Pre-Wedding Celebrations - A Week to Reminisce !!!

A trip back home, to India, every year scripts a lot of fond memories to be cherished for years to come. Whether it would be the first trip back home as a student, or the trip to one's birth place with your own hard earned money, a trip to hunt for your soul partner, a trip as an engaged couple embracing the much talked about social and family structure, or a trip like this year to put a seal to your bachelorhood and mail it off to a distant land from where it can never return back and thus hand yourself the official status of being married and therefore entering an entirely new, exciting, eventful new phase of life, for the rest of your life !!!

Yes, it was a special trip this year, for an occasion which encompassed not only the mere celebrations involved in it, but above all the warm welcome of a new member into our family. 11th of December, would be celebrated every year as our Wedding Anniversary, as I, and Dipali got married on this auspicious day to be entangled, intertwined and to be held together into a life long bond of love, passion, emotions, laughter, little quarrels and above all starting our own journey hand-in-hand vowing never to be apart in happiness or sorrow.

The marriage was held in our home city Ahmedabad, as relatives, friends and family members graced the occasion with their warm presence and zeal to get me and Dipali through to our wedding with pleasant memories to reminisce. Dipali and her parents already had started the preparations from Oct end as they settled down slowly in Ahmedabad. I took a flight a month later to join my parents and family members who had already been playing a 2-3 month battle with various vendors, caterers, decorators and a whole bunch of an entirely different crew of people.

The week long celebrations started with an offering to the God, wherein a Snatra Puja was held for the first time on the premises of our home. With all the relatives being treated to awesome home cooked food all week long, both for lunch and dinner in the compound of my home, it was going to be a delicacy saga for me especially that I love to try various dishes. Some of the menus were hand picked by me, my mom or some other on site demands. It was fun to sit amongst family members and have a round table lunch or dinner in the compound downstairs.

Champanivas, my home, was whitewashed and decorated from top till the bottom, the entire place was lightened up with powerful lights, the decor was done personally by my Bhabhis, Cousins and other relatives who played a significant role in giving the most ethnic, traditional look to the entire place. One piece that stood out was the entire cloth wall that was hand painted by them to display the indian traditional designs. Another master piece of decoration that they did was on the day of the Pre-Wedding Dinner Party on 8th Dec, held at our place, wherein they decorated the entire entrance with Designer Pots, Flowers, Water Colors and Lamps (Divas) which truly gave a warm welcome to all the guests.

Click Here for Pics

The Pre-Wedding Dinner party was the first step towards getting back in touch with almost all the relatives, elders, friends, family and lot of other new faces. Ghazals from a singer who has sung in almost all such marriage occasions in our family were soothing to the ears, as was the Upper Crust food to the greedy throat of mine. To add to it, Dipali was forced to sing along with the live music and I was supposed to be her so called moral support lol. She managed a few songs nicely and then the mood turned to some foot tapping numbers as Dipali's family and mine got together to dance to some tunes.

Next day there was a Mehndi session where in all the chicas of my side got together, with their ages ranging from a 6-8 year old to about someone in their fifties, got some colorful artistic designs done on their hands. I was quite busy too. Not in the Mehndi session, but in getting something prepared for the night to come.

As the evening flew by, another fun event that was to take palce was that of the Karaoke + Cocktail as the night progressed. This was held on the terrace and the Karaoke thing got my dad's friends and his cousins so much involved that at the end they were quite literally fighting to give their vocal cords a shot at the singing fame. Friends came by to have their own shots (definitely not at singing) but to clink the glasses and celebrate my end of bachelorhood LoL :) ... I was on the best of my behavior and under restricted quantity of alcohol consumption LoL !!! (I know most of you won't believe me, and as such Dipali does not read my Blog so does not matter :P)

Well, this was just a brief account of some pre-wedding celebrations that took place and I think I might as well stop here ... The only reason that I opted to pen down my experience was because, I think I will get married only once lol and so this was going to be my first and last time, which made me think that I had to blog about my own marriage :) :) :) Btw, these photographs are random pics taken by me through my own SLR :) :) :) !!! Please don't even take a guess as to how many in total I took ...

So then, Stay tuned as I prepare my blog post for my wedding day experience and the reception that followed after the marriage...

Cheers
Samy ...

Read more!

