Sandip's Birthday Weekend

Well ladies and gents, it is hard to believe that 6 years ago we were decorating a place in Syracuse with brown paper for a big 30th bash.  Fast forward six years to New Delhi

Saturday Night: Oktoberfest
The American Community Support Association hosted an Oktoberfest at the embassy.  We stopped off for a haircut before joining.  This event has been highly publicized, but we expected some beer and a few German like snacks. Wow were we wrong-it was totally over the top!  They had Paulaner mini-kegs (sadly not of Oktoberfest brew, but of Hefeweisen and some other thing).  There was pretzel, spatzel, salads, and lots of yummy meat I am told.  The waitstaff was all in lederhosen to boot!  Lot of people we knew were there and the weather was perfect!  See below for fun and festivities.

The view from the entrance.  See the little kegs of beer in the background?

Every good Oktoberfest needs an ice sculpture of beer

 A view looking back at the place from deep inside.  Pretty impressive

Not as impressive as Ang sandwiched between two workers in lederhosen!

Sunday Afternoon: Dessert extravaganza
We hosted a cake/cookie/ice cream party at our place and about 25 people came which was nice.  We bought loads of ice cream from the local milk stand.  Side note: the dairy here has outlets from which you can buy products direct (you can get in grocery store too).  So you just walk up and get the ice cream.  You can also walk up and fill milk jugs.  Totally wild!  You really have a sense of where food is coming from here.  And believe me the ice cream is insanely good!

Anyway, we had lots and lots of sugar, some people brought presents, our neighbors provided candles and everyone provided good singing voices to mask how bad I am.  So below are some shots from the party.

From Sandip: Leonardo (neighbor and husband of Teresa who went to gymnastics with me), son Jeshua, Mark, Sam (who went to Commonwealth Games with us) and Don (also neighbor)

Don, his wife Mari helping bake cookies in background, Sandip, and woman named Kevin

Sandip making a wish.  Hope it comes true...

The after-party: not exactly according to plan
So the plan was to go to the Red Fort and watch Dussehra.  Basically it is part of an epic good vs. evil tale in Hindu religion.  Dusshera is part of the story where our hero Ram (also incarnation of Vishnu the god) kills the evil demon god who captured Ram's wife.  They Dusshera has huge puppet like figures of Ram, the demons, and others.  By huge I mean 50-75 feet.  Then the demons are set on fire in effigy to symbolize Ram's victory.  (By the way the Diwalli holiday coming up is Ram's return to homeland.  Diwalli=Christmas and New Year in one in terms of size here).  So we are all set to go to Red Fort.  Eight of us set out and We get there and discover this huge carnival atmosphere to our surprise.  It is huge. We find what we think is an entrance...

Closed.  They closed off the entrances because the Prime Minister was there.  So below is a picture of the burning demon from a distance (I hate that when I type this I think of that Bette Midler song.)

We decided to try to get in once the Prime Minister left.  There was a semi-circle roped off, and ahead of us 4 magnetic screening machines.  So the machines are in a row, semi-circle of people.  I am in the front trying to get position, we are all linking arms like kindergartners.  You can see where this is going folks, right?  Ropes down, mad push to the four magnetic screening devices.  We are doing well working our way up, swaying with the crown, thinking this is like a concert.  All of a sudden people are moshing back the wrong way.  You need a ticket to get in, which we don't have.  darn!  This is a blurry picture, but it was mayhem.

So what do we do?  Well, we decide to give up and go for margaritas and Tex-Mex. We go to a place called Rodeo, which for the second night in a row I get to see waitstaff dressed in costume.  I didn't snap pictures, but we did get these gems....

This is the barstool.  Yes ladies and gents, it is indeed a saddle.

Our birthday margaritas

This is the group that braved the final adventure.  All really nice people.

Monday, the actual birthday
Work got in the way of fun here, but it was still good.  I met Sandip at the embassy for lunch.  I was all excited to take him to Ruby Tuesdays-which they have in New Delhi.  But he had to work late.  So we ordered in McDonalds.  yes they deliver.  There are like 4 veg options.  Then we ate leftover cake and ice cream.  Total heaven.

Love to all!