Washington DC trip

Well, this one was planned a long time back. The occasion was Neil's wedding. Neil is my distant cousin (son of Dr. Madhukar and Lalita Thakur, who happen to be my mother's mama[maternal uncle]). The wedding was on the 12th, and I was invited. So booked the tickets and a rented car a month back. Since I was going after a long time to DC area, also thought of meeting some of my long lost friends.

My flight from Cleveland was supposed to take off at 7 PM... but was delayed by 2 hours.... I was all prepared for such delays and had a bunch of movies with me to see in spare time. So it was time to see Shaw shank Redemption. Believe it or not, I was yet to see that movie, wanted to see this one since long long time... but never got 2 spare hours for it. Its a gem of a movie.... liked it a lot. Would put this one along with Forrest Gump and The life of David Gale, two of my most favorite movies. So the waiting time at Cleveland was very well spent.

After reaching DC and renting the car, drove to Richmond, VA to meet Rohit Sawant, my undergrad friend. It was nice to meet Rohit after 2 years, and first time in US. Apart from old memories, we discussed whitewater rafting in West Virginia... He did one a couple of weeks back and I am planning to do it this weekend. Saw the DVD of their rafting, which was really cool. The lower New river in WV provides level IV and V rapids, and am really excited about coming weekend.

Anyways, next day drove from Richmond to Washington DC for Neil's wedding. It was a very well planned one, and only selected few were invited. Got to meet mama, mami, Dilip mama, Sachin, Netra tai, Sanjay, Nikhil and everyone else after really long time... precisely after 2 years. Last time we all met was for Netra Tai's wedding in June 2003. This pretty much summarises all the relatives I have in the United States, and its a different feeling altogether to meet your loved ones after a long time.

The wedding itself was a class affair, which started in a traditional maharashtrian way, with all mantras and other customs... and followed by a banquet. Had a lot of fun and lot of food as well. It went on till 12.30 AM.

Then drove to Ajinkya's places in Manassas, Virginia. This was kind of unplanned visit. I actually had called Pramod Shanbhag, to see if I could meet him. But he, and a few others were going to meet at Ajinkya's place... So it was kinda Clemson reunion. Apart from Ajinkya and Pramod, there was a strong Clemson gang of Srinivas, Nilu and Bhargavi. Most of the time was spent in exchanging movies from one laptop to other... There were 6 Clemson engineers and 4 laptops.... So there was very active information exchange on Saturday nite/ Sunday morning. It was nice to see so many Clemson people together after long time.

Next day morning, had Indian masala tea with croissants... and we watched the Ashes test match between England and Australia. This Ashes series is shaping up very well and is promising to be a very absorbing and exciting one. Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were in full flow, and it was good (and very rare) to see Mcgrath and Warne being hit all over the ground so mercilessly.

After a quick photo-session, had to say good bye to them, as I had another brief meeting with Het and Rohit in Washington DC. Wanted to spend some more time in Manassas, as they all were heading for miniature-golf. May be next time.

So Het, Rohit and I had decided to meet at Union Station, Washington DC. It was kind of VESIT reunion. In Rohit's words: "Had a good time since few old memories came up which made us laugh a lot. I hope we will be able to meet again once Binu is up here and makes some plan to Visit the East Coast here"... am looking forth to meeting my old gang.

Anyways, so after very hectic 2 days, 400 miles of driving... I was back to Dulles airport, only to realise that the plane was an hour late this time. Since one hour was not sufficient for a movie, it was Tom and Jerry time... which of course of full of fun.

Now am back in Cleveland, and back to work... but am already in the rafting mood. Am looking forth to coming weekend in West Virginia.