has evolved into popular contemporary asian culture. you'll see what we mean later on our show. well, two traditions here, and the cupertino chamber of commerce holds one of the biggest, most colorful holi festivals every year, and we, at "asian pacific america" love doing a show about it. here to talk about it is the cupertino chamber of commerce director of communications rick kitson to tell us about the big event the chamber puts on and what we can expect. also with us is our color commentator today, sameer kausar, dance instructor for sk studios, which, as i mentioned, will perform on our show later. welcome to the show. sameer kausar: thanks for having us. robert: well, give us a little bit. you know, we, as i say, it's a tradition for us to cover the festival as well as for you to put it on.

give us sort of an overview on terms of how the festival started and why it's so important here. rick kitson: well, we have an amazing community of immigrants in cupertino and with all the different families that have come from all over the world, our families have brought their traditions with them. and if you talk to anyone who has celebrated holi, you're gonna be talking to somebody with a big smile on their face. and so, we realized a few years ago that this was something that we needed to do. robert: yeah, it started out sort of intimate, and then, even though it has gotten big, it still kinda retains that feeling, huh? rick: well, it's very personal. it's everything that spring has. it's color, exuberance, a lot of energy. it certainly has its traditional roots of good versus evil. we have local churches that donate parking space because they may not be hindu, but everyone can support good over evil.

so, it's a lot of fun. it's a lot of energy, and we have some amazing people like samir to teach everyone who shows up how to dance. robert: yeah, well, sameer, i called you our "color commentator" here. thank you for being here to do this. talk to me about the culture here. one of the things that i was impressed about when i was there before was that storytelling is, like, a popular thing, especially among the young people there because they want to find out more, huh? sameer: oh, yeah, growing up in this area has been great, especially as my parents immigrated from india and pakistan to america, and being first generation here. it's really awesome that our community has events like holi and diwali and different festivals that i can come and experience similar things that i would experience back where my parents grew up. and holi festival is probably one of my favorites, just it's so much fun. everyone comes, starts wearing all white. everyone's clean, everyone's white,

and then we all get together and we start throwing powder at each other, and by the end of it, everyone's this beautiful art piece almost of different colors spattered against your body, all across your hair. your face is all colored. the only white you see is the smiles of people's teeth, and it's always one of my favorite things every year. not only playing color, then all the food and the community, all the friends i get to see, the family i'm with. it really, really is awesome that we're able to bring that festivity and crowd to cupertino and let other people from different cultures come and experience our culture for a day. robert: yeah, and does the festival leads to more cultural awareness? does the indian community have a strong sense of their history, or does this festival sort of help the younger generation get kinda oriented toward it? sameer: as someone of the younger generation, this definitely helps me kinda get back into my roots and see

where we came from. it gives me kind of another reason to learn about my history so i can kinda share all the awesome things that my culture has to offer america and other people. and if i'm educated about my culture and i can give it to someone else, then they can give me some knowledge about their culture, and we can just pass over all the fun activities that we have and the cool things that make us all unique in our own ways. robert: right, yeah, that's one of the things about that festival that i also felt, was that people aren't, like, participating just in the fun. they feel like they're a integral part of it, that they're very involved in it. one thing, though, it's set in silicon valley. how has silicon valley sort of taken on holi? is it become a part of silicon valley's traditions as well? rick: i think so. there's an incredible energy that comes with it. i think it goes without saying that kids get this. if you show up and really have no idea what's going on, anyone with younger children, younger children,

say, being anyone up to the age of 40 or 50, there's a natural gravitation to the excitement and to the color. you see the colors being applied with great reverence and gentleness sometimes, but more typically, it's the kids that really take over and really show you what it's all about. robert: so you feel like silicon valley sort of takes it and runs with it, huh? rick: literally, quite literally. robert: do you feel as though the history and the culture of it gets influenced by being here in the bay area and, you know, the sort of outside influences on the culture? do you think it changes the kinda celebration that you see here, as you might see, say, in india? or is it pretty consistent? sameer: i think celebration wise it's pretty consistent,

although there is people from all cultures, all ethnicities, all races coming and celebrating with us here when we do it here just because our community's so diverse. but at the end of the day, it's just all the community members coming together to enjoy a festival and celebrate together and just be with each other and having a good time. robert: yes, i mean, that's one of the thing that we wanna make sure people understand. it's not just for the indian community-- rick: well, it absolutely has, you know, incredibly ancient roots in the indian culture, but what's so wonderful about living here in silicon valley is, i think everyone has a natural curiosity about all of our neighbors, all the people we work with. and this year, we have food, which is gonna be a wonderful and tasty addition to the experience. robert: they get to satisfy their curiosity. thank you very much for being here. thank you for staying with us. sameer: thank you. robert: well, all right.

