2 years up!

Dear Karthik,
It feels like yesterday that I wrote this for you. Cannot believe we are now 2 years old as a couple :) When we woke up this morning, it felt like "just another day". We just smiled at each other. Lol! Maybe we were wondering how on earth did we actually put up with each other's nonsense for 2 whole years. Jus' kidding!
I think that is what makes an anniversary special - That despite fighting the rest of the year, we wake up on the date of wedding and feel like "the journey has been sooo worth it"! :-) I maybe exaggerating a little when I say that. Truth is we've had some wonderful moments this past year which I will speak about but as I look back to this year, I can proudly say that we have gone through some anxious moments with regards to pretty much everything - work, health, struggles with parents, money and the usual blah that life is, and we have fought our way through all those, together. Touch wood! Not much has changed in terms of our personalities - I wrote about that last year and I say it again but that really has been our problem area. Who knows? Probably 4 years down the lane, I will still say it.
That being said, you really are a wonderfully caring man. The way you stood by me and my family when I lost Thatha was incredible. You ensured you visited every single day, you ensured that my needs and my family's needs were completely taken care of, you were so supportive. I heard a lot of people speaking highly of you. Something that Krish told me made me so proud.. He said "Thatha always said that Karthik is a well behaved boy and a very good son to his father". Not that I needed reassurance of that fact but still felt so nice to hear someone speak so highly of you! Bravo!
I was so touched when we went all out to help my parents settle in their new house. You bought a new swing, you took keen interest in ensuring my mom didn't struggle much - you went to order a cot, you researched TV rates, you coordianted with your carpenter to get curtain rods fixed, you lifted stuff, you took the gypsy on a hot sunny day just to lug things from Annanagar to ECR..heck you were so thoughtful you even went and bought cleaning supplies for her when she had just moved in. Truth is even I didn't think of all that. Thank you is all I can say.
As always you put my interests and likes above yours.(Ok for the most part at least ;-) That trip to France was amazing. I had always told you that Paris was a dream destination for me. And the fact that you did every single thing to ensure I have a good time was great. So were the trips to Delhi, Goa and Pune! You really are a wonderful husband! I tell myself that every single day.
This is definitely not a post highlighting your greatness.. it is anything but that. Its just my way of expressing my love for you. I know I suck at that. I am not in the least bit romantic and I know we've had a number of arguments over that. I'm sorry. I hope this makes you well up. Haha. Just kidding idiot!
I really do love you a whole lot and I will treasure you for life. Hoping you like that vase and the cheesecake!
Happy 2nd anniversary, Karthik!
Love,
Aishu
PS Can you believe I wrote this post in just 14 minutes?!? :)

A rum bottle now made into a money plant vase :) 

Mango Cheesecake(Thank god for food blogs out there!) 

Girls just wanna have fun!

The summer heat is merciless. Chennai has no respite whatsoever from the heat. What better way to beat the heat than a getaway with best friends to a farmhouse filled with greenery, a swimming pool, 2 great kids and some bitchy times? That's right. This past weekend I had a fun day out with my besties, Shan and Mosh at Shan's farmhouse on the outskirts of Chennai. The 3 of us had been going back and forth on a date that would be convenient for the 3 of us. Believe me, it was tough. We had to pick a day when our respective hubbies wouldn't fuss(as if?!) or a day when Shan's kid didn't have a class which he couldn't miss or a day when we hadn't promised the in laws we would come see them or a day when we didn't have to worry about maids, carpenters or electricians coming to fix something at home. Sigh. Fortunately, that day did arrive. Wohoo! We decided to leave home as early as possible so that we can spend maximum time together. We reached her farmhouse around 10:30. Here is a picture of the house gleaming in the sunlight.

The pretty house 

Can you spot Rayyan amidst all the greenery?

With 2 young kids around(Rayyan is almost 4 and Rafa is 2) you cannot expect too much silence. Heck, you can't even expect a minute of peace and quiet! They were so excited to be there and wanted to go around and play with the farm animals. Lets see..I saw ducks and fishes in the pond, hens, cocks, chicks, turkeys and  some emus! Yes. No wonder then that the kids wanted to go out and play with the caretaker's kids and the animals. Next on the agenda was "pool time"! I know I know. I cannot swim to save my life but I liked the idea of relaxing in the cool water. That was fun. Rayyan thoroughly enjoyed himself in the kids pool. Look at him

 Rafa is also a complete water baby like her mom! She loved being in the pool. I carried her for the most part while Shan and Mosh had a swimming race! Was good fun cheering them on. We were playing in the pool for more than 2 hours. 

