Sometimes its good 2 grow old..

This was the 1st time in my life I was gonna celebrate my b'de away from home, away from parents but trust me this was a very unique and a special b'de! I had a gala time.

When we came from Mumbai we were ard 15-20 of us. As the college started every1 got so busy that though we are leaving in the same place we dont even get to see each other : calls are free at any time of day - everyone has everyones numbers but no1 has time to call each other. So we planned for a small get together as well as my b'de party.

To celebrate someones b'de by calling all friends s kind of a ritual here. Whoevers b'de it is : her roomies call that b'de persons friends by mailing them or calling them. But we thought of something novel. So we made an e-invite and sent it to every1.I think all of you must have received my b'de e-invite. Apt 705 is our apartment number.. and as we as a family are invitinng you to tha party so we just configured that rathering than putting a name of all we'll just send it out like this... So the e-invites were sent... All the people registered and came.. Trust me we had invited 35 people and almost 32 popped in.. The 3 missing people had genuine reasons like they were not there in the town or something similar to that... Rest all people came and stayed till 4.30 in the morning..

Ok now comes the cake part... We had in total 3 cakes.. 2 my roomies actually made at home and we bought form a grocery store called Safeway... The guests were supposed to arrive at 11. We started the cake prep at around 5... its was awesome.. 1 was mixing the atta.. 1 was beating the eggs.. 1 was taking of the oven temperature... 1 was making the cream... we had a gala time... but there was a small bowl of batter just kept in corner... which I had bno clue why it was lying there...

Aftere the cakes were kept for baking purposes we started having our fillers... 1 of my room mates had got a Teaching Assistantship during start of the semester itself so her party was pending.. she readily agreed to treat us all with a pizza... so ordered pizzas from Pizza hut.. pizza huts pizza was sooo good.. it was just over in few minutes... then the hall was looking terrible...especially with 7 gals living in an apt with off white carpet... One can imagine.. So we started vaccumming it and everything... Till then it was like 9.30 or around...

Now gals and party.. they have to look best... especially with around 28 guys coming at my place... So here starts the grooming process... Hair straightening session... applying face packs... 10 times changing dresses and trying different outfits and all... It lasted for an hour or two.... And here we were ready for the 1st party happening at 705... Around 12.05 everyone started popping in... Right from phone calls to guests.... It was nice to see everyone.. Everyone was meeting eachother after a long time... then we started that - it seems we are meeting a Hotel Jyoti again (Hotel Jyoti was the place in dadar-east where we used to have our GMU Mumbai pre-arrival meets)... My masi , my uncle and 2 my cousins had also joined us... So it was amazing.... we had fun...

For the refreshments part we had kept coke , mountain dew and 3 different kinds of chips ... After every1 came and kindoff settled in we started the cake cutting session around 12.45am.... Oh My God (OMG)..... Here comes the small bowl of batter kept in corner again in picture.. They actually applied the batter on my face and hair and OMG... I was a complete piece of mess....But after every1 had a 1st look at the cake they were amazed and were asking did you actually make it @ home.. its awesome and beautiful and every1 loved it ... Seriously the cake had come out really good...

The batter got all messed up in my hair and took ages for me to clean it..... Every1 helped themselves with pieces of cakes and soft drinks and chips.. After that my masi and her family left as they were getting late to go home... we started our chit chat sessions... we were like .. lets play some truth and dare... but the guys were not interested at all... so we strated with the simple apna games - Dum Sharads...Ok Now this game was hilarious... the way every1 thinks and acts is amazing...1 of my friend was given Takdeerwala name... He explained d movie like train - destination-destiny-takdeer... rather than just showing takeer by pointing your forhead...hehehhehehe... it was funny....We had couple of rounds of Dum Sharads...Which I missed half the rounds as I was busy attending calll from India ...

Then after sometime it started getting monotonous and we decided to go for a break... which happened to be my 2nd cake cutting which happened at around 2.50am or near around... then we cut the cake we had purchased from Safeway.. My roomies dint spare me this time too... Again I was given a facial of choclate and cream... Thankfully my hair were spared this time... Later every1 had the cake... 1 of my friends is really good at card tricks so he was showing them... Then as the clock ticked around 3.45am we were asking all of them wether they were interested in having the 3rd cake too... But every1 was full and then slowly they started to leave....

So practically my Party ended at around 4.30 in the morning... OK now Thanks giving its importance.. how and why is it celebrated...

I slept at around 4.30 and had to get up in d morning around 9.30 as everyone from India was calling and I had 2 attend to my project 2... So I was supposed to reach my friends place at 11 but due to the calls and due to the batter stuck in my hair- my hair wash lasted a little longer than expected... I reached his place at around 12 finally... But the mood was a bit melancholy on my b'de due to the attacks going on in Mumbai.. so doing the projects side by side we were also watchhing NDTV live streaming ...as the attacks were on peak at that time...

After doing some project work I returned home at around 5 pm.. My roomies had till then cooked a treat for me... all my fav subzis, dal, dhokla sandwhiches, parathaas,, and wat not... Love u gals... They really left no stone unturned to make my day special.. So I had this amazing lunch at 6pm in the evening absolutely clueless that I have to eat a humongous Thanks giving dinner at my masis place in another hour...Anyways... My masi wanted me to come at her place on my b'de anyhow... So althought it was impossoble for me to go I had to.. So I went in the evening 7 at her place...

