Weekend in Bloomington

“Bring your favorite cookbooks,” Sunitha instructed us before we left for B-Town last weekend.

Her request may have seemed strange to anyone, but us. For in the old days, we used to have a lot of fun with communal cooking - the concept of catching up with each others lives, while cutting a bunch of onions and potatoes.

So we drove the five hours and hooked up with Abby, Koichi and Sunitha. And then proceeded to stuff our faces with Blarney Puffballs, Saturday Night at the Irish Lion.

Over a late breakfast at the Runcible Spoon on Sunday, we discussed each others lives and then, what we’d like to cook together!
And then the real fun began. We shopped for ingredients and spent the rest of the day holed up in Sunitha’s rather quaint and charming rental, cooking!

The five of us had a pretty good time chatting non-stop, watching football, surfing the net, prepping the veggies, cooking, washing dishes and drying them.

Koichi plucks mint leaves, while Nanu watches football.

There’s no doubt about it. It’s the people that make a place special.

B-Town here we come!

In a few hours we will be in Bloomington, Indiana! Should be fun catching up with old friends and soaking in the "atmosphere!"

This picture is from August 2004.

Cant wait to see Sunita and Abby! Sunita's back in B-Town to finish her thesis and Abby is in town to attend a wedding. Koichi and Giri (who are still studying!) will be there too.

The icing on the cake? The Lotus World Music & Art Festival is on this weekend in B-Town. Fun fun fun!

Koichi Comes to Visit!

This weekend was just so much fun. Koichi drove all the way from Bloomington to Carbondale to spend some time with us and to check out our new digs.

It was wonderful seeing an old, familiar face again. Since Nanu spent over four years sharing a house with Koichi in Bloomington, before he met me - they really go a long way back.

Koichi had as smiling as soon as he entered our home...Why?

Because he came with a whole case of Upland Beer - Bloomington's very own beer, available nowhere else! :)

The weekend was jam packed with so many things. We showed him around town, introduced him to our pets, ate in some nice restaurants, saw a movie, went to a beer garden called Pinch Penny, and then we decided to take him on the wine trail.

Its called the Shawnee Wine Trail out here in Southern Illinois and has around 8 wineries in all. We only managed to go to two, before we declared it a day. But oh what fun it was!

That barn like building on the left is the Pomona Winery where we had a wine tasting session, with the master winemaker going over his entire wine list with a whole bunch of people including us.

At the end of it, we bought a bottle of Orchard Harvest wine, while Koici bought two!

We got back on the wine trail and visited the Von Jakob Vineyard. It looked like a shed from the outside, but was beautiful and surprisingly huge on the inside. It was packed with people, all sipping various wines.

The only downer was the heat and humidity. The dog days of summer do not pleasant driving make.

So Koichi made us promise to wait for his next visit before we hit another vineyard on the wine trail!

Birthday Bumps for Miss Diniz

So Merril turns 29 today. She's a dear friend of mine from oh so long ago.

We've shared a house, laughter, tears, food, music and much much more over the years.

But first a little walk down memory lane: When I got to Pune in 1999 to do my Master's degree in Communication Studies, I ended up sharing a bungalow with six crazy, but fun women.

One of them was Merril, of course: A diva from Goa, who made grown men and women cry when she sang with her insanely beautiful voice.

She sported her hair short those days. The first time I saw her, I was sitting in the screened in porch of "Anand Bungalow" browsing through a magazine.

I heard someone singing and looked up. And there she was, dance-walking towards the house, dressed in denim cut-offs, singing a merry song - along with the walkman she was listening to and swaying her body in time to the rhythm. I was intrigued and amused and had to get to know her right away!

Soon I discovered she was a natural musician, with an awesome singing voice. She was also obscenely straight forward and always spoke her mind! We got on like a house on fire: me with my basic guitar skills and she of the magical voice.

The years rolled by, we'd spent two years in Pune together and soon found ourselves working in Bombay. Though we didn't share an apartment in Bombay, we'd meet up pretty often and share our woes.

It's been almost three years now since I left India for the States, but we still keep in touch from time to time.

I miss you, Merril. I still remember a Birthday of yours when someone threw cake in your face and you got it in your eye.

Caught between laughter and tears, she was a funny sight to behold. We had to rush the poor girl into the bathroom and wash the burn out of her eyes.

Happy Birthday, you merry old woman!