Whirlwind of activities!

Such a long absence for my own blog. Very bad, na! But what to do, apun ki life hi aisi hai. So many things happening and 2005 is going by in a whirlwind of activities. Some highlights of the past few weeks:

1. Multiple Thanksgiving parties... Kai and Rob's was more traditional...with turkey (tofurkey, for the veggies :-), ham, pumpkin pie, the works...yummy, as always, and the boys are such wonderful hosts! Sajan and Anne, equally wonderful threw a more fusiony party - with apple pie and curd rice, and Main Hoon Na songs playing on the DVD to top it all.
2. Friends coming over...since our apartment is so small, we're only able to host 2 or 3 people at a time. Keeping this in mind, we've been entertaining at a fairly regular pace now...
3. Wonderful sit down dinner at Sophia's - pan seared tuna fillets with lemon butter, asparagus cooked to perfection, yummy salad, ice cream drenched with Godiva liqueur...must remember to get that for home.
4. Brunch at Joyce's with Murray, my Boston host parent, where Joyce literally received a sign from above. As she was hanging up my coat, a huge metal sign hanging in her wall fell down, and slashed her wrist. While she spent three hours in a hospital trying to get it stiched, all of us brunched away at her home!
5. The new Harry Potter, preceded by a high tea with Raul and Aidita at Aidita's wonderful Brookline pad. Loved, loved, loved the film.
6. Talk on Soft Power by ex dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Joseph Nye. I like the concept and believe in it completely, but Nye's talk seemed rather basic. Maybe I was looking for excessive complexity, or maybe I was just sleepy.
7. Grant McCracken visit to MIT - which I co-ordinated as a sponsor visit for C3. We had folks from our partner companies like GSDM and MTV attend... and the day went off fabulously. I loved Grant's talk on the multiple self... he traced a thought loop, in his inimitable way, that covered Durkheim, The Nutty Professor, Blogs, MMORPGs, makeover shows, political science, and much, much more.
8. MIT Professors Tuli and Abhijit Banerjee's film screening - The Name of the Disease, and extremely compelling and thought provoking documentary that two of my favourite people in Boston made during their visits to India. The film covered attitudes and practices towards disease in and around a Rajasthan village community. Shocking in terms of how the villagers get fucked multiple times - by official govt. doctors (their absence, rather), unofficial "Bengali" doctors, shamans or "bhoopas", etc. Saw this sitting on the floor (yes, it was a full house! Documentary films also get full houses, don't be surprised :-) with Bombay-soulmate Simran Thadani, who had just gotten back from a trip to the homeland...which I am happy to report, continues to "rock" on, as ever.
9. Wave of Christmas parties... Murray's delightful do, James Nadeu's elegant wine and cheese soiree...I wore my rani pink raw silk pants to both, where they were quite well received.
10. Snow, snow and more snow... yes, winter is finally here.
11. Finally, lots of work... the consortium is moving ahead at breakneck speed, we're shifting gears and there have been a lot of achievements over the past month, and lots more to follow in the months ahead. It's looking good - I'm psyched. :-)