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San Francisco The first Reunion

Nov 6th - 10th, 2014

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To borrow a phrase from our very good friend Raafey - the long planned and long awaited reunion of us girls from the MJCET CSE 95 batch took place on Nov 6th - Nov 10th in the very beautiful city of San Francisco. The seed for this reunion was sown by Farha Azaz who casually mentioned to me that it would be a good idea for all the girls to get together for a few days. I thought it was a good idea and took it up with others who were as amenable to the idea as I was. The planning took about 3 months but inspire of being very careful, Farha managed to ditch us again (bringing back memories of Summer of 2013 where I went to visit Zareen in Toronto - another story, another time) by booking her ticket for 2.5 days instead of the 4 that were agreed upon. After a lively discussion with Bindu, wherein we decided unfortunately again, that Las Vegas might be a bit risque for us, we zeroes on San Francisco after setting aside places like Smokies, Poconos and New York. !

Full marks to Zareen here for being a sport and agreeing to spend the whole day flying in to San Francisco from Toronto. And more marks to her older brother Attu Bhaiyya for making sure that her connecting flight from O’hare not only was the same as mine, but also that she would be seated next to me. I don’t know how he managed that, but for anyone reading, if you need help with booking your tickets, you know who to contact to get the best flight and seat. !So Zareen and I managed to be on the same flight from O’hare and after a little bit of confusion, we managed to see each other. Yes, the fun times started right then and there. !

!Though we left a about an hour late from O’hare the pilot managed to land only about 8 minutes late even though Zareen and I were constantly trying to tell him telepathically to slow down! Farha was reaching around the same time and Bindu was waiting for us. We had to wait for Farha at the gate because she had tried to check in baggage that was 2 sizes bigger and they refused to take it in. Our laughter started from there and hasn’t ended even now. Bindu kept calling us saying her heart was booming at the prospect of seeing Zareen after almost 20 years. That’s right that’s how long it had been since we all saw Zareen. The last I had met Bindu was at my wedding almost 15 years ago. So as you can well imagine we were all very thrilled and excited to be seeing each other after so long.

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Bindu played the perfect host as she led us out of the airport into her waiting car. Zareen and I fell we were overdressed in my bulky coat and Zareen’s Air Hostess Jacket, considering how good the weather was in SF in sharp contrast to the chilly weather we had left behind in Chicago and Toronto. The drive to the hotel was not very far off and as the hotel came into view, we had to give Farha her due in looking up and booking the hotel. It was a beautiful setting on the waterfront overlooking the bay and the airport. We were even more excited when Farha told us that she had paid $20 per day extra for the room because apparently we could watch the sunset and sunrise from the same window. ;-) Thank you Farha, for that. Really, we cannot thank you enough (as it turned out, the window in our room faced North, so we could watch neither!) ! !

We checked in and were assigned Room # 623, which we had some difficulty getting into considering all of us are technically challenged, though Farha maintains that she has been a lot to Embassy suites but she couldn’t figure out how to get the door to open with the key card. We had booked a 2 room suite and were very happy with what we saw. Bindu being an absolute dear that she was had coffee and snacks. But best of all, she had a cake to celebrate our reunion with a photo of the trip we had made more than 20 years back to Vizag. It was truly one of the most thoughtful and remarkable things anyone could have done. The 2 people missing from our group in the photograph were Shirin and Anitha. Shirin was busy with an impending India trip and Anitha we located too late for her to make the trip. They were missed! !!

Raafey being the dear that he is, decided to visit us as soon as we arrived. He had a conference going on next door and decided to hop over. We were all talking nineteen to the dozen with a generous amount of laughter sprinkled in. I was preparing for a surprise visit by Saleha, which

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Farha and Zareen were unaware of. They thought I was spending time too much on my phone and even thought I was having an affair and could not keep away. All the while poor good old me was trying to make sure that Saleha would arrive safely without any issues. It was quite stressful doing it as you can see from the attached picture. (the only picture from the trip where I am not laughing out loud). !

I tried warding off the cake cutting ceremony too. But Bindu had ordered a milk cake that is the most delicious but had danger of melting. So we decided to do it without the presence of Saleha, because Farha and Zareen turned out to be little more intelligent than I remember them being and were questioning the waiting time and I did not want them to get suspicious about Saleha, because she was taking so much trouble. But it was worth the trouble because Farha and Zareen were shocked (pleasantly I must add) to see Saleha walk in after the knock at the door. I had met Saleha almost a decade back and it was the best thing ever to see her walk into the room with so much excitement on her face. !

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After eating our cake and having it too, we thought it best to go for dinner and headed downstairs to the restaurant. They had surprisingly good food that was enjoyed more with the good company galore. Bindu was touched Raafey ordered the same vegetarian dish as she did. Farha loved her bowl of Fish and Chips, as did Saleha. I enjoyed my Salmon and after deciding we weren’t going to order any champagne we made our way up. !We kept awake for a long time even after Raafey left. I told Bindu I had won in the bet against her where I told her that Raafey would not leave early and would spend time with us, which he did. After he left, we were awake for a long time, talking more or laughing more, I don’t know….