SaltLake City (Utah) - 1999 Christmas Vilas and Lalitha hosted us. They were just married (few months back). Aravind made us remember the get together by spreading fever to most of us. Lalitha was wonderful in taking care of him (he sang - oru thanga rathathil penn manajal nilavu, en dheivam thandha en thangai, rumour says). It seemed like she was always cooking for us. Double had ragasiya discussion (kusu kusunnu always he was in kitchen), getting advice from ladies (lalitha and bun-priya). Vilas showed us some ice (ithu thaan ice paarthukonga kind of :-)) and took us to Wendover in Nevada for gambling. Many were asked to verify that they're above 18 (photo id required), i didnt' take mine and was very worried and running away here and there. Bun-priya was Sent Off (that guy wont' listen she's above 18), Lalitha was ofcourse doubted even after her proof that guy looked suspiciously (especially she wins always). Joke was he asked for Double (how in the world he thought double wasnot 18 was surprise, his kozhi muttai thiruttu kannu is the reason we suspected). It was a memrable (double has a different english - u shd read that as memorable) trip. Apart from that i don't know whether SLC is yellow or blue (how long we can keep using black or white). The usual mangoes (mangai solrathu remba local'aa irukku) session was there with we sleeping like nocturnals. Arattai (+Thanni for kudikaarargal) , Thookam, Saappadu ithiyathi became our normal routine and SLC started the trend for all other future get togethers. Sathya played spoil sport (thanks to priceline) came in last and stayed for a day+few-more-hours and flew out first. So it looked like always vilas was picking up somebody, then dropping back people. Attendees : Me, Bun & Priya, Arvind, Double, Sathya, SMK, Badri, Chandru, Magudi
Seattle (Washington) - 2000 Chandru hosted us. One of his roommate was in india that time while he bribed other one (with ticket, money to Vancover canada is the rumour) and had a big house just for us. First real "dad" of 91ge Nandha came with his family. Soke-pugzhal AC.Sekar, Bad host chanks machaan had problems with the Van he booked :-). There started the fun and as usual poor-pity thing he got ragged till the end. His "what a mess" home was repeatedly remembered by guys. Nandha trained his daughter to say "dey bheema thanni kududaa". We went to sivagami falls (Snowqualmie falls is so hard to prounounce our class B gang leader Mr. Badri -kottai gave that name) which was aWeSome (lalitha repeated this few times and badri picked her on this from then on). Then we drove to a mountain for 2 hrs seeing nothing (foggy day) and stopped in the middle of nowhere to have a photo-session near a lake ,there you go, with all the patel shot (single guys looking for photos to send to brides with neat dress, bandha pose near car etc) guys becoming active. Chanks took us to seattle downtown , needle tower to get a view of city which was again ofcourse aWeSome. I had been to seattle few more times, still i have not even seen much there (lazy bum but always busy chanks). SFO guys (me,sathya,smk) flew to portland and drove from there - while going itself sathya got ticket from friendly cop uncle who advised us to drive within speed limit and safely (sathya shd listen to elders like him - hehe). i drove rest of the way and while coming back also all the way. Bun came alone because priya was in india (so married but bachelor that time) and he did things just to forget the sogam of missing priya :-). arvind flew in last minute guys booked his ticket for some obscene amount. Nandha was upset that he spent so much money to fly there and bheem didnt' show him anything :-). After that nandha (smartly??) decided to skip all the future get togethers (kudumbasthan enna panrathu). Few guys visited downtown - enna panninaangannu andavanukku thaan velicham and there was lot of kalebaram after that. Attendees: Me, Sathya, SMK, Bun , Vilas+Lalitha, Nandha+priya+swetha, Maadhu, Badri, Arvind
Chicago (Illinois) July 2001 Bun and Priya hosted us. Bun's muthupechi (Mitshubishi is hard to pronounce you know) was used a lot to pick us. We visited the newly inducted member of 91ge family 'shruthi' a product of balaji and priya both 91ge family in Champagne (known for urbana champagne university). There went a day on drive (2*2.5 hrs) in our now became tradition everytime a big naai vandi (chella name for the 15 seater van). then we had a dinner in dewan street (all indian stuff in chicago is there) which was sponsored by bheem (for joining Mr.Softee in Microsoft - world's biggest
