From Sikh to Sixty in One Day

On Saturday, January 17, Karla and I had the honor and the pleasure to attend two celebrations of milestones in the lives of a friend and our extended family.

We started the day with the celebration of an Anand Karaj (Blissful Union) Ceremony (Wikipedia link with more information about this ceremony) performed in Sikh tradition. It would be a long story to explain how the Chawlas opened up their family circle to include Zeph and Karla, and eventually me, but we are blessed that they have. Last September, at his Aunt Sarita's birthday party, Vikram introduced us to Pauna. The spark was obvious.

As the drummer started and the dancing began the procession to the gurdwara (temple), Sarita told us that the immediate family had been dancing for six days. It prompted a memory for both Karla and I, back to our time in India, when the celebratory week of a wedding took place just outside of our resort.

On the steps of the gurdwara, the Chawla men exchanged garlands with Pauna's male relatives. It was a happy exchange, as the Chawlas in their traditional robes, and Pauna's family, large, muscular Bosnian men in their black suits, paired off to place garlands over each other's neck. Suddenly, one of Pauna's brothers bear hugged Dhiren (Vikram's older brother) and lifted him off the ground. Dhiren returned the favor. The joy and affection was obvious. These new brothers were glad to be joining families.

Zeph, representing the Scottish portion of the Chawla clan, came dressed in full kilt and accessories. Sanjiv, Vikram's father, greeted Zeph with a hug and "I was hoping you would wear your kilt." This is just how our family works.

The ceremony was beautiful, but I'd been fighting a bug all week, so by the end, I was wiped out and needed to get home to rest before our next event of the day.

Susan Seaburg is a friend that you start describing by saying, "she is just one of the nicest people you can imagine." So when we got the invitation to her sixtieth birthday party, it was a must-attend event. Her partner, Judy, decided why not celebrate Susan's number 6-0 with a party devoted to the 60s? After all, it was the coming-of-age time for many of the people in their circle of friends.

After my nap, Karla and I were off to find the last pieces of my costume for the evening - a faux suede vest with fringe and peace sign necklace. Karla, on the other hand, still having a sufficient amount of hippie in her, already had the individual pieces of apparel and jewelry necessary to pull off the look. However, we did have to go out and buy some rolling papers and utilized some oregano to fully achieve authenticity.

Entry to the party required each guest to fill out a name tag with their first name and favorite 60s band. Our tags stated: Karla (Big Brother and the Holding Company) and Gary (The Beatles). I shared my favorite with the guest of honor.

When the karaoke began, there weren't a lot of takers. The second brave soul started as a soprano solo that took all of us back to the era. Her rendition of Puff the Magic Dragon had many of us singing the lyrics to ourselves, but Susan joined the soloist at the microphone. The harmony of Susan's alto gave the song more of the feel I used to have when I heard Peter, Paul and Mary singing the song during JP McCarthy's Morning Show on WJR back in Detroit. After they finished, Susan explained that in the 1960s, she and this other woman sang together in the college choir - Alma College, also back in Michigan.

The karaoke was wild (one woman gave Steppenwolf a run for the money with her version of Born to be Wild), cute (two young girls singing Surfin' USA), and downright fun (me singing Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual and praying there would be no panties flying up onto the stage).

Most of all, it was a great end to a great day. Best wishes to Vikram, Pauna, and Susan. We hope you all have many, many more celebrations, and we look forward to sharing in a few of them.

A Christmas Gift That Says It's Time to Accept Failure

Brian and Jackie, Karla's brother and sister-in-law, are always interested in our next travel destination. So this year, they decided to keep a travel theme in putting together the packages that made up our Christmas gifts, and in their own way, get into the act of helping us plan our next big trip. The centerpiece of our yuletide booty was the tome 501 Must-Visit Destinations.

When I tore off the wrapping paper (and lest you think I hogged the biggest package, it was the one I was assigned by Jackie to open), after reading the title, the first thing that I saw was the Pearl Mosque (Taj Mahal) in Agra, India. Been there. Done that.

Next, Karla and I saw the pictures of Liberty Island and The Louvre, and we were feeling pretty smug. It didn't occur to us that there were five other pictures on the cover of places that we had not visited. Nor did we turn over the book to see an additional eight pictures on the reverse cover of places we had not visited. No, we saw the three and both thought, "Probably been to at least 100 or so."

The next day, we decided to check out the one-hundred-plus places that had achieved "must-see" status and that we've shared. Even if there were just under four hundred more locations, we knew we were well on our way, with our best travel years hopefully ahead of us.

The final tally of catalogued destinations that we've seen together? Thirty-seven. Our spirits (and self-satisfaction) dropped faster than the full-moon's tide in the Bay of Fundy (on the list and I've seen but Karla hasn't).

So we haven't put as much of a dent in the list of places we must see as we first thought. Next week we're going out to buy the book of 1000 Places to See Before You Die. If nothing else, we're at least hoping for a higher "destination IQ" in terms of percentages.