Slumdog Holi

Holi of 2009 is 1st Holi of our bahu, Muskan. Naturally our main target was she only. But to our pleasant surprise, not only she enjoyed every bit of action but also fought back as fearless shikhni.

We started in a decent way, as all holis should be played. Colour, and more colour. The one more surprise was in form of Manju also participating! Normaly she puts tika and her holi is done. Today she was not screaming yuck as and when colour was sprayed on her.

After applying the routine colors, our movie crazy family decided to pay tribute to Slimdog Millionair, by playing holi with Muck - Mud - Mix. Lets start, Sharat and Akshay were already in process.

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Muskan, who, naturally is very concerned about her skin and looks, was also the game. The opening was good and slowly all made a beeline and applied the mud-pack, with muskan being the most in demand victim.

Yucks!

In all this everyone smiled, but muskan smiled the most!

For More Photographs....
http://picasaweb.google.com/pgdodeja/Holi09
by P G Dodeja

Diwanapan - Craze about movies

It is not necessary for you to be tied up with Film world to be crazy about it. Take example of our family. Four Generations of Dodeja are movie crazy, for this I present following.

My grand father, used to watch at least 4-5 movies in a week. Not that he had plenty of free time. No sir. He used to handle Mumbai - Pune - Ahemdabad - Hydrabad offices, was very much into writing, travels and business. Where ever he was, he would watch 2 new Hindi releases, one of his old favorite and one English movie, minimum, in a week.

My father's routine consumption was one Hindi and one English movie a week. Plus he was very big fan of Film Festivals. Not only festivals but he would join film societies, and religiously see maximum shows possible. He will get into one genre, watch maximum movies and soon shift toother genre.

I have this odd fetish of not repeating the movie. As I was growing up, I would accompany grand father and father on there cinema hall visits. Thus I develop this habit of enjoying different kind movies. Then I am lucky enough to get exposure to all kind of movies, TV serials and what not. Grandfather would prefer action, suspense, whereas my father would like to see the drama based, story based movies. Then my children forced me and made me fan of cartoon, Jim Carey, Jackie Chan kind of movies.

Then my son has gone one step further. I have seen him, enjoying continuous run of 18 hours, movie marathon. He is so much addicted, that he must see a movie a day, atleast.

Can anyone guess a name two movies, which are favorite of all four generations, have repeat value even today?

(Clue: My grandfather died in 1988, so the movie belongs to the period before that.)

The movies are.

Black and White classic: Chalti Ka Naam Gadi. (Ashok Kumar - Kishore Kumar - Madhubala)

And the evergreen wounder, Sholay.

by P G Dodeja

Sinhgad 2009

Nandni & Kunal Nanda, our family's new member, Muskan Akshay Dodeja's brother and sister had come for overnight stay. 26th being republic day holiday, we decided to have early morning picnic at sinhgad fort. It being an before sunrise outing, many dropped. But Akshay - Muskan - Kashyap - Myself - Sharat - Nandani - Kunal and Ramu, all made up a good company.
Early morning drive was pleasant, fast and smooth. Van and Ramu's Karisma bike.


Reached before sunrise, and watched with awe, sun coming out gently from the womb of the earth, slowly, throwing its glow and warmth all around, bathing everything in its beauty. As it made its journey to heavens, birds welcomed it with its chatter, trees swayed, swished and we all marvelled at natures beauty.

Clicked plenty of photographs. Our new bahu gets very much excited in front of the camera. Also I had all other young good looking boys and girls ready to pose. So it was click time and fun time. After plenty of focusing and shooting, we took tea, had local food as lunch.

Normally it is very excellent, this time I found food, dull and not attractive. Why? No inkling. By 1.0 pm we were all tired. So trekked back to our vehicles. As we walked down, we acknowledged our wisdom of coming early. The parking lot, entrance, the whole place was crowded and jam packed! We thanked our stars and returned with pleasant memories.
by P G Dodeja

Marriage's are made in Heaven, We make it in Mahableshwar.

Wow! What a wedding. Sounds arrogant, but frankly I am overwhelmed and forced to say again, Wow! what a wedding.

To say that it was our hard work, attitude, dedication, planning etc was responsible for success of wedding, will be stretching it, but of course this played its part. For that our family deserves the applaud. The unity helped us a lot and every one contributed in big way. All deserve the award. For Vedhi Fotos Click here.

But briefly with what I will remember the wedding?

• The marathi words in our letter, "Akki Chi Jhali Nakki".
• "I thought you will not be able to better Avi's wedding, but you have done that. What next?" Jyoti Nichani
  
• "The smile pasted on face during welcome, stayed till the end." Deepika's comment.
• "In my life span of 75 years I have attained numerous weddings, this is the best wedding." Arjanlal Dodeja.
• "Fanta-boulus." [Whatever it means] Bhagwan Dodeja
  

• The welcome Part, (Moni-Deepi-Deepak-Deep-Dhawani-Lali-Kash-Mili-Myself) was roaring success. The guest were great and participated with gusto. This set the mood for the wedding in big way.

