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Published: December 29th 2006
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December 15th-18th 2006 Disclaimer: To anyone reading this blog, we did not visit any specific place in Arlington apart from a good number of restaurants. So apart from family members and close friends, the rest of you might be bored reading this . Sorry!😞.
We were not sure if we could make this trip till literally we woke up and got into the car. Karthik's ex-roommate and one of our closest friends, Santhanam Rajagopalan was becoming Dr. Santhanam, and we wanted to be there to share this special occasion with him. Unfortunately Anitha could not accompany us as she had a final and grading to do here in Nashville 😞
We started at 9:30 a.m after a good night's rest on the 15th to drive to Arlington which is a good 10 and a 1/2 hours drive away. Karthik and I always like long drives, as we can listen to music and talk...which I do a lot of 😊 We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way for a lunch buffet, reaching Arlington at 8:30 p.m. Karthik and I took equal turns driving and it was not bad at all as we made it
in 11 hrs.
Santh did not know about this trip and we wanted to surprise him. We were going to stay with Vidyaraman and his wife Charanya, who were also Karthik's friends. So after we reached there, Vidya brought Santh over with the pretext I think of free food 😊 and we were hiding in the shoe closet. We jumped out only to totally shock Santh into toppling over into the sofa. I was scared he was going to faint....but he recovered quickly enough and was really pleasantly surprised, I hope. Santh claims this is the biggest ever surprise he has ever had in his life!
We were meeting Charanya for the first time but took an immediate liking to her, as she was very jovial and fun loving…making us look forward to our stay there. Vidya had made Lemon, Coconut and Curd Rice for our dinner, which we hungrily ate as we had last eaten lunch at 11:30 a.m. After that we retired to bed pretty soon to get ready for graduation the next day.
Along with Santh, another friend of ours was graduating with an M.S., Prasanna. We were a bit late
the next morning owing to sleeping late and the long drive and reached right when the intro speech started. Soon after, we saw Santh become a doctor, amidst loud cheers and whistles! It was more Arlingtapuram than Arlington and was very much like an Indian college graduation. But, what a moment for Santh - he deserved all the cheers, and we feel success surely can’t come to a better person !! 😊
Once the tassels changed sides and the graduation ceremony came to an end, we all met outside Texas Hall for snaps and snacks. Santh, as usual, took some “kalai kann” snaps in his gown near the fountain, near the tress, and sundry. We then gathered at Santh’s place, had some “Pongal”, which was a Margazhi special and then headed towards Dallas for lunch. Our collective choice was
Chettinad Palace - Oh! Man, the southern Tamilnadu spices pampered our taste buds. There was a wide variety of Indian dishes ranging from Upma to Butter Naan to kara kozhambu. Stomachs full, and eyes snoozing, we returned home. The afternoon was spent with a session of cards, with Anoo unveiling all the tricks up her sleeve. But, we should say
Charanya was quite smart to catch the “trick” behind the tricks, if there ever was one.
That evening, we had planned to visit Sunitha Aunty, Anoo’s ex-neighbor in Madras. Sunitha Aunty and Kannan Uncle are now settled in Plano, TX for a year. It was a long drive of 1 to 1.5 hrs from Arlington (very, very short by TX standards, as the locals would claim). We did reach finally, without missing our way, thanks to Vidyaraman’s impeccable knowledge of the routes in DFW (Dallas-Forth Worth). We got the chance to meet their kids (Karthik & Krithika), and had dinner together. We talked about old times with them, and it felt nice to meet someone, we got to know back home, over here.
The next day (Sunday) should have been our trip back home. But, the fun we had the previous day lured us into staying back for one more day. Moreover, the 11 hr trip on Friday was still making us feel sore, so we were more than glad to spend the day with Santh & company. It was actually Vidyaraman’s birthday; Charanya had planned a surprise “Spa treatment” for him; and as they were off,
we spent some good time talking to Santh - about our past days, future plans…Then, we set off for lunch to
“Masala”, an Indo-Chinese restaurant, where we had American Chopsuey (after a looooooooong time) and Tandoor specials. The food was as good as the one on Saturday. We then went to “Bharat Bazaar” to buy some Tamil/Hindi movies. Anoo, being a Shah Rukh fan(atic), had been looking for
“The Inner & Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan”, a movie made on his personal and tinsel life! I still can’t understand why someone would want to know about his personal life. Though the store had the DVD, he did not have an extra copy to sell - too bad for Anoo. Her ghost still lingers around that store, I guess! We came back home and watched
“The Godfather”- Tamil version. Ate at a real Mexican restaurant
On the Border for the first time for dinner and hit the bed. The next day was our drive back to Nashville - made it slightly faster in 10.5 hrs. Overall, a squeezed schedule - but, can’t complain for the fun we had and we would do it
back anytime in a flash 😊
P.S. Those who were attentive enough to notice a change in style ...I wrote the first part and Karthik finished it up 😊
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:o
eppo dee extra rendu kaathu kuthal? Looks like u guys had fun!