Yesterday was a special day in my parents’ life, as it was their 29th wedding anniversary. For the past week, bhaiya, Neeraj, and myself were thinking what we can do for them. Then we talked to our family friends last weekend and decided that we would surprise our parents by going to go see them in Springfield.

So that was the plan. We all met up at our house at around 3 pm, and we were off on an hour ride to Springfield. We reached and then went to my father’s hotel, he is a general manager there, and so he has been given managers’ quarters.

I was up in front, and we all laid down on the hallway so that they couldn’t see us from the peep hole. I knocked on the door, and at first no one answered. Then I knocked louder and the door opened, and there stood my mother with her jaw dropped as we yelled:

My Papa was sleeping, and he woke up suddenly, it was quite a funny sight:!: Then we sat, ate, enjoyed together, and then we played a game!

A game of punishments! Bhaiya and Mumma had to get something out of the car, so the rest of the guys (Brijesh, Rajiv, and Neeraj) made up the punishments. The rest of us were talking, and then when Bhaiya and Mumma returned, we started the game.

We played the game, One Card, and in that game at the end whoever had the lowest card, lost. They would then have to pick one of the chits that the guys had made and have to do that. It was lots of fun because some of the questions were:

Hold your partner’s hand, and propose to them
Dil main gudgudi sab se pehle kab hui?
Tell us your most embarassing moment

The lucky part of this? Neeraj and I didn’t lose:!: So no punishments here:!: We were the only ones that there was no punishment for as everyone else lost atleast once, many lost more than once.

Then it was past 8 pm, and we went out to dinner. By the time we were done, it was 10 and we all left for our one hour drive home.

Great time! We all enjoyed, and from my parents’ faces I think they were really surprised and they loved it!!!!!

It was also Manish’s wedding in India. Finally he will be bringing his dulhania to the states. Hope that everything went well with them:!:

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Silsila of Birthdays has started. Neeraj started it off, and recently we had two more birthdays of our blogger friends. Here’s Neeraj and my gift to you both.

January 13 was Anubha’s birthday. NP.com would like to wish Anubha a

Anubha commented on our blog the first time on July 3, 2005, and this was her comment:

Hey Poonam,
Thanks for having me there i had an absolutely rocking time, it was great meeting all of you. Yea i remember Ankur’s saying that about my voice . LOL i remember Neeraj’s “stock broker” mic. You people are so sweet you bore my singing and murdering a beautiful no. loved torturing you people Neeraj sang really well and i’ll never forget the blush on your face when he was singing. I missed Kunal’s song so he better be prepared to sing 2 songs the next time IM all ears. Yes it was soooo much fun and all thanks to Akash n you guys!!! You people rock!!! hope to see you guys soon in another OBM.

Our friendship began at the OBM when she had joined us. Since that time, we have become very good friends and chat frequently on Yahoo Messenger. Anubha is very easy to talk to, and we are able to voice/video chat for hours. We both always have a good time pulling the leg of a Mr. Kunal, and we gang up on him as often as we can. She is a very sweet girl and speaks to the point, which I really like about her. Since her new job, we don’t hear from her as often, but its always nice to catch up with this Delhite. Neeraj and I hope for the very best for you always in life. We hope to meet up with you at our wedding because I know that you will come. We hope that you had a great birthday!!

Then on January 14th was the birthday of our own mister Manpreet Singhji. NP. com gives out a shout to Manpreete to say:

Our friendship with Manpreet goes back a long way. His first comment on our blog was back on July 21, 2004. Here’s what he had to say:

$1 for an outgoing call. that is about 46 rs. for a min..!!! And, I thought that talktime is expensive in India.. hehe
Don’t know about Mumbai, but Hutch in Delhi(aka Orange in Mumbai) charges about Rs. 49 a month, for unlimited SMS..
Yeh to kuch bhi nahin hai.. When I was in Bangalore, SMS was free… bole to ek dum free.. I used to send about 100 SMS a day.. hehe… vitually used my mobile as a chat client… hehe
Voice mail costs about 3 rs/min to retrieve a message. No charges for leaving a message though.

To give you some insight, this blog’s existence from that time was only one month old. Neeraj and I have had the great privilege to meet this Delhite in the bestest city in India, Mumbai. Yes, of all places, we met up with Manpreet in the bestest city in the world (but he won’t admit to that ). After meeting Manpreet, my views have definitely changed for him. Before, I used to think that this guy was a casanova type, looking for girls and just one full party. But in fact, he’s really this seedha saadha ladka who has a gf and only acts like the casanova types. Our ongoing war on Mumbai-Delhi will continue for a lifetime, but I feel that so will our friendship. We have already discussed taking our kids to Rashu’s marriage in 8 years. Manpreet is a fun loving guy, and Neeraj and I do hope that we get to spend more time with him and Tanya in the future. He’s a very intelligent guy, and even when we met him for the first time, we were able to sit and chat for hours of time. He has been our partner in crime for setting up the OBMs. Thanks for being a great friend Manpreete. Neeraj and I hope for your success in the future, and we hope to hear good news so that we also get a chance to balle balle“. Chak de phatte!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Today we are with my parents in Springfield. I may not get a chance to write again as we are going to be in Chicago for Christmas so I thought we would give our wishes early. Good news that Neeraj’s interview went really well today, and they offered the job. But its still a tough decision only — shall talk about that on another day.

