Hola Amigos...
It has been a long break from blogging - i wouldnt ever say time was the constraint , time and the "mood" never came in together.
There is no better way to break the break with a note about my best friend's wedding which has been an adventure in every angle of it
A little look into history/...
Vivek a.k.a Kumbz was one of my best friends at work, a couple of years ago he moved out from our common place of work...
We(The smart Kart, Cricket fanatic Maddy, iyengar Kumbz and me) were a close knit group of four at our lovely apartment in snow clad minneapolis..Our fav pastime was to chat with our laptops at different corners of the house and also communicating abt dinner or outing plans thru Yahoo chat ;-)
Kart had a chatfriend from Texas and one day she wanted to talk to all of the roomies, we were all excited and the order was decided on descending order of age , that failed me or madhu getting the first chance... Vivek started to talk to Ana and the chat never ended .. the sambar he was cooking burnt out and even the smoke didn't deter the " cultural , political and geographical " discussion in progress.
Anyways to close it - madhu or myself didnt even get to say Hi to the invisible friend of Kart's. The initial discussion led to many late nite discussions mainly revolving on how can the Indo-US relation improve etc etc and ultimately leading to a gr8 decision from both of em to get married.... Out of the group of four I couldnt attend the marriage of Kart and Madhu as I was at onsite,, so this was the chance for me to attend the wedding of my friend...
Kart and myself love to travel and do crazy stuff including attending the machine gun firing festival at Kentucky , skydiving ,going to the range and stuff like that.We made our plans to be at the side of the groom.. I was also to be the best man at the wedding, i scrambled for my suit and packed my bags.I flew from minneapolis to Dallas and Kart joined me at the airport from Chicago. Kart is one of the finest guys when it comes to planning and execution - he has a flair of his own !! He had planned the trip to the hour..I was so hungry at dallas that before we started the Toyota Prius ,took some bites of the delicious stuffed chappathi rolls that Kavi had prepared for us (my mouth still waters thinking of it.. awesome). We had to play with the Key Fob of the prius as both of us were not used to it, it even had a camera to help when we were backing up..Kart took the wheels and we took turns with the prius all thru the 9 hour drive ,, stopping for some red bulls and chips.. we are great company together and the topics of discussion matches always...
We drove through to McAllen, the southern most tip of TX , seperated from mexico by just a river..we could see the Border Patrol guards patrolling the streets looking for illegal immigrants...It is always advisable to carry your passport with valid visa, as the state IDs are very much scrutinized and may take a lot of time to get validated.We reached McAllen and met my friend and his would be family !! The warmth was awesome and we could sense the vibes of love all around !! Vivek and ana were in great spirits and the groom was very happy to see our faces ...
That night we decided to hunt for some mexican food at a local taqueria , had some coronas and some mexican food dont remember the dishes now.. but they tasted lots different than the pancheros , the baja sols or the other american "customized" mexican restaurants !!
We had an invite for breakfast the next day, Ana's parents and relatives joined us for breakfast. As I wanted to taste some authentic Texan stuff , Ana had bought some barbacoa from the flea market. Barbacoa is a dish made of Cow's tongue, seems chewy but i believe me its very soft and with the right cooking time its delicious.We were served with barbacoa and nopalis (dish made out of cactus). I loved the barbacoa and kart voted for the nopalis. We had tamales prepared at home and had some soup made of cow's intestine(I didnt relish it much because it had a leafy flavor to it , and not the gamy one as on mutton soups) = the cows dont go a waste in TX. I have never felt or seen such closely knit family in the US heard the more we go South the more strength the family bond has .. may be true !!
We were all set for the W-Day, though Vivek seemed all cool, we could sense the pressure he was going through - i thanked myself for coming down here to be with him , the same I couldnt do for kart or madhu !The wedding had a very small gathering comparing to the Indian wedding galas. I doubled myself as the best man for the wedding and after the ring exchange it was all tears of happiness. We had the tradition of the $dance where we can dance with the groom or bride and pay them for that !! After all emotions settled , there was enough time to make new friends from his extended family and it was all fun.. the senoritas are better than the made up ones up north ...
All ended well and we bid adieu to the new couple and we had to drive early AM to Dallas for our flights .. It was a truely a great experience and hats off to you Mr."Gaucho" Kumbz for being one in a million !! One thing still missing is - the CD of the pictures that my friend promised to send it to me -- vivek if u read this plz ship it to south america , you cudve saved some $$ if it was done to mpls...
Lastest flash news : " Kumbz weds again.. same girl , different place, with Indian customs.. " 2 weddings, 1 girl , different styles - one life, u rock senor !! Salutes to you mate !!
