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

Happy Mother's Day Maa !!!

This Sunday, 9th of May, would be just another regular day for some, but we need not forget that it happens to be also one of the most important days for someone special - someone who was born a girl, matured into a woman, became a wife and then God who thought as if it was not enough, he needed  to be at so many places and thus needed someone to represent his own self - went on to sculpt the most wonderful thing - He created Mothers !

Whether it's a new mom, a mom-to-be or a grand-mom, it's a day where we all should stop for a moment, take a step back and wish the moms a very happy Mother's day ! It's the day to give these special ladies the much deserved recognition, a round of heart felt applause and warm hugs only to appreciate a simple fact - that it's the mother who has unselfishly been the center of the spinning wheel of our life. It's a day to treat them to something special and acknowledge the time, efforts and perseverance of our sweet moms who has endlessly committed to doing the very best for the ones she loves, and only expecting to receive that same love in return.

It's worth a thought to realize how the role of a mother has changed over the years. There was a time when a mom was expected to take care of the daily household duties, raise her children, take care of her in-laws, look after her husband's routine - on the whole - dedicate her life to her family - and that would make a great mother. Between the laundry, raising children, cooking 2-3 square meals a day, shopping and even housekeeping to an extent, mom's have had hardly any time to their own self.

Significant as it may seem, the role of a modern mother in today's world has now changed - changed but not to exclude the already mentioned duties, but in fact to include even more on her platter. A 2010 super-mom, as we may want to tag, is someone who alongside her family duties, also is expected, maybe to work, handle a business, seek out and resolve new challenges other than the regular motherly duties.

Put it in a simpler way - Being a mother is in itself a life-time full-time job !

So let's make it a point this Mother's day, if not gift our mom something extravagantly surprising, even if not treating her to something nice (for those away from their moms), but then at-least just wish her from the bottom of our hearts and thank her for a simply "awesome" job she has done all these years in handling kids like us !

Happy Mothers Day to you Maa !

Wishing you a very happy mother's day maa, as I hug you to say a great great thanks for all the wonderful things that you have done for me and for our family, standing firm and confident through the thick and the thin, and more importantly for keeping up with a naughty, hard-to-handle, prankster, debateful child like me !

Cheers

Samy

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad !!!

It's that day again, when I remember, as a child I used to get out of the house on some pretext, order a cake, some flowers and get a great card for my mom-dad, come back and hide it some place safe enough for them to not catch it ! The only day when my dad would actually get up early and bring his own share of flowers too for my mom ;-) and I would just stand there admiring how out of 365 days, it's just this particular one day that my dad actually would "try" listening to my mom's suggestions, requests, pleas and what not - Why ? Oh Well ! The answer lies in the magical word called - L O V E !

The 29th of April, marks the anniversary for my lovely parents, and my Dad being born on the 18th of July, and my Mom the 20th of July in the exact same year, Mr. Shah has an interesting theory of his own to share  about their birthdays being so close, and so whenever someone asks him about how he went about falling in love for the lovely lady of his life, he comes up with an instant remark in his own jovial way mentioning "It's during my initial new-born hospital days and the moments that I spent there, that I had my eyes on Ms. Sheth (at that time) and had made up my mind, if it's gonna be someone, then it's definitely gonna be this cute little girl, lying in the cradle besides me, who is going to be Mrs. Shah as I grow older !"... Friends and family who know them closely enough have their own version of the love story too as I have heard them share bits and pieces, here and there, especially when I am to be advised about how love should be :))))...

But even as someone tries to pursue the answers about how they got to know each other during school days and about how they fell in love from the 8th grade, you would not get a direct answer, but a lot of secretive hidden messages as to how things happened to fall in place (as if it was meant to be) and how one event led to another and eventually they bonded in a life-time intertwined thread of love and warmth.

It's that day of the year today, when Mr. Shah got married to Ms. Sheth and started their life-long journey of ups and downs, happiness and sadness, success and failures, hand-in-hand, vowing to stand by each other, come what may, and facing the surprises of life together, embraced in the love for each other - 29th of April was when my mom and dad got married aspiring to live happily ever after !

So this post goes to congratulate Mom-Dad on their 31st marriage anniversary, wishing them lots of love for many many many more years to come ! 