Its her birthday on Saturday, and NP.com wishes her a very happy birthday:!: I believe Indu had come to our blog first, and that’s how we became friends. She has been in the states but unfortunately is now heading back to India permanently without even meeting us. Oh well, we hope that she will join us for our wedding. I have always found Indu to be very sweet but always brings good thoughts and bright ideas when she comments. Neeraj and I really do hope that we get to meet you and your movie buff hubby soon. Have a great birthday:!:

A Christmas birthday for Mannat. Many Many Happy Returns of the Day! She would comment on Ankur’s blog all the time. One day I saw him say “bhabhi”, so then I would also call her “bhabhi”. She would comment as “Manu”. Then there was a comment on our blog one day about her and husband, commented as “Mannat”. I didn’t put the two and two together until one long boring day when Mannat, Manpreet, and myself went on a commenting spree on Manpreet’s blog. Then it became very clear to us — except Ankur. He was unaware for quite some time that his bhabhi was “Mannat”. Very sweet girl who lives nearby here, but we have never been able to meet. Same sad story as Indu. Hopefully we will get a chance to meet them here in the states though. Mannat and I don’t always meet eye-to-eye on many topics, but its always good hearing her thoughts. I have learned alot from her on many things that she has commented on, and I am always very happy to hear from her. I hope that you have a great day on your special day!

To all — NP. com would like to wish

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!! Hope that everyone enjoys as much as we are going to enjoy!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

NP.com would like to wish a very

Our friendship started with then non-blogger Ankur when he had come and visited our photos page. He left one comment, and then started to leave other comments on photos. Then I wrote back to him and asked if he just looked at the photos or if he actually read the blog too. That time the photos page and the blog was open to the public.

Soon enough he started to comment his famous one-liners on the blog as well. It wouldn’t be too long that this single lawyer in Delhi would start his own blog. He writes about many interesting things and since having the blog has gotten great appreciation for his court case against Sify Broadband.

We have never been able to meet up with Ankur but do hope that the next time we are in India that we will get that privilege. Dekhte hain uski shaadi pehle hoti hai yaa phir hamari.

Ankur has helped us in many ways when it comes to getting legal/immigrational advice to sending us songs so that we can finish our Favorite Songs List or helping out with some needed work in Delhi.

Neeraj and I appreciate your friendship Ankur and wish for the very best for you in life. May God give you lots of prosperity and all the happiness that you truly deserve. He is a great human being, and we are grateful to have you as our friend.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Anubha sitting in pitch black darkness (as seen from her webcam ), Deepak Jeswal humming when no one else was speaking on voice chat, Kunal eating up any type of food that was put in front of him, and Captain Manpreet showing up late to the OBM, that too without a mic or webcam! That’s just part of what you missed at the 3rd OBM.

Thanks to everyone for coming. Neeraj and I loved talking to all of you and hope that you all enjoyed as well. It was nice to see some new faces this time — Mona, Neha, and Tanya. Rashu dear as always came with her sense of humor, and an excuse for her squeaky microphone. It was nice to see another couple (Manpreet and Tanya) to join us and share with us a recent experience that they faced. Our Bangalorean Prasad can always be counted. Even though he was late due to a previous appointment, he still trudged over to a cyber cafe to be part of the fun.

Thanks to Kunal for creating the wonderful script/form where we stored all of our OBM profiles. It was nice to have all of that information in one place!

News with NP

We are now in our third week since Neeraj has come to the US, and we are enjoying every moment of it. There are many things that we are learning about each other, that we may have not known before :wink:, which by itself is a great experience.

As for the immigration process, we had gone to apply for Neeraj’s Social Security Number (SSN) on Friday. We had gone two weeks back, but the lady had said that she would have to go through the INS manual verification process which would take 45 days to get the SSN. So we decided to wait another week and go back on last Friday. The same lady gave us the same news on Friday, but then after completing the application, she returned with good news that a manual verification was not needed. Neeraj will then receive his SSN in two weeks. Two weeks sounds much much better than 45 days.

With his SSN, he will be able to take the driver’s test and get his driver’s license and be able to open a bank account. Also half of the work will be done for him to be legally authorized to work in the US.

