Gold and Beautiful

I was totally surprised (very pleasantly) when I found out that my colleagues were throwing me a wedding shower... I was even more surprised to see so many people at the event during the final week of the semester.. It was really nice of all of them to plan and attend this shower for me. Jam also baked a 3-tiered cake for me!!! Isn't it the most wonderful thing to do??? The top of that cake is now sitting in our freezer. Apparently we are supposed to eat that cake an year after the wedding, but I am not sure if we can wait for that long!!! Well, the food was great, the conversations about weddings in different cultures were great, I was happy to answer all the questions about Indian weddings...... Oh! and did I mention that the gifts were great too ?? :-)

We were trying to decide our wedding menu this morning and after looking at the booklet for some time we decided to give up and let our parents decide.... We had no clue what most of the things on that menu were. What the heck is "Tawa Taka Tak" and how come "Italian Rasgulla" is a Bengali sweet dish???? What happened to plain old "Mattha" (spiced buttermilk)??? Oh!!! How much I love mattha.... But apparently just because we live in the US and don't eat all the food that ppl back home eat, doesn't mean that we can have "bharli vangi"... guests expect something more... anything but Maharashtrian!!! Along with the main course that includes 3 vegetables, 2 types of rotis, 2 desert dishes you can also pay more to have Italian counters, mexican counters, chaat counters and south Indian counters.... Why would I want to have pasta, tacos and paneer makhanwala all at the same time?? What kind of menu is that?? Apparently a very hit one.... We are

I have tons of things running in my head today... I am not thinking of anything else after a long time!!! Anyways, talking about reality shows... From watching a man fishing on an island alone on CBS's Survivor to _________ on _________ (just plug in any stupid reality show on any ntework!!) reality shows have become worse and people have gone crazy!!! Seriously crazy... The crazy participants on American Idol, who know they have no chance of being on the show, but yet don't mind making a fool of themselves on national television to get on national television to the stupid balloon boy parents and the really gutsy White House party crashers, these people are not just stupid but also dangerous... I mean come on.... what will these people do next to be on TV??? The same show (Real Housewives of...) that the Salahis are trying to get into is based in quite a few cities. I saw an episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta and was totally shocked... Without going into details, let me

I was watching Shashi Tharoor's speech at TED conference on India's soft power ( Video ). He said in India, a nation of 81% "Hindus", a "woman" of "Italian" origin and "Catholic" was chosen by majority to lead the nation. She then made way for a "Sikh" man to be sworn in as the prime minister by a "Muslim" president. As compared to a nation like US that took 200 years to elect an African-American as their President and have yet to see a female President. And really if you think about it, the smaller, poorer nations that we say are way behind developed countries like US have had female prime ministers. So how come these women in countries that are still "developing" were able to break the glass ceiling ( List of women prime ministers )??? And what is stopping women in USA?? Is it double standards?? In a nation that has almost 50% divorce rate ( divorce rates in America ), divorced candidates don't stand a

Wow.... We hosted 5 adults and 2 kids in our tiny little condo this Thanksgiving. Cooked lots of food....(I had to stuff them all so that everyone looks heavier than me at the wedding ;-)). It was an amazing weekend (with gifts and all!!!)... Did quite a few touristy things and laying around at house too.... Reminded me of the days when we were kids and had family functions... It used to be so much fun!! We even played Judgment... just like Ganesh Chaturthi @ Thane.. Can't believe we already had our family union here... Before this it was always with friends and no matter how much fun that is, it's not the same as spending time with family members... Really hoping that this will end up being an annual ritual!!! And did I mention that I still can't stop smiling when I remember Amol serving himself "dal" on my "citrus rice salad" instead of the dressing!!!!! (Sorry dude!! I had to mention it :-)) To more Maggiano dinners :-)