Wishing you a very Happy Marriage Anniversary Mom-Dad ! 
May God bless you with lots of love and even more close bonding with each other ! 

Cheers
Samy

(PS: Till date I still do not know who actually proposed whom and there has been no clear indication from either Mom or Dad, but one thing for sure is that whenever this topic is brought up I witness that sparkle in both their eyes and with a little bit of shyness and slyness they both exchange certain glances, smile, and just move on ... LoL ;-) )

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

Marriages are Made in Heaven - 11th Dec 2009 !!!

[PS: Warning: This is going to be a long one ... Come on fellaws, it's about my marriage after all ;-)]

A person in his/her entire life, comes across many such events, experiences a lot of such occasions, wherein some of them are truly mesmerizing and some undoubtedly life changing moments. These series of events, these Kodak moments are truly and fondly remembered for the rest of the life and talked for many years to come and go.

One after other a person goes through such important deviations of life, walks through such bends round the corner entering a different lane across the long journey that he/she has already begun since their birth. As the saying goes, there is always a first time to everything, and an auspicious and important moment that took place in my and Dipali's life was also one of those first time things [ and with everyone's blessings will be the first and the last for both of us :) :) ].

In continuation to my previous post, the pre-wedding celebrations had just ended the night before the D-day and I was lazily loitering around my house wondering about the next day. People have been there for tons of generations before me, and in spite of marriage's own sweet bitter taste of symphony, people are still going for it :) :) :) !! Well the entire week had been exciting, fun and exhausting too. But what was to come would definitely have it's own new fresh set of zeal and enthusiasm of celebrations.

11th Dec 2009 - The day dawned with a fresh stroke of sunlight only to find me sitting in my shorts and a sleeveless tee, in the middle of the room, with about 15 ladies around me, smearing my face, hands and legs with what is said a typical entity made out of Turmeric and Flour, yellowish in color and definitely the worst aroma it could have E V E R !!! No one left a tiny patch of skin neglected as these lovely ladies put their best effort in to perform the ritual of "Pithi" on me. This brings a great shine to the face - that is what everyone seems to instruct me whenever I would refrain from getting this done over and over again for 30 minutes or so. I was just dreaming about a hot shower with a floral essence while all this was happening.

I heaved a sigh of relief right after a nice bath and adorned the clothes of the groom with pride and instantly felt goose bumps coming and going. With a lot of hustle and bustle going on outside my room, the cameramen setting up the living room with their studio lights and people chatting and bantering, trying to have their own little fun amidst the event, I was sitting quietly, all dressed up, wearing the best possible outfit that a male could ever get blessed with (for once and for all in his lifetime lol), thinking about the life ahead. Well you must be thinking is he insane or what right ... To be true, I was not at all thinking of my life, but only thinking about my wife to be ;-)

Well the entire wedding procession was suppose to be in 3 parts.. The first was at Champnivas my home, as per the auspicious time, the second one at Amaltas, where every one was officially invited to be a part of my celebration, and then the third one at Rajpath where the actual ceremony was going to be held. After almost a 100 clicks at my home in all kinds of Bollywood, Hollywood, Gollywood and Kollywood poses, I finally was allowed to tap my feet with my cousins and a couple of friends at the beats of a "dholi". Thereafter a long trip along with two of my sisters to Amaltas felt like never ending, especially when those two kept on talking endlessly about 50 different topics and I was lost somewhere else. (No offense sisters, but try n understand a groom's feelings lol .. lots of love ... ;-) )

The break at Amaltas felt nice, and I got some time to have a breather from the hype and hoolah of the entire event. All my friends, relatives, cousins and dad's friends were present at the venue. The police band was playing all the famous tunes and the dance lovers were leaving no stones upturned as they swayed to the beats and my aunt (Mrs. Ila Jagdish Dalal) made sure that all of them had their hands, hips and legs tapping to the music. I just could not resist and in spite of some big no-no from a couple of people, I just pushed myself into the crowd to give it a go for 10-15 min. That was all, when the right time came to move on with the "Jaan" and proceed to the final destination.

