Celebrating Love !!!

Apparently as we all know time flies by, and sometimes it takes it own sweet and slow road, whereas in most of the cases it just whizzes past us in today's fast paced life. No matter how your time goes by, it's the memories that remain, slow or fast, ups and downs, good or bad - all that matters is how you have lived those moments.

Reflecting back upon time, the two most noteworthy events that happened to change my life big time, happen to fall in the month of August. One of them changed how I would end up career wise whilst the second event which is by far the most closest to my heart happened to change the way my heart would beat for the rest of my life.

On the whole the first event happened to add substance to my life while the second love-filled life changing emotional moment happened to add a whole new meaning and an entirely different dimension to my life.

It would deem unfair if I was to jump directly to the second event without mentioning a bit about the first one, only for the sole reason that if it was not for the substantial first event that took place, I would not have got a chance to witness the second one. Or maybe I would have ? God knows ! So not to confuse between the first and the second any more, I would like to mention that 1st of August marked my 6 years in the US. As it happens to be I came for my Master's in USC and that was the first step which changed my life on the career front, added some substantial goals and aims to my life and helped me grow from a 21-year old naive young man to a much more matured and an experienced individual where I stand today.

I still remember those anxious sad moments, those teary eyes and those heart-skipping moments on the Ahmedabad airport when I was about to board the flight. I feel quite nostalgic about it and this has been the same feeling that has crept into my heart every time I have gone home since then and came back. Each and every single time, the feeling of leaving my home and my parents and not seeing them for yet another 11 months has made me gloomy, sad and has given me watery eyes - no matter how hard I try to be strong. It has been a long journey and am not sure how and where this would take me but some things are better left to fate I must say.

Well fast-forward from 2004 to 2008 and rewinding back from 2010 to 2008, 9th of August, marks another important "life-changing" event that took place in my life, which happened to make my heart beat not only for me but it also started singing along the rhythm of someone else's heart beats too. It was this day that I went down on one knee and proposed Dipali to come join me in my quest to fill our lives with love and emotions. The entire experience of that day and how I managed to gather my guts to propose her are composed here :: Click Here !

As I went through that post, one more time today, I still got some goosebumps and would give anything to move back in time and go through it once again ! (PS:: Only this time, I would ask her to be lenient on the drinking limit instead of completely cutting it off for me lol... And of-course would not miss my opportunity to ask her dad for some $$$$ Dowry). No matter how much we try we can never turn back time. All one can do is just relive those moments yet again in a similar yet different way and experience love.

It's been a tremendous journey, filled with lots of love, fights, likes and dislikes, pillow wars and night full of snores, cheeks pulling and hair clinching moments, but at the end, it has been a great emotional roller-coaster ride with my love.

I am sure those who have gone through such love and emotions, would agree with me, that such events do change the way you portray your future, the way you think and dream about where and what you would want to do down the line, now that you have someone to look and care for, and especially how would you want your life's puzzle to play out with your partner by your side. One would definitely have a vision of you and your better half scaling new heights and conquering new fronts in the quest of life.

For me, I see myself playing Poker on the front porch of my home, with a stick in my hand, a little bald, my teeth lying in a glass container, and Dipali putting up a sweet Poker Face, trying to win it all. She would still have that zeal, she has now, to call ALL IN, and go up and down in her chair after winning.

As, for me, I am, and would have already been a winner by then with her by my side :), smiling at her cute little beaming face filled with joy at winning a card game. And a fantastic reality check for me would be when she would stand up, take the coins and pose in front of me, expecting me to stand on my weak feet, take out the SLR and shoot some 100-200K pics, which I guess I would obediently love to do !!!

Love You Jaana !!! Muha !

Cheers
Samy

Sachin Tendulkar - An Innings of a Life Time !!!

I just could not resist putting up a blog post, the first thing today early morning, for one of the most prolific batsman of all time, a person with determination and the hunger to win and score runs every single time when he is out there on the field, someone with an above par passion and love for the sport of cricket, a gem of an individual and most importantly a level headed down-to-the-earth humble human being who has rightly defined the modern era cricket and has been doing so repeatedly with his stunning and audacious performances over a span of 20 long years.

Known as the batting maestro, the little champion, the master blaster, the brand ambassador of Indian Cricket and the sport world wide, someone who has been famously coined as having two shots in his mind even before the ball is bowled, a person who has witnessed and has been in the middle of Indian Cricket's ups and downs, someone with a clean chit, an impeccable record and is not showing any signs of aging at 36 even though has been through a number of injuries and cramps while running those singles and scoring those flurry of boundaries, he is now the ONLY person in Cricket's 40 year long history to have scored a double century, a mesmerizing, flawless 200 Not Out - he is none other than our own form of God under that Number 10 Shirt- Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar !!!