well, again, holi - cupertino festival of colors put on by the cupertino chamber of commerce will be held sunday, april 8 from 11 am to 4 pm at memorial park in cupertino. basically, across from deanza college. for more information, go to nbcbayarea.com. well, stay with us. we have a colorful food segment coming up, a popular dish of holi from the sangeetha restaurant in sunnyvale, that's next. ♪

robert: as you heard, food is a big part of holi. we went on the road to the sangeetha restaurant in sunnyvale to look at the making of dosa and how family is such an important ingredient to the restaurant's ties to south indian cuisine. guru acharya: we top it with cilantro. mike inouye: simple, sustainable, south indian, that's the motto for one south indian restaurant that focuses on pure, family-style, vegetarian fare.

just off of camino real and next to the lawrence expressway in sunnyvale, you'll come across sangeetha restaurant. owner pradeep paniyadi's family has owned the sangeetha brand for over 30 years and explains just what he's tried to do with the name. pradeep paniyadi: oh, so the name sangeetha was meant to evoke, you know, connection to the soul. so music hits the soul, and good food hits your soul too. so that's kinda the reason behind the name sangeetha. and this is a brand that i grew up with, and i didn't realize the importance of, you know, what my family was doing, my mom and my dad, my uncle. is when i came to the united states in 1998, and when i struggled to find good indian food, i realized the importance of what my family was doing. mike: executive chef guru acharya lets us savor our view into the kitchen while they're preparing one of the

restaurant's most popular items, dosa. guru: it's in a crepe, indian crepe. so the ingredients here is dosa rice, sona masuri, and urad dal. so we have one-to-two ratio. so, this is gonna be two, and this is gonna be one. so we soak it in the water for at least six to seven hours, and we grind it individually, by adding a little fenugreek, a fenugreek candy soak with the rice also. so, once we grind it, you get this dosa batter consistency. this is the batter, what we are going to make for dosa. the dal and rice should be grinded very fine. if it is grinded coarse, the dosa will not come well. and the more the dosa fermented is the good color it comes.

so we are making ghee masala here. so this is basically boiled potatoes, mashed and cooked with onions, mustard, turmeric, chili, and ginger. it's mashed well. this is the main masala, potato masala is what we call it. the yummy masala dosa is ready here. so it's served with samba, red chutney, that is onion and tomatoes. we have a white chutney that is coconut chutney. and we do have a special chutney here. it's called cilantro and mint chutney. it's green chutney. these are the colors, but each condiment carries its own flavor. this has a onion-tomato flavor, and this has--this is the base flavor, coconut flavor.

people who wants to have less condiment, less spicy condiment, they'll go for the coconut chutney. people who wants extra spice, they go for the mint and the tomato chutney. the ghee masala dosa is ready. guru: my passion was always cooking since my dad had a couple of restaurants in chennai. so it was called udupi restaurants, you know, udupi durga bhavan. so he had a couple of restaurants there in chennai. so when i was young, i used to go with my dad to always just inside the kitchen and see how he works with the food. so, you know, that gave me a lot of interest for cooking. mike: family is one of many things to be revered during the indian celebration of holi, or the festival of colors. it's an indian festival welcoming springtime, praising good harvest, and just being joyful. guru: it brings people of all different races, creeds, and social stature to the same grounds. we all celebrate the same things, right, good over evil.

and for us at sangeetha, you know, whether it's the food, whether it's the team, a diversity makes us who we are. and we wanted to bring that to the community too. mike: the festival is a celebration of love, which customers also say about the food at sangeetha, and that is what has ultimately led to its success. robert: and our thanks to my colleagues, mike inouye, and photographer/editor nate rankin. they served up a nice course. well, coming up, our community calendar with a big focus on holi. that's up after this break. but first, i wanted to talk to you a little bit about the food. i think a lot of people would be surprised that food is so important in the celebration, and yet, it's the first time it's gonna be happening at this cupertino celebration, huh? sameer: yeah, this'll be the first time we'll be having food this year. it's gonna be amazing. the whole preparation process of cooking the food as a family, i know my family, during this holiday season, we go to my grandma's house.

all 15 of us are there. we split up kind of. like, some of us go and cut the vegetables. some of us are help making the atta, or the dough for, like, pooris, which is, like, a fried bread that's really, really tasty. my grandma actually makes jalebi, which is this sweet that you--it's kinda like a donut. you fry it, and you take it out, and then you dip it in this sugary syrup, and they have this beautiful orange color, very iconic, and there's nothing like grandma's home-cooked jalebis. you can't find that anywhere else, and i really want to actually this year talk to her and ask her, "how can i make this?" you know, and so she can pass down kinda the recipes from her families and what she learned growing up cooking, and i really wanna be able to take that in and so i can pass that down to my children. robert: yeah, it's one of the reasons why the food is important because the cooking and the rituals involved with

