...Continued from Week 1.
[PICS: Disclaimer: Sorry, but I removed the links on this post for the pics, so as not to let someone random from the internet world, misuse the pics... It would have been fun to put it here, but hey those of you who are really really interested, why don't you just email me or ping me at samkit.s.shah@gmail.com, or simple enough, just put a comment here (even a blank comment will do), and I would send out the links... I would be more happier and it would be more safe to do that way ... I know, removing the links takes out the real essence of this post, but I think the flavor and the excitement is still there ... So just leave a blank comment or drop a line to my personal email and you would get the links in guaranteed 15 min time - Cheers :) ]
So as you are still devouring the flavor of Week 1's eventful recipe, let me walk you over to Week 2 of my trip, and unfold the happenings, as we embraced the year 2009 with utmost caution, happiness, feeling nostalgic, and with some anxiousness towards the future. All these mixture of emotions, due to the recent meltdown in the economy and with news pouring from all over the world, about slowdown in the growth and people getting layoffs. If year 2008 had just ended with a downturn in the market and some great names going bankrupt on the financial sector, we just speculated the future of 2009 as we headed into Week 2 ...
As I had rightfully claimed in Year 2008, that none of us on the Cricket team would be spared, none of us in our group shall remain a Bachelor (much to the envy of all the committed people), and come what may, none would be SPARED !!! And it happened so, that almost all of my friends, either got committed, engaged or married... It was GD (Gaurav's) engagement, and at home it looked as if Dipali was getting ready for her own event ... It took her 3 hours just to get out the door and into the car .. Grrr "ladies" !!! Well I don't have a lot of photographs for the first two days of the new year, as most of the day was spent going out for shopping, coming back home to eat Maa's home-cooked hot hot food, and then snore for a while in the mild coldish afternoon ahmedabadi's style nap, and then again go out for shopping ... It was fun, tiring yet amusing to see how the fairer sex can spend loads and loads of time going in and coming out of the shops, and yet purchase nothing, and when asked, have the world-famous answer "It would be better at some other place" - I don't know if that "other" "better" place ever exists for these women ? LOL ... So the tiring part of being engaged and having your fiance's parents not in Ahmedabad, is that you have to take care of the doll all by yourself, and be her chauffer everywhere she wants to go, be her porter by carrying her shopping bags, if anything has been purchased lol ... But it was fun, watching Dipali and taking her around to almost all the small and big places in Aapnu Amdavad - and to guide us with full zeal and vigor was my awesome mom - who has this never say "tired" spirit LOL ... Kudos to mom and Dipali's persistence ... :( grrrrr ... How satirical ...
Anyways, due to my tight schedule on work, and me not making to most of the weddings of all my friends, I was happy to atleast attend one wedding - Ronak's (and Payal's) marriage ... There were quite some events - Mehndi, Bethak, Drinks, Marriage, Reception ... It was fun at his Payal's house for the Mehndi program, with most of us being present there to dance a while .. While couple of my friends were getting tired with the busy schedule they had with all the marriages early in december, for me it was the first one of the season, and so was fun ... The same day as the Mehndi function, I also met my Nirma buddies... The friends from my Undergrad EC (Electronics and Communication) branch, and we met after a long 1 year time ... Meeting old friends, is always fun, especially when you meet after a gap of a year, and brings out a lot of stories, jokes, old memories - again a reminiscing time for me !!! I missed out on two marriages even on that side of my friends list .. But I could not blame anyone, and have no regrets on missing out any of these marraiges, as it was later to come, that my company had done 13 % layoffs, and all that had happened when I was there in India, basking in the glory of my laziness and enjoyment ... That sent down shivers down my spine ... So, in spite of the fact that a lot of my friends were upset and angry for me not making to their Life Changing events lol, they have all my support until I get married next year ... Come what may, the Bahelor pad even though at 50 % operating standards, is still open at Monte Vista in Milpitas here ... If you get thrown out, or get spanked, or are not in a mood to be at home with your worst half, just drop by and we shall have the time of our life lol - "CHEERS" - if that's what you might understand ... (Thank God, Dipali never ever comes down this blogging lane, as she is not fond of reading lol ...)