Indians were up on their feet, and it seems the Indians out there in any part of the world must have been glued to their TV / Laptop screens watching the history in the making, as Sachin hit the ball to Point, and scurried for a single. All hell broke loose as he finished that single in the 49th over and he looked towards the vast sky for a long time, opening his arms, taking this aura with a deep emotional look and raising his bat to his fans at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior, where the spectators witnessed and became part of this historical moment.

200 Not Out from just 147 Balls with 25 Boundaries and 3 sixes, batting from the 1st over till the last ball of the entire Indian innings, this spectacle will be, and should be, talked, written and discussed all over the sporting world for not only days, months but years to come. It took 2961 One-day Internationals, before the 200 mark barrier was broken and that too by one of the finest cricketers of all time. More in-depth analysis on Sachin's knock : Click Here

Sachin's 25 boundaries was a record in itself, and the rate at which this talented batsman has gone about scoring his international centuries in both the forms of the game, it seems that the coveted mark of 100 centuries is not too far away. There would definitely be a lot of articles in days to come talking about this innings, but I had to and wanted to post one of my own here on my blog, being an Indian, being in deep love with the game of Cricket just like any other individual from the sub-continent, and above all being in awe and struck with the performances of Sachin Tendulkar thus making me an avid follower and a die-hard fan of this master. As it's rightly said, if cricket is a religion in India, then Sachin is our God !!!

To watch Sachin's last over shot: Click Here

Complete Highlights (Hope it works): Click Here

In the era of Facebook, Twitter and IMs, it seemed pretty obvious that not only the print media but the electronic media and communications would be going ga-ga over Sachin's innings. I expect Sachin's image above to make rounds in all the major newspaper, and not only under the sports section, but as a front page headlines, with all sorts of different quotes and tags from the talented writers. But what stood out when Sachin actually scored that run was the commentary from the two commentators, the excerpts of which are below:

Dhoni scored a single bringing Sachin on the strike and the crowd started roaring...

Ravi Shastri: ... A Huge Cheer from the Crowd ... Here is the opportunity for the little fellaw ...

Sachin on strike, hits the ball towards point, runs for a single and the crowd goes berserk !!!

Ravi Shastri: Gets it ! First man on the planet to reach 200 ... And it's the superman from India ... Take a bow Master ...

You little champion ... If there was anyone deserving to break this milestone, this everest, it is certainly Sachin Tendulkar ...


As my friends have quoted their thoughts:

Ronak: "One thing I had always prayed to God for Sachin da. He has done it on 24th Feb 2010; and Its done on the home soil" ... "I would surely vouch for this day to become officially TENDULKAR DAY" ...

Soham: "I wont fall behind in confessing that I had tears in my eyes when Sachin played the shot and completed 200 .."

Viral: "I am watching him since my childhood and want to to see him till his last moment of cricket. I have a dream that i will see him live in Mumbai in 2011 final of world cup..This man proves that what he is capable of.."

Jimmy: "I felt goose-bumps watching the scoreboard say Sachin 200 Not Out.. He is the impossible man on the planet"

Harsh Nayak: "The greatest batsman ever to grace the game of Cricket... Excellent, Marvelous, Fantabulous, Awesome, Splendid... All these adjectives are smaller for him... We need a new adjective "SACHIN = Greater than all those words"

Munjal: "The highest score table looks pefect now ... Sachin 200*, Lara 400* and Ponting nowhere in sight ... "

What are your thoughts on Sachin's innings and his overall charisma ?

As for me, I experienced a little bit of everything, moist eyes, goose0bumps, shivers down the spine and absolute elation !
3 Bows from me to the Master !!!

Cheers
Samy

(PS: I am damn sure, I would have to come back and either put up a new blog post, or modify this with some follow-up comments/videos/excerpts over the coming days, as a follow-up, based out of all the articles and messages going around the net .. I would love to do so ... )

All That Started Good, Ended Greatly - 12th Dec 2009 !!!

So once again, continuing from my previous post taking you through to my entire wedding ceremony, one of the most important and most cherished day of my life, here I am with a short one on how the celebrations ended with a formal Wedding Reception Dinner Party on the 12th of December.

