Panipat

Panipat was also quite exciting. After the hot & cold days of Kashmir ( with no snow), we moved to panipat to spend some time with them and finish some odd jobs in delhi and also meet friends. We managed to have a barbeque in panipat. Not the greatest in terms of the food but we gave a good show as all was inhouse arranged. Nidhi had worked very hard on the grill and also the arrangements and we managed to serve about 20-25 people.

Abhijit was a saviour yet again and shared the space behind the grill with me. Unfortunately after that shelly caught the cold bug with a bad throat and we had to be confined indoors. we couldnt make it to the new year bash at Abhijit's but had a small bonfire at home. So the new year eve was quiet, calm yet nice. We however, managed to spend some time ith abhijit and pooja in delhi later.

Kashmir Trip

Amid my work schedule ( now that the season is on for us), we ventured out on our annual holidays to India. Not a very long holiday but definetely needed one, especially for Shelly as she has been crazy with work off late. We went straight to Kashmir with hopes of fresh snowfall ( it had snowed a week back) and some responsibilities of handling the Eid festivals since Mumma and Abu are on Hajj.

Shelly also tried being one of the eldest in the house and this turned out to be a training session for her. Shazu (my sister) has been acting quite brave handling things on her own at home and we are proud of her.

Kashmir was fun but it never snowed. It rather became hot after we landed and it was sunny through out. But we managed to go out and reach the snow in some part or other. We visited Pahalgam and Gulmarg and the short trips were amazing. Some pictures of the trip.

Time flies by

Time really flies fast and I really do not know how the past few months just zoomed past. I failed miserably on my promise to keep updating the site due to paucity of time and my extermely travel ladden schedule. However, I am going to share a few key things that have happened in the past few months- apart from the fact that I moved into a new year and so has everyone.:)

Guja : I know you were also waiting ( saw your comment) and now you wont be disapppointed.

After my bimonthly trips to India, I managed to squeeze a few days for a short Oman trip. We went to this island called Khasab which is unlike the desert that we supposedly live in. It is like any rocky mountain valley of Texas. We drove all the way from Dubai along the sea coast and it was really beautiful. The Dolphin cruise and the barbeques were really brilliant and we enjoyed every bit of the trip. Some pictures taken during out trip.

Updates Soon

This space has remained unattended for a while now as I was travelling quite a bit. I hope to start updating in a few days. There are a number of things that need to be shared guys so keep looking.......

Cheers

Apologies Tendered

I had put Abhijit's name as Abhijeet in my last blog and it was a typo error. Stands corrected. Happy now...Jit

Activities- Extended Eid Vacation

This time we decided to give the beach barbeque a miss ( although I really wanted to go) and concentrate on something different. Thanks to Rajeeb and his excel sheet planning, we managed to go for power parachuting and a movie on Saturday. We had to drive to Ras al Khaimah(actually Um al Quain) to reach Jazerah flying club which was organising Power Parachuting and microlight flights. It seemed quite fun watching people glide over the sea. After seeing a few flights Amit felt that a micro light flight would be more fun and he and Nitika put theri names for that. Shelly had wanted to have that experience long time back when we were thinking of taking that at Um al Qwain flying club and I thought it is a great idea and so she too went for a 15 minute flight over the mountains and the sea. Except from being left a little wobbly in the head, she thought it was nice and the sight was amazing from over. The beach, the reclaimed land ( they are creating an island in the shape of a falcon) and the whole sight was great; plus the thrill.

I went for the power parachute as it seemed like a harmless metal thing with a lot of ropes holding the parachute. But it really takes off like Rons's father's car in Harry potter...believe me I felt it was like that in movie. The scene was just amazing...it was about sunset and the horizon over the sea was just beautiful. You could see the sea life from above..flying at about 300-400 ft and it was a great experience. On top of it, the spins which my "pilot" did added to the thrill....over the baren desert.

We are planning to go for more of these activities now. Everyone is welcome to join.....:)

EID CELEBRATIONS

Guys!! Finally Ramadan came to an almost successful end (I dropped out on a few fasts) and Eid was celebrated on friday. We had been wishing it to happen on Saturday as that would be more holidays and better planning because we were out watching a free movie ( courtsey Amit and HSBC) at 11pm on thursday when this announcement came as a bolt in the blue. All of a sudden we realised that we had nothing ( I mean actually nothing except for tomatoes and potatoes) in the house for our Eid meal which we were committed to. At 1 pm after having watched " Laga Chunri me Daag" we saved our " Laaj" and avoided a "daag" on our record and found some mercy at Carrefour shelves which still had some food left after it was vandalised by many other people like us who had to run for last minute purchases.

By the time we reached home post my midnight brawl with the iranian mattress guy whos was supposed to deliver our arabic type low seating for the living room, it was already 4:00 am and we were dead tired. Silver lining was that Amit and Nitika came with us to stay and help. I managed to catch an hour's sleep before going out for the Eid prayers and then managed to catch a few winks. The food was prepared; this time mostly by Shelly who made some great kashmiri delicacies- "nadru" kababs, Chicken Daniwal Korma and all vegetarian stuff- Rajma, Alu paneer. Of course Nitika and Amit made it possible. I added my bit to the Mutton curry and ofcourse a taste to all the dishes by being around. Rajeeb and Nisha, along with Roney and Sona joined us for lunch and it was a great time...Food, Shishas, Cigars....( It is all in the pictures). Aditiya was aso there..He had come down from Oman for Eid vacation.

I still miss our Eid meals back home in Kashmir and also in Delhi when I used to cook for all at my Bachelor flat in Shalimar bagh. Abhijit, ruksh, jasmeet and everyone...We miss you guys....

I hope you like the pictures