Family and friends rock!

Hey friends…I know I have become very lazy and haven’t written a blog for a very long time now. But nothing very great happened in my life in the last month, except a few great moments.

Great moment no1: My parents’ 26^th anniversary

This was much anticipated (from the last year…when they celebrated their 25^th anniversary), but we couldn’t celebrate it as I lost my granddad. But this year, I thought of having a small celebration inviting only close friends. I had already gifted my parents a microwave oven :). The celebrations took place on August 9 (the anniversary was on July 30). My mother looked gorgeous in a navwari sadi and my dad wore a normal shirt pant (you know how dads are). They both looked really good together. We had a yadnya puja, which was like marrying them again with all the rituals including the saptapadi (its like saat pheras, but only the bride walks on the seven mounds of rice and her groom holds her hand) and they also exchanged garlands. The highlight of the evening was the ukhanas (husband’s name taken in a poetic form…gosh these translations!) taken by my aai and her friends. The traditional Brahmin food consisting of lip smacking puran poli, katachi aamti and aloochi bhaji was also a hit!

Great moment no2: Ganesh Chaturthi

After many years, I got to see the bringing of Lord Ganesha and participated in the aarti. Our Avachat family Ganpati is brought and worshipped at my eldest uncle’s place in Dombivali. And believe it or not, our Ganpati resides in our house for 21 days! The visarjan happens after 21 days. Long time I must say in the era of didh diwasacha Ganpati (Ganpati which is worshipped for one and a half days). The miravnuk (procession) of my uncle’s society’s Ganpati was really very nice. It had all the traditional elements including dhol-tashe, lezim and human pyramids. The most interesting thing was the food and the modaks- lots of them! I had a great time with my brother Viraj, my mother, friend Joanna and my two cute nieces- Varada and Anushree. We played games together, went to see other Ganpatis of the area and for a long drive too. Majja aali!

Great moment no3: Sleepover with friends, movie with my mom

After a long time I got a 4 day holiday…a long enough time duration to catch up with family and friends. I met my Japanese friends and had a great time with them over a cuppa of chai at the Ranade Institute, my alma mater. Next up was a sleepover at my friend Pradnya’s place. She is getting married next month, so we all wanted to revive the old moments of meeting and staying at each other’s places before she got married. She had made pav bhaji for us and we tried to help her! We yapped in the loudest possible noise level and laughed loudly for no reason, like the way we used to do earlier. We exchanged gifts, talked and gossiped till late and also had a pillow fight. How much I miss those days.

Next up was a Yoville moment with my bro. I spent a considerable amount of time playing Yoville on Facebook with my bro. we threw soap balloons on each other, told jokes, I even kissed him to embarrass him on Yoville. He also flirted with other girls online, that too, for the first time and in front of me! Uski yeh majaal ;).

On Saturday, I saw Kaminey with friends. We had a great time (as usual) with each other. Sunday, was my favourite day as I saw a movie with my mom after ages- a very nice Marathi film called Rita. We enjoyed a lot.

Every moment of my trip was memorable. Looking forward to many such pleasant moments in my life.

Thank you all- my family and friends. :)