Post pool time, all of us showered, fed the kids, ate and felt really refreshed. We then plonked on her bed and just kept talking and talking while the kids played with each other. Rafa, of course kept us fully entertained. Mosh and I did the "Jumping Jhapak" song with her which I've taped. Here's a glimpse of the madness that ensued 

Before we knew it was around 4 and then we started talking serious stuff. We talked of life in general - school memories, college fun, work, marriage, in laws, husbands(mostly about what a pain they could be!) and the future.. It felt so good to just sit there and share our innermost fears and wildest dreams. Funniest part is it didn't feel like its been forever since we had done this. It was almost as if we were always together and just began where we left off. Makes sense? We laughed to our hearts content, we made fun of each other, we took crazy pics and of course missed a few other girls who couldn't be there that day.. Basically, we just let go of ourselves completely. Highly recommended girls!! Especially if you're married :D 

Ash, Mosh, Shan

Leaving you with a few words and a picture that describes the 3 of us so beautifully!

BFFs!


In Mosh's lovely words : There's nothing more joyful than knowing that your besties still live just around the corner and that you can meet them whenever... And even the life's worst of situations cant change the madness, laughter and happinesss we bring in eachother's lives. From random chit chat sessions with dominos pizza or jack and jill fried rice at ash's place.. doing whackiest of stuff and gyaan sessions at shahin's place and soulful rambling at my place.. 10 years hence... nothing has changed... freeze.

Neighbor Woes

This is more of a rant. K had been bugging the hell out of me to make my own dosa and idli batter ever since we got married. I didn't bother since Amma and my MIL would supply me every weekend. And then one day we happened to have a huge argument around it and I decided that enough was enough. I'd try to make my own batter. It wasn't rocket science according to all the zillion food blogs on the Internet. Except they all had measurements for making batter in a grinder whereas I was going to try mine on the mixie. That's when I decided I would ask my neighbor Maami who is very friendly. I met her one evening when she sat with 2 other ladies from the building. I greeted her and ranted about how K was being a pain and bugging me to make batter and how stressed out I was. One of the ladies had just moved into our building and "volunteered" to come home the next day and help me grind. I quickly said "No thank you so much for offering but I think I will manage". But she was pushy and Maami also insisted I take her help so I finally said ok. Next day she came home and very patiently made the batter and gave me tips on how to do it next time. I thanked her and gave her some juice. I thought she would leave then but no she went and perched herself on our couch. Sigh. This was going to be a long evening. She started talking about how hot it was in Chennai, how hot it especially was in the 4th floor, how she missed being in Coimbatore, Hyderabad etc. She just went on talking. Thankfully for me, K got back from work just then and she said she'd leave. Phew. Well the idlis and dosas came out very well. That weekend I decided I'd go inform her and take a little something. So I went with a dabba of cake. Spoke to her daughter for 5 min and got back home. 1 week later, around 8pm this lady rang the bell. I opened the door and she gave me the dabba. I took it and I was hoping she would leave because I was busy making dinner. She pushed her way inside(I swear she did!) and sat on the couch and start talking away. Then she got up walked into the kitchen, the service area and went on about how her house owner hadn't planned their house properly. Then she walked into the guest room, the balcony and again went on saying "Oh the woodwork in your house is so good". Then she had the bloody nerve to open the door to our bedroom, happily switched on the light, looked at each cupboard and the balcony and again kept cribbing about how their house had none of it. She asked me how rent we paid, what woodwork we had made, how much we paid for our TV. Oh god. She just went on and on and on. I wished she would shut up! Such an irritating lady. I wanted to ask her if she was so freaking unhappy with her house why on earth did she choose to live in it? K rescued me once again by coming home just then but this time she wasn't ready to leave. After about 20 minutes, she decided to leave saying "Ok I will leave, I don't want to disturb you". Oh really. I haven't had to see her after that. Thank God for small mercies. 

Life in April & May.. in bullets!

One of those days when I have too much to say and too little time to write so please bear with me and my bulleted post!