Once again, as we approached Rajpath's Diamond Hall, the auspicious place for the marriage, the music started again, and this time, it was not just us, but for a brief period of time my in-laws joined in too. After the Pandit's interruption only, the band stopped playing, and as I stepped out, my Mother-in-Law approached me for the rituals. Well now, this is the moment that no son-in-law would never ever want to go against him. In this small ritual the bride's mother while performing the rituals tries to grab hold of the son-in-law's nose and tries to squeeze it. The groom definitely has to save his nose and for that, my good friend Vivek Patel did a nice job, as he literally blindsided me with a napkin to cover my nose. At the end it came through nicely and I held my nose high with my mother-in-law staring at me and Vivek lol.

The bride was already waiting with a garland in her hands as my friends made sure that it's gonna be difficult for her to simply put the garland around my neck. Kunjan and Aditya lifted me on their shoulders and all I could do was tell them to hold me carefully and not cause any harm to my sensitive parts of the body ! Well Dipali was not be left out either, as two people ushered her up too, to be face to face, and put the garland around me !!! With that, we the boy's side were given a warm welcome into the hall and the marriage rituals had begun.

The ceremony in Jains lasts hardly 30-40 minutes as after a couple of other rituals, the time came when both of us were instructed to get up and take the rounds in front of the holy fire. With that, came an instant bombardment of almost all the flowers, petals, leaves etc etc etc that my friends, Dipali's friends, cousins could get hold of, and Dipali was literally blinded by that attack on us. There were hardly any strands left on stage which might bear some flowers in them.

Putting garlands onto each other, and with the rings exchange, the entire ceremony ended as we were declared Husband (Has-Bandh - stop laughing) and Wife ... Well, I wondered if I had got married as per the American way, I might have got the opportunity to kiss the bride too, but alas, that would have to wait ;-)

Fast-forward ...
With plenty of blessings from the old members of the family, with lots of hugs and love from the younger ones, and after about 100s of camera clicks, the time came when my in-laws would be bidding Dipali farewell, and I was waiting to see the sad scenes :( But, as my luck would be, Dipali did not shed a tear as people around her were almost down to a bucket full of tears !!! Even her brother managed a few (might be thinking that it's a compulsory ritual lol) ...

With that, we came back home, for a last ritual, where both of us would have to dip our hands in the auspicious red water and hunt for the coin/ring. It's like a game, best of 5, the winner is supposed to dominate the other half for the rest of their life. Well, as it was supposed to be "naturally", I won 4 times and let her win 1 time for the sake of just not calling her a loser 5 times in a row :)

Phew !! Even as I am writing this, I am just smiling and grinning from ear to ear, remembering all those flashes and missing home even more !!!

Thanks to each and every single person, for being a part of the most important occasion of my (our) life, thanks for being there physically and/or remotely and sharing my happiness and joy, and for all your well-wishes and blessings !!! For those who could not make it to my wedding due to unavoidable circumstances I have uploaded some very few pics to share and I hope my description above did made you feel as if nothing was missed :) :) :) !!!
(Sorry due to privacy issue I am not uploading a whole bunch of other pics, but if you have not yet seen those just drop an email to me : samkit.s.shah@gmail.com and I would be more than happy to share those with you !!! )

Click Here for some very very few Pics at a glance !
(The rest on Facebook / Orkut)

More coming up in the next post, but a short version, of the Reception Dinner and how much our haw line bore the pain of smiling through the entire event :)

Cheers
Samkit-Dipali

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 ...

A Birthday Gift to Treasure !!!

Well, I know I am a little late on this, in terms of getting something which almost half of the world's population is talking about, and almost a quarter of the human race has possessed by now, and it just does not stop enchanting more and more from the tribe, and also late on this post, since it is almost a month since my birthday. But, well as they say, patience is a virtue, and bears really sweet fruits.

The debate on this birthday, was what to get as a gift, since it was my first with Dipali, and we went through a number of options, clothes, perfumes, watches, BMW (although that was not really an option lol) etc ... I also asked for a 2 litre bottle of Belvedere Citrus Vodka and was turned down with glaring eyes from my chubby fiance :) ... So after a lot of conversations and not able to decide, we did narrow down to some clothes from AX and I did choose a couple of it from the store and left it to Dipali to decide.

