Happy Birthday - Dad and Mom !!!

So as the story goes, my Dad does make a good point to justify the love that exists for my Mom by saying that he had his eyes set, his heart determined and his future foreseen right from the moment he was born.

When asked the meaning behind this story, he rightly explains it by mentioning that he was born the 18th of July 1958 and my Mom came following his love for her, one and a half day later, on 20th July 1958. So with affection in his eyes, my Dad says, I was falling in love with this cute damsel who was there in the hospital just two beds away from me. And that is how their love began and flourished !!!

I still remember, come July and their birthdays meant special dinner treats outside, and living room filled with fresh roses (which eventually stopped due to religious sin reasons), and delicious cakes all week long :). But one memory that stands out for me personally is receiving money from both ends and scurrying around to find an appropriate "Happy Birthday to a lovely Wife" and "Happy Birthday to a lovely Husband" cards. I still remember riding my bike all the way to far off stores on C.G. Road and buying such cards and facing surprising looks from some old uncle or a crooked lady behind the counter who would look at this boy with curly hair, and wondering as to why is he buying Husband and Wife cards.

The challenge for me would be to bring those cards back in the home base, trying to avoid the sniper eyes of my parents (especially my dad, whom I have known to have possessed not just one but maybe 3-4 set of eyes all fixed around his smart, witty and intelligent head and who always seem to catch me even with his eyes closed for all my mischiefs). I remember tucking these cards in my t-shirts, books, cricket bat covers and what not. Somehow I would manage to slip these cards in the respective person's hands without the other one catching attention. 

I also had the privilege of getting every child's fascination fulfilled - the one where every young gun like me, would love to be a part of a surprise (especially gifts and parties) and somehow have a sense of satisfaction of  being the ONLY one to be aware of which parent is planning what just a day apart. Mom would take me to a store to pick up a gift for Dad and Dad would do the same for Mom. It felt something special to beam with joy and inner superiority of having been a part of both sides gift choosing moments.

Well I have been deprived of those VIP privileges for almost 6 years now since I have been in the US but one thing that has not lost its charm is the dinner outings which Dad - Mom make it a point to definitely go out with. I am sure they are looking forward to having their son (and now their daughter too) with them to celebrate their birthdays, as much as I yearn to have them by my side for mine :).

So here is to a fantastic Dad - someone whom I have always admired for all his mental strength, never-say-die spirit, a fighting warrior with a truck load of patience - who has been by all means the best, the loving and the light-guiding DAD that anyone would always want...

And here is to a wonderful Mom - who by some sorts is the most strongest pillar of my family, emotionally and mentally, and has abundant love and care to shower upon her son (and a part of which is now being shared by my wifey ... Grrrr - I am used to being the ONLY ONE !!!) ...

H A P P Y      B I R T H D A Y     D A D    &   M O M 

I am lucky and I thank God every day for bestowing upon me such wonderful parents who are always looking upon me even as I grow older and they grow older with each passing year !!! World's Tightest Hug to you Both - Maa and Daddu !!! Muhaaa !!! 

Cheers

Samkit - Dipali

Molten Cake, Blue Mango, 20 $ Lottery, Bday Cake n Kicks !!!

So it happens to be the 10th of March, 2010 today and as always I find myself in a whirlwind of mixed emotions, as I turned older completing 27 years of my existence on planet earth and entering my 28th year.

Things have been quite eventful since my last birthday, the most important being me getting married in between, and entering a totally new different phase of life. It's special, celebrating my first birthday after marriage, with my wife, but of-course on the other side of the coin is not being able to celebrate it with your parents who actually miss you a lot, and birthdays are such occasions which I guess are always emotional ones for the parents in particular, after all they are the ones who actually raised, nurtured and developed you into what you are today...

As I am writing this blog post on my birthday, I am already done celebrating my birthday and I am ready to call it the end of the day. But I just wanted to scribble something on this occasion before I went into deep sleep to wake up to see the sun rise on the 28th year for me :)

The celebration did start at midnight, although I was already fast asleep, when my cute little lady love woke me up and with some mushy mushy feelings, hugs and kisses wished me a very happy birthday. With sleepy eyes I smiled back and realized that there is a strong smell of something chocolaty in the apartment and on my bed-side table was a small little Molten Lava Cake, with a cute little teddy (which I don't know how it got there), 2-3 candles and a spoon in place of a knife ! And how can I forget the lovely card ... The small scoop of Molten Lava Cake was awesome and finger (spoon) licking mixed with not only chocolate but loads of love, emotions, kisses and hugs from my wifey !

