A festival, a birthday and a road trip :)

We spent a very enjoyable extended weekend at Hyd. Came back tired, but all the same, two very happy people.

Saturday we generally lounged at home waiting for the driver who never showed up. By the time we gave up on him it was too late to go anywhere so we called it a day. Sunday we visited all the people in what we call our "first circle". My parents followed by my aunt and his aunt. We had dinner at his aunt's place and came back pretty late in the night. It was hectic. And I wasn't even driving;) Subhash is back in form as the "man in control behind the wheel". Initial hiccups with signal lights vs windshield wiper notwithstanding;)

Monday was Ugadi and for the first time in God-knows-how-many years, I had proper Ugadi pachadis. Both my mom's and Subhash's moms. Amazing. Just being here and having people around makes me feel so good. I got a bunch of new clothes what with the next day being my birthday and all ;) Spent most of Sunday doing "Shop till you drop" with Subhash my mom and my sis.

Tuesday was my birthday. Spent the morning with my parents and the evening with his. We stopped at the friendly neighborhood mechanic to get our car sanity-checked for the coming long drive. We had witnessed some low levels of coolant the previous day (and consequently a small burst in the coolant compartment cap when we were trying to open it to put water in it, totally filmy-like;) ) The experience with the mechanic is what I would call "completely orthogonal" to my experience in the US. They are willing to overlook small costs in the hope of making a long-term customer. He didn't charge us anything for what he checked. Refused to take any money for it and only took some when we absolutely insisted on it. In the US, damn those auto costs. Just to look under the hood costs you a 100 bucks at least! tsk..tsk..tsk..

I installed our old VoIP phone at his parents place so they can now talk to his brother more easily. Then we went out for dinner with the first circle. My aunt couldn't come and we missed her. My uncle was there with my cousin though. My mama (mom's brother) and his entire family, Subhash's aunt and her entire family, my parents, his parents and my sis. A big group and lots of conversation. We came back late at night. My parents gave me a present that morning (and also got this very yumm cake for me along with a "Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut" (Yay!!!) ). His parents got me another gift (along with yummy samosas and ras malai, yeah envy that ;) ). His aunt gave me a present too when we went for dinner!! All in all, although I didn't feel so excited about this day as I usually am (borders on being hyper, maybe I am growing old at last ?!) it was a much better birthday in a long time, just spending time with everyone :)

I caught a sore throat late Saturday evening and it nagged me through and through, stupid thing. We left this morning from Hyd to Bangalore. We were going to drive back ourselves, but his parents wouldn't hear of it :) So we took one of his mom's friends' driver along with us. Drove for 12 hours on NH-7 and arrived safe and sound in the evening. I have been on those NHs before but when I was young and I vaguely remember those experiences. But either way, the highway experience on India's NH was totally different from the bland US highway drives although it was much slower and sometimes very much "on the edge" ;) One thing I learnt : The AP Government is definitely spending much more time and energy and money on its highways. Roads are noticeably better so long as you are in Andhra. We got a chance to check out the new airports of these cities (both Hyd and Bangalore) and you can totally see how AP's planning around the Hyd airport is way better than the Karnataka Sarkara's. Stupid Gowda legacy.

It was a hot day and even the AC in the car wasn't really successful in keeping the sun at bay. So I have a slight head-ache now and so consequently not in the mood to post pictures we took over the weekend. Will do in another post :)