• Well first of all, in case you noticed I didn't blog about my birthday. That doesn't mean it wasn't a fun day this year. It was a lot of fun but just different from my usual birthdays. For starters, I didn't even cut a cake. I am really growing old! Ouch. Sne & D had come to Chennai and with the IPL in full swing, we just HAD to go watch the CSK vs RR match at Chepauk. So that is pretty much what I did, except I dragged my super disinterested hubs along. K, me, Sanju, Mosh, Sne & D and a few other friends.. All of us went. What a brilliant match it was! Went down to the wire and we won. Superb! All thanks to Bravo :) The in laws were traveling and my folks were busy shifting so the usual lunch/dinner get together was also missing this year. We are going out for dinner tonight though to celebrate. K was his usual lavish self - he got me a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings(I really am very lucky), a very very pretty white & red dressy salwar kameez and a colorful summer kurti. Loved them all! 
• I'm very proud to say I'm more or else keeping up with my NY resolution of staying active.. nothing fancy this time though.. Just a good brisk 45 min morning walk.I can say I'm pretty consistent. In fact I haven't been this consistent in a while now and I'm enjoying it. Not the waking up early part for sure. But once I'm up, I enjoy my music, my walk and my peace. I see some very interesting sights - a flower stealing Maami - Yes I am not kidding. She comes every morning in the same route with a small plastic bag and goes around to all the houses plucking flowers! Not to mention with an iPod in her ears! :P  What I also love to see are the dogs - I've made friends with a real cutie named "Simba". He's  a Cream Labrador, not to mention a FAT lab! I'm not kidding. He is a real gundus. He absolutely hates to walk. The uncle who brings him has to literally pull him to walk. What a chweetu u know he is. I couldn't resist petting him this week - So I stopped and just touched his head..he was so happy and excited. Next day again, I just called "Simba" from the distance.. He got so excited he started wagging his tail furiously! Haha. I don't think he knows me but I think he just enjoys the attention and is happy to sit back instead of walking. I long for a dog and I think I'm getting somewhere close to having one in the family. Yes Bhuns finally said ok to Sanju and they are getting a golden retriever next week. Yayy! Can't wait to cuddle with him =) 
• Some other good news - My folks shifted into their brand new home this month. Yay. Amma closer to me means frequent meals there and lesser cooking for me :P They have bought a beautiful apartment off the East Coast Road, less than 10 minutes from where we live. But I was miserable when we left AJ 97. It was the house where I pretty much grew up. My school, college years were all there in that neighborhood. Was so sad to see a deserted house when I went last week to help Amma clean up. We have the best memories there. Amma cried, Nirmala cried and I think even Arumugam(Appa's right hand) shed a few tears. Will miss all of them. Annanagar is an area very very close to my heart and I cannot believe that I won't visit there often like I used to. But the new house is nice. K bought a lovely swing for them. It is nice to sit and rock myself there. We also have a room to ourselves, which we hope to set up in a bit. 
• Bhuns(my aunt) turned 50 yesterday, so we celebrated with her and the kids. Notice I didn't say "partied". Coz the evening started with "Vishnu Sahasranama" chanting! :P No offense, but that's not how a partayyy starts hahaha. Sne was like "Dude, wtf is wrong with you guys"! I'm like "Dude, I know. Our folks are getting old"! Nevertheless, we made up with some yummy chocolate cake, her hubs gave her 50 red roses and we had a Karaoke session. Good fun! Wishing you many more lovely years ahead Bhuns =) 
• More on IPL - You know I'm a diehard Chennai Super Kings fan. And I have many many friends on FB who are also keen CSK addicts. But I also have some extremely annoying friends who write rubbish about my favorite team. See I don't mind if you want to support another team. But don't just pick on mine. Get it? For instance I have a friend "Y" who likes to support the Sunrisers Hyderabad(yes for starters, change the damn name, its so freakin' stupid!). Fair enough. But everytime CSK plays, she focuses all her energy on how we suck(yeah right!) rather than how SRH played well. Sooo my friends, I was only too too happy when we absolutely murdered that stupid SRH team. Yes. That's right. We made a whopping 224. Sexy man we are. And I don't have to prove what a diehard CSK fan I am - but still. My friends and I cycled(that's right) 42 kms one fine morning for a very important cause - to sign a board, wishing CSK all the very best for IPL 2013! Yay. Pat on my back. My folks were in disbelief. Don't blame them. I couldn't believe it myself.  #Whistlepodu!
• And finally.. My letter to the editor of Femina has been chosen as one of the winning letters.. It was published in the May 1st issue. Here's what I sent, with some modifications from their end. I'm getting a Caprese bag. Should come in sometime. Thank you thank you.