The entire day today was quite silent at work, couple of colleagues stopping by to wish me, the rest of the day was spent replying to each and every single individual back on Facebook, Orkut, Chat Windows, Emails and personal phone calls who were kind enough to take out at-least a moment to stop by and wish me on my special day :) I was quite beaming in joy to having received those wishes and was fun catching up with some old mates and some new friends. I would like to personally thank each and every one of those who wished me through all the mediums humanly possible and made it quite special for me !!! Thanks a lot to all those near, dear and far ones who wished me from all the corners of the world !

The evening was something I looked forward to as me and Dipali headed off to a Thai restaurant called Blue Mango and had by far the most amazing Thai delicacies that one could ever have. The Cashew curry was something new that we tried and it turned out to be amazing along with the Panang curry and Garlic Tofu.

What was to come next was quite unexpected and did make Dipali create the biggest sad face ever. We stopped by at a grocery store to purchase the candles and the bowls and while I was paying for it, my lovely lady walks up to a stupid crappy **** #### @#%^ &&&& vending machine which dealt in Lottery Tickets. Now those of you who might not know, and most of you who are already aware, Mrs. Shah here is a big time gambler, give her a deck of cards and she would start playing them anytime, anywhere, anyday, anyhow. So she inserts a 20 $ bill into this screwed up machine, punches a button for one ticket (which by the way was just 2-3 $ worth), and then stands there like a wax statue waiting for the machine to yield the rest of the change. She waits, I wait and nothing happens. We call upon the assistant working there and ask him what's going on? To which that MORON, punches another button without even asking us, and out comes another ticket worth 3 $. (6 $ down the drain) ! Aargh !

Even more frustrating was the reply we got when we asked that Idiot about the rest of the change, and he is like "Sorry sir, Sorry Ma'am, this machine does not shell out change". I am like, WTF ? Are you insane? This is broad day light cheating, and I just want my money back. He is like, "Sir, as I told you this machine cannot return change, that means, you would have to play all the 20 $ that you had put in". Grumbling, pacing up and down, my head out of my convenient place, anger on the rise, I managed to murmur profanities in bulk, but nothing could be done in spite of me sulking for the loss of my dearest 20 bucks. Poor Mrs. Shah could not even manage to face me, let alone talk to me !!! Finally feeling helpless, we punched 4-5 more buttons and out came the weird looking crappy lottery tickets and we walked out cursing the store, the machine and the assistant. (PS: To add to it, none of those tickets are gonna fetch us a single dime Grrr Aargh !)

Oh Well ! Anyways, I was looking forward to the cake cutting as we came home after dinner and waited for my gang to arrive. Considering we do have a large group of friends here, it was surely gonna be fun time for couple of hours with some interesting characters in the hood who can never let any dull moment pass by without their constant comments and hilarious jokes cracking up people. We also got a change to watch this ROTF LMAO types video: Click Here

27 candles were lit up, and were blown away with a single stroke, some secret wishes were made (who knows which ones would come true), and with that I celebrated my 27th birthday. But the party was not yet over, as in spite of my constant urging that now that we have grown old enough, we should not be involved in any kind of vulgar masti, indecent fun and definitely no birthday bumps/kicks/pinches etc. But one hell of a group that I have filled with some notorious fun loving dudes that they did not hear one single freaking word from my mouth and picked me up, hurled me, gave me some 30-40 odd kicks, some chest chops, some really really bad pinches on some of the most coveted parts of my body and I was already rubbing my ass cheeks, my back and my chest ! Was hell lot of fun now that the trend has once again begun as I would look forward to everyone's birthdays going forward !!!

Well that was all for today, a great day spent with some 10 minutes of silence to myself, getting my thoughts right, refreshing myself and preparing myself for yet another rocking year !

Click Here for Pics

Once again, thanks to each and everyone of you out there, who directly or indirectly were a part of my birthday celebrations. Love you all !

Cheers
Samy
[PS: I am waiting for the weekend to get my birthday present from Dipali ... Can't wait to go shopping ;-) !! ]

Happy Birthday Dipali !!!

Oh Well, even though Dipali is not an avid reader of my blog posts, and she hardly visits the site, I thought of posting just a short post for her birthday, this being her first one after marriage :)

So here is to my wife, wishing her a very Happy Birthday !!!

May God bless you with everything you want and desire in your life and you just pass that on to me...
May you get all the happiness in the world and share it with me...
May you get loads of moolah (cash, gold, silver or diamonds) and just donate them to me...
May you get rid of all the worries - mine first ...
May this whole year bring lot of mental peace, lots of love, plenty of awesomeness in your life, and may you love your husband even more than ever...
May you never ask for any kind of gifts but instead always believe in the policy of return gifts...
May you always listen obediently to your husband and with a big sweet smile always follow what he has to say...

