P P P P PIA

My sister (and bil) bought this amazing and cozy townhome and since in the US the homes are dis-proportionately big for a couple I decided to move in with them... to justify all the space... but moving from the apartments into the townhome was a big change for us.. (almost the same we felt when sis and I moved from school in the city to the 'burbs)..

we befriended our immediate next door neighbours the day we moved in (on one side were an elderly Russian couple and the other side chinese and like all chinese it was real hard to guess their age.. they could be anywhere from the 20s to the 40s) but we did not see them for the next few weeks.. And winters in Chicago dont help either. People prefer to stay as close to their cozy fireplaces than anywhere else...
It is just work and then drive straight into the garages and disappear.. but the russian couple were quite friendly.. though still so far it never went beyond the usual discussions on plants (they LOVE plants), interior decoration (sis and I LOVE spending on what we call decorating the house) and so on and so forth.. but I am digressing..

In the first couple of weeks sis and bil bumped into a couple of desis and very cordially exchanged phone numbers and house numbers.. the first few months the three of us spent in furnishing the house so it went by quite fast, but we started getting bored quite quickly too.. since this new townhome was far away from where most of our friends lived we had very few guests over.. so one fine saturday we decided to
go out on a quest of making new friends.. it was a nice warm day in spring and we set out with quite some vigor.. we visited the desis whose houses we remembered.. they were of course obviously surprised.. people dont usually drop by unannounced esp in videsh.. in desh however it used to be a common trait..

anyways, we were glad to make new friends that we did not mind the initial unease of the people.. then these people talked about other desis who lived in the same community.. pretty soon we found out that there was quite a big desi community here.. in an impulse and new found excitement sis announced that theres gonna be a party at home next saturday and invited them.. bil and I shot glances.. we knew when
my sis says party she really means it and that means work for three of us.. anyways, we were also thrilled at the new acquaintances and so did not mind as much as we normally do..

Next saturday trotted by fast enough.. the whole week we spent in preparing the menu, grocery shopping, decorating the house yada yada yada.. by then sis and I still havent discovered the art of cooking and freezing curries etc much ahead of time, so we left all the cooking for the D'day.. bil was quite useless during the whole process so we sent him out on the pretext of some last minute grocery shopping
just so that we got him out of the way.. his only contrubutions were cutting the frozen chicken and playing the DJ.. he knows that music gets sis and me into a good mood that we dont mind him being so useless around the house..

anyways, the party was supposed to start at 6:30 but people sauntered in around 7:30 and kept coming till 8:30.. in a way we did not mind as much because some of our concoctions took longer to prepare than we anticipated.. bil filled in our bar with all sorts of drinks (another thing that he is good at, forgot to mention)
in the meanwhile..

so people came in.. the kids, and quite a bunch they were, after a few moments of behaving themselves and answering all the usual inquiries of names/age/school etc soon found that the attention of the adults was diverted and they slowly disappeared upstairs.. the adults noticed but decided to ignore it.. the women folk, much to our chagrin and bil's amusement came all dressed up in their finest salwar-kameezes. Bil's amusement stemmed mostly from the knowledge that sis hated to be the under-dressed one.. be it any party.. and that too her own party, she will definitely throw a fit tonight after they all leave.. and to think of it, poor sis was in her utmost casuals.. her apron, now carrying a hint of the flavors of dinner,
read "Sophisticated, Seductive, Complex and Full-Bodied…and the wine's not bad either"... I and bil were not any better.. we were in our shorts and T-shirts.. it was a trifle too late to rush upstairs and change (also considering the fact that all the indian clothes were still in boxes at that time).. so left with not much choice we had to pretend like we did not care much.. we cursed our sweet selves for not
mentioning the dress code to be casuals (only later will we find out that THIS happens to be the casual wear of the neighbourhood desis)

The women slowly all found their way into the kitchen (which was quite large for a townhome, with a dining area).. the men settled in the living area and chatted.. the men folk were quite noisy and boisterous and occasional loud guffaws reached our ears.. but the women were relatively quieter.. the initial appreication of our house followed by "where did you buy the " various thingummies in the kitchen etc..

Meanwhile some thudded noises from upstairs started getting me a little worried.. I decided to check on the kids and make sure no one was killing the other, the last thing we wanted in our first party! I tiptoed upstairs silently with the intention to catch the rascals red-handed in case they were upto something.. My heart almost popped into my mouth when I figured that the noises were coming from the corner where my bedroom was located.. I peeped into my bedroom and there they were.. all the little devils nicely propped on my bed checking out my latest Cosmopolitans and other magazines not really meant for kids, admist stifled giggles and hushes. Not really
experienced in handling such situations, I tried my best at it. Not wanting to scare/frighten or worst discipline the kids in anyway I made some noises outside the door giving them enough time to put away the magazines.. then walked in, asked them if everything was fine and slowly removed all magazines and put them in the closet, high up so they cant reach it.. then I left them upstairs to do further damage,
not knowing what else to do..

downstairs, people were still warming up.. the men talked about politics, sports, their money market accounts.. and women talked about pendants and 22 carat gold.. (again reminding sis and me of our shabby appearances).. a few trials of mine to get all of the women into the living room as well were met with protests from pretty much all of them.. "who wants to listen to talks about politics, sports and money market accounts" they said.. and it kinda made sense.. so thus we ended in the kitchen catching up with the latest recipes, suggestions to sis about improving the various dishes (which, quite amazingly she took it in sportily), child-rearing, some more child-rearing, pregnancies, inquiries about my sister's plans of having kids,
suggestions and more such interesting stuff.. bil got up and offered drinks to which the men readily agreed.. the same question in the kitchen brought about some laughter, uneasy giggles and one raised hand (that happened to be mine) which brought about some more laughter from the women-folk who thought it was a joke I am playing on bil.. and I played along too.. quite embarassed..

Later, dinner started.. "superficial" appreciation of food, china, table runners etc.. formal enquiries for recipes.. groans when desserts were offered.. feeding kids who were still running around.. and the party came to an end with plans for the next party already.. we were quite surprised to find out that all these people lived in the same neighbourhood for about 2-3 years now, but never had such a party
before.. other than of course, the kids birthday parties and such.. now that this one was "quite a success" they made plans to have a rotating potluck party every month in each couple's house.. every one agreed and dispersed after the "Thank You for the party!" "Oh Come on, Thank YOU for coming..", "Oh, but THANK YOU for having us", "BUT IT IS OUR PLEASURE".. and so on..

Thus started our community (which now had a name too - Pinehurst Indian Association - PIA) parties.. we have them almost every month.. except during winters, when people are either warming up by their fireplaces or chilling out somewhere else on their vacations.. the whole party thing slowly grew on us too.. sis and I still go to the
parties in our casuals (which could be salwar-kameezes too, but sans all the jewellery), but only we dont mind as much.. I never raise my hand for the drinks anymore... and we women folk still sit in the various kitchens and still manage to talk about 22 carat gold and yeah, the strings of garnets and jades.. but sis and I found this amusement a nice distraction from the other boisterous revelry with
other friends.. Bil is a favorite among the men folk with his sense of humor and also being the youngest of them all.. sis is quite popular as the wild one with her bohemian sense of dressing and the women warmed up to her sweet smiles and courtesies too.. I am the only single person in the parties (that is if you dont count the kids) and I am looked at with various emotions like pity, envy, indifference etc.. Oh, By the way I became quite a favorite too, with my offering to babysit the kids if the parents ever wanted to sneak out for a late night movie or candlelit dinner sans kids..

All in all we enjoy our PIA Potluck Parties!!