Just wanted to take a moment of blog appreciation for my partner in crime on his 34th birthday :). Jared knew about "my India thing" pretty soon after we met the fall of my junior year of college and the fall of his senior year of college at Midd. He had the opportunity to go to India with his mom after he graduated... I spent a long November feeling lonely and writing an unwieldy English thesis while he was off riding camels in Rajasthan and seeing the Taj Mahal. India's not all roses, as we know- he came back with a strange stomach bug and some challenging experiences. Yet despite an initial lukewarm introduction to the subcontinent, he only thought I was mildly crazy in my interest in India and Hindi and Bollywood and Indian food and bhangra and everything else in life that makes me happy.
At Connaught Place in New Delhi
I've got to hand it to him- he has sat through hours of Bollywood films (he's fine as long as Rani or Kajol is in them, and he'll happily tolerate most Amitabh films from the 70's), eaten a whole lot of curry (he prefers lamb), has picked up the stray Hindi word (लगभग is a favorite), spent a summer taking bhangra classes with me, and even offered to go back to India with me a couple winters ago. We had a lot of excitement and many adventures- Jaipur was interesting, Udaipur was beautiful, Bodh Gaya was stunning, Banaras was... well... interesting. And a hotel mixup in a bad part of Gaya at the height of pilgrimage season? His response to me as I hit the highlights of the situation, "We have running water and if we lock the door and stayed in at night we should be perfectly safe." "I don't like this. Can we go back to Udaipur?" He patiently watched me haggle in Hindi, ask endless rickshawvallas for directions, and yell at policemen in Banaras... and he shared my experience of India and developed a strong sense of why I love it so much.
In Udaipur
Here's to Jared on his 34th birthday- the husband with an unending sense of patience and adventure and love. I told him last night, "Vicki gave me two tickets to have brunch with Sanjeev Kapoor on Sunday at New Delhi Restaurant," and not only did he know who Sanjeev Kapoor was, he was thrilled be able to go, and even said, "I know we talked about it and had decided maybe we couldn't do it... but I left it on the calendar just in case." That's my amazing husband :). Happy birthday with lots of love.
