User:Amitkachru

Tell us about yourself. Who are you and what do you like to do?  I was born a left handed Sagittarian who are renowned to be the clumsiest people in the world (my excuse). I have lived the longest portion of my life, i.e., 8 years in New Delhi so I call that home (actually, my family lives there as well). 2005 is going to be my 7th year in the cities. Prior to moving to the USA in 1993 to attend college, I lived most of my life in hotels (yeah, inside hotels) mostly within India, Germany, and Singapore. In some way or another, the hotel industry was a part of my life so I’ve always wanted to work for a hotel company.

Some of the more interesting things that have happened to me, through no fault of my own, include the fact that I was in an airplane hijacked to Pakistan at a very young age, car-jacked in Kentucky, and was randomly allotted to be a room-mate with a wanted criminal from UK in Texas (and I truly believed he was there to do a PhD in Rap Music).

Remarkably, I found someone to marry a vagabond like me almost 8 years ago. I met Bhavna at a friend’s wedding in India. After having returned to the US, and spending over $5K on phone calls in a month (yeah, that’s possible), I flew back to India. In the most impromptu and important decision in my life, I got engaged and married to her the same day before she changed her mind. She was a fashion designer for Indian clothing, and had to give up everything to be with me in the US. Bhavna now enjoys being a Personal Banker with Wells Fargo in Golden Valley.

My Passion: As Bhavna would say, my first love is cricket. In my defense, I was introduced to cricket when I was a lot younger. Cricket is rather similar to baseball (just a lot more interesting!) so that got me interested to play in the Carlson softball team. After a few years of running with the bat towards the pitcher, or actually running into people standing at bases, I eventually gave it up to start playing cricket in a local summer league in Bryn Mawr.  Favorite vacation spots: I enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new cultures and I’ve been fortunate to not only travel extensively across Europe, Asia & North America but also to live in different parts of the world. My favorite vacations have always been “family” vacations. One of my other favorite vacations was the golf resort in Gleneagles, Scotland. I had and have never played golf on an actual golf range before playing in Gleneagles and my brother was getting embarrassed that I had to spend more time looking for the balls than actually hitting the balls  Favorite movies: In College, I joined the Film Society to meet Marisa Tomei. Every year the film society raised money from ticket sales to call a celebrity to the University and show a picture connected with him or her. As much as I tried, people were just more interested in meeting with Oliver Stone (and his psychiatrist) or John Landis so that didn’t exactly happen. Anyhow, I have always enjoyed movies across various genres, and even in foreign languages. Some of the movies that have affected me are: Happy Gilmore, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Terminal, Green Card, Clerks, Kate & Leopold, and Serendipity. My all-time favorite movie is Life is Beautiful, and I’d recommend that to everyone.  Favorite food and beverage: Thanks to goldpoints, I frequent TGI Fridays almost every Friday evening. My preferred drink is Diet Coke Caffeine Free with a slice of lime in a tall glass but on happy hours, I’ve been known to drink Long Island Ice Tea or Smirnoff Ice. I enjoy trying out various cuisines. My favorite restaurants in Minneapolis are Bella Notte & Chiang Mai Thai but my all-time favorite restaurant is Bukhara, New Delhi. I would be crucified if I didn’t mention that I love Bhavna’s cooking as well, and she makes really good lamb curry.

What were the highlights of the year that went by?: We had a rather exciting year in which we had two marriages back home in New Delhi. My only brother and Bhavna’s only sister got married around the same time, and I took some badly needed extended vacation. I went through further mid-life crisis and ended up highlighting my hair blonde. On the way back from India, I had the displeasure of being in a 19 hour flight because a passenger on the plane went into coma, and had to be off-loaded in Iceland.