And last but not the least, May you never visit at-least this post of mine, and if at all you do, please let me celebrate my first birthday after marriage before you want to go at war with me and kill me :) :) :) !!!

HAPPY BIRTH-DAY MY SWEET CUTE and INNOCENT LOVE !

Cheers
Love
Samkit

1st Birthday - Happy Bday Blog !!!

Exactly a year ago, this idea which had been in my mind for some months then, surfaced up and I floated my own personal blog - Samkit's Reminiscence. Today I celebrate my blog's first birthday, and it seems the destination is still too far away. The journey has still just begun. There is much more to come.

It amazes me as to how time goes by, and it seems as if within a blink of an eye the year just flew by. Well was it that fast? To an extent yes, but more amazing are the stories that revolved around this entire year in my life, in my surroundings and the idea of this blog was born out of that concept as to why not have some medium to reflect back upon and capture these moments. I believe in frequently looking at the past, to re-collect memories, to guide me through the coming future. Of-course one should not hold on to the past, and let it go, but I am a firm believer that there is no such teacher and no good lesson which can be learned, if one cannot catch a glimpse of the past.

Having said all this, where do I move on from here? Well as always I still am not sure, but out of many things that this blog has given me I cannot overlook a few like, a great deal of personal satisfaction, a feeling of achieving something worthy, a dream to follow, a talent to nourish and improve upon, a medium of communicating my thoughts, a source to reach out to people, an entity to express myself, and above all, a lot of new friends, well-wishers and admirers. Of-course anything "good" cannot be left alone without it's step-brother the "evil" but in my case, it should be rightly called the "critics" and not something "bad" or "evil". I have had and my blog has had it's own personal share of criticism at times, but at the end of the day, it has been a great journey to look myself into the mirror and see the change in me, and my thoughts, and my ability to pen down something worth reading and reminiscing.

There have been all kinds of posts on my blog, from memories to book reviews, from cricket to festivals, from nonsensical random posts to some fun-filled email forwards, but the part that I will cherish for years to come, down the lane, around the curve where I will be walking with a stick in one of my hand, would be the event when Dipali entered my life and luckily enough, this blog was already in place. Having came quite far by then, I took that chance to put in front my emotions and feelings just to reflect upon them, and even now when I read that post, it brings back so many wonderful memories, the goosebumps that I get I can hardly express them in writing.

This ride so far, has given me a lot of new friends from the blogosphere, some hidden followers, some known critics, some regular readers and I thank them all from my heart, for keeping me going. Things would not have been the same without you all, and I thank you all out there who have been reading my posts, have been visiting my blog frequently and more importantly a special thanks to all of those who have been taking out time to comment upon my posts. I really have loved all your feedback and I look forward to more down the future. Keep them coming :) There have been people who have really praised and admired the way I write, there are some who have appreciated the efforts that I have put into my blog and the posts, while on the other hand there also have been some who have used even this little entity, my blog, and the opportunity to make fun and get up on my nerves, and even further there have been some serious critics to my style of writing - in all - there have been plenty of feedback for me to work upon and I have tried to do so with each passing day.

I would like to quote this : "To criticize a work, a talent or a creation, is too easy a task for a common man, but to produce a work, flaunt a talent or create a piece, is not within any common man's trait, but a naturally gifted God's blessings."

Lastly, I don't want this to be like an everlasting birthday speech (or to make it sound like an achievement speech or a retiring speech), but my blog would have no meaning without the love, support, understanding and constant feedback from my Mom, Dad and Dipali. Mom and Dad have been the most avid followers of my blog from day one, and have been really active in commenting, and I repeat "commenting" and not false "pampering" on my posts. They have always followed the principle: "The true sign of a true admirer is that one day he/she is your friend and the next moment your biggest critic." Dipali too now has taken an interest slowly but now loves it even more when I mention her on my blog lol... I love you mom, I love you dad and I love you Jaana... You 3 complete the puzzle of my life !!!

To keep it short and sweet (Lol) - Happy 1st Birthday to Samkit's Reminiscence !!!

Cheers
Samy

(PS: In this past year, if I have hurt anyone, said anything which someone would not have liked or have had their feelings rattled - well I just got one thing to say with my deepest condolences - This blog is not for the weak hearted people, so kindly take a hike LOL... Just Kidding ... Of-course I apologize for any such behavior and posts that have touched your feelings... Peace)