A new Dawn for Pranjal and Meetu

Meetu and Pranjal became proud parents yesterday (26 Feb 08).

They have named their little girl "Sehar".

brand new bloGGGGer

Folks check out the newest blogger amongst us

G at http://theicon-o-blast.blogspot.com

Hey Pirbhu - Tum bhi

Here's a cut and paste of Pirbhu's mail

Dear Friends,

All good things come to an end...for best of the things to get started.

Similar is the case with my bachelorhood days. It has outlived its usefulness. Yours truely is now ready to tie the knot.

Sushma and I are getting married this month.

The marriage details are as follows :

Date : 26th February' 2008
Day : Tuesday
Venue : Sri Kripa Hall, Plot no. 1, Sector no. 6, Khanda Colony, New Panvel, Mumbai
Baraat Start : 6.00 pm
Reception Party Start : 7.30 pm

It's going to be momentous occassion in our lives, as life will never be the same again. Having said that, we would like to enter this new phase in life with friends, fun and laughter all around. Kindly make it convenient to attend the wedding to bless us with your good wishes.

Please free to contact me for any details related to your travel or stay.

Looking forward to meet you,

Prabhakar Tiwari
99201 99XXX

PS: Wedding card soft copy

Mringi is a dad now!!

Its 12.49 am on 3rd feb, just happened to ping Mringi and it turns out that the dude is in the hospital, as the couple has just been blessed(about 9 hrs ago) with a baby girl - a 3.25 Kg bundle of joy.The baby, mom and dad are all doing fine. The name of the baby is yet to be decided - Mringi is yet to decide between two names - an offer for online poll to help him come to a decision was politely ignored...:(.

Congrats to Mringi and Nikki - pls keep watching this space for pics of the baby.

A day of fun and frolic at the Mud-Fort - Kuchesar

Bored of meeting in coffee houses and Malls, we ( Alam and Afshan, Little Alam, Anushman and some cousins, Vishesh and I ) decided to instead combine a nice long drive to a historic place with some good sight seeing. We wanted to go to a place that was close enough to Delhi, yet far away from the crowds.
Neemrana was too snooty with advance reservations and payments. Other places, were either too far off or were in our ‘been there’ and ‘not again’ list. Finally, we all voted for the Mud-Fort at Kuchesar.
After a rather rough ride on the roads of UP, we arrived at the 18-th century Jat Fort cum hotel. Per various web-sites, the fort had seven turrets as a defense against possible cannon attack and a wide moat was dug to form the ramparts (you can see the empty moat in the picture below) .

There were tons of activities to do. Alam and Vishesh immediately pounced upon the TT table in one of the verandahs. Afshan and Anshuman were playing badminton with Junior Alam in the patio while I went off to explore the fort and take pictures.
The rooms of the hotel reminded me of old British houses, with high ceiling, ventilators on top and large sweeping fans (a lot of Hotel reviews seem to euphemistically call this the ‘colonial charm’). Cane armchairs (the variety from our grandparents times) offered a comfortable perch. In fact, the hotel gave me an impression of living quarters in a government guesthouse with concomitant pricing of a civilian hotel. There was not much to see around the Fort per se as a large section of the fort has been cordoned off by the owners as their private residence (refer adjacent picture). However, even with the limited space, one can enjoy a balmy evening on one of the rooftops of the fort, which offer a picturesque view of the sugarcane fields in the surrounding area. A serene quiet place without the bustle of typical touristy resorts.

An old-fashioned buttermilk-churning machine made out of wood caught the attention of everyone in the Dining room as we waited our turn. Lunch looked very homemade, however, it was a low value for money. Even in the dimly lit dining room I could make out that the cutlery and dining tables had not been cleaned for quite sometime.

Bored of having explored the Fort in a few hours, we proceeded to laze in the gardens adjoining the Fort. Sitting in the Jhoolas made of Jute under a Banyan tree, we ordered ‘ganna’. Soon there was a competition as to who could eat maximum ‘gannas’. Before we realized, it was dusk and time to go home. Over tea, I could already hear chatter about plans of our next visit to another historic place.

(Note: for the next article, people pictures will be taken specifically for this blog.)