But then, out of the blue, this brilliant idea popped up in her head, and she asked, looking to my love for electronics, that why not get you something from e gadget world ... I was wondering what could she give me that I already not have ? Camera, just got a Nikon DSLR, Watches, already have them (and there isnt a lot of fancy electronic stuff in it), Laptop (Don't need it, even though I knew, that there was a fishy plan of getting one, and then getting deprived of the ownership by Dipali as she had craftly planned it, but I was not the one to fall for it lol) ... So at the end it came to a phone ... She knew I was getting a free upgrade and actually wanted to get a good phone for herself, but then if it was supposed to be a gift for me, then what better than an IPhone which cannot be used by any other user lol ...

So even though I am a little late on it, I got my birthday gift, from Dipali and my parents also chipped in to make it a family gift, the IPhone 3G, got it yesterday, and even though I was a bit on the back foot to purchase it before, I somehow just simply fell in love with this awesome electronic revolution after I went to Apple's website, and saw the 90 minutes video about their new OS 3.0 being launched in June/July 2009. That single video amazed me so much, that now I really wanted to get one of this gadgets.


So my lovely cute little fiance is happy now, not because she gifted me an IPhone, lol, but because, now she has something to play around with when she meets me ... I would not be surprised, if I would have to let all my friends call me on Dipali's cell phone, just due to the fact, that "my" phone is no longer with me when she is around lol ... There have already been a lot of applications download request which have been shoved into my pipeline, courtesy my darling damsel, who by now must have surfed almost all the games available on Apple's Apps Store to just stuff them onto my phone and take a go at them ...

Thanks Jaana, Mom and Dad for this lovely gift to treasure for a long long time ... It is so much fun to use one of this ... Thanks a lot :)

Cheers

Samkit

A year that went by, One more to follow !!!

I was already almost done with another post for the blog, but was waiting for some more lines to finish it, that I found myself involved amidst a storm of simulations and lot of work on the job front. So I had to post-pone my post, and saved the draft to post it later ... Also a quick visit to my in-laws in Los Angeles, during the weekend, made it even more harder for me to spend some time on the posts ... Looking to today's scenario one shall not complain for being nose deep loaded into work, and so I am scribbling this post fast enough even as I am running some simulations on the other window ... Thank you God up above for making me work my ass off for the past 3 days and making me toil and sweat in today's market scenarios, and for making me look and reflect upon my past year, and giving me one more year to look forward to, as I celebrate finishing 26 years of existence in this world, torturing and loving others, and as I stand on the brink of turning 27 years old ...

While I am typing the first paragraph above, my mind is just blank as to what shall I write below in subsequent paragraphs about this day - a day when you turn one more year old, a day when you become special for someone as you entered their lives, a day where even your strongest enemy would wish you good, a day when wishes flow from round the globe, making their way through orkut, facebook, myspace, sms, emails, phone calls, e-cards etc ... A day when you blow the candles, wishing for one more rocking year ahead, one more year filled with lots of happiness, blessings and wisdom, a day spent with family, near and dear ones, friends ... Well as it happened, and as always it was fun to spend one more birthday, with friends (who are now my immediate family in the US) and it was a little bit less fun missing mom and dad, and celebrating yet another birthday away from them ... It has been now 5 straight years that I have not been able to stuff my cake into my dad's mouth and not been able to enjoy the awesome delicacies made from my mom's hands on my bdays ... Well that is how life is, and that is how it has been - but absolutely no complaints !!! Life has been fun and birthdays have been great from a different perspective ....Thanks to all those wonderful people in my life, whom God has created to be my friends !!!

Also, this time, the sadness was a little bit on the lesser side, with Dipali too by my side, and of-course friends have always been an integral part of my life and they did make it sure that I never forget the "pain" on my bday, with all those kicks in the butt !!! As I said God up above, has loaded me with meetings and a lot of work on my bday (and I am grateful for that lol), and so Dipali invited my friends to our apartment yesterday, for celebrations ... Cake was too good, a black forest, for which me and Dipali had fought the previous day, with my room-mate Jaishal clutching his hair in dismay, as I wanted the Opera flavor, and Dipali was just inclined towards Black Forest... In the end, I was saved either way, with no cake on my face, for the very first time since I have been here in the US, and that was the best part of all (although I am always the criminal mind on the front in spoiling other people's faces on their bdays) but as luck would have been, the cake was simply the perfect size for the guests, and at the end, there I was, beaming in joy with a clean decent face :)