The 4th of January, marked a day, when another friend of mine, became a Martyr... I hold two minutes of silence here, for the loss of his freedom, for him getting deprived of his independence and for joining me, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, to mount upon the band wagon of courtship, and embrace the tag of "Engaged" officially lol ... My heart feels for you Jaishal, and so it was yet another celebration, another day to get dressed up ... The event was fun, as this time I was on the other side of the world, and had complete freedom to harass my buddy as much as I can ... Food was great, Dipali devoured it at ease ... I even tried running away with the ring, which Jaishal's mom had given me to hold, but our Mr. Committed, wanted it so much, and was so desperate to change his status to Mr. Engaged, that he just wanted that ring to be on Bhoomi's (Bhalla) fingers ... Overall a Kodak moment ... Though we are still waiting for the pics from them ... Grrr ...
Next day, moving a step ahead in life, and leaving us - the "engaged" people to face the fire alone, one more of my friend now climbed the horse, and started his journey towards getting married ... It was Ronak and Payal's marriage, and to add to the fun, I had invitations from both the sides ... Payal's mom and my Mom are college time friends, while Ronak is my USC friend ... Well for me it was hard to decide which side to be on, but then I thought Trojans come first, and so it had to be Ronak ... Had a gala time, dancing in the barat, doing bhangra type shoulder to shoulder dancing fights with Bhupesh and Jaishal, stealing the Mojdis (footwear), and literally bombarding Ronak with flowers during his rituals .... I too got hit by some, due to a counter attack launched by Ronak himself, while completing his ceremonies... The reception was fun too, and Payal was a bit upset for me being a Trojan and not coming from the girl's side for the marriage ... lol ... Had fun with everyone ...
End of this week was a trip to Ambaji, to take Dipali to get blessings from Mataji, as we believe a lot in Mataji ... It was going to be my first long trip on road with the Indian stlye of driving - and I did not want to miss that chance AT ALL !!! After all, no cops, no tickets, no fear of being pulled over - and the best of all - NO SPEED LIMITS ... An added advantage was the roads, which I must say, Gujarat Government has done a tremendous job of maintaining ... I have a picture of my speedometer, taken when the pointer touched 120 KMs mark ... It was an awesome feeling, now, you must say that 120KMs is what we can drive here too in the USA for the equivalent value in Miles, but still, the feeling one gets of not being chased by anyone is just too much - a part of one of my wishes from the Bucket List post came true lol ... The darshan were great, felt completely satisfied, happy taking the blessings alongside Dipali, Mom and Dad together as a family .... Well the trip was not just about that, Dad took us to Abu for lunch, and that was another great experience ... They used to do that everytime for a couple of times last year, and had talked a lot about this place which serves amazingly mind boggling tasty food .. .And I was like, lets check it out ... The place is called "Mushkil-e-Aasan" (The translation in the literal sense would be - "Worries made Easier" ... Lol... Funny name, but surprisingly awesome, awesome and more awesome food .... Typical Gujju food, and I gobbled it up as if the world was just about to come to an end, and there were only some last minutes left ... Such was the effect of the food, that I literally had to take support of two chairs to get up, my stomach bouncing in front of my eyes ... Also visited the famous Nakki Lake and took a great amount of pictures ... Overall had an amazing drive, superb food and a great one day style picnic alongwith the blessings of Mataji ... Jai Ambe !!!
Well with this we come to an end of the road, but mind you, this is just a turn around the corner and not a dead-end ... Week 2 ended, in style, fashion, food, friends, engagements, marriage, dances, blessings and food again lol ....
I would really love to share the pics, and so am waiting to send it to all who would post a comment or just ping me on my email address ... It won't look good if I send the links to almost everyone on my Gmail account lol ... Believe me, the pics are awesome and I really want to share them ... So message me anytime ... :)
So by the time you come out of Week 2's happenings, I would be back in action with Week 3 ... I promise you even more fun, even more excitement and even more food !!!
Till then - Alvida !!!
