Concerts and Weddings! *phew* What a Weekend!

One of my dear single friends got engaged last Monday (July 31st)...And guess when they scheduled her wedding??? Exactly five days after her enegagement. Now that does not happen too often! It was that sudden that we did not even feel like we spoke to her enough before she got married...I mean just last Saturday (July 29th) she was at our house-warming party...and this Sunday (August 6th) she is married...

Last week was hectic...I had to attend some training sessions in Irving away from our office and I had to travel a lot...then my friends and I shopped around a little and of course "What to gift" was the major topic on the discussion agenda and we spent hours pointing and counterpointing all arguments!! And as usual finally settled in on our very first choice...

And then came the weekend...Girish had heard on the Desi Radio (which he listens to because he has no cassette/CD player in his car) that Atif Aslam was performing at Funasia and it was going to be for free...Since we all like his music...We reached the place promptly at 9.40pm for a show scheduled at 9.00pm which eventually started around 10.10pm or so...

First on Stage was a singer called Fakhir, a Pakisthani pop sensation...We had actually heard his music but did not know that this was him...Then it was followed by Mr. Vaibhav, a local Dallas resident, who swayed and shashayed to Bheegi Bheegi (Gangster) and Allah ke Bande (Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II)...he looked so stupid dancing around alone on the stage...we now make so much fun of him everytime we get together...

Finally Atif came on stage...Atif, I must admit is cool, stylish, good sense of dressing, can dance, can bend like elastic, and most important can sing really good (you should listen to his alap!). He sang most of our favorite songs plus a few others and we were very happy that he was as good live as he was in his cd. The show was great...Everything was perfect but I am pretty sure that we might have been the only seven or eight Desi's in the whole auditorium...It was slightly intimidating, I must admit...We got very consicous!

So the concert is over and we walk out of the hall and start discussing what our POA would be for the next couple of days considering one of our best friend was getting married. We started to share work and discuss stuff when a bunch of Pakisthani guys drove up in a Lexus, parked it in front of the theater and started screaming "Pakistan Zindabad!" and they were jumping around. We really felt very alienated and threatened for a few minutes and decided that we would all meet at one of our friend's house to conclude our discussions...

I wonder why they always carry a flag of their country to all their shows and then behave like this...I am sure there are a few Indians who would do the same thing, but I am not one of them and would certainly never do such things...As an after thought I felt sad for their insecurity that they always have to do this :(


Then came Saturday and the gang split into groups to get some final shopping and gift buying completed...later in the evening my friend and I went for the Henna party while the guys went for the 25th Birthday Party of another friend of ours...After the Henna party my friend and I joined the guys and by the time we got home it was well past two...Two of our other friends from Austin who were also coming in for the wedding came in at 3.00am and we sat up talking till 5.30 in the morning...We were woken up at 8.30am and then had to get ready in a rush to get to the temple on time for the wedding...Half of us got there on time and the three girls missed the wedding by 5 minutes...ya we were getting ready!

After the wedding we went for this wonderful reception at Mariott, where we toasted, ate lunch, Sammy sang, and we danced a little before heading back home in a thunderstorm...All our friends joined us at our home and then we cooked Dal, rice and potatoes, before saying good bye to everyone around 10.15pm...We saw half of the movie called "Makdi" before we hit the bed around 11.10pm...

The week was loaded and the weekend was all the more loaded!!! We are tired from our hectic weekend and hopefully the next one comes even before we realize it considering we had a "Start of week dinner party" at Rama's, we also have a Preetha "buh-bye" party on Thursday, and we might go and watch "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" this Friday...*Phew*...B.U.S.Y...