St. Louis (Missouri) Christmas 2001 Double and Uma hosted us. They were married this time ;-). I arrived little late by that time Vilas family and Balaji family already left. But i had a week vacation (forced by hp) so stayed good number of days (Arvind and just-finished-consulting double gave me company). Everybody "wow"ed about the preparations made by double and uma (daily menu for food) and how smooth things went. St.Louis Arch trip guys made it seems and after that double took me and arvind again. It was a marvelous architecture and gave a good view of downtown with missouri lake. Bowling game was talk of all and this started new tradition in our get togethers. In one of the night arrattai session - magudi became the target for making blanket statement like "enga appa amma dheivam, avunga thappe panni irundhaalum en pondatti othu poganum illainaa avalai podi velila solliduven". It reminded us of his college day statement (after first time drinking) "enga family'la yaarume kuduichathillai. naan ippadi kudikaaran aaiyitten" (after that badri and everybody started ragging him saying "amaanda enga veetla ellam ellarum kudi thaan. enga amma morning ezhuntha udane oru bottle adichittu thaan velai aarambippapnga" is a different story). But he really became a solid professional control drinker now is the rumour (its said that his fingers start twitching if its friday and he's not drinking). So only time will tell whether magudis this statement also comes true (i'll hold on to that magudi). Maadhu was as usual his own self (sometimes he sits alone doing god knows what or in internet - chatting??). Double, Arvind, me visited Balaji family by driving from st.louis. double's muthupechi made lot of noise thats when i realised my kumari (camry) is so noiseless. Priya made a super biryani double and arvind didn't leave anything for them (she was scared looking at the way this guys were eating ;-)). Arvind got the tips on how to make it and nowadays he became biryani expert also (comes close to priya made one he says). He is good at cooking non-veg rest of my days he cooked different stuff (shrimp etc) for us. double also cooks nice. I just lay around watch movies, sleep, i was reading the second book of wheel of time series. Uma went to job and came back. We had chat sessions, visited a christmas decorated mountain (uma was excited abt it and was upset that i was not that impressed ;-)). The best part of my visit was meramac caves (one of the oldest cave formation). This is one of the best vacation i had (thanks hp for forcing me to do it). I was pulled by ladies that during every get-together only i remember them, again i made sort of (but not exactly) a promise that i'll rectify that for sure this time, i'll try to call etc (alas it still has not happened). Attendees Me, Vilas+Lalitha, Bun+priya, Balaji+priya+shruthi, Magudi, Maadhu, Arvind
Sanfrancisco (California), July 2002 This was hosted by Venki+Priya, Sathya and Me. Unlike previous trips ;-) (i'm probably biased) we made sure guys saw some places. We took them to sanfrancisco golden gate, showed them the bay :-), lambady (lambard) street - the crookedest street, showed them this is the downtown (from car - repeated the favour). I drove Bun family and Double family. They feared the drive in steep sf streets (insult to my driving) - especially the stop sign at top of lambard street (big argument abt the angle of the steep 45 degrees or more with some bringing physics and all to help their argument). We saw 'pancha thanthiram' movie - all of us enjoyed it. I (driver) displeased my regular customers by ditching them (as they saw it) by taking other customers. I was mumbling excuses with them. Next day we went to Santacruz beach (boardwalk). Guys had beer there and noticed the signs (no drinking) only when we came back. Water was salty (what else u can expect in ocean) and smelly. still everybody was having fun there and eventually (even though i brought no change dress) i also joined them. AP was doing head-roll diving attracting few pretty gals notice. Safana (she's not muslim and AP's marriage was a arranged marriage - he was tired of saying this to everybody) saved last beer for her husband (how nice). AP negotiated quotas with her on smoking. During the drive (in naai vandi) AP chose his family song to be "Sarakku vachu irukken, Aaah Irakki Vachu irukken" - everybody looked at safana with pity (she was so embarassed by it). Next day was the best coming unplanned. We went to delvalle park in Livermore (nearby only was temple but except families nobody seemed remotely interested). It was a beautiful place with nice and clear water in a lake. We made a pool game (with our own rules) and it was hilarious. Ladies tried to join us (but they were literally pushed away by guys they decided to play minimal role). It was most fun (only small dhrishti is i lost my backpack with my new digital camera - photos escaped because i uploaded them daybefore, my palm - all my contact numbers lost, still trying to retrieve them, dresses etc - IMPORTANTLY aravind's famous shorts was lost. i recovered within an hour - after all its money value only so i can earn/afford it and i didn't want to miss the fun/spoil everybodys mood). We came back and night we went to bowling game. Magudi and Uma rocked. With chanks help our opposition won (we came close, we would have if not for this/that etc... they cried accept it). I was not bad (had some full strikes etc). Shruthi grabbed lot of attention in the trip. Arvind's marriage photo (he showed us by taking a paper from his purse folded in 16) was the attention grabber, no wonder consulate had doubts abt it :-). All fun has to come to an end, so next day one by one people parted but the memories still linger. Attendees Balaji+Priya+Shruthi, AP+Safana, Bun+Priya, Double+Uma, Arvind, Magudi, Maadhu, Chanks, Daddy