Home Sweet Home !!!

The crowd departed ways, and I managed to push my trolley full of bags a little further, and standing amidst the over bulging group of people were three familiar faces, two of which I have missed a lot the entire year around, and the third face, whom I had been missing for about a month or so. Ah ! What a relief, as I took a deep breath of the not so cold, a little moist, sand smelling air of Ahmedabad, as I embraced upon my dad, mom and Dipali, and felt nostalgic about being back amongst familiar territory, shining in the warmth of my parents and the love of Dipali.

Every year, most of us, including me go through this phase mostly at the end of the year, when we the so-called NRIs (Nachta Rakhadta Indians), pay a visit to our parents, loved ones, family members - back to our home city ! The build up to the trip is always exiciting with loads of shopping, packing, weighing the bags, and most importantly planning out the entire stay with a checklist of fav restaurants, hang out places, things to do etc etc .. Ooff !! A lot of things to cover in a limited stay, and the list just never ends. Above all is the umbrella of the unavoidable social life that we Indians boast all around the world.

Well the only painful event that one experiences in between is the freaking tiresome 22+ hours flight (30-40 hours in some cases with long stop overs), but alas, there is no option to that. But even more cursable thing is when the idiotic, full of attitude airline rep gives you loads of s***, first about the weights of your bags, including the carry on items, and then once you take care of that, he ensures you that your seats are the best in the entire flight.

The moment of surprise grabs you when you actually go and check out your seats in your flight. This current trip of mine had two extremes - First the rate that I got for my return fare the cheapest of my entire stay in the US, and along with that, the seats that the freak rep assigned to me were the worst of all my trips till date.

For a painful 15-17 hours of the first leg of the flight from SF to Singapore, me and my friend, not only got cramped in almost all the joints below the neck, but we also experienced approximately about 20-30 K sounds of the flight's toilet flush. The bloody ass rep somehow assigned us seats just next to the toilet, and not only that, those seats just would not recline as much like the other seats.

Well but as most of us know, the Singapore airport is something that one cannot complain about anything going wrong. Awesome infrastructure, but above all, great munching all around. There is Kaveri the Indian restaurant which is a must for everyone to dine at, but then there was this another one called "Chutney Mary" and if you happen to be there, you are surely not to miss their "Mushroom+Cheese Kathi Rolls". Ohhh Mind Blowing !!!

Apart from all these experiences, it's now just 10 more days to go, before I join the bandwagon of married people. Preparations are in full swing, invitations are out, clothes are being stitched and trials are under way, and a full load of other activities are going on in terms of the preparations.

Hopefully I think I might get some time to post a final blog !
What? Do you think I am going to end blogging? Oh no, that is not what I meant.
Final Blog as a bachelor is something I would like to post maybe a day or two before the marriage if I get that chance. After that who knows, what is gonna change in my life, but I guess whatever happens would be for a whole lot of good reasons :) :) :)

Any warnings from the married people out there ?
Now is the right time to send those out lol !

Cheers
Samy

Read more!

Troublesome and Torturous Thursdays !!!

Well, what can I say, and what can I expect more that it was a perfectly fine Thursday morning yesterday. Last week, Thursday turned out to be a goof up from my side, with me ending up visiting my friend's place for his birthday celebrations, completely overlooking the exact schedule, and what happened next most of you know from my last post.

Well, come this Thursday, I thought maybe last week was just my own fault, but then what happened yesterday was even more frustrating, agonizing and worth posting here. Now, the background was, that since I am getting married (can't still get out of that weird feeling), my parents sent me a parcel full of invitation cards (kankotris), which were supposed to be distributed to my friends, family members and dad's friends here in the US.

The FedEx website, where I was tracking my package for the past couple of days, finally showed "Delivered" and I was more than happy to breathe in relief that finally it was here. As it happened, I went to check my mail box (on a lovely Thursday evening), only to find no FedEx cards/notices/tags indicating that the package has been delivered. Initially nothing struck me, as I simply walked up to the leasing office, and informed them about this package in my name which could have been delivered to the "Office" as it mentioned on the FedEx website.