The venue, Kalhaar Exotica, true to it's name was exquisitely beautiful with plenty of natural surroundings and away from the hustle and bustle of the city noise and pollution. Not that far as the original Kalhaar Bungalows Scheme, the party plot is the common plot for the residents living in Kalhaar Exotica. Palm trees and lot of naturally grown plantations alongside the swimming pools and the entrance added to it's beauty.

After so many tiresome days and phone calls of planning, when we finally walked down that red carpet laid for us to reach the stage, the view that the floral backdrop gave, simply struck us in awe. The entire beauty of the flowers with the lights and the aura was just simply jaw dropping. The decorators had definitely done a splendid job, and so did the people from our factory in setting up the base, the columns and the framework for the entire wall filled with flowers. As expected the pictures came out to be simple gorgeous. I had amazingly fallen in love with the stage and so did Dipali.

But even before we went to the take our places under the lights, our photographer met us half way through and with Dipali's constant urging (now that she was my wife had to listen to her), we went through a painful round of almost all the poses once again, repeating some from the marriage, while also adding some new ones. With Dipali adding some of her own poses, the camera men were delighted to take the pictures even more enthusiastically. I was grumbling at that point of time, only to smile right now after I saw the results. (The most painful was me trying to get Dipali on my shoulders, trying to do a piggy back, but finally pulled it off)

Live music band playing all sorts of strictly happy songs, fun songs and vintage oldies made the event even more graceful and in spite of the chilly cold night, all those invited definitely seemed to be digging into the luscious and delicious Havmor food, while me and Dipali were trying to remember almost everyone that we met on the stage, as the night wore on and so did our hunger. Our faces and jaw bones literally ached with the smiles that we had to pose for the pictures.

But as we sat on the coveted thrones watching people watching us, I heaved a sigh of relief, all happy inside, watching my mom dad, all beaming with joy, grinning from ear to ear, Dipali too, enjoying her 15 minutes of fame, under the lights, grabbing little chances instructing the photographer to shoot some snaps, in between when no one would come on stage to wish us, and it seemed all that had started well, finally did end, and the end, a start to a new beginning as I always say, had been the best memory of my life.

Finally as we got down from the stage, sat down to dinner, feet bearing the pain of our weights, jaws bearing the pain of our dropping smiles at the end, I just literally jumped into the food without realizing that I have someone by my side whom I have to first ask whether she is hungry or not ;-) ! But when I glanced sideways, Dipali was already with a mouthful of sweets and chaats of all sorts... Phew ! I had just escaped a reprimanding, first of many to come that I expect !!!

Click Here for some Reception Pics !
(More on Facebook / Orkut)

Oh Well, we were headed to Maldives for our honeymoon, in a couple of days, and I was definitely looking for some quality time, away from the hectic life of the US, by the ocean, my feet in the sand, and the cool breeze in the hair ... Well more of Maldives in my next post guys ;-) ..

Till then Adios and if you have gone through the same marriage rituals as I did, just take out 5 minutes and relive those moments from your own marriage today :)
It's definitely going to bring back those lovely memories and more importantly would make your day with a great smile on your face !!!
So, go on and grab those pictures and cherish those moments with your soul mate :) :) :)

Cheers
Samy

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 ...

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

Week 1 - Reminiscing the Trip back Home !!!

[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 :) ]

Its been a long long time, since I posted something worth reminiscing on my blog. There were some random posts here and there, but nothing substantial for me to sit back and remember later on. Well, well, well ... Now that I am back from a wonderful nostalgic eventful trip from India, from my sweet home, I have tons and tons of things to share, blog, post, describe ...

So overhwelmingly fun was the trip, and so much was the aura and the events surrounding it, that to be true, I find myself bogged down, as to where do I start, and where do I end, and on top of it - I always need to take care that I don't just end up writing a 10-20 page short novel type post. LOL After all its recession time, and there should be some discounts here and there, and savings does matter a lot nowadays, and so to save everyone's time and to save the never ending Google server space, I think I am going to describe my trip very shortly, and let some pics do that talking ... As such my readers are panicking and must be trying to save as much as they can during these crunch times, where every single day you hear about either some company's story being scripted into the pages of history for our children for them to study those stories as case studies, or about people around the world are getting laid... Ironically, its not the literal way where everyone is getting "LAID", but they are being laid from their jobs and being deprived from their daily bread and butter... I can feel that my readers have taken the conservative approach of trying to save their comments to and utilize them in the utmost economical way .. LOL ...