But, as always, I was once again not let off that easily ... Back in LA @ USC, where I used to study, we used to have a special basket in which I was stuffed and literally dragged like a sledge on the hard concrete into the middle of the road ... I still have those pics and those memories, and I have a plan to post my last 5 year's memories here once I get some time later this week or next week ... But yesterday was no different, minus the cart, the kicks from my friends were still enough to give me a sore back and a sore ass !!! lol ... It was fun though, and made me feel still like a kid or a teenager (if I dont ponder a lot on the numerical value of my age) !!!

Well let me end this post here, and get back to my work, or else I will just keep on going and going as by now almost all of my readers are aware of the typical "essay" writing skills I possess LOL and am sometimes hated for that !!! But when one pens down one's life as an open book, then I guess there are no limits, and there are no short stories as each event is linked to another in a brilliant chain of memories !!! I just could not let my blog go off without a post on my birthday and so I had to insert this particular post in between my other scheduled posts :)

I can think of a lot of other related posts that I can scribble and let me include those titles here and see if I can create some of those this month before march ends .. If I enter April, and haven't been able to do so then well I might as well save those for next year :) ...

- Memories from My past Birthdays in the US...
- The 26th year that went by in my life...

Anyways, it is adios from me here, as I sign off and go back to the simulation world to try and get my script running ...

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART FOR ALL THOSE WISHES AND BLESSINGS and MAKING ME FEEL SPECIAL AND MAKING MY DAY FILLED WITH HAPPINESS !!!

Missing you mom and dad !!! Love you both lots !!! Love you Dipali !!!

Cheers

Samy :)

Week 4 - Reminiscing the Trip Back Home !!!

... Continued from Week 3.

[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 :) ]

Well, as it's said - All Good Things Has To Come To An End !!! :(
And well I was approaching the end of what I would say - a trip filled with fun, laughter, relations, emotions, anxiety, understanding - in all - a turmoil of different emotions with a pint of random thoughts - thoughts about what next? when next? ...

Anyways, leaving parents, leaving home, has always been a tough part for me (and I bet its the same for most of us), as that is one moment, when words just dont come out of the mouth, one cannot just express what he or she is going through, to be true, one also feels that its enough of the vacation mood, and lets get back to work, and after coming back, that person again yearns for his home and wants to go back ... Basically its always a see-saw battle, when here in the US, one is looking forward and dreaming about India and home, and while there, one is just sailing in the happiness of the surroundings and at the end, wanting to come back to the US, even though with a heavy heart ... Same has been with me year after year, and this time was no different ... Although Dipali was staying back, for 15 days (lucky girl), I wanted to do the same too but I think the economical meltdown, with some bad news about my company laying off people, just did not allow the practical side of me from inside to extend my vacation ... Nevertheless the idea of saving more holidays for another important event to come next year - My Wedding, that too made me finally pack my bags and leave my sweet home, the comfort of my Mom's hugs and Dad's caring hands on my head, and I came back ... But the last week was no different either just like the other 3 weeks and this post will be the final chapter of my entire trip ...

Week 4
1/15/2009 - 1/23/2009

Well after a tiring but fun filled first Uttarayan with Dipali, it was a time for celebrtations :) ... Being the first birthday for Dipali with us, and that too back at home, with mom and dad, it was a something special ... Of-course, I, having missed my last 4 birthdays with my parents, and I dont know how many more will I miss, this was fun to be at home and celebrate Dipali's bday on 16th of January... (I am just waiting for my permanent return back to India once I am done here in the USA, then I would be back to enjoying my bdays with my parents lol) ... My close friends - Jaishal, Bhoomi and Soham, Chirtali were kind enough to grace the celebration at midnight, and I got two cakes (of-course those who know me closely enough, one is meant for "eating" and the other cake is meant only for "hitting" lol) ... To tease this darling of mine, I also got some magic candles to take out the air out of her as she kept on blowing them endlesslely ... Sang a bday song, ate the cake decently enough, and then made all hell break loose on her ... I can bet a 100 bucks here, that looking at the pics one would definitely fall off their seats .. My gorgeous damsel was looking even more cute with cake smeared all over her face, her hair and the best part was - her eyes shaped up in a way just like two small marbles placed on her face lol ... Had some fun moments at midnight ...