Tomorrow we are going to send off the AOS (Adjustment of Status — Permanent Residency), EAD (Employment Auth), and AP (Advance Parole) docs off to the Chicago Lockbox Facility. Upon receiving his EAD (which hopefully won’t be more than two months), will then make him able to apply for jobs.

Currently he’s preparing for the GMAT exam (which he is wayyy ahead of me, he’s going to prep me on that later ), and also studying to take a Java/J2EE certification. So he has things to keep him busy. I get home around 5.40, I pick him up, and then we head over to my house for dinner/tv/relaxing. Before sitting down to watch Fame Gurukul, we usually go for driving practice for 45 mins-hour. Neeraj is doing really well on his driving and is surely going to pass with flying colors!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

I have been thinking about writing a post every day this week, but life has changed. How? Why? Read on.

CAUTION: This is a long post. It goes on and on and on. Read at your leisure.

I have made headings for those who would rather scim through the post, you can then read the topics that you find interesting. Smart eh? Thank you, thank you.

Birthdays

Happy Belated Birthday Govind!

I can remember the first time Govind commented on our blog even without looking it up. It was Swatantrata Divas last year, and Neeraj and I had written a joint post in shudh Hindi. To sum it up Govind’s comment, he said:

You guys used big words

Here’s Govind’s full comment given on August 15th, 2004:

Hmm, tough hindi words. Happy independence day. I think, if our government would have spent at least 5% of their defence expenditure, Indian’s would have made some achievement at olympics. Have to see, when this will happen.

I don’t remember seeing Govind’s picture until our first OBM when I asked everyone to send me one so that I could put it up in our gallery. By reading his posts and his comments on our blog, I imagined Govind to be a tall, dark, thin, typical Hyderbadi with a moustache and a stoic expression. I was close, he didn’t have a moustache.

He always provides insight to whatever topic whenever he has commented on our blog. I always am interested to hear what he has to say. Sorry that these wishes are late, but even that will be explained very soon. We hope that your day was as special and memorable as you!

Happy Birthday Gudiya!

She’s a close cousin of mine, I have mentioned her once before on her b’day last year. Today is also her mother’s birthday (my bua), and I hope that they both have a wonderful day today!

Job

So since recently I haven’t mentioned much about my job. I haven’t had a chance with all that is going on with Neeraj, his passport, and his visa. I rolled onto the project near my home. It wasn’t the role that I wanted to be in (its more of a functional process architecture role rather than technical), but I am glad to be commuting from home and not traveling by plane. So I started there on 8th August, and its been fun so far. I work Mon-Thurs 10 hours a day, and then I get Fridays completely off.

So here’s a typical Mon-Thurs morning for me:

5.20 am - wake up
5.30 am - shower
5.45 am - getting ready & checking emails/blogs (I can’t check anything @ work )
6.05 am - driving
6.50 am - reach the office

Then I usually leave around 5.20 pm in the evenings and make it home by 6 pm. By the time I get home, change, eat dinner, watch Fame Gurukul and my other serials, I am left with about 0% of energy. Kunal summed it really well yesterday by saying that every time he checks my online status on Y! Messenger, its either on “at the office” or “sleeping”.

I am working at a huge client where 90% of the contractors are either from Patni, Satyam, or HTC Technologies, so you can imagine how many Indians are there. I had seen something on the very first day I was at the client site that I will never forget and haver never seen in America. The majority of the Indian women that worked there were wearing salwar kameezes/punjabi dresses. My first thought was,

Am I in India or America?

As anyone else seen this before here? I don’t know about you guys, but it was odd the first time I saw it. But now, even I am thinking about wearing a salwar kameez one day too.

Neeraj’s Update

So the last you might have read was that Neeraj got his passport. Then last Monday he had gone to the US Consulate to get his visa re-stamped on his new passport. They told him to come back on Tuesday at 4 pm to pick it up. He bought train tickets to go home on Tuesday night because we assumed that he would get his stamped passport and the visa documents that day. We made that fatal mistake: trusted the Consulate!

He got his visa alright, but when he asked for his visa documents packet, the lady didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He explained that when he came here almost a month before, they told him to get a new passport and @ that time turned his wet visa documents. He was told that he would get a new packet when he came for the re-stamping. But that lady was so rude to him and just told him to come back the next day, and she couldn’t do anything. Now you guys should know that buying train tickets for the next day is just about impossible. So first he went to the railway station to get a train ticket for Wednesday, but in vain. The ticket counter closed before it was Neeraj’s turn.

