A meeting of friends.

Abhishek, Sunayana and Amlan flew down for our annual Thanksgiving tradition. It was a fun and eventful distraction from all the work at hand-- four days of talking, shopping, arguing, watching movies, sleeping late, and doing what friends who are practically family, do. Ayush, Theron, and Supratik also joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, which was a massive culinary affair. Anyesha has been planning and conspiring with Ayush, Theron and Abhishek for weeks now over the menu. It was quite a spread-- chicken, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce out of a can, pot pie, sparkling peach drinks, stuffing, rice appetizers. . . After stuffing ourselves sillier than our chicken, we watched "Salaam Namaste". It was a hoot, watching it in an irreverent group.

The next day we decided to find out what Black Friday is all about, and went shopping to Anne Arundel Mills. Amlan bought some fleece jackets, Anyesha and Sunayana bought shoes. Among other things. The evening was spent creatively painting pots at Color-me-mine. I tried recreating my Potter's Life pot on a mug, and Anyesha made a coffee mug with warm colors. Theron added a pastel-blue dragon to his dinosaur collection. Abhishek made a Salsa bowl with elemental stick figures dancing around a central fire. Sunayana decorated a Jewellery box. Amlan wrote recursive statements and Maxwells equations on a Grecian urn. Ayush made a nice vase, and dripped paint over it for effect. My friends are like this.

After some Burmese cuisine at Mandalay, we decided to retire to College Perk for some hanging out. Amlan, Abhishek, Ayush, and I launched into a big argument about the gay rights movement is all about. The discussion wasn't so entertaining for the rest of the gang.

When we got home, it was only 2:00 AM. So we decided to watch Parineeta. . .which was a watchable passable movie with good songs.

Saturday, we got up late and planned to go to Indique for lunch. But we got up late. So we had lunch at Le Madeleine's instead and hung out in Bethesda. We couldn't convince Amlan to buy an i-pod, and window shopped at artsy-fartsy stores. This was followed by a little Ikea, before heading home and having some good old home cooked khichuri. After a round of singing obscure songs from the 1950s, we settled down to watch "Sarkar". . .which was made in intense and comical slow motion.

Singh and Sunayana left on Sunday morning. Amlan and I discussed the dangers of selling out to the forces in Academia, and in the evening we hung out with Ayush and Theron over tea. In the evening, we watched the new Pride and Prejudice movie at Greenbelt theater. . .which I liked very much. Because they took the upper lip and grounded Britishness into reality-- like pigs, farms, hay, and stuff.

So that was that. Thanksgiving 2005. Hmmmm. Now, back to the grind.