The next day went to Vishala with mom dad, and to treat the food connosieur in me to the best of the delicacies that one can imagine ... In all the birthday celebration was a great treat after a long long time with just mom dad me and Dipali ... Psst: Dipali ate so much, that she was not able to stand up in one piece ... lol ... I am so lucky that she does not read my blog, I can write anything here lol lol ... She was in love with the ambience and the environment of Vishala ... And to add icing on the cake, I had also gifted her diamond earrings !!! So overall I had a expensive birthday celebration - but was worth it :) Sorry I cannot explain what I got in return gift from Dipali lol ... Ssshhhhhhhh ;-)

Well moving on, this being the last week, I wanted to spend as much time possible at home, and somehow I got this laziness into me, that I just didnt budge from my room, my home ... I did not even wanted to go out the door :( I knew I am gonna miss my home so badly this time ... And I still am while writing this post ... I happened to see the bustling Ahmedabad sky line from the 10th floor of my Grand-dad's appartment and also got a glimpse of the upcoming bus services on Nehrunagar road ... The view was quite amazing, and if one has pics from about 5- years back, one can make out a lot of differences to see that Ahmedabad has truly transfromed into a Mega City ... Took some great pictures here ... ;-)

Dipali's very good friend was also getting married in Ahmedabad (Jannie) ... Attended their wedding and for the first time ever, Dipali wore a saree ... Lol ... Sorry but I found it quite funny ... :P Nevertheless, it was a good 30-40 minutes spent by my mom trying to get the prefection in her saree ... That Mother-in-law-Daughter-in-Law scene was quite funny ... :P

All these days, I spent quite some time with Dad too, trying to understand more about our business and the dealings, the working, the methodology, practical aspects and what not ... Also tried to discuss certain future plans and for the first time felt the importance and the weight of responsibility on my shoulders for my dad's business ... That discussion, those talks and those wise words from Dad keeps me go on and makes me a better human being and gives me immense practical experience ... I would say hats off to someone who is running a factory, in India, as Dad rightly says that if you want to sentence a person to life imprisonment, dont go through the courts and jails, just give that person a factory unit to run ... lol .. Ironically true :) ...

With days coming to an end, my trip reaching its final few days, we also got a Snatra Puja done at our factory ... That few hours spent, with mom dad, Dipali, the workers, on the factory soil, in the presence of God, truly transformed my thinking, my intentions, my ambitions, my views, my moments of silence, and gave me the motivation and the aim for something that I want to achieve in my life ... With God's grace, I will work on that, and who knows, the God might just bless me yet again, just as he has been doing so at each and every step of my life ... Those moments were the most refreshing ones and were truly needed at the end of my trip ...

Having said that, the final day dawned, it was time to go back, to leave home yet again, to get out of the hugs and cuddles of mom and dad, to leave the fresh, hot, home cooked delicacies, to leave the comfort of getting your laundry done outside without even moving a muscle, to leave a world of free SMSes, to leave the bustling and hustling noise filled days of ahmedabad, the time to leave the moist soil, the time to bid goodbye to my birthplace, and the time to enter a world of cement, a world of green money, a world of slavery in terms of washing utensils, cooking food, doing laundry, the world of 9 to 6 and yet the axe on your neck, the world of :
Mournful - Mondays
Tolerable - Tuesdays
Waiting for Weekend - Wednesdays
Tolerable - Thursdays
Fun Speculated - Fridays
Sweet - Saturdays
Sleeping - Sundays
LOL ...

Well it aint that bad I know, I am just being a little exaggerate here, but still India is India, Ahmedabad is Ahmedabad, Home is a home, and the comfort of Parents and family is a boon and a blessing for people away from the motherland soil ...

