Was away in New Jersey attending a wedding in the family.......came back last night...had the most amazing time........attended a wedding in the family after the longest time........cant describe how that feels......
reached Baltimore, Maryland on Friday evening ......had someone pick me up from there and reached the 'shaadi ka ghar' in about two hours......since we got stuck up in traffic we reached late ........by then all but the bride and a couple of others had left for the hall for the 'sangeet'......reached the 'sangeet'/'dandiya' just in time.......I love dancing to 'desi' music......somehow I am not that comfortable going to a night club and dancing away to some trance music.... but the best part was hanging out with family........due to the distances here we don’t end up meeting that often....plus some of my family was here from India....so that was the icing on the cake....enjoyed myself thoroughly and it was nearly 2 in the night when we stopped..........back home we stayed up into the wee hours of morning chugging on beers and laughing at the stupidest things.....

as we grow up the excitement that u derive from a marriage in the family changes.....the level may not change but the type changes....as small kids I remember marriages meant good food and not being under the watchful eyes of my parents....we were given pretty much of a free hand and allowed to run all over the marriage hall....eat as much ice cream you want....I remember when I was about 8 yrs old....my youngest 'bua' got married.....I must have gulped down 8 plates of vanilla ice cream....a feat I have not yet been able to equal...leave alone beat.....as I grew older marriages meant more 'kaam' to do .......running around getting stuff....but at the same time the perks increased.....staying up till late...playing cards with all the elders......going out late in the night for coffee and pav bhaji with elder cousins and uncles......now I think we are at the other end of the spectrum where my younger cousins , nephews and nieces want to hang out with us so that they can have their share of late nights and sips of beer......

coming back to the weekend,......Saturday was spent in catching up with my cousin R./...he is going to India this week to get all the work done for his marriage that is in August.....my best buds Panter and my friend , T, my cousin S and her husband M from LA were all there....felt great to be with them......all of us in the same house........bole to 'jhakas'........the next day...Sunday was the 'shaadi'.......that was a quick affair with the excitement of stealing the groom's 'jooti'.....glad to say we were successful at that......the reception was the highlight of the day.....was not the type of reception we have in India where many a times we have nearly a thousand people who are invited......and they all line up to go on stage and meet the newly wed couple...I can imagine how tiring that is for the bride and groom........there were about 250-300 people who had been invited...and all of us had been assigned tables at which we would be seated for the rest of the evening....and the couple came personally to each table and met everyone.....a much better idea...but then the number of guests need to be limited.....so all in all it was a very nicely arranged set of functions...hats off to all the members involved in the thinking ,planning and execution.........

I hardly slept over the weekend.....was sleeping an average 4 hours every night...not once did I feel tired though......its just the excitement and the atmosphere in the house I guess that made all of us feel that energetic......came back to Ohio last night......and once I hit the sack there was no way I could get up this morning to go to the University.......tried getting up after 8 hours......but was tooo groggy.....so slept on for another 3 hours.....

I think I am all set to take this killer week by the horns now......