   

        

Alright, that's pretty much all the time I have for now. Will stop by later and review "Copper Point", coz that is where we are headed to for dinner tonight. 

Pune Trip - March 2013!

Barely 7 months after my sister got married, we decided to barge into her house in Pune. K and I headed to Pune for the Good Friday long weekend. We took the last flight out of Chennai and landed in Pune around 11 pm. Gave Sne the tightest hug possible when I saw her :) D drove us straight to "Fantasy" where we ordered chilled, thick milkshakes that tasted right out of this world. I say we made a great start to our trip. We headed to their apartment in the Baner area. They live in a beautiful high rise building right on top on the 8th floor. The balcony offered a fantastic view. I loved to sit and relax there. Once we settled in, another suprise awaited us - Sne had made lovely Gulab Jamuns to welcome us. So incredibly sweet - both Sne & the GJ's! Slurrp.

Once we had popped a few in our mouths, we were tired. We crashed and this time had ensured my alarm was OFF. Wohoo. 

Next morning I woke up to find my hubby gone on an early morning walk(He's mad, don't ask). Sne & I cleaned up the kitchen, made dosas and sambar, had yummy coffee by which time K was back from his walk and poor D had been woken up from a deep slumber. Sne had to head to clinic, D said he had taken the day off for our sake(so sweet) so the 3 of us decided to hang out at home. Which meant the boys were just going to be perched on a mattress each while I just sat around and stared. Yes, poor me. Sne finally came home around 2:30 pm by which time we were all starving and enjoyed her lunch of rice, sambar, potato curry and of course GJ's(I tell you, it was the highlight of our trip, they were delicious). Post lunch, we decided to watch the movie "Nadula Konjam Pakatha Kanam", a hilarious comedy movie which K & I had already watched at home but didn't mind watching again. The 4 of us kept laughing, if you haven't watched the film, do go watch it. Worth all the time & effort! In the evening, Sne had to go back to clinic for a few hours and I refused to rot at home. So I encouraged D to take me out for a walk - He finally agreed. We walked around the apartment complex, watched loads of kids playing, aunties walking(trying to rather!) and headed to an old Vishnu temple. We talked about his work, about Sne and how he was enjoying being married to her. Touche! We finally reached the temple, was a very nice one. In the evening, we went to a restaurant called "Polka Dots" where we enjoyed delicious lasagna, hummus with garlic naan(a Pune thing perhaps?) and chilled iced tea. 

Day 2 got off to a slightly different start. K, being a total sweetheart, walked many kilometres to bring us back Poha for breakfast(Poha being their State food!) along with a fresh tea cake :) What pleasure it was to sit out on the balcony, sunning myself, gorging on that tea cake. Bliss. We had decided to do a spot of shopping in the afternoon so headed to buy wafers from the famous Budhani Brothers waferwala, K showed me Kayani Bakery, we went to Lakshmi Road.. Basically K took me down a trip to memorylane(He was born in Pune, that's why). We also visited the famous Dagdusheth Ganapati temple - the mouse outside the temple where it looks at the deity was absolutely adorable!! Too cute for words :) 

In the evening, we ate at a fancy restaurant called "Oakwood Lounge", buffet style dinner. Salads, fondue, tikkas and the likes. 

Day 3 was going to be action packed. We ate breakfast at Goodluck Cafe, which in my opinion was a fabulous fabulous breakfast! Simple buns, butter and jam, bun maska, omlette etc. So satisfying and different. We were driving to Lavasa that afternoon which takes about 2 hours. The place was wonderfully scenic. We reached around 2 pm and were starving. Drove straight to the Fortune to eat. Which turned out to be an unfortunate choice - here's my tripadvisor rating on it. However, what followed was a full on "funny photos" session courtesy my hubby! Here's a sneak peak :) Hope you enjoy them. We had the time of our lives! Thanks Sne & D for being such superb hosts!! =)

Happy Us 

Hey sistah! 

Love birds

Kabab me haddi? 

Goofiness Part 1 

Wohoo. Flying high! 

Up..