With this, I bid goodbye to India, with tear in my Mom's eyes, with strong-yet-missing-me type emotions in my Dad's hug, with a strong-confident voice from me - and of-course the chubbly bubbly Dipali too being sad ;-) Mom's friend Pala Aunty and Niru uncle were also present to bid my good bye, and I knew for sure, that even though mom dad will miss me, they do have some great people in their surroundings and life has taught them a lot that now they know who is truly keeping them company in times of my absence ... A special thanks to those who know they have been there for my mom dad in my absence, and for me those people held a special value in my heart ... :)

Well that's it from my side to close this trip account ... Hopefully I have taken some of you down memory lane of your own, shared some of my personal feelings, emotions and moments all along this trip ... Hoping to hear back from some of my regular readers, and of-course as I always say, hoping to hear from my silent readers too ..

One thing for sure is, that this trip blog has surely made a couple of unknown silent readers come to front and made me interact with them ... Thanks for stopping by friends ;-) ...

My next stop is the recently made Lake Tahoe Ski Trip on Valentine's Day ... Kindly come back to take a look at some of the out-of-the world experiences as I share them with you in my next post ...

Till then, take care, keep reading, keep commenting, and May God Bless you All !!!

Cheers
Samkit

Week 3 - Reminiscing the Trip Back Home !!!

... Continued from Week 2.

[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 :) ]

Well, well ... I never thought that the trip back home and the events that I experienced, would create so much responses from my readers when I would share it with them. Over the past few weeks, those of you who have dropped by my blog, and in fact requested for the links for the pics, I really am glad for that ... And a special thanks to those who have taken out a few minutes of their busy routine life and commented on my posts...

Week 3
1/8/2009 - 1/14/2009

To continue with the memories, Week 3 was just about going to a lot of places, relatives, friends, socializing, having lunches and dinners with them and spending some quality time - a time which one longs for having stayed in the USA. Such is the aura of the atmosphere back at home, that no one gets spared from the cliche social surroundings and like it or not, someone like me always yearns for that environment. That in fact truly describes how life in two entirely opposite countries are different for a common man - A Sunday evening in the US, is described as "depressing", "gloomy" and "stressful" - with people scurrying home in their beds to think about work or business on Monday - and just the thought of it gives you a low feeling...

On the other side, a Sunday evening in India, in Ahmedabad, is all about hustle and bustle of the frantic people flooding the awesome restaurants, movie halls, shopping malls as if it's a season of celebrations for no reason at all... Mind you, it is not that people are not working on Monday or people dont care about their businesses and Monday mornings, but it is just how we back in our country tend to ease out our stress and enjoy the real meaning of Sunday... In fact a lot of people work on Saturdays and so have only one day to enjoy as compared to the "weekend" notion of USA ... Its just we Indians know how to enjoy better !!! lol.

Well with the Gujarat Govt., spending money wisely and in a disciplined way, Ahmedabad now can boast about a lot of infrstructure developments and re-establishments. One such example being the famous old Kankaria Lake... I really wanted to take a look at it after it's restoration and took Dipali along too... What amazed to me was the fact that, people of Ahmedabad, be it any kind of recession the WORLD over is talking about, these people were ready to shell out 10 Rs. for an entry to the lake, and even further some 25 Rs. for a ride in the train. The train is the center piece of attraction and has been imported from some place(Sorry I dont know a lot of details here)... After you enter such a public place, the first generalized idea you get is - Oh man its gonna be dirty and all, people polluting the surroundings etc...

But mind you if you have not been to Kankaria, then be ready to get surprised - as people from whatsoever background they come are now aware of Public Etiquettes and not 100 % but atleast 60-70 % of the people gathered there for a quiet evening stroll, now make it a point not to spoil the image of Kankaria any more. For that I truly support the Govt., charging people to even enter the park. That is the only way one can maintain a truly beautiful public place ... I went in the night time, and so did not catch a clear glimpse of the water, but in the middle of the lake was a giant advertising screen - that showed how technology is catching up... It was a truly memorable evening and makes you fall more in love with Aapnu Amdavad !!! Pics surprisingly came out well considering it was a bit hazy and was in the night ...

Everytime I used to enter my house, the walk from the gate till my house, made me remember so many fond memories, moments that I had spent for about 21 years before coming to the USA... Each trip, each time, makes me feel so nostalgic about my home - "Champanivas" ... The compound walls, the Badam trees, the smashed window panes of my Uncle's bunglow in the front, the underbridge, the whole bunglow itself, in fact sometimes chokes me up with tears - just fondly remembering those childhood and college days spent there ... Summer time cricket, vacations, fast bicycle moments in the compound, learning my first two-wheeler, my car, flying kites, and what not ...