Thanks giving dinner was an experience all by itslef... 1st of all Thanksgiving festival has its own history.. Incase any1 is interested.. Its like many years ago... Americans dint know anything.. So British taught them everything like how to cook, farm, hunt.. In return to thank them the Americans host this dinner on every 4th Thursday of November(which also happened to be my birthday this year)... In which a huge treat is cooked whose main item is the cooked turkey... Which obviously vegeterians dont eat so my masi dint have it... instead she had many other delicious dishes... like potato gratten (Made of potato and cheese). Spanish Rice(a Kind of rice with keshar and many spices...hmmm.. delicious)....a very different kind of bread with dressing(Of olive oil and black pepper).. deserts(all kinds of pastries)..and then there is this drink called apple sider(Its made of some apple pulp and elaichi: Its supposed to be drank hot...its nice)... trust me i only ate 5% of this meal... As I was sooooooooooo full...

Thus ended my b'de... with an extremely heavily packed stomach and very tired body....hehehehe... No grudges... I Lived every moment of that day of mine...and as I say sometimes its good 2 grow old..

The Multi-Phases of an Individuals Life Abroad...

Till date the craze and the hype of coming to The United States of America is to the highest level. As a matter of fact I know its gonna continue for atleast another decade. But after landing to US I dont understand what people are so crazy for . Is it about the cold weather (where you atleast need 25-30 minutes to wear all those layers of clothes before you even step out of your house to check your mail) or about cleaning your own bathroom by your own precious hands(as a student or even an H1 applicant I dont think anyone can afford to hire a Hispanice female to do the special chore for you) or is it the Tissue Culture(I dont need to explain this I guess..Its a real nuisance and extremely unhygenic especially for a true Indian who believes in spilling more water on the floor than what he actually uses) .. huh!!!! ok... as all of you must have come to know by now . I am not a very big fan of this "US" Lifestyle... To disclose a fact before coming to US I never fantasized about the whole thing of coming to 1 of the most devloped countries in the world and how amazing its gonna be.. I never had that bit of thrill and excitment in me about living alone from parents - take the extra advantage of getting the freedom and enjoying it. As a matter of fact I felt it as a not the very pleasant side. Living away form your parents means so much of resposiblity.. so much of work.. When I was leaving from my home I was just a 22 year old girl who had the habit of not getting up every morning till my Mom loses her temper and at night not going to bed till Dad loses his... So to make it short I was and I am form a very middle class conservative background where my Dadi has to make sure that both her grand daughters are well inside the house before the clock strucks 10 at night. So after coming to US it was like a big mystery for me.. "To take the advatnage of your freedom means exactly do what " Go out to pubs till late night and drink... But everything costs money man... And that also dollars out here... Trust me I am still pondering on this topic...

After shifting to US "Indiscipline" has become the most prominent word in my life. There is no fixed time at what we sleep.. Oops !! I am sorry there might not be a fixed time but yes there is a fixed time range... We definately never sleep before 2am and never ever get up before 10am.. No matter what happens.. The smoke detector goes on or there is a fire-engine down our building . We just dont care... Then at around 12pm or sometimes its also 2 or 3 in the afternoon that I get up.. Then goes the standard breakfast.. Cereals and Milk! In another hour or 2 it gets dark as if its already 10 in the night.. The whole day is just wasted either in kitchen racking your brains on what to cook or it may be actual cooking or it can even be cleaning the utensils that your roomies wants to use and you have left it unwashed from your last night dinner....

But as they say evey coin has two sides.... Now about the other side of this so called happening life in the States... The best part is you learn to cook! No matter you are a gal or a guy... This two years of masters you learn to atleast fetch yourself a meal that will help you survive.. You learn to value even a small stick of corriander leaf and how valuable it is... I dont know how true this is for every individual but thats what says my personal experience! After coming anywhere abroad you understand what miracles have some people made by making talk engines like skype or gtalk... It really makes me feel that the world is a small place to live when I was having a conference call with my friends 1 from UK, 1 from Mumbai and 1 from a remote town in the middle of Maharastra (state in India). After living alone you even understand the value of the culture your parents have just embedded within you. And not only that you understand the value of just having people around you, talking to you, caring about you..its actually so animated! Once I shifted in with my 6 room mates in this spacious 3BHK apt I had a tryst with this feeling of responsiblity towards my house. It all started by keeping the house clean, getting the furniture which suits the house.. This was a new feeling for me.. It was never before like this for me.. It was always my Mom-Dads duty to take care of the house. It was a new and very sweet feeling. Seemed like growing up all over again in life...

To brief up the stay away form once home is like biting a piece of tamarind you never know when its sweet and when its sour... For me staying here is all about carrying gallons of milk all the way from the grocery store in the cold, its about getting excited to see you friends away in India online and chatting with them for hours, its all about going through some old photographs and crying like a baby all of a sudden, its all about having fun with 7 gals cooking in the same kitchen and having fun cooking, its all about missing that warm hug form your mom and waiting for the day to rise in India and hear her voice on the Skype call again, its all about sitting at Dunkin in night sipping hot choclate while it is -10C outside, its all about missing your grandparents and there questions which were like a nuisance to answer then but which you die for when you are away, its all about checking for the lowest calling cards rate so that you can call them, its all about staying up till 5am solving just 3 problems of your assingment,its all about missing you and your sister wearing your clothes and making the fit go wrong,its all about giving your roomies your clothes to make up for that mistake......

I really miss all of you.... Bye! God bless you...