shankar2k's Journal: Don't Mess with Texas

[Note: I know, I know, I know, I owe you all a report on the rest of my China trip, and what has happened since. I'll get to it]

I am in Texas right now for my friends Malay and Avani's wedding. Just like Ankita and Janakan's wedding before, this is a straight-up Guju-style wedding with all of the trimmings. This is the first in the three weddings I have been to recently where I'm not the best man. It's kind of nice to just hang out and watch the festivities.

Texas is an interesting place. It is very reminiscent of Southern California, with wide freeways and lots of strip malls. But the trees are a little bigger, and the expanses much more vast. The few cities I have seen (Houston, Stafford, and Sugar Land), don't seem to be amenable to walking or biking at all. But besides that, I don't really feel the "red-statedness" of the place, considering Bushie won here by a large margin. I guess Barack Obama was right when he said states are more politically diverse than elections would have you believe. But I would still never move here.

The wedding, of course, is opulence on top of opulence. Avani's family rented out essentially two-and-a-half floors of a Marriot out for guests, and each room had this little gift basket filled with snacks (some young relative of Malay or Avani actually calculated that the baskets contained about 5000 calories ... but don't worry its the good kind of calories). Yesterday we had two Mehndi parties, where the girls get to have henna tattoo designs applied to their arms and legs. Us guys sat around and watched Cal thrash BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. Today we had the Raas Garba, which is a huge Gujurati dance before the night of the wedding. Normally I'm not much of a dancer, but I really got into it this time.

The actual wedding and reception are tomorrow. I'll leave you all with the following the factoid: The title of this entry, a well known motto of Texas is frequently uttered by people trying to imitate George Bush. It turns out that phrase actually originated as a PSA to prevent littering (Do you get it? It's a pun). And Rishi is cool. apparently.

Texas

[dexterpexter]

But I would still never move here.

What a timely contrast. Just prior to reading your entry, I finished reading a friend's livejournal entry, he a native of Texas, who said, "I am moving back to [Texas] as soon as I can."

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

I hear the weather was lovely in Texas today, though.

Glad to hear that you are doing well.
Mmmmm. Yay for Henna! (Not that it ever takes to my skin.)

Re:Texas

[shankar2k]

The weather is quite nice right now. It is kind of hard to believe that it is Christmas Eve with all the sunlight.

From what I have heard, henna becomes darker based on the warmth in your body. I tried it once while I was in India, and I happened to have a fever, so my design (an "Om" with flames around it) turned black. It was pretty awesome.