Gold and Beautiful

She seriously is.... These days whenever I visit someone, everyone asks me the same question.... लाडू कधी देणार ? This morning before leaving when I touched aunty's feet she said तुमच्या मनासारखा होऊ देत. Really love her for that.....

Ever since I have arrived all that dad can think about is throwing my unwanted stuff out and making space in one of the wardrobes..... So out came all those photocopied, sorry... xeroxed notes which saved the day while in engineering school :-) Then a whole bunch of greeting cards.... I don't even remember the faces of all the names on those cards.... and mom doesn't want old huge V-Day cards lying around in the house any more :-) They take too much space... I was always crazy about big cards and Anu about stuffed animals... Wonder when her huge stuffed toys are going out of the door??? And the best things.... my books!!!!! Found "The Diary of Anne Frank".... the first English non-fiction that I owned!!!!! Then "God of Small Things"..... And finally P.G. Woddehouse's "Jill the Reckless".... Actually that is not even my book... It belongs to my only IITian friend.... I am surprised that it's still lying in my house... I used to always return...

आज आजीने दृष्ट काढली. For as long as I was in India every time Anu and I dressed up and went somewhere or won some prize or on our birthday she would do this. Even if someone visited us at home and praised us she would do the same. And every time she burns the thing afterwards, she says it smells really bad because someone's bad thoughts were affecting us :-)... I always thought that it smelled bad because of the ingredients that she used, someone's नज़र or दृष्ट had nothing to do with it.... but whatever.... who else loves me enough to think so much about me???

I visited one of my cousins this weekend and caught a glimpse of "Iqbal"... First of all I don't know why people do this??? Why do you leave the TV ON when you have guests at home???? Don't you want to talk to them??? Anyways, as long as I was in India I was a huge Bollywood movie buff. Since 2001 that has changed to quite some extent... But when I saw this movie, I realized that even the crappiest of Hindi movies (don't mean Iqbal, this is a decent one) gives me an adrenaline rush... I have no clue what it is about Hindi movies, but they do bring out all the emotions in me.... I cry at the drop of a hat, laugh at the most stupid jokes and get inspired by the melodramatic, rabble-rousing monologues of Sunny paaji, Nana Patekar, Big B, or anyone else...

That was the play that I saw yesterday with my parents..... This is the best part of visiting mom n dad.... Never waste time watching a Hindi movie, but spend a lot of time chit-chatting, relaxing, watching Marathi plays, etc... And Marathi plays are really good. Every time I visited India I have seen one... सुन्दरा मना मध्ये भरली, another one that I saw last time (can't remember the name, but it was amazing with गोंधळ, लावणी, नाट्य संगीत, etc.) And this one, it was a really cool संगीत नाटक. I especially loved the really handsome peshwa types looking lead actor :-) The best part was visiting गडकरी रंगायतन.... THe place is still the same... The beautiful hand woven curtain with mirrorwork and peacocks... still exactly the same. A few mirrors shining here and there.... Those few shining mirrors in different corners used to always fascinate me as a kid, they resembled twinkling stars.... How many times have I visited that place... ever since I was a kid I have been a frequent visitor ...

Although the heat and the dust will drive you crazy, everybody still loves to visit home... More so if your parents are Shri and Snehal Dekhane..... Man, I can't remember why I left this life in the first place... You get up in the morning, somebody gives you a glass of chickoo milkshake, then you laze around, surfing on the Web and what not until lunch time, when you get a lovely home cooked meal and you don't even have to get up from your place if you don't wish to.... Every time you get out of the house, the rickshaw is right outside waiting for you and you don't have to think about the cost when buying something... Dad never says no :-) Fruits peeled, sliced, diced, served in a bowl with spoons and forks and everyone worried about how you are doing, and if you are tired because you had to go out in the heat (in a rickshaw) and wait in the AC waiting room at the dentist's office..... Ah!!! the simple pleasures of a Dekhane life.....

A really good old friend of mine sent me belated birthday wishes today... And some people are so smooth.... His email said: "Happy Belated Birthday! How do you expect me to remember your birthday, when you never look any older?" Talk about "ulta chor kotwal ko daante" but in a good way!!!! Thanks man.

Baba, Aai, Aaji and Sonal

I had been planning for this for quite some time now and was the main reason for this trip... I really wanted to celebrate my 30th birthday with my family.... Although, for everyone else it's one more birthday, I am getting older and still single (sigh!!!!!), this day was probably dreaded.... But never mind. I understand them and I understand why it is difficult for them to understand me. And I really appreciate that inspite of the fact that my parents have a hard time understanding me, they are still very supportive. So that's one reason to be satisfied and happy on this day... a great family. There are many other reasons that may not seem important to many people, but are to me because of my social and economic background... But let's not get into those... The point is I am extremely satisfied (and may I say proud...) of what I have in life and hence want to make this birthday special. We would have celebrated it yesterday itself if Anu n Amol were here... But they are c...

I was so excited to visit home after 2 1/2 years, but the trip began with a few hurdles.... First of all the weather was bad and Atlanta airport was shut down for a while. My flight was from Newark so United transferred me to another flight on Continental.... I sat there hoping to get on a flight, then hoping I would reach Newark on time and then hoping that Jet Airways would take off on time..... Finally it all hapened and I reached Mumbai, but unfortunately my baggage did not :-( or may be :-). The good thing about not getting your baggage is that you get to shop!!!! So that's exactly what I did right after landing in Mumbai... Started shopping :-). Then the visa interview.... OMG!!! It still is worse than defending your thesis/dissertation. For a 2 min interview that included 4 qts, no docs; I spent an entire day, carrying a heavy bag full of docs and waiting in anticipation, while numbers before mine and after mine were being called!!!!! Well, but at the end of the day my visa...

Yesterday we celebrated the 3rd anniversary of Arun's 30th birthday!!! I love to say it that way, sounds spl :-) Anyways, we decided to keep it simple and so I made some nice chocolate cake, champagne mojitos, linguine with pesto and pine nuts, butternut squash soup and baked tomatoes stuffed with risotto..... I can't believe that food makes me so happy that I am actually blogging about it. As a child I never tried any food. I hated almost everything and ate only sandwiches, maggie, yogurt rice and dal rice. Anyways, my food was no competition for what sire got for himself.... a G-shock!!! Yes!!! really cool !!!

I finally saw the movie today... Don't ask me why, I just had to. As I was watching the first half, the wedding preparations, I was thinkng, this is not going to happen.... He is not going through with it... And then when I saw the wedding scene I was like, I knew he would do that. She is really stupid to ever think he was going to get married. So why did she spend so many years of her life on this loser???? And the answer to that I think is very simple.... It is love, hope, faith, trust.... whatever you want to call it, but basically its the heart taking over the brain... For my GGC 1000 class, the students had to make a presentation on their favorite inspirational quotes. One of my students' quote was "Stand up for something, or else you will fall for everything". She spoke about how her boyfriend mistreated her and she let him, until one day when she realized it was not worth it and stood up for herself and left him... But the way she presented it was really nice (...