18 Till I Die

The last couple of weekends have been happening in terms of socio-cultural interactions and chores to take care of. It all started with the Shreya Ghoshal concert on Friday the 19th. It was an evening concert at 7 pm and after a first hour or so of sidey dancers and the "band" introductions, Shreya was singing some of her famous numbers alongside the SaReGaMa fame Shivprasad. The acoustics in the Dorton arena left much to desire, but once we moved down from our seats closer to the stage, it wasn't bad at all. We could see her sing and dance and hear her hit difficult notes almost at will. A few close friends and I had a good shake-a-leg to some hit numbers like Zoobi Doobi and Dola Re...After the break, she sang some regional songs on public demand including a famous Marathi lavani "Reshamaachya reghaani". All in all while Shreya continued to dazzle, IMHO the performance was strictly alright owing to the sorry acoustics and sad dancers. Not to mention the urdu-esque wannabe shayarana compere Niharika.

Following two days were spent amid loud music and repetitive dance performances at the India Fest. The only highlight for us were a bunch of close friends singing and dancing on stage. While HK sang the Jaane Kya Chahe Mann from Pyaar Ke Side Effects, HR stuck to the more safer Mitwa from Lagaan. "Useless" also was part of a dance number called India Kaleidoscope which included a montage of dances from hit movie songs like Prem Ki Nayya and Aahun Aahun. Apart from the dance and singing performances of these dear ones, the iFest was a loud melee for the most part. I was left with a big headache at the end of those two weekend days.

Sunday was spent at the R's place playing "lagori" and flying "kite" (just cheel chill just chill) amid nice evening tea and then unwinding playing Mafia and eating a pizza dinner. To top it off, we played Table Tennis at 11.00 pm at night to make it a fun-filled amazing weekend.

During the week I made a generous contribution of a grand to the Honda Motor Corp. trying to do manicure, pedicure and the likes on my sweet sexy coupe. Those guys know how to unstitch the pockets out of your jeans...sigh.

This weekend was Sifar's birthday weekend. The big 3-0. But he's managed to keep himself upbeat like they say 30s is the new 20s or something like that. The b'day started with a customary visit to the temples followed by a buffet lunch with a couple of co-workers at CoolBreeze. My head was clogged in the morning due to some seasonal cold, and I was craving for the spicy hot rassam at the desi place. After a sumptuous lunch, I managed to retire to a nice long afternoon Siesta. Although, I missed a few calls from people wishing me b'day, the afternoon nap was awesomeness throughout. The evening was spent with cake-cutting and a khichadi dinner at AG and HR's place. Thanks guys for making it special.

Thanks also to everyone of you who called remembering my big day and making it special. The social networking boom gives people easy access to each other's birthdays and makes it possible for us to post wishes on our friends'/family's online profiles. Many thanks are therefore due to those who posted on my wall and scrapped in my scrapbook as well. Needless to say you all are the reason I exist, you all are the ones who make this journey worthwhile.

Hoping to put the literal and figurative icing on the cake with a birthday dinner @ The Cheese Cake Factory....the revelry continues....the exuberance of youth (of the past?) beckons...the 30 something mind croons 18 Till I Die...

Cheers,
Sifar.