As fate would be, it was not found at the leasing office. So I went back to my apartment, opened up the #%*%% FedEx website, only to be struck with horror that somehow, someone named "FriedLand" had signed for that package. I eventually called up the Customer Rep at Fedex, who nicely mentioned that, Dear Sir, I appreciate your #%#%#& business with FedEx, and our records show that the package was delivered to you in M-208 !!!

M-208 ? WTF !!! I live in an entirely different unit you moron ! The FedEx Rep then scheduled for a retrieval of the pacakge, and get it delivered to me. Well as I am writing this blog, that has not yet happened and is still in the #%^&@ FedEx system.

But the more frustrating part is what happened next. I thought let me give it a shot and try going to the M-208 unit and request the tenant to just hand me over the parcel. I take this long walk across the community, walk up to the front door, see a broken Key Hole, peep inside it to see some lights on, and I knock. A couple of knocks later, and a painful wait of 15 minutes, the lights just went off !!! I was like WTF again and #%&*# just stood there cursing everything and everyone that I can think of, in my mind.

Then I thougt of playing the role of a detective as I knocked on the door for the last time, and moved away from the door in a jiffy and laid flat against the wall. After counting 5 mentally, I just popped up outside the door right in front of the keyhole, but just to see no action from the other side of the door. Plan B had failed !!!

Delta Bravo, switch to Plan C !!! Let's go let's go !!! So I knocked on the door twice again, and went off casually, acting as if I am leaving. I parked my car in front of the apartment, and sat inside, for another 15 minutes or so, to expect someone coming out of that damn door, and I would plan to catch him/her by surprise. Nothing happened. Yet another failure.

Now my final Plan D was just to bang on the door until it breaks apart and just barge in the apartment and snatch my parcel. So I climbed the stairs again, with my temper up on the 7th heaven, and my nostrils flaring, I went and was just about to hit the door with my 2.5 Kg Sunny Deol type fist, that I saw someone moving in the apartment from the broken key hole. So I gulped down my anger, and sweetly knocked the door with gentle touches.

Knock ! Knock Knock !! I could see that person moving in the apartment, walking up to the keyhole, as I flashed a sweet smile, and then the person just walked away from the %^&*# hole !!! F***** Weirdo !!! I was like Hello !! The creep just did not open the door. I was standing their, my mouth wide open, my eyes rolling and cursing the damn FedEx guy who screwed up in the first place.

So controlling my anger, I went to the leasing office and told them this entire story (only to find that agent yawning at 9 in the morning in my face), and the answer I got was - "That is a corporate housing apartment, and so they don't expect someone to come and meet them at their front door. As they don't know you, they would definitely not open the door".

Are you F****** kidding me ? Do I look like some one who has come to rob in broad daylight the first thing in the morning ? So as per the leasing agent's suggestion, I went and posted a note on that M-208 f*****d up door, that PLEASE SEND THE PARCEL TO EITHER THE LEASING OFFICE or PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR FOR THE FEDEX GUY WHEN HE COMES IN TO RETRIEVE THE PACKAGE !!!

Oh God Almighty !!! Please don't send these kind of people to Earth, and if you do, please make them understand that no one dressed up in a jacket and jeans, with a nice clean shaved beard, would come up to their front door at 8.30 in the morning on the most happiest day of the week - A Friday, just to bombard them with some kind of C-4 explosives or some kind of Fucked Up promotional material !!!

There you go, I finally posted my first blog post with the first ever curse without any symbols !!! But only I and only I know the frustration that I have gone through for the past 24 hours, all because of a stupid mistake the FedEx person did and all for the most important Kankotris (Wedding Invites) that are inside that package.

Well now that it's a great Friday evening, I eventually tried one more time walking to the M208 door, and found that my note was still stuck there, so I ripped it apart, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door, and mind you the apartment was full of lights. As I saw someone approach the key hole, I gave the best of my smiles, and held up the note that I had with the words FedEx highlighted in RED !!!

I was literally standing there with that note in my hand, smiling to that door, wondering what someone might think of if they see me like that, as if I am some poor chap asking for donations or selling some books. And Click !! I finally heard that sound which I so much wanted hear and the door opened up. Now I had never expected what I saw at the door.

A gorgeous, spotless, speck less, charming, beautiful, adorable cute Russian chick opened the door, and I just stood there staring at her blankly. I had to run for some words, as I finally managed to convince her that she might have one of my packages which is quite important and FINALLY ! With God's blessings I got that package and I just hold on to it for 2 minutes hugging it tightly.