the cooking become part of the celebration too, huh? sameer: exactly, the whole process of cooking. everyone's in the kitchen, everyone's chatting. everyone's working towards that same goal. and at the end of the day, everyone can sit down and look at that table full of beautiful, gorgeous, delicious-smelling food, and we can all say, "yeah, we had a part in making this together, and now we have a part in enjoying it and enjoying the celebration." robert: yeah, and one thing too, i was asking you a little earlier about whether the food was popular and linked to the holiday, or whether it's just a popular food. and basically, it's popular food that becomes part of the celebration, right? sameer: mm-hmm, there's a lot of popular dishes, and usually, the food you cook on holidays is your favorite food, right? robert: that's right, yeah. sameer: the food that you really enjoy eating and that are kinda saved for special occasions at sometimes. robert: and what's good too is, is that indian food is already popular, especially in the bay area. so when people come to the festival, they're not necessarily gonna have to worry about seeing something exotic they're not familiar with. they're gonna have a chance to eat a lot of good food. sameer: exactly, and if there's something you haven't

seen before, definitely try it. it'll blow your taste buds away. robert: all right, great, well, we'll see you a little bit later on when we talk about the dancing, okay? sameer: mm-hmm. robert: all right, well, coming up, we'll be looking at our community calendar of events focusing on holi. ♪

robert: it's time for our community calendar of events focusing on holi. the festival of colors - holi 2018, put on by net effect media, will bloom on april 7 at evergreen valley high school in san jose from noon to 4 pm. then asha stanford holi 2018 is taking place april 7 and 8 at sand hill fields at stanford from 11 am to 3 pm. asha for education, which also puts on the california college of arts holi, is a volunteer nonprofit helping to start change in india through the education of underprivileged children. so, a fun festival for a good cause.

then the exhibition "divine bodies" is on now through july 29 at the asian art museum in san francisco, bringing historical paintings and sculptures from mainly hindu and buddhist traditions. with contemporary photo-based work, "divine bodies" invites you to ponder the power of transformation and the relationship of the body to the cosmos. now, something you don't have to wait for, the bhangra-style dance performance live is up next.

we have one to two fires a day and when you respond together and you put your lives on the line, you do have to surround yourself with experts. and for us the expert in gas and electric is pg&e. we run about 2,500/2,800 fire calls a year and on almost every one of those calls pg&e is responding to that call as well. and so when we show up to a fire and pg&e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis. i rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. utilizing pg&e's talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable,

and i couldn't ask for a better partner. as we focus today on the holi festivals coming up in the bay area, we wanna close with our traditional artistic cultural performance. today, we are proud to have with us the performing group from sk studios. and with us is our color commentator, instructor sameer kausar. thank you again for doing this. tell us a little bit about how this group got started. sameer: so i started dancing actually in high school, and when i went to college at uc san diego, i joined their bhangra team, da real punjabiz, where i learned how to dance. and when i came back home, i realized that i wish i had this

when i was younger, and i know that there's a lot of people similar to me that might wanna come and learn how to dance. so there was a studio down the street from my house that recently opened last august. and i went and i spoke with the lady who owned the studio, and asked if i could rent out some space, and from there, i started flyering out, on social media, nextdoor, facebook, and i talked to all the people in the community that i knew. robert: and got a good response. sameer: got a good response, and now i have seven beautiful students with me today who have been with me for less than eight weeks now, and none of them had any dancing experience prior. this is all of their first performance, which is very exciting, and they've done a very good job with picking up the moves, and i'm really excited for them. robert: and what are we gonna see them perform for us? sameer: so today, we are gonna be doing a short little routine, unbhangra, with a lot of the very foundational moves,

and a lot of the classic moves that you'll see at dance parties, and a lot of energy, and i'm really excited to watch these kids perform. robert: very good, kind of a mix of tradition and contemporary, huh? sameer: exactly, you can tell by the music that we've used. it is a fusion of punjabi music with some popular american songs, so it'll be a great combo. robert: all right, and they'll get to see you at the holi festival, right? sameer: definitely, we'll be performing at the holi festival, and we will have some lessons as well. so definitely come out. robert: sounds great, all right. thank you very much. sameer: thank you. robert: all right, again, here they are, the performers from sk studios, enjoy. ♪ ♪ ♪

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all: [cheering] robert: all right, all right, thank you very much. history is made. we get to debut the group, right, in their first tv performance. thank you very much for doing that. we really appreciate it. all right, well, again, they will be performing at the holi festival in cupertino's festival of colors, put on by the cupertino chamber of commerce. and again, you can catch that on april 8 from 11 am to 4 pm at

memorial park in cupertino, and you can get more information on nbcbayarea.com. and again, you can catch us on social media, nbcbayarea.com, as well as twitter and facebook. again, we are proud to have put on our 150th show, spotlighting holi, and so you can join us again next week and every week here on "asian pacific america." thanks for watching. ♪ cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com

the united states is responding to russia's action. >> i have no reason to lie. >> our community is in a lot of pain. >> you are not our problem. >> the mazon blue is all set. good morning. welcome to "sunday today" on this april 1st, easter sunday. i'm willie geist. happy sunday and passover to those of you celebrating. we'll have a look at the pope's easter mass in just a moment. it's a busy easter morning with tensions boiling over in sacramento when a sheriff's cruiser hit a woman taking part in a rally protesting the shooting death of an unarmed african-american man. we are live on the