• The FUN Mood. It was the basic concept, have a Fun filled wedding, and believe me, it was all the way, Fun filled.
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• The almighty was biggest help by providing excellent climate. Cool enough to enjoy. Warm enough to stay out of Shawl's.
  

• Location, just mind blowing. Everyone was apprehensive, but when they reached destination, they were on cloud nine.

• Skit, I heard a guest saying, "Very sexy and decent. Wow, bollywood stuff." No better compliment can be given to Chawla girls - Kash - Meet - Deep and their friends.

• Chillam Chilly function was marred by drab section of Mimicry & Love Poem by Manish and Tina. However, Kash & Sharat saved the day by great performance. The awards recipients were surprises lot, wish we had given it more time.
  

• The Groom and Bride looked out of this world. Specially on engagement night. Class. Dress designer [Khushboo] must have received many many compliments. Well, being parent it will be biased opinion, so I will be posting few pics.
  

• Morning tea with all oldies smiling and enjoying get together was sight to behold. Mummy - Rajkumari -Moti - Madan - Pushpas - Sanjay - Lali - Bhagwan - Maya and many many more.
  

• Thappa food was greatest add on. The best food ever. Thanks to Thappa. Irony is that very few of the family members relished his food. Every one was busy taking care of guests, looking after them.
  

• The timing were perfect, with no lull in the ceremonies and function. The ride kept rolling for all 56 hours with bare minimum sleeping time of few hours. Dodeja attitude of sticking to fixed time frame was big help in success of the whole program, be it arrival, Engagement, Food on table, starting of Vedhi, Departure etc.
  

• And our thanks letter with Dodeja Doing DVD was cherry on the cake. Umesh Valecha specially send me thanks message!
  

All in all great stuff, the stuff which makes the all hardships faced to keep family together, worthwhile. Chawla - Bajaj - Dodeja - Kash Friends - Bathija, Thanks to all. Only missing thing to my mind was absence of youth from the Girl Side. They were, I feel over whelmed and awed by everything, so they kept to them self.

by P G Dodeja

Shadi Ke Shad Mane [Dodeja - Wedding]

Akshay & Nikita finally said yes to each other! Frankly, they had said 'YES' long long time back. But being in India, the family yes also counts. The family 'YES' took its own time and after years of wait the day came.
Just one day before 'Shradh' month's start, Roka (Formal 'YES') ceremony was performed. Very close family members, Dodeja's - Chawlas - Nandas were present. The full program was planned in Pune. However, due to our 'fun' attitude in all matters, at last minutes suggestion that lets do the Roka in Khandala (It being very cool and cloudy) was considered very seriously. Mummy was not happy, but accepted our suggestion. However, after confirming, the plan was dropped as, no Hotel was ready to provide food for 40 odd people at last minute.
Currently I am going through the happy phase of wedding. The planning. As travel part is always best in a trip, so is the planning part of wedding. Daily, Lali - Myself and Avi consult, discuss and work on small part of event. The every 2nd day, late night meeting and discussion and observations and plans are held either at KK or at Sacred Heart. All said and done, real fun time. The tensions, the problems and issues will come just 5 days before the event, till then, I am Loving it.
But then, every possibility is that tensions, the problems and issues may not surface at all! So, god bless.
To start with, wedding is planned in Mahableshwar, a hill station, 210 Km from Pune. So the planning part is very crucial and delicate. We have dispatched the invitation letter, 2 months in advance. The letter was received with many compliments. The passing comment by maharashtrian friend of Sharat, 'Akki chi Jhali Nakki' was gleefully pouched and used in letter. Every one liked it and this letter is being refered to as 'Nakki' letter!

by P G Dodeja

Jai Jhulelal

Jhulelal Mandir in Wanwadi, Pune

This mandir has taken a place of honour for the Sindhi's of Wanwadi, Pune. The grand temple has along with huge Jhulelal morti, has morti's of Radhe-Kishen, Shiv Parvati, Ram-Sita, Gautam Budh, Sai Baba and Ganpatiji. Also there is additional shiv lingam installed.
More then this, this mandir has become a social activity place also. Bahrana - Art of living discourses - Yoga classes - Cheti Chand Mela etc are also celebrated in big way. Not only old, but young genertion participates in all functions.
For this Sindhi's will always be greatful to Thakur Family of Bangkok. They shifted from Pune way back in 70's, but still are in touch and have created this place of worship for Pune.
by P G Dodeja

In recent times I think, this is the best photograph clicked by me. I would like to have your oppinion about this. And yes, what should be the caption for this one?

by P G Dodeja