My cousin grand-mother (I hope that relevance means correct in English - its basically my Dadi-Kaki), had invited us for breakfast this week, and as usual her love was to the brink, when she caught my hand, and made me eat a typical winter delicacy which is good for health... My dad, my mom all are fond of her and now she too is fond of Dipali... If Dipali is not seen for some days, then she would immediately ask mom - "Where is Dipa" lol - yeah, she calls her Dipa !!! Such love, warmth and care, sometimes makes me feel as to what am I doing there back in the States, without all these emotions ... I truly believe that I am an emotional guy to some extent, but the stay in the US, did teach me a lot about being practical - but as one says - basic nature is never forgotten ... I took a lot of pics in and around my home this time with my new D-SLR to bring it back here ... The Great Champanivas ... I too have loads of stories to tell to my kids about this home, just like my Dad has told me all these years... Truly Nostalgic ...

Moving on, days passed by, with as usual the shopping trips, dinners at all the goody restaurants that Ahmedabad can boast of, and the day came when I started hearing familiar shouts of - "Kaipo che, Chal Lapet" (It's some of the words one shouts when you cut someone's kite during Uttarayan Festival) ...It was the 14th of January - The Uttarayan day, and this is one such festival which I really love, or rather time has made me enjoy amidst all that is happening in my life, the sole reason being that we the so called NRIs visit Ahmedabad during the months of Dec-Jan and this is the only festival we have on our platter. The rest of the festivals are in such months, where I can just think of enjoying ... But I have decided that maybe after my marriage next year (again which would be around Dec-Jan), I am gonna visit Ahmedabad in some odd month to enjoy some other festival - Navratri, Diwali, Summer Mangoes - anything but Dec-Jan's Uttarayan !!! lol...

My father rightly says "We, the NRIs are like the birds of Nalsarovar, who fly and come down during the winter in Dec-Jan, and as the season comes to an end, we fly back to wonderland" - How ironically true !!! Well, I wanted to take Dipali to the real show, the place where the night turns up aive, with shouts, music, cars honking their horns, people running around buying kites - Yeah - Its called "Katal ki Raat" (Meaning "The ULTIMATE NIGHT ever") ... To experience this one needs to visit some certain parts of the Walled City, and truly what an amazing festive mood it is on both sides of the road. Had to manage really hard to take some pics, but finally got some... Dipali was stunned looking at the crowd and how people were running around with their kites above their heads, and some getting their threads colored and sharpened for the important battle the next day - the battle of the kites and the threads !!!

Next day, we visited several places to be with friends and family, and of-course enjoy the kite festival ... Met my EC friends for a while, went to Dipali's family place in the afternoon and ultimately like all these years, went to Soham (Sotu's) place late evening - as he has a place inside the walled city - and believe me that is where the real Uttarayan is ... The pics speak for themselves ... Had great fun !!! But it was not over yet, my cousins had got together to fly what they call a "Tukkal" - its basically a cardboard type lantern, inside which you light up a candle and tie it to the thread of the kite and send it up - the one with the most number of such tukkals is the envy of others and people try to cut that with their own kites - so the trick is to send another guard kite for protection ... Amazing isnt it?

The week was filled with a lot of nostalgic, excited fun-filled moments, and I could give up anything to experience that again ... Its amazing how these moments are so fresh in my mind, that I can describe them to the tiniest details if asked for ... There are uncountable such outings to malls, restaurants etc which I am not unnecessarily describing here as that would just make me feel so much home sick lol :) ...

Well as always, enjoy this post till I come out with my last week at home - Week 4. As for the pics, you know what to do - just drop in a line at my email - samkit.s.shah@gmail.com OR just drop by a blank comment here on my post even if you dont feel like writing anything to this post.

To make it more interesting for me, I would like to hear about one of THE BEST memories that you would have you would like to put down here in my comments section - a memory from your childhood, a memory from any of your trip to any place, any thing worth remembering ... Do it and read it again - You would truly enjoy it till the end ...

Will be back with Week 4...
Till then - Sayounara ...

Cheers

Samkit

Week 2 - Reminiscing the Trip Back Home !!!

...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 ...

Week 2
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

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