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Marriage

Jazzy Night

It’s been two weeks since I moved here but yesterday was my first real outing in Peoria. Brad and I went to the Contemporary Art Museum of Peoria. Our interest – Dorann and the Mystic Soul band. It is a local band usually playing jazz, pop and blues. I did not know what to expect out of it as it was my first experience of this kind. Brad on the other hand was quite excited about it as an ardent jazz lover he was dying to go there for weeks. The set up was interesting and interesting enough was the idea that you bring your own food and drink. Needless to say that we did not know, and hence went there unprepared. There was considerable crowd when we reached and music was already on. It took me just few minutes to come to realization that we were the youngest in the room.

The first song we heard was a pure jazz tune but what followed was something else. The band switched to other popular tunes like ‘we are a family’, ‘lady marmalade from Moulin Rouge’ etc. I did not recognize many of the songs. Crowd was on their feet all the time. I was just amazed to see some of the ladies dancing that would embarrass today’s teenagers. It seemed that they have not aged or at least did not lose their groove in all these years. The energy and enthusiasm was unbelievable. Next to us was a nice couple who brought a picnic load of food and drinks with them. Seeing us sitting there without any food, they offered to share their food. We took some chips and salsa from them. Again interestingly all the flavor of chips like black beans chips, guacamole chips etc. and Mango salsa, Brad or I never had. It was two hours of nice music, not necessarily jazz what we expected. Brad seemed to enjoy though he might be a little disappointed as they played less jazz and more blues. But I must say that when I came out, I was very happy with what I experienced last night.

Houston Chronicles

Meanwhile (before I join CAT) I decided to travel to Houston to see an old friend of mine. It’s been six years since we last met, so I was excited. On my trip, I saw Jaime Hyneman of Mythbusters at St. Louis airport. I have always been a fan of Mythbusters and these days I am watching it regularly. So to see him on the airport was like the icing on the cake. He was kind enough to grant me a photo with him. It was amazing to see him walking just like an ordinary person. I guess few people realized who he was and went to say hello and a handshake.

Houston felt hot and humid from the outset, much like Surat or Mumbai. Vimal picked me up from the George H. Bush Intercontinental Airport (I was in Bush Country now) and on our way to home we picked Namrata from University of Houston. In the course of next few days I saw/visited many places and met most of Vimal’s friends. Places like the Swaminarayana Temple, Moody Gardens, Galveston Beach, Kemah Boardwalk, San Jacinto Monument, Battleship Texas (USS Texas) and Minaxi Temple. It turned out to be an awesome trip as I did not expect to see so much. The most satisfying moment was to visit the beach after a long time. It was nothing like the last one I saw in California, however there was sand, sea and plenty of babes. On a social note, it was heartening to see a big Gujarati student community there. Seeing them cooking and eating gujju food; chatting and debating in Gujarati made me a little nostalgic and I felt that I missed out on being around Gujarati friends. I was happy to see Gujarati people doing higher studies as they might be well known entrepreneurs but hard to be found on campuses.
I guess the only thing I was not prepared to experience was my friend being a very different person. We think that we know our friends; their roots and fundamental beliefs that we don’t think will get changed in time. We expect them to treat us as we treated each other last time. We expect to be the same old friends but I guess most expectations do not come true. Why so? Well, I am also not the same person I used to be years back. We evolve in time, get influenced by people around us and get affected by major events. Our likes and dislikes change as well as priorities. We pick some new hobbies/interest and drop some old ones. Perhaps the most important thing is that we don’t see life the way we always used to see. A new person (a new place up to some extent) brings the fresh perspective in life. I guess that is what has happened to most of my friends. Perhaps I have not met anyone worth changing my convictions and life-style so far.