Well painful as it was, the wait was worth it as I now stood holding my own Wedding Invitation card !

Cheers
Samy

Read more!

Lost and Absentminded - A Goof Up !!!

This blog post comes as just a 2 minute write up of what happened about an hour ago just now, and how I messed up, completely dumbfounded at my own negligence.

There could have been numerous occasions when one could have found himself/herself having overlooked something, or forgotten a date or an important event, or maybe just simply absentminded about some birthdays and anniversaries.

But what I did, was quite dumb to be honest, but then thinking carefully, it seems I am so much lost and sad in Dipali's absence that I completely overlooked and my mind lost in her thoughts that I goofed up for a friend's birthday today. So the entire blame of this funny episode goes to Dipali, with she not being here and me missing her too much (lol)...

What happened was truly hilarious to an extent that it could have been a big surprise for my friends who were celebrating their 27th birthday seeing me standing at their front door. Ths situation was this - two of my friends have back to back birthdays and co-incidentally they are married to each other (happily and lovingly). Now the male friend of mine sends out an invite with crystal clear words describing where and more importantly "WHEN", the celebration and cake cutting would be.

Now today on a fine Thursday evening, I finished my dinner, watched some sports videos online, and washed my face, combed my hair, sat in the car and drove like 15 miles to his apartment, taking pains of doing the parallel parking (which is quite hard to find outside their apartment), and finally walked up the stairs to see the lights out in their apartment.

Checking twice as to whether or not I was standing at the correct apartment, I banged the door 2-3 times, rang the door bell as if it was a buzzer of some game show, and finally decided to give him a call. As soon as he picked up the phone, I was like, $%^&$ where are you? He is like, Outside ! I am like, #@$@$% you said 9.30, and I am here 9.35 sharp, and you tell me you are outside !!!

What came next, was a very dreadful laughter and I was like what the heck happened ? He is like, Dude, the invitation was for tomorrow, the 13th, Friday and not today !!!!!

Oh Man !!! I was standing there outside his apartment, laughing at my own ass. Well I could just imagine, just in case if they were at home, and found me standing outside at 9.30 today, what would have been his reaction !!

Well funny or not, I found it quite amusing, that Dipali's absence has made my mind go ballistic, being so absentminded and goofing up at the odd hour. I must have surely woken up at the wrong side of the bed today I guess ...

Well having said that, I wish that couple a very happy birthday, and hopefully I get treated to 3-4 pieces of extra cake tomorrow during the "REAL" celebration, for this extra effort that I went through...

(PS: The names have not been revealed for the sake of being anonymous about them)

This I think has been the fastest blog post that I have ever posted lol ... And further, this goof up really speaks for how much I miss either Dipali or some really good liquor to get my mind on track (Belvedere, Long Islands ???) Lol (Wink, I know she never reads my blog)

Cheers
Samy

Read more!

Too Much Yet Too Less !!!

I have not been keeping up with my personal blog, whereas on the other hand I have been writing all over other places on different topics altogether. There has been so much to update on my blog and I decided not to do so in different blog posts and keep it to a simple and short one (will try), right here.

The month of October was quite eventful for me in all aspects and in multidimensional ways. To start with a festive mood, my team The Immortals were playing the Finals of the Gold Cup in the Cricbay League and were facing an opponent against whom we had lost on all 3 meeting prior to the finals. With the hunger to win when it mattered the most, no one had expected the game to be so close and tensed that by the end of the game most of us had no nails left in their hands. To check out the complete coverage visit my other blog : The Immortals Cricket Club !

Then came the festival of lights, joy and happiness - Diwali. But for me along with that also came a feeling of sadness that Dipali was leaving San Jose to go back to her home in Los Angeles and then to fly to India in the third week of October to start preparing for our marriage. There was quite a mixture of joy, yet the feeling of missing her on Diwali, a feeling of being a Bachelor back again crept up slowly into me with utmost happiness, but then a feeling of being all by myself and not seeing Dipali and not being in the company of a talkative person also brought a feeling of loneliness in me.