Chao chao guys !
It has been a long break from blogging - i wouldnt ever say time was the constraint , time and the "mood" never came in together.
There is no better way to break the break with a note about my best friend's wedding which has been an adventure in every angle of it
A little look into history/...
Vivek a.k.a Kumbz was one of my best friends at work, a couple of years ago he moved out from our common place of work...
We(The smart Kart, Cricket fanatic Maddy, iyengar Kumbz and me) were a close knit group of four at our lovely apartment in snow clad minneapolis..Our fav pastime was to chat with our laptops at different corners of the house and also communicating abt dinner or outing plans thru Yahoo chat ;-)
Kart had a chatfriend from Texas and one day she wanted to talk to all of the roomies, we were all excited and the order was decided on descending order of age , that failed me or madhu getting the first chance... Vivek started to talk to Ana and the chat never ended .. the sambar he was cooking burnt out and even the smoke didn't deter the " cultural , political and geographical " discussion in progress.
Anyways to close it - madhu or myself didnt even get to say Hi to the invisible friend of Kart's. The initial discussion led to many late nite discussions mainly revolving on how can the Indo-US relation improve etc etc and ultimately leading to a gr8 decision from both of em to get married.... Out of the group of four I couldnt attend the marriage of Kart and Madhu as I was at onsite,, so this was the chance for me to attend the wedding of my friend...
Kart and myself love to travel and do crazy stuff including attending the machine gun firing festival at Kentucky , skydiving ,going to the range and stuff like that.We made our plans to be at the side of the groom.. I was also to be the best man at the wedding, i scrambled for my suit and packed my bags.I flew from minneapolis to Dallas and Kart joined me at the airport from Chicago. Kart is one of the finest guys when it comes to planning and execution - he has a flair of his own !! He had planned the trip to the hour..I was so hungry at dallas that before we started the Toyota Prius ,took some bites of the delicious stuffed chappathi rolls that Kavi had prepared for us (my mouth still waters thinking of it.. awesome). We had to play with the Key Fob of the prius as both of us were not used to it, it even had a camera to help when we were backing up..Kart took the wheels and we took turns with the prius all thru the 9 hour drive ,, stopping for some red bulls and chips.. we are great company together and the topics of discussion matches always...
We drove through to McAllen, the southern most tip of TX , seperated from mexico by just a river..we could see the Border Patrol guards patrolling the streets looking for illegal immigrants...It is always advisable to carry your passport with valid visa, as the state IDs are very much scrutinized and may take a lot of time to get validated.We reached McAllen and met my friend and his would be family !! The warmth was awesome and we could sense the vibes of love all around !! Vivek and ana were in great spirits and the groom was very happy to see our faces ...
That night we decided to hunt for some mexican food at a local taqueria , had some coronas and some mexican food dont remember the dishes now.. but they tasted lots different than the pancheros , the baja sols or the other american "customized" mexican restaurants !!
We had an invite for breakfast the next day, Ana's parents and relatives joined us for breakfast. As I wanted to taste some authentic Texan stuff , Ana had bought some barbacoa from the flea market. Barbacoa is a dish made of Cow's tongue, seems chewy but i believe me its very soft and with the right cooking time its delicious.We were served with barbacoa and nopalis (dish made out of cactus). I loved the barbacoa and kart voted for the nopalis. We had tamales prepared at home and had some soup made of cow's intestine(I didnt relish it much because it had a leafy flavor to it , and not the gamy one as on mutton soups) = the cows dont go a waste in TX. I have never felt or seen such closely knit family in the US heard the more we go South the more strength the family bond has .. may be true !!
We were all set for the W-Day, though Vivek seemed all cool, we could sense the pressure he was going through - i thanked myself for coming down here to be with him , the same I couldnt do for kart or madhu !The wedding had a very small gathering comparing to the Indian wedding galas. I doubled myself as the best man for the wedding and after the ring exchange it was all tears of happiness. We had the tradition of the $dance where we can dance with the groom or bride and pay them for that !! After all emotions settled , there was enough time to make new friends from his extended family and it was all fun.. the senoritas are better than the made up ones up north ...
All ended well and we bid adieu to the new couple and we had to drive early AM to Dallas for our flights .. It was a truely a great experience and hats off to you Mr."Gaucho" Kumbz for being one in a million !! One thing still missing is - the CD of the pictures that my friend promised to send it to me -- vivek if u read this plz ship it to south america , you cudve saved some $$ if it was done to mpls...
Lastest flash news : " Kumbz weds again.. same girl , different place, with Indian customs.. " 2 weddings, 1 girl , different styles - one life, u rock senor !! Salutes to you mate !!
Chao chao guys !
