It was 9:00 am on Saturday. I was looking forward to some really lovely Chinese dinner that night. I was browsing through Yelp when A's friend Peter called.

Peter : Hey A! Howdy?

A: Hey P, Howdy?

P: Can you guys come over for dinner tonight?

A: Tonight? hmmmm sure! (What?? what about my much awaited chinese dinner?)

P : Can you bring parathas? ( Oh c'mon! I am craving eggplant and tofu in a hot and spicy garlic sauce...)

A: Of Course !

So off we went with parathas and gulab jamuns to the Geoffreys' residence. The Geoffreys' remind me of a perfect Enid Blyton family. You know what I mean? Mommy, Daddy, three adorable kids squealing and giggling away, a dog that happened to fall madly in love with me (sniffing and licking me in places like...ahem! that only A has ever explored), a cat that I never noticed until I bade goodnight and a cute cozy cottage in the middle of a lush green lawn. What it lacked was a white picket fence. They appeared to be a perfect family, complete in all ways.

S, P's wife proudly said that she had made vege chili and brocolli sauted with garlic and ginger for dinner. Wait a minute...didn't you ask us to bring parathas? What do we eat them with? Nevertheless, we wowed at her choice of food and continued wowing at the tales of the stupendous tour de force of the kids at school, home and every where.

"C built this car...and he won an award !"

"D has a hole in her ear drum......but she can hear fine!"

"Di plays soccer, baseball, football......"

"S is in the church choir...."

"P has been working on the yearly newsletter....."

"Cu freezes everytime he sees an animal smaller than him...." (Yeah, you are right, Cu is the dog!)

Alright, time for dinner. I tossed the parathas on the tava, while S laid the table. We all sat down and I was still wondering what we would eat the parathas with. Just before begining to eat, each of them held hands of the person sitting next to them to say a small prayer. A was sitting next to P and jumped a little when Paul gestured for his hand. Hesitating a little, A asked "Should I hold your hand??". I made a mental note to pull him for this and guffawed on the way back home.

We slipped in the occasional "Ummmm this is so gooood!" or "The chili is excellent...how didja make it?" Not that am ever going to make it. I devoured the parathas with brocolli. The dinner was good....but soup and salad was not what I had in mind, you know? After dinner, time for some dolce. Chocolate ice cream with roasted almonds and marshmellows. Ummmm I ate a good three scoops, drowning all my sorrow in it.

We settled down at the table once again for poker. P taught us the differernt games and I teamed up with A. It was fun. A is still working on the poker face. Every time he got good cards he would beam at the rest, giving himself away, and the others, to play it safe, would end up folding their cards.

What seemed like a really long day finally came to an end. On the way back home A and I grumbled, "Funny people.....they eat parathas just like that!'