HappyZine’s first 40 happy hours!

Well, I had promised my buddy that my first post will be about DM2VR2K. No no, don’t get me wrong. This is not the name of some space mission code or a chemical formula. It is only the name of our ‘innocent’ girl gang.

Sigh, I know—call it lack of creativity or call it typical schoolgirlie imagination. Whatever it is, we are stuck with this name and so I am…er…kinda beginning to like it (ever heard of sour grapes? ) C’mon, at least this name sounds ‘techie.’ Some geeky code language…ha ha! And anyways, this post is about my time (precisely speaking 39.5 hours) with the ‘techie’ girls of our gang—one of the M’s and both the R’s—all of whom came to visit V (for Vibha obviously). To elaborate on their geekiness…ahem…Mansi is an enginiyer and so is Ruchi. Riddhi, I most recently learnt, is also a computer science grad. How elitist in comparison to me—I am the ‘poor’ business girl and miles away from the ‘techie’ world!

So Mansi (and Mr. Hubby in tow), Ruchi and Riddhi decided to come down to Austin for ‘Vibha darshan’ (for the benefit of my non-desi friends: darshan= ‘sight,’ well you can almost say they came for ‘sight-seeing Vibha’). Well, I call it ‘darshan’ because just like at Tirupati one needs to queue up for long hours to get a darshan of Lord Venkateswara, these girls flew zig-zag across the US of A only to get a glimpse of me (oooh, how they complained of their long flights!). And, akin to the Tirupati darshan, their joy was also short-lived—only 40 hours of ‘Vibha time’ they got! Ha ha!

Now now, before these girls batter me down for my self-glorifying talk, I wish to profess my sincere joy and thrill of having them over and I am dedicating this post to those 40 hours of non-stop fun. We did not stop much, except for those power naps on the second night of their visit. "They came, we ate, we conquered"—it was pretty much that. Yes yes, 'conquered'—I will share our very comical Coach bag story in just a bit. We had our share of “Mansi’s Vital Gossip Dose” and “Dear Ruchi’s Giggle Fits.” And of course, “Riddhi’s Ravishing Poha” was the highlight of the trip (though she did not think so—she kept complaining how the potatoes in the US of A do not taste half as good as our desi potatoes). Our dear hero, Mr. Mansi aka Viral, decided it was best (and safe?) to stay out of our gossip and giggles and instead, he spent a leisurely time staying in bed for the longest hours. But yes, he was also our designated photographer for the trip and thanks to him, I have a new profile picture now! :)

Coming back to the Coach bag story, well here goes: Ruchi came up with the most awesome and the bestest idea (if I may say so despite the painful long hours of shopping). She proposed that we all go out and buy something unique for ourselves, to keep as a memoir of this trip. But the condition was that we should get four identical pieces so that all of us may flaunt that gift (whatever it was going to be) when we are all together the next time. We debated about bags, shoes, watches, accessories, Swarovski jewellery, blah and more blah. As if on a mission, we headed out to the nearest outlet mall to hunt our memoir down. Results? Well, let’s see what we got—overall it was three hours of fun, with a dash of despair, and some bubbly excitement, a pair of Aldo shoes for Mansi and a long-faced Mr. Hubby who burnt a tiny hole in his pocket, much disappointment, then some more fun, a lovely blouse for Riddhi, sore feet, and finally—eureka! Our moment of glory arrived when we all got ourselves a lovely (so what if it is tiny?) Coach bag! What pride showed on our faces to have found the best deal in the mall and most importantly, a bag which we ALL liked!

I stress on ALL—let me explain why. Does anybody on earth know how difficult (read: next to impossible) it is to get four ladies to agree on ONE same item? Someone likes the yellow bag, other thinks it’s not ‘her’ color; another feels that we should get wallets, and yet someone thinks maybe we should try at some other mall! I can barely express my happiness when we ALL agreed on the same bag and of the same color! I was truly overjoyed—after all, we did finally succeed in our mission.

But amidst all this fun, the other part of DM2VR2K was sorely missed—Molly, Divya and Krupa. While revisiting our good old school times, we grew nostalgic over “Molly’s Sarvajanik Pav Bhaji” and “Krupa’s Never-Say-Die Attitude.” Then there was “Public-Speaking by Divya,” and her music mania too! While writing this down as I think of each of you, I recollect our carefree school days, and some not-so-good ones too…but then, we are one helluva gang—what say girls? I have such happy memories of our fun and frolic that fittingly this is my first post on HappyZine!

Gosh, now I am completely possessed with the idea of our DM2VR2K vacation. We really must must must get together, all seven of us!

To sign off, ladies, I have penned some lines in your honor….

Laughter and mirth
There was never a dearth
For it is you, ma lovely ladies
Who make my time on Earth
All that it is worth!