Samkit
[PICS: Disclaimer: Sorry, but I removed the links on this post for the pics, so as not to let someone random from the internet world, misuse the pics... It would have been fun to put it here, but hey those of you who are really really interested, why don't you just email me or ping me at samkit.s.shah@gmail.com, or simple enough, just put a comment here (even a blank comment will do), and I would send out the links... I would be more happier and it would be more safe to do that way ... I know, removing the links takes out the real essence of this post, but I think the flavor and the excitement is still there ... So just leave a blank comment or drop a line to my personal email and you would get the links in guaranteed 15 min time - Cheers :) ]
So as you are still devouring the flavor of Week 1's eventful recipe, let me walk you over to Week 2 of my trip, and unfold the happenings, as we embraced the year 2009 with utmost caution, happiness, feeling nostalgic, and with some anxiousness towards the future. All these mixture of emotions, due to the recent meltdown in the economy and with news pouring from all over the world, about slowdown in the growth and people getting layoffs. If year 2008 had just ended with a downturn in the market and some great names going bankrupt on the financial sector, we just speculated the future of 2009 as we headed into Week 2 ...
Week 2
1/1/2009 - 7/9/2009
1/1/2009 - 7/9/2009
As I had rightfully claimed in Year 2008, that none of us on the Cricket team would be spared, none of us in our group shall remain a Bachelor (much to the envy of all the committed people), and come what may, none would be SPARED !!! And it happened so, that almost all of my friends, either got committed, engaged or married... It was GD (Gaurav's) engagement, and at home it looked as if Dipali was getting ready for her own event ... It took her 3 hours just to get out the door and into the car .. Grrr "ladies" !!! Well I don't have a lot of photographs for the first two days of the new year, as most of the day was spent going out for shopping, coming back home to eat Maa's home-cooked hot hot food, and then snore for a while in the mild coldish afternoon ahmedabadi's style nap, and then again go out for shopping ... It was fun, tiring yet amusing to see how the fairer sex can spend loads and loads of time going in and coming out of the shops, and yet purchase nothing, and when asked, have the world-famous answer "It would be better at some other place" - I don't know if that "other" "better" place ever exists for these women ? LOL ... So the tiring part of being engaged and having your fiance's parents not in Ahmedabad, is that you have to take care of the doll all by yourself, and be her chauffer everywhere she wants to go, be her porter by carrying her shopping bags, if anything has been purchased lol ... But it was fun, watching Dipali and taking her around to almost all the small and big places in Aapnu Amdavad - and to guide us with full zeal and vigor was my awesome mom - who has this never say "tired" spirit LOL ... Kudos to mom and Dipali's persistence ... :( grrrrr ... How satirical ...
Anyways, due to my tight schedule on work, and me not making to most of the weddings of all my friends, I was happy to atleast attend one wedding - Ronak's (and Payal's) marriage ... There were quite some events - Mehndi, Bethak, Drinks, Marriage, Reception ... It was fun at his Payal's house for the Mehndi program, with most of us being present there to dance a while .. While couple of my friends were getting tired with the busy schedule they had with all the marriages early in december, for me it was the first one of the season, and so was fun ... The same day as the Mehndi function, I also met my Nirma buddies... The friends from my Undergrad EC (Electronics and Communication) branch, and we met after a long 1 year time ... Meeting old friends, is always fun, especially when you meet after a gap of a year, and brings out a lot of stories, jokes, old memories - again a reminiscing time for me !!! I missed out on two marriages even on that side of my friends list .. But I could not blame anyone, and have no regrets on missing out any of these marraiges, as it was later to come, that my company had done 13 % layoffs, and all that had happened when I was there in India, basking in the glory of my laziness and enjoyment ... That sent down shivers down my spine ... So, in spite of the fact that a lot of my friends were upset and angry for me not making to their Life Changing events lol, they have all my support until I get married next year ... Come what may, the Bahelor pad even though at 50 % operating standards, is still open at Monte Vista in Milpitas here ... If you get thrown out, or get spanked, or are not in a mood to be at home with your worst half, just drop by and we shall have the time of our life lol - "CHEERS" - if that's what you might understand ... (Thank God, Dipali never ever comes down this blogging lane, as she is not fond of reading lol ...)