Anyways, coming back to the topic, so, I would surely try to be as much brief as I can in this post about my trip back home, but also hope that you all understand the dilemna I am in, where on one side I find myself all bubbling in excitement to share my experience and some worthy moments, for me to reminisce later ... I don't know how this post would turn out to be, but sometime down the writing lane, if I feel I have already written enough I would just put a "To be Continued ... " sign, and end it there ... Maybe then will follow our Indian Soaps format of writing 500-600 damn episodes ... lol .. No ways !!! I would just split it in some parts if the needs arises, and post it at frequent intervals, maybe just split it week wise ... That way I can descirbe more, and yet not make my readers run away from my Blog ... Lol ... So here we go ...

WEEK 1
12/25/2008 - 12/31/2008

Well it was Christmas day and I left with Dipali for a trip, a trip which would have a different dimension this time around, with me being engaged now. Uptil now, it was a careless, carefree, independent soul travelling everytime to India, but now, not only the load of the bags was more for me to carry (4 bags of 23 Kgs, 2 hand bags, 2 laptop bags grrr, and our Madam Dipali just walking as if she is the Queen of England - Lol ... ) ... Well Jet Airways was excellent, great food, awesome entertainment ... But then, we were in for a surprise ... Because our flight took of late from SFO, we were left stranded on Bombay airport for 6 hours and that is really agonizing once you are just 500 KMS away from your home :( ... Ofcourse we stuffed ourselves with the first indian style Paav Bhaaji at Jet Airways Lounge in Bombay, but then our feet were just restless to land in Ahmedabad ... The pics describe the happy and the sad moments and some glimpses of Ahmedabad from up above including the famous Narmada Canal from from up above ...

Dipali, was visiting my place for the first time, and so this made it even more special, and to make us feel all the more special, my lovely mom had decorated the house with her warmth and love to welcome her daughter-in-law (Bahuraani) lol ... Not only me, but Dipali too was surprised, but very happy to such a welcome ... The pics would speak for themselves ... Mom and Dad's close friends, Niru Uncle, Pala Aunty and Devi (who is surely gonna comment here I know ;-) ), were present to receive us too and due to the delay in the flight, they had get together in the afternoon, and so had to take lunch without my presence... My friend Sotu (again another person who would be commenting here) was also present with her wife Chitrali ... Overall it felt great to be back home, back within the comfort, the warmth and the protective surrounding of parents and Ahmedabad ...

The day I landed, I decided to put my brand new Digital SLR to use ... After all its gonna be a great trip and wanted to capture as much moments as I could to remember later ... So I started organizing all the pictures till the end, in a date wise format and ended up having about 4000-5000 total pics ... Ofcourse all of them are not uploaded, and have sorted just the clear and imp ones lol ... It was going to be the marriage season this time in my group, and on a head count about 11-13 of my friends were getting married ... There was this party from my friend Aditya Modi, and that was the one and only party that I enjoyed this time in Ahmedabad ... Had a great time and as I had the freedome to gulp down only two drinks from my better half, I had to put that freedom to utmost use ... And hell yeah I enjoyed a lot !!! The DJ was awesome, and the drinks even more better ... The best was the flaming shot which the bartender gave - to describe that, its a shot of rum, and there is fire on the bar top, the bartender passes the shot glass through the flame, and gets a small flame on the rim of the glass ... He then climbs the bar top, takes your mouth, wide open, pours down the rum from the glass through the flame.. It feels a little warm, but the kick that one gets is just mind boggling ... Also it was fun dancing with Sotu (After all we had a lot of DJ moments here in the bay area before he left for India) ... Overall the vacation just as I had thought had a kick start with friends, family and ofcourse Ahmedabad style dancing and music ...

As I had got engaged in San Jose, I and Dipali were supposed to meet all our family members from both sides in Ahmedabad ... And so we had planned just a small informal get-together type party at Kalhar Bunglows ... Just my mom and dad's family members, friends and Dipali's family... None of my friends were invited as this was strictly informal and restricted to only families ... (Ofcourse a couple of my friend's parents were invited based on my mom and dad's relations, but I felt so oldish sitting there amongst everyone who was atleast 5 years older to me...lol) We made a visit to the venue, and I showed Dipali the Ahmedabad style of living in a Bunglow scheme which takes an American type community kind of feeling ... As on one side we were planning the party, the other side, Dipali's shopping instincts were rising and so were the frequent trips to the Designers and almost all the top of the line branded/unbranded designer shops and boutiques ... For once I felt like changing my career to a full time designer ... Who would have the faintest idea, that by the end of my trip, I would have all the ranges, prices and contact information of about 20 different designer studios, and fashion people in Ahmedabad by heart ... Well I guess that is the price one has to pay of being engaged lol .. But it was fun, and for once I felt, that Ahmedabadis are surely upto the hype of fashion ...