Diwali meant fun, good, no awesome food, nice clothes, meeting friends and having a gala time. We did something similar to that, as approximately 30 of us got together at my current apartment and had a Diwali Get-together Luncheon on Saturday. The food was ordered from Dee Dee's, which turned out to be simply fantabulous. We had Khaman, Kesar Pista Shrikhand, Rotis, Undhiyu, Mutter Paneer, Raitu, Gujarati Daal, Peas Pulav etc. On the whole everyone seemed to relish each morsel of food that they had as at the end there was hardly anything left except for 1-2 people.

Further down the road, another important but tiring event that happened was to shift into my new apartment where I and Dipali would be starting a new life ahead. That also meant moving a little more closer to my job which is now only 3 miles away. A new beginning, brings not only happiness and the feeling of being ecstatic but also brings in a feeling of having something of our own. Of-course the feeling of renting an apartment is much different than staying in one's self built home, but this is as far as some of could manage in the US, I guess.

While I am writing this blog, I am still in the middle of the week, living virtually amongst boxes, duct tape and markers, doing a daily tiring job of packing plenty of stuff for my move in. Along with the apartment move, one more truly sad move comes on the job front where in I have to part ways with my lovely near the window cube with complete privacy and awesoem greenery to stare at, as the elements of cement and steel would take over my place as they build new offices destructing the cubicles. To add to it, I have been given a cube which is not that bad, but a move is a move, and after being so much comfortable in my current cubicle let's see how this new 6x6 space turns out to be.

Other than my personal rejoices and agonies, there was too much of pending work on other domains. Speaking about which the new story is out on Project Pulse's Event - Tathastu. This second story is written by me and is a fable about a passionate dancer who wanted to make it big, but could not get the right platform initially due to his background. For more details check out the blog : Project Pulse!

Switching gears to some substantial work covered under Point10, the team is highly active and busy keeping up with a lot of work in promoting the flagship and also hiring interns, attending seminars and bringing people up to speed with their mission. There have been numerous posts which are still pending from my side which I need to put up on the official blog, but there have been some constructive progress in terms of reaching out to people near and far, organizations, industrialists and most important of all making visits to certain colleges and institutions to spread the ideology. A Point10 Summit is on its way and the agenda is being worked upon right now. For more updates on recent news check out their blog : Point10 - Revitalizing the Education Ecosystem!

Finishing this blog post on a relaxed Sunday night, after spending virtually every hour, minute and second of my this weekend behind packing, unpacking, organizing the new apartment, and I hope, just pray, that Dipali likes the way I have not messed up the Pantry or the Wardrobe looking to the way I have organized and placed everything. I mean come on, how much knowledge a male would have as to which utensil and which spices should go in which drawer. You see an empty drawer you just put stuff there, who cares if it's aligned correctly, utensils drawers on one side, and spices on the other lol !!! I did my best that I could do :)

So this was the journey so far for me in the month of october, and with Dipali enjoying her shopping and marriage preparations in India, it's time not to worry about having your clothes lying around on your bed and having someone watching you to get your stuff right, it's time to eat those Maggis and Frozen Food, it's time to just lie down lazily on a saturday or sunday afternoon in front of the TV and not worrying about how to pay those long shopping bills, and maybe just maybe, it's time to enjoy some liquor too (assuming Dipali does not read this blog post lol) !!! 3 Cheers to Bachelor Life !!!

It's back to being a full-time bachelor once again with only 46 days to go from tomorrow, until I climb the horse, and ride into the official married life with whole new set of responsibilities and fun moments. Till then, just party, relax and enjoy life as much as I can, while I can, the best I can !!!

It was just too much and yet too less the entire October.

Cheers
Samy
(PS: Miss You Dipali Lol !!!)

Read more!

Project Pulse - Tathastu !!!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been involved (from the outside) with a group of people who righteously are on a path of defining how music, dance and souls can come together to put up a spectacular show. This group called "Project Pulse" comprises of a bunch of feet tapping enthusiastic people who have come together with one common liking - Dance !

Project Pulse founded in 2006 is a young and dynamic dance and drama company who creates shows and portray various forms of dance in a unique fashion. Classes are conducted to impart training in Hip-Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Break Dance and various other types of dance and at the end of the training period, the choreographers and students come together with a theme and give out their performance live to an audience.

