Holi Khele Raghuveera ....

Holi -  an amazing festival of colors. Another year and few more plans to hatch. Last time this time around, I was a bachelor, playing my last holi at Fremont Hindu Temple with my friends.  I did indeed not left anyone without colors who came to play Holi. A year later, the things changed drastically. It was funny and bright last time, there was no tsunami, no forecast for sandstorms, no radiation worries and above all, I was single.
This time it was more challenging. We decided to visit each and every friend we can cover in Fremont and neighboring areas. We woke up enthusiastically, all set in spirit of holi. It was raining, trying to drench our spirits to play holi, the single digit temperature failing to set us to our first destination.
Me , Anshu and Vaishu left for Nimi's place to be greeted by Nimi and Suhas. We had a wonderful time drenching ourselves in rain, colors , fun and the nature poured in with water. We had a lot of discussions where to play holi , inside their house or in open. We started out in open, and were joined by neighbouring lady. It all ended with chocolates, and a dinner invitation for next week. Giving people a 10 minute notice to be ready for Holi was fun to do .
Next we tried to call Karan, who was sleeping and didnt pick up the call. We proceeded to Jenifer's house, and had fun with the couple. Proceeded to play it with Raman and Manu. Then to Raman's mom place. Went out to Pooja's place , but she was also not in town.
We were hungry and so we had to eat something. The procession went ahead to Vineeta di and Raju's house . The reluctant people were not letting us in, but eventually the cold weather let them invite us in. It was followed by majestic display of colors. We had a nice lunch and wonderful reception of lunch.
We came back to our place and then got ready for dinner with Anjali and her husband. Had a lotta fun time and fittingly it ended with another splash of colors 1:30 AM ... 

Jab We Met

Boy meets girl in a coffee shop and a saga begins. "Ek nazar mein bhi pyar hota hai, maine suna hai" - seems to be coming true.


Its almost a year since we met, but its seems like it was yesterday. Every word of our conversation is fresh in our minds. It felt like "Na jaane kyun, hota hai ye zindagi ke saath, Achanak ye mann, kisike jaane ke baad, kare phir uski yaad, chhoti chhoti si baat".


One look into Anshu's majestic eyes told me "She is the one for me". "Is jahan ki nahi hai tumhari aankhein, Asmaan se yeh kisne utari aankhein".


But nothing was set in stone and with Anshu's India trip, things slowed down. Deepak's calls in India, kept some flame ignited. It felt like there was a connection.


Anshu's return to the country, felt like "Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho, Tou saari kayanath tumhe usse milane ki koshish me lag jaati hai". There our lives took a new turn and we broke the news to our families. Aag dono taraf barabar lagi thi and Apr 10th, 2010 ko aap sabne milke humein hamari chahat se mila diya". Thank you ! "Kitne hi door door hon, hum donon ke raaste, Mil jaate hain jo bane, ek duje ke vaaste. Ek duje ke vaaste" !!


Now its feels like "Tera mujhse hai pehle ka naata koi, Yunhi nahi dil lubhata koi" and "Kaise mujhe tum mil gaye, kismat pe aaye na yakin".


Finally, "Mere haath mein tera haath ho, Saari jannatein mere saath ho,
Tu jo paas ho, phir kya yeh jahaan, Tere pyar mein ho jaaun fanaa" !!! 


-- In own words by Anshu , and one of the best things to be posted on this blog ...

Monterey bay

It has been a dream too long to have a room by side of ocean, a beach just a few feet away and sleep in the sound of water. Go down the beautiful beach, listen to the music of water , watch the waves crash into each other and crumble to the madness of luxury entire sea has to offer, then go down and try to reach the farthest land it can , and still not touch the point it desires.
Monterey is 70 miles from Fremont, and is famous for its fishery and the coastline. More important , it is just an hour drive from Fremont. So all bags set and packed to go there.
Destination : Best Western Beach Resort , Monterey
Partners in crime: Me, Anshu , Vaishu , Vikram
The Car : Brand New Infiniti G 37 (touchwood)

We started off as usual in the lazy manner, with the target leaving time as 930 AM, we barely made out of bed by that time. We hit the road as late as 11:15 PM , and encountered heavy traffic. The initial drive to Big Sur was cut short by heavy traffic , and we decided to check in the hotel first. We got the room at 2:15 PM and drove directly to big sur, even without unloading. We did have a slice of food while waiting for the room keys. Big Sur.  The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big country of the south".
The first point we crossed was bixby Creek Bridge, and we stopped for a couple of shots of the famous bridge. The entire drive was scenic and awesome for anyone who loves Sea. Different shades of water could be found nearly everywhere from lighest shade of blue to the darkest of green. The underwater life along with possible white sand and rocks gave it a majestic look. What looked from a distance was silent sea, protesting violently at the shore. And we moved on the final destination Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. We took a short trail to the national park which had one of the smallest but most popular waterfall I have seen, and possibly the only one not to have public access. It seems amazing how the supply of water in that tiny waterfall has persisted over the years.
 We then had a small photo session here and there, and planned to go either for 17 mile drive or Fisherman Wharf in Monterey enroute to Best Western Resort. The sunlight prompted us to go directly to the resort, for that majestic sunset we might just be able to watch. The decision worked perfectly fine as we were able to witness the majestic sunset. I had earlier seen Sunrise in Nandi Hills , and missed the opportunity to see famous Darjeeling sunrise in 2002 (still repenting it ), but this was not to be missed. captured the sun naked hand , and tried to stop it , but it just did not. I came to know one more thing, they lied. All those poets who claimed sun goes in sea lied. I was by the bay , the Pacific Ocean, and it still went behind the hills on the side. The pace it went down with made us wonder, is Earth rotating really that fast, or we were just so majestically enthralled in the experience that the time just flew by.
As it went down, all partners in crime just got few mice running in stomach, we have been traveling whole day with skipped meals, the small place had whole lot of options. You name the cuisine and it had it, from cheap to most expensive. We jumped into the new Infiniti and hoped it give us all the options , which it promptly did. I will skip the discussions what followed to decide what happened, but took another 20 minutes to finalize a venue , which we promptly discarded as soon as we saw the ambiance of the place . The dinner was then done at Round Table Pizza , followed with Ice Cream at Baskin Robins and played a handful of cards before we retired off to sleep for next day plans.
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