Mish-mosh

AHMEDABAD - So, I've been in A'bad for about 2 weeks... here's a quick update.

I chilled in the gaam of Paldi 3 hour North of Delhi for about 8 days (Sampat left in about 6 to head to Mumbai). Basically.. I explored the village and talked to all sorts of people in the village. Some of the issues tha were explored: education, condition of Muslims, caste, the migration of villagers to Delhi, agriculture and the change over the years, etc. And, each evening, we talked to Ransinghji for a couple hours about Jeevan Vidya, and his life.

After that, I headed to Delhi for 3 nights... where I chilled with Maneka and her family!!! I took pictures... but for some reason, all the pictures got erased from my camera. =( So, I don't have any of those... It was definitely cool hanging with Manks again!!!!

Then.. back to Ahmedabad... where I sat around for a few days...

I played in a 30-hour STRAIGHT basketball tourney! They play THROUGH the night.. there are games at 3 am! It's nuts. I have a crew out here that I play b-ball here with.. it's pretty sweet.. they play everyday at 4:30 pm. My team had a pretty good schedule.. we played at 8:30 pm, then at 6:30 am.. so, we actually had time to sleep. We won the first game, and lost our second. Most memorable - we got these jerseys that say "Ahmedabad XI" across the chest... (11 because that's how many people are on a cricket team... makes logical sense), and I got a technical foul during the first game! (for an exciting retelling of the events.. check out ~~> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pankajraval/india_excursion/1134902340/tpod.html)

Then... everyone started coming in, and it was Paras and Shiv's wedding!!!!!! I kept going back n forth between Paras's side and Shivani's side... helping out wherever I could with the wedding prep... going shopping with Sagar and Paras, etc. Both the mom's weren't too happy as I constantly was chided with taunts such as, "traitor", "spy", etc. =) It was difficult for the parents to deal with all the frsutrations of doing business in India (inefficiency, negotiating prices, unreliablilty, "fikar nai karo, thai jaisai" mentality). But, the weekend went smooth... garba was a blast (from Paras's Mukesh's Uncle's family TAKING OVER the Sangeet program, to Sagar's gift of Paras and Shiv's faces painted on MUD flaps, to Sagar bringing Paras and Shiv on a BICYCLE RICKSHAW to start the Garba, to Sagar's blowing of the conch to start garba, finally, to the unclimactic only ONE hour of garba!). The wedding was great as well... and I was one of Paras's two "anwars" (best man). Interestingly, the day before the wedding, I was at Shivani's "mandap murat" and I was her "bhai" when they needed 5 brothers. And, then... being NRI season, I saw tons of people... most memorable... I saw Roomie (Sandeep) and Ammie!!!!!!! I was VERY excited!!! And I also saw Srujal and Veeral.. as they came to the wedding too! There were many other NRI's up in the mix as well... (I saw Jigish - UCLA - shopping on CG Road in A'bad). At some point, there will be a link to many, many pictures from the wedding.

Now... tomorrow... I am headed to Chennai with Sagar, Shiv, and Paras (they'll do their "real" honeymooon some other time), and we'll be there from the 27th to the 3rd. Most likely, we're first going to go to Auroville (www.auroville.org.in) for a night or two, and then go to this NGO called Bless, (www.bless.org.in), and hopefully will be able to help out in some way... They work in many villages that were hit by the tsunami last year, and by floods and cyclones this year.

That's my "quick" update....

I hope EVERYONE had a merry x-mas... and I hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!