This group is based locally out of Bay Area conducting classes and sessions in and around the Silicon Valley for the past 3 years and have already finished 3 productions to a sell out audience. Their 4th showcase is coming up in November 2009 and the preparations have already begun to put up a spectacular show.

This event is named "Tathastu" and is based primarily on dancers and performers enacting stories based on 4 elements: Inspiration, Passion, Togetherness and The Inevitable. It would not be just another dance show, but a portrayal of various forms of music and dance blended together and enacted as a drama.

Speaking about my role in this group, I am not into dancing and stuff, but only reaching out to people to bring forward this concept, basically have the audience build up some background for Tathastu and thus blog about it on the official Project Pulse Blog.

More details could be found in the below links:

Project Pulse Website: Click Here

Project Pulse Blog: Click Here (This is where I play my little role ;-) )

Follow us on Facebook : Click Here

Tathastu Details (As Below)

Tathastu - Granted Wishes Project Pulse & Vibha present a fantastic portrayal of dance and drama presenting stories of Passion, Togetherness, Inspiration and The Inevitable. A common thread of the act of Tathastu binds all the stories. The storytelling is done through various forms of dancing such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Contemporary, Bollywood, Popping, Locking, Break Dancing and Classical styles. Enjoy the scintillating fusion of live vocals on the stage with dancing and acting. CHOREOGRAPHERS Smita Basak, Manisha Parekh, Swapnil Mehta, Meet Aghera, Khyati Sheth, Nihal Sequeira and Sudeep Kumar - Read More DATES & TIMES Saturday, November 7th - 6:30pm - 8pm, Fall Showcase 5:30pm Sunday, November 8th - 6:30pm - 8pm, Fall Showcase 5:30pm Project Pulse Fall Showcase is the performance of all the dance class students. Come support the talented dance class students including kids, as they light up the stage! VENUE Smithwick Theater, Foothill College 12345 El Monte Rd. Los Altos, CA 94022 ADMISSION All Ages welcome No Video Cameras No Flash Photography TICKETS & SEATING Price: $18, General Admission First Come, First Serve seating Doors open at 6:15 pm (5:15pm for Fall Showcase) Seating Chart NOTE: Ticket price includes entry to Project Pulse Fall showcase that starts at 5:30 PM. BE A SPONSOR Project Pulse needs your support! If you wish to be a sponsor for Tathastu, please view our package which specifies the different levels of sponsorship. Download Sponsorship Package PART OF THE PROCEEDS BENEFIT VIBHA - www.vibha.org Vibha's mission is to educate, empower and enable every individual who wishes to make a positive difference in the life of the underprivileged child. PURCHASE TICKETS NOW BECOME A FAN on facebook Join Our Mailing List! Project Pulse 2005 Mary Helen Lane San Jose, California 95136

So stay tuned to PP's blog and drive yourself into an imaginative journey of music, dance and drama as the upcoming weeks unveil the suspense behind the 4 stories of Tathastu.

Cheers
Samy

Read more!

Vote for Point10 !

This is a small post with a simple message out to the blogging community and to those who follow me and my blog.

As most of you might now be well aware of Point10Solutions and its various portals of which I am a part of playing my little role in keeping things going and making sure Point10 takes one step at a time in achieving the motto of revitalizing the ecosystem.

There have been many updates for the past month or so and the activities inside and outside the group has picked up a fast rate. With lots of things happening this post comes out to you to request your help with just a click of your mouse.

Basically, Point10 (Jatin / Hiren) has been nominated for the "Most Popular Entrepreneur" competition held on YourStory.in portal. You can click the following links to follow what exactly is this event and get more insight into the workings of Point10. Put it in short, we need your votes and comments to be on the top to win this important event which will play a major role in taking Point10 miles down the road towards establishing a platform which they have dreamt of.

Click Here for details about Point10
Click Here for casting your vote/comments for Point10


The criteria to win this event is Number of Votes, Number of Comments and Unique IP Address Clicks. You can check out the details about this at: Click Here

A click from you can keep Point10 clicking towards success. The entire team of Point10 would be grateful if you can vote for us and maybe put a small comment too as per your convenience. We appreciate your time and energy to do this :)

(PS: I know there are a lot of silent followers and readers who more or less refrain from commenting but this would really help a lot and mean a lot if you can spend just minutes to vote for Point10)


Cheers
Samy

Read more!