Stores to go : Satya Paul, Shyamal Bhumika, Anuraag, Anuroop, Gamthi, Deepkala, Asopalav, Radhika, Purvi Doshi's Opium, Elaan, Sanskruti, Bandhej, Ethnicity, Bijouri, Kanisha, Utsav etc ... There are a lot many, but I seem to now have forgotten all those ... And mind you none of these, with the exception of Shyamal Bhumika, were something of my interest ...Grrr but it was fun lol ;-)

As I said above, 30th Dec was the day of my party, and co-incidentally it was also Aditya's marriage on the same day, and further to add to the band-wagon of co-incidences, it was to be held in Kalhar, and that too just 3 plots away from my venue ... Lol .. Some of my guests, by mistake entered Aditya's marriage, and were shocked to see a big party, and thought that Samkit was getting married or what ??? lol ... But it was fun to meet all my family members, cousins, elders, new borns ... Dipali was having a hard time remembering the relations and the names to tag with them ... lol .. The food from Gwalia Caterers was awesome, the decoration done by my Kaki from Bombay was just simply decent ... Overall had a great time to see myself at home, in Ahmedabad, with my family, with my parents, and get a feeling of "completeness" ... Totally Bliss !!! Ofcourse there were a couple of glitches too, the lights went off just 1 hour before the party, Dipali's dress was not ready a day before and a lot of things ... But at the end all was well !!!

The last day of the year, a year which had been full of events, on a personal front, on an emotional front, that on the morning of the 31st, I thought of writing a post, of certain events that touched me personally, and also to remember certain happenings that moved the world, terrorism, recessions, bankruptcies, cricket wins etc etc ... But changed my mind, as I was in no mood to sit down and write something while enjoying in Ahmedabad ... Just felt too lazyyyyy ... Well, it had been a great rocking year for me, in all aspects, Dipali, Job, Family, Friends, Job etc.. Since there were no good DJ parties this time around in Ahmedabad, me and my couple of friends just got together for a dinner at TGB, and then I went home to have a drink and welcome the new year with my parents by my side ... Somehow, for the past couple of years, I have been in Ahmedabad during 31st whenever I have made trips back home, and so I always felt that its more better to welcome the new year with Mom and Dad, instead of going to a Dance Party, as the fun is always there in the US, but mom dad are not to be during such times ... Add to it, I was also given an icing on the cake.. Dipali had permitted me to unlimited drinks on 31st, and what a perfect liquor I had instored for me - My favourite - VODKA !!! (It was a Beleverde Citrus Vodka) ... It was a great time enjoying with Dad, with mom and Dipali both looking with strange eyes at our drinks (Dad - hi-fi lol ;-) ) ...

Phew ... I just previewed this post of mine, and I thought that there are sooooo many things that I have not mentioned here, and yet this post is long enough to bore my readers down ... Well but then, there are some who would go to the extent of reading between the lines, and more interested to take a look at the pics ... Well you guys have a treat of both the aspects so sit back and enjoy !!!
This is the end of Week 1, and with it also the end of a Mesmerizing Year 2008 for me !!!

I would be back with Week 2 in some time ...
Till then Adios !!!

Cheers

Samkit

Apology Letter to the Blogging World !!!

To
Me, Myself and My Readers,

This apology letter comes from me, to myself and everyone, for not being up-to-the mark, in terms of getting into a long delay for the posts.
But given the fact, that I am enjoying and basking in the warm sun on my soil, my birth place, makes it even more interesting for me to come back and write stories about this trip of mine to India, and that too with my sweetheart fiance who just turned 24 today.

Well my hands are itching, to start writing long posts about this eventful trip of mine from day one, but I still have about a week to go, a week before I go back to a land which ironically for me is the land of labor, and where I often tell my friends, that we are all servants working in a foreign country, and just as our servants at our home in Ahmedabad, once a year go back to their villages (desh ma javanu), the same way, we too make yearly trips to our "Desh" ... Lol ...

Anyways, not to spoil my mood any further, this letter is just to indicate that I am still hale and hearty, and am alive in my senses, lol, and this long absence from the blogging world is only because I am having a GREAT BALL here at my home, with my parents, my fiance, and all my relatives and friends ... More stories to come in subsequent posts, once I leave the warmth of my abode and embark upon the flight back to Uncle Sam's land ...

Till then, adios, alvida, aavjo and buh-byeeeee !!!

Cheers

Samkit