Dinner Party at my new home

Ahmedabad has changed. I am unfamiliar with a lot of roads and landmarks. Fortunately, the people are the same and so are the customs, food and language. People still drive like maniacs and in spite of the heat, people are patient. Unfortunately, people have very little civic sense; hence the city is dirty with garbage piled up everywhere. God knows when people will get the civic sense to keep Ahmedabad clean!

Lunch was at Swati hosted by Amiben and a host of my relatives. I saw some of the folks for the first time in a decade; people look older and they all asked me the same questions, “When was the last time you were here?” “Do you feel like Ahmedabad has changed?” “We hear that you do triathlons. What are the distances?” “Are you crazy for biking 100+ miles?” “You have lost weight. Don’t they feed you in the USA?” It was monotonous to answer these questions, but it still felt GREAT with lots of love and laughter around me. My family is large and has a host of political and social opinions, but I love them all and love being home.

For dinner, we invited around 60 relatives to my new house. Shyam (my cousin) worked hard to finish the place before I arrived in town (and I thank him for that). My new house looks and feels great (albeit it doesn’t feel like home). It has clean lines, large rooms and no clutter. At the party, we served the world-famous Jasuben’s pizza from Law Garden, the world-famous Lal Darwaja pani-puri and a south-Indian dish (dosa). It was fun and festive; and i was good to see my old peeps!

Tomorrow will be a long day; Manish is going to take us to Modhera (sun temple) and Patan (Patan-ki-vav).