The 4th of January, marked a day, when another friend of mine, became a Martyr... I hold two minutes of silence here, for the loss of his freedom, for him getting deprived of his independence and for joining me, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, to mount upon the band wagon of courtship, and embrace the tag of "Engaged" officially lol ... My heart feels for you Jaishal, and so it was yet another celebration, another day to get dressed up ... The event was fun, as this time I was on the other side of the world, and had complete freedom to harass my buddy as much as I can ... Food was great, Dipali devoured it at ease ... I even tried running away with the ring, which Jaishal's mom had given me to hold, but our Mr. Committed, wanted it so much, and was so desperate to change his status to Mr. Engaged, that he just wanted that ring to be on Bhoomi's (Bhalla) fingers ... Overall a Kodak moment ... Though we are still waiting for the pics from them ... Grrr ...
Next day, moving a step ahead in life, and leaving us - the "engaged" people to face the fire alone, one more of my friend now climbed the horse, and started his journey towards getting married ... It was Ronak and Payal's marriage, and to add to the fun, I had invitations from both the sides ... Payal's mom and my Mom are college time friends, while Ronak is my USC friend ... Well for me it was hard to decide which side to be on, but then I thought Trojans come first, and so it had to be Ronak ... Had a gala time, dancing in the barat, doing bhangra type shoulder to shoulder dancing fights with Bhupesh and Jaishal, stealing the Mojdis (footwear), and literally bombarding Ronak with flowers during his rituals .... I too got hit by some, due to a counter attack launched by Ronak himself, while completing his ceremonies... The reception was fun too, and Payal was a bit upset for me being a Trojan and not coming from the girl's side for the marriage ... lol ... Had fun with everyone ...
End of this week was a trip to Ambaji, to take Dipali to get blessings from Mataji, as we believe a lot in Mataji ... It was going to be my first long trip on road with the Indian stlye of driving - and I did not want to miss that chance AT ALL !!! After all, no cops, no tickets, no fear of being pulled over - and the best of all - NO SPEED LIMITS ... An added advantage was the roads, which I must say, Gujarat Government has done a tremendous job of maintaining ... I have a picture of my speedometer, taken when the pointer touched 120 KMs mark ... It was an awesome feeling, now, you must say that 120KMs is what we can drive here too in the USA for the equivalent value in Miles, but still, the feeling one gets of not being chased by anyone is just too much - a part of one of my wishes from the Bucket List post came true lol ... The darshan were great, felt completely satisfied, happy taking the blessings alongside Dipali, Mom and Dad together as a family .... Well the trip was not just about that, Dad took us to Abu for lunch, and that was another great experience ... They used to do that everytime for a couple of times last year, and had talked a lot about this place which serves amazingly mind boggling tasty food .. .And I was like, lets check it out ... The place is called "Mushkil-e-Aasan" (The translation in the literal sense would be - "Worries made Easier" ... Lol... Funny name, but surprisingly awesome, awesome and more awesome food .... Typical Gujju food, and I gobbled it up as if the world was just about to come to an end, and there were only some last minutes left ... Such was the effect of the food, that I literally had to take support of two chairs to get up, my stomach bouncing in front of my eyes ... Also visited the famous Nakki Lake and took a great amount of pictures ... Overall had an amazing drive, superb food and a great one day style picnic alongwith the blessings of Mataji ... Jai Ambe !!!
Well with this we come to an end of the road, but mind you, this is just a turn around the corner and not a dead-end ... Week 2 ended, in style, fashion, food, friends, engagements, marriage, dances, blessings and food again lol ....
I would really love to share the pics, and so am waiting to send it to all who would post a comment or just ping me on my email address ... It won't look good if I send the links to almost everyone on my Gmail account lol ... Believe me, the pics are awesome and I really want to share them ... So message me anytime ... :)
So by the time you come out of Week 2's happenings, I would be back in action with Week 3 ... I promise you even more fun, even more excitement and even more food !!!
Till then - Alvida !!!
Samkit
3 comments:
i just read week 2 -trip to india blog....it was gud but didnt enjyd as much as i did in week 1...u guess it right,cause of pics....so please mail me all the pic .......n its really sad tht dipali is nt fond of readg as u write mind blogging blogs.........cheers.........
hey first of all congratulations... As always this one is also amazing.. Keep posting more and more..!!
pics plz :)
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