Then Neeraj went home, didn’t even get to cancel his Tuesday train ticket. He went back to the US Consulate on Wednesday morning at 7 am. Now really how much time do you think that they would take? One hour? two hours? No, Neeraj didn’t get the packet until 1 pm (he sat at the Consulate for 6 hours ). After two hours when Neeraj asked how much longer it will take, the same lady from Tuesday was there, and she told him not to tell her how to do her job. What the freak??? Finally he got his visa packet, amazingly got a ticket on August-Kranti and got to Sawai Madhopur to be with his elder sister on Thursday morning.

He is going to Hindaun with his elder sister today, so finally he will be home. His ticket to the US also got confirmed today, and he will be reaching on the 8th of September (granted there are no more roadblocks ).

I am really ticked @ the US Consulate in Mumbai, and I am contemplating writing a blog about just it. I was thinking of starting one on blogspot, anybody have thoughts on this??? I just want to vent out my anger. I have written a letter once complaining to the US government about the Consulate in Mumbai, and it really didn’t help. I am thinking I should write a letter to my Congressman, but I also want the public to know the truth about it too. Please give me your thoughts.

Interesting article on being an online persona — Thanks to Ashwin.

Now my long post is coming to an end. Everybody in America, enjoy the long weekend (its Labor Day on Monday ).

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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Happy Independence Day! I hope that everyone enjoyed this very special day. We will always remember this day as being the day we, as a nation, became free. Thanks to all of the great leaders of India of having that fighting spirit, and to the junta today who is reaching higher levels in all different aspects. May India only prosper to the top in the coming future.

9th of August was a special day for one blogger, and because of the many troubles that we were facing, Neeraj and I were unable to properly wish him. So here we are today. We apologize for the delay.

His first comment on our blog on 22nd February, 2005:

First time to ur blog… really nice template and also the posts… (BTB came here thro’ Nupur’s blog)
i read ur touching love story… it was like a real movie love story with twists n turns… hmm, simply great….. :)
I wish u both with my whole heart… and wish that u both get married soon with consent from both sides..

Hmm, now coming to the article u’ve written here..
I do completely agree that drinking, smooking, eating non-veg all these r on one’s own wish..
I don’t do any of these cos i don’t find any necessity to do so… but, i don’t find it difficult to move with ppl who r so.. its their life…
Ok thn, will come back…. have a nice day.. :)

Prasad. Yeh mandir wala Prasad nahi hai, par dil se aacha wala Prasad hai. We have only known him for a short period of time, but surely he has made this nice little place in our hearts. He speaks so sweetly, and one can tell that he is this great down to earth and bilkul seedha guy. Working in IBM, Prasad has a very bright future in his hands. Ladkiyan, don’t wait too long otherwise this catch will surely be taken.

What I like about Prasad the most is his maturity; his sense of speaking. I find him to be very politically correct at times, conscious of what he says, but at the same time can really get down and be in masti as well. From his photo, you would think that he woul have this very deep voice like Arjun Rampal, but in fact he is quite soft spoken. We have heard him, but hope to see him too in life. I hope we can we meet up in Kerala, God’s Own Country, right Prasad?

We want to wish you only the very best Prasad in life. Through this blog, we are very lucky to have found a friend like you, and hope that our friendship will last a lifetime. We apologize for the late wishes, but seeing from your blog, your b’day seemed like a major success:!:

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Happy Birthday to Arbaaz Khan!!!! :grin: Ok ok, its his birthday too, but he’s not the one we want to wish. This friend of ours is the the first on the list of the many bloggers who have August birthdays. NP.com would to like to wish a……

Ever since his first comment on our blog on October 18, 2004:

Hi Poonam,
my friends sister got married to a guy from USA n went with to US in like a months time… they got married in india though.
yeah v imp to show the marriage certificate n the wedding invitation.
Most of my friends on H1B visas were also able to get their wives there in like 3 weeks time…
Where do u plan to get married ? i dont think what Neeraj can do is goto the US counsulate n get the info and u can do the same over there…

He has been very helpful to us. He has always supported us with good wishes and encouragement. In December, Neeraj and I even got to meet him in Mumbai, which I think strengthened our friendship with Kunal. He is really good at keeping in touch. Being in Mumbai, he calls up Neeraj once in a while just to see how he is doing. Really we appreciate it. He’s a straightforward but emotional guy that we are happy to call our friend. His knowledge on a vast number of subjects is great if you want to have an interesting and intellectual conversation.

Ever since I found out about his age, I have made it a target to tease him. But today is your day Kunal saab, today no teasing. Ladies, he’s on the lookout for his jeevan saathi (life partner), so if you are looking for a seedha Guju ladka (there aren’t many of them that are seedha like him ), then Kunal is your guy. He has a great personality and will definitely serenade you with one of his favourite English love songs.

Neeraj and I hope you have a fabulous day today Kunal! Its your day, enjoy it to the fullest:!: All the very best to you in life. Stay smiling always!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.