Happy Diwali, Eid Mubarak

A little late on the wishes but oh well.

I spent diwali in Pune - it was phenomenal. I left from Bangalore on Thursday afternoon and flew to Mumbai. The flight was terrible. Sitting next to me was an obnoxious little 13 year old Gujju kid from Kuchh. How do I know he was from Kuchh? He informed me. I actually thought he was pretty cute at first. But then a bunch of things started getting on my nerves. First, he was ordering the flight attendants around - no thank you's or please's. That was the big one. Next, he kept interrupting me when I was reading. Next, he kept nudging me when I had my eyes closed and was trying to sleep. Grr.

I then took a prepaid taxi to Dadar TT, which is where one catches busses/taxis to go to Pune. Don't take a Prepaid taxi - it's much, much more expensive than a regular taxi. I got into a CoolCab - a shared, airconditioned Mumbai-Pune taxi. I paid Rs. 420 for 1 1/3 seats (we shared a full cab among 3 people). That was very comfortable and I caught up on all the sleep that I missed on the plane. Because of a slight delay in my flight plus a bunch of traffic en route to Dadar, I ended up reaching Pune late and missed Apte Kaka's (family friend) party.

S came in on Friday morning and Baba and I went to pick her up from the airport. The rest of the weekend is actually a bit of a blur. I spent time with my sister's family and S and my brother's family (they got in on Friday night). I think I made it a point to eat to the point of feeling sick at every meal. Needless to say, I passed out after every meal.

On Sunday night we had a big party at a place called the Harvest Club in Pune. It's a great outdoor location. I walked in needing to go to the bathroom but since everyone wanted to meet S, I didn't get to go for about 30 minutes (until I found someone that S already knew and could leave her with them).

S and I left from Pune on Monday morning. We took an A/C bus to Mumbai for Rs 480 (for the both of us). It was very comfortable except for the extremely loud Hindi movie (Hum Tum) that I was forced to watch. We hung out at the Orchid hotel and had something to eat (curd rice). I met up with an old high school friend there - it was good to catch up on old school gossip. After lunch it was time to fly back to Bangalore and end a wonderful Diwali weekend.

I must say that getting out of bed and into work was tougher than usual this morning.