Up..

Up he goes, finally! 

Classic one for keeps :) 

Goofiness Part II

I know u guys are newly married BUT! 

Yea.. D's the man! 

Nadu road la! 

Goofiness unlimited! 

Lean on me.. 

We've got the look! 

A great weekend and a restaurant review!

Hi guys,
I do know it has been a while since I posted anything nice, cheery and fun in here. What to do? Life's kinda been that way :( Oh well. No more brooding. This past weekend was a good and fun one! What did we do?
Friday night K called from work and said he was going to bring back dinner from one of our most favorite joints in Besant Nagar. Its not the kinda place you sit down and eat. Its a seedy, shady joint that serves yummylicious food. So naturally I was only too happy to oblige because it meant no cooking and it also meant eating great food in the luxury of your own house. Saturday was another good day - well for the most part we just stayed home. Woke up late, did a lazy breakfast and cooked lunch, cleaned etc. And then met Krish & Sethu for dinner at Chap Chay(one of the main reasons for the post). Well what can I say? It's a pleasure to review the restaurant.
Chap Chay is a new restaurant at Raintree, St. Mary's Road. The cuisine is Pan Asian - notice I didn't say Chinese. That is because its got flavors from China, Japan, Thailand etc. And I must say we all came out very impressed. The decor was nice, simple. Thank God there was no Buddha, at least I didn't see one! The place reminded me of a restaurant in St. Louis that I used to frequent - Stir Crazy (Remember I wrote about it here?). Basically, you choose your own veggies/meat, they have about 16 different types of sauces, choice of noodles or rice and the food gets cooked right in front of you. It was such a lovely sight to see the different colored fresh vegetables - broccoli, carrot, snow peas, red/yellow/green peppers, corn, lotus stem, water chestnuts.. I could go on & on. Some of the sauces were black pepper, chilli garlic(what I picked), Thai Basil(all hot ones) and some not so spicy ones such as Kung Pao, Hunan etc. My recommendation would be to take small portions of veggies and mix up one or two sauces and keep trying various combinations because it is unlimited. The mistake we did was to fill our bowls with all sorts of veggies and took just one sauce and by the time I finished my bowl I was completely stuffed and had no room for more. So be smart and have fun experimenting. Also, don't bother with starters of any sort - they just fill you up. We tried Dimsums(give it a miss) & Honey Glazed Vegetables(which was very nice). For dessert, the 4 of us dug into one plate of yummy fried ice cream!! The flavor was darn delicious. Service was very good. Priced at 650INR per person for the main course alone. Will we go back? Of course we will. But will be smarter next time around :-) We enjoyed and relaxed with drinks, good food & laughter. Overall an ideal way to spend Saturday night. Do give Chap Chay a try, I assure you won't be disappointed.
Sunday was another super busy day. We were spending the day with K's colleagues at Shilpa's house. Her folks had gone out of town and had invited a few of us over for drinks and lunch. She was a lovely hostess - her cook had made yummy egg pakodas, paneer pakodas, grilled chicken, masala peanuts, we had taken along some chips, juice, chocolate milk shake.. Sigh. As you can see, I was feasting! The afternoon was great fun. Mathangi & Michael are expecting a baby in May and were obviously the centre of attention - We discussed baby names, their maternity classes, heard all their work stories and kept laughing till our stomachs hurt! A great afternoon indeed. Post lunch, I was heading to see Ammai and my parents. Played carrom, cards and badminton with Vishal, Ammai and my mom. Very relaxing :-) I got home around 7:30 in the evening and was going to clean up and prep for Monday morning when Mathangi called to say she and Michael were going to Velacity for dinner and if we wanted to join them. K and I said ok and we got picked up, went to Tadka Talk in Velacity. To Michael's biggest disappointment, the place was vegetarian. Haha. Mathangi and I enjoyed the paneer tikka and mushroom soup. But we couldn't bear to see Mike's sad face. So we told him we will go to another place just for the main course. At 9:30 pm in the restaurant we were discussing where to go. Haha. That's how funny it was. Finally, we didn't have too much choice but to head over to Snow's Park in Velachery(an old haunt of mine and K's). Decent food, saaaddd ambience but fast service! Lol. So we went there, had garlic naans, dal tadka and of course Micheal ordered some Chicken Tikka and was happy :) By the time we reached home it was around 11:30! Needless to say, K and I crashed. Longgg day. But awesome weekend after a longgg time. Sooo worth every minute of it. K and I are heading to Pune this Thursday, so more updates on this space next week. Keep up with it, I promise some lovely pictures from Pune city :) Tata! 

