My most exciting moment of 2008?

Well, it wasn't driving on the Autobahn at 210kph or the amazing pizzas, pastas or gelatos in Italy. It wasn't missing the train from Venice and taking the night journey halfway around Europe. It wasn't sliding on ice on my bum at 30kph in switzerland or watching the Prague castle light up around dusk. It wasn't even the 5 for I took while bowling legspin for Turnham Green.

My most exciting moment of 2008 happened to me as I walked out of a meeting in India. It had nothing to do with work. There I was sitting and minding my own business when Anusha called me from the UK to tell me that she was pregnant !!!!!

Yep, you read it right. We are having a baby... YAAYyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

Of course that's a big reason why we haven't been travelling much for the last couple of months and I don't think we will be for the next month or so. Although come Feb, our Trips tag should start seeing some more action.

The other thing I am planning to do is to start off a blog. A support group for fathers-to-be :) Let's see if I get any traction on that one. Surprisingly, there are a few people I know in the same boat and am sure there are thousands of others out there ! :)

Forgot to talk about Diwali !!!!

I know I am a few months late :) but better late than never. As I was about to write our last trip of 2008, I started reminiscing about the Diwalis of the old. Arvind, Ranganath and I used to go pretty crazy around Diwali, spending a lot of dad's hard earned money on new clothes, gifts and lots and lots of patakas!!! Wish I had some pictures of the older Diwalis we spent in Delhi.

Once Arvi moved to the US. I did spend the next couple of years still carrying on the flame and lighting patakas and racing rockets in the park and creating havoc, Diwali was never the same.

Roll forward a few years, add a wife and a bunch of new oldies to the equation and Diwali starts looking like a bit of a drag. Planning Diwali as a married couple is a very tricky affair. Which bunch of oldies do we spend it with? Where do we spend our time? What shape should the Diwali function take blah blah blah. The whole spirit of Diwali gets pretty crushed :) under the weight of all these decisions and discussions.

Diwali 2005: Anusha and my first Diwali as a married couple
I planned a perfect escape. Had 10 days off and didnt want to waste it hence we drove off to Goa as quickly and with as short a notice as possible. :) This was supposed to be the big function diwali and big dinner etc. Instead, we drove over the hills into Mangalore, stopping over for lunch in Udipi, a beach stay at Karwar and then finally GOA !!! We hadn't booked for any place to stay anywhere and it was very much a spur of the moment plan with negiations on room rates as we went along. We came back through Jog falls and Shimoga after spending the Diwali in style.











Diwali 2007: Return of the Jedis
We had decided to spend this Diwali in Bangalore. For mom and dad, this Diwali was going to be big with Arvi, Sri and kids coming from the US and with Anusha and me flying back from the UK. This was the chance for mom to have both her daughter-in-laws under one roof for the first time and be able to show them off to her friends ;-) and for Dad, this was the first time he would get all the sub nodes of his entire family tree under one roof.

This was when Anusha and I finally got to see Aashi and also a good time to teach Aayush about how Diwali should be :)

For Arvi and me, it was a chance to get back into the old ways of patakas and spending the Diwali how we used to. We spent quite a bit on Patakas, which included the atom bombs, rockets, multiple shot rockets and two 5000 Ladis. Of course we exploded all the ones we bought ending the night with the Ladis. A good way to relive the past.











Diwali 2008: The empire strikes back
This was the last of our 2008 trips together. We spent this trip split between Hyderabad and Bangalore as usual. Diwali 2008 was to be spent in Hyderabad, Anusha Style.

We flew over to Hyderabad the night before Diwali and woke up early for our Ganga Snanam (or "whatever muddy river exists in Hyderabad" snanam). We all wore new clothes and took pictures while we were all clean, Anusha's mom "bought Anusha a sari" for Diwali. She bought the sari, making sure with the design that Anusha will never keep the sari and it will end up back with mom :). Of course Divya's choice of the sari would have been a lot more appropriate ;-) but mom wouldn't listen to her.






All of us went for lunch at Naren's in-laws' place for their first-deepawali as a married couple. A good few hours of laughing and eating followed leaving us all stuffed on our return. Pity, I forgot to take the camera. That was a lovely lunch with a lively gathering of people. Took these pictures the next day of the Hyderabadi's goofing around.













Heading back to the UK, mom had pressed on the Taxi driver that we needed a big car for the airport since we have 4 adults and 2 big suitcases :). Little did she know how big the car would be. Scared out of his wits, the taxi guy sent us a 10 seater van. I have to admit, although we didn't feel a single bump on the road, we looked very silly getting out of that at the fancy new Bangalore airport :)