*Disturbia*

There have been a few "incidents" in the last one month that has left me wondering where our country is really headed. They are simple things but left such an impact on me nevertheless.
Scene 1 - At Chennai airport
It is 11:30 pm. K and I had just returned from our trip to Delhi(was great fun,btw!). I was standing in line to get my cab and K was standing away in a corner. There was this dude(hereby referred to as "moron")  all dressed up formally in a business suit. He goes near K and SPITS right next to him. Now those of you who my husband can guess what follows :) He blew his top! And rightly so. Here's how the conversation went
K - (furiously) - Excuse me, what do you think you are doing?? Aren't you ashamed?
Moron - (Nonchalantly) - Well everybody else is doing it! Why are you asking only me?
K - (Raising his voice) - Well you seem educated! Don't you have any sense not to spit in public? Plus you are spitting right near me! And I of course have a problem with that!

Well basically moron didn't want to admit it but honestly it was so embarrassing for him because by now everybody was staring at him. Yes my husband can be VERY loud! I panicked because I had no idea what had happened. But when K explained I wished he could have actually slapped that idiot. Honestly man, get a grip on yourself, wherever you are!

Scene 2 - Sathyam Cinemas
K and I watched Vishwaroopam this weekend. The theatre is full(Saturday evening). Most of the families had come with KIDS. Mind you, it is an Adults movie, lots of violence and gore. I don't understand how parents can actually think of bringing those tiny tots to such a movie and how theatres don't even object.
But anyway, there were kids in front of us and at the back row as well. The kid in front wouldn't sit quiet for a minute. He was probably around 3 or 4, obviously he wants to explore. The mother tried her best to get him to sit quietly but no such luck. Finally, she grabbed him and took him outside. Good girl. Now there are about 4 kids sitting at the back. And they kept pushing my seat. I was trying to be patient. But they just wouldn't listen. I'm turning and giving looks at the mother(she is too engrossed with the movie to notice my glares). Good thing is I had watched the film earlier. It was K who was watching it for the first time. And then it reached a point where the kids started screaming. High pitched squeals! K lost it. He got up and turned to the mother and said "Excuse me, can you please keep your kids under control"? The lady just called to her kids and simply said "please come sit here quietly". YEAH RIGHT. They are kids for God's sake, woman! They went on screaming and K got up again and this time in a very menacing tone said " Listen, if you don't get those kids to shut up, I'm going to get the management to throw you guys out"! That probably did it. Coz you will not believe, that lady finally got her act together and ensured her kids shut up for the rest of film. Not one word came out! Phew. My point is I'm not blaming the kids. But if you can't control them, take them outside the movie hall or get them to behave. As simple as that. And please definitely don't take them for such noisy and violent movies. Even my 10 year cousin wasn't allowed to watch it at home. Not appropriate for him. Simple no?

Scene 3 - LB Road(A very busy road in Chennai)
K and I are returning home. At the junction, there is a cop vehicle coming in exactly the wrong direction. Due to which traffic is held up for a few seconds. Cars simply give way. My hubby was the only one who stopped the gypsy and showed his finger to the cop. Ok not finger but he made it obvious to the cop(s) sitting in the Innova that it was simply unacceptable and shocking that a cop(who is supposed to tell others to follow rules) is happily breaking one and holding up traffic because he was too lazy  to make a U turn. Shocking no? The cops were a little shocked but of course in true Chennai police style, glared back threateningly. I was a little scared because I had heard stories of how they take away your car keys and slap you. But then I was proud of my  hubby for standing up to those goons. I wish I could have taken a picture of that van and posted it on the Chennai City Traffic Police page and made a mockery of them. But like I said, it was a busy road and I had no such luck. Sigh. Pissed me off so so so much.
God save this country. Ok I'm done ranting. On that note, February was super super busy. My bestie, M got married. Yay! Congrats! Another friend, Shan, got engaged. Yahoo! And then K and I took off to Delhi for his cousin's wedding which was also great fun. Bread pakodas, masala chai, samosa, kachori all at 6 degree weather. Blissful combination, no? :-)