Born in the Military Hospital in Calcutta, West Bengal (India) to Suchitra Mittra &
Wing Commander T.K. Mittra (then Flight Lieutenant). Spent his formative
years being a military brat and during that process almost burned down his school.
After that, there was no looking back. Parents and his sister (Pia) completely ashamed,
our hero has been there, done that and bought the tshirts to prove it along the
way. A true city slicker, he has a blue belt in Karate (Goju Kai Do) and the IQ
of a thumb tack. A lethal combination if any. Below are some of the trials
and tribulations of this mental amputee.
Tricia Marie Mittra
Born in Kodiak, Alaska (USA), to Dorothy & Clint Sturdevant. Spent her innocent
years on a little island who's major export to the world is the big bad-ass
Kodiak bear. She has a kid brother Donald, who's attention span is that of a
house fly. Moved to Albany, Oregon in her early teens, where she became a
champion swimmer, rower and water polo-er. Spent time studying in Switzerland.
Speaks German like a pro and is a global citizen. She now speaks Hindi with
some confidence. What is doing with Anupam? No one seems to have an
answer. Here is her story.
They met in Portland in 1999 but became friends in 2000, when Tricia asked Anupam
to join the Executive Board meetings of the AIESEC committee at Portland State
University. At that point Anupam was in the process of convincing people that Mongolia
does not exist. Have you met a Mongolian? What is the capital? Currency? Airline? And yes he had a running survey for over
5 years.
Here are the results.
They were supposed to go back-country back packing in Montana, at the Glacier National
Park, but things did not work out for her and Anupam went with Bjorn and Tomasz
which turned out to be one of the best hiking trips he had done in a while.
Bjorn was to leave in a few weeks and a party was thrown for him at Matthew's place.
We drove to Estacada and lounged in Matt's hot tub. Anupam being the party animal that
he is, promptly jumped in with a liter bottle of Jose Cuervo, almost a decent Tequila. In slides
Tricia in a nice hot tube top bikini and sits next to Anupam and offers to share
the shots with him. They did shots over the whole night and Tricia drank Anupam
under the table. Tricia left early the next day
Next weekend, was another party at Mt. Hood and Anupam got there on Friday and had a
decent time. Tricia got there later that night. Anupam had been expecting and was hoping
that some sparks would fly and was also hoping that he could match her shot drinking.
That was a good weekend. They went skiing/snow boarding.
Sunday, Tricia drove Anupam back to Portland. Since Anupam had conveniently
left his car at home and got a ride with someone. The drive was very nice
but Mike in the back seat got very bored as two people flirted shamelessly
in the front seat. Eventually he fell asleep. He was dropped home and Tricia
went to Anupam's place to drop him home.
Anupam seized the moment, as Tricia was leaving and snuck in an invitation to
a date.
They went to a nice seafood restaurant the next weekend. Sparks were flying. Sure
some of it was static electricity, but who cares.
Anupam was wondering, what was a girl as nice as Tricia doing with a master
slob like him. (he still doesn't know)
Weeks, turned to days, days to months and things were going very well. Anupam
went to Tricia's mom's place for Thanksgiving. He went with Jorge and Sarka.
It was a lot of fun. Tricia's brother Donald was the typical computer nerdy boy,
so Anupam, Jorge and Donald got along very well. Donald's flatulence still
impresses Anupam. Tricia told her mom about Anupam. Mom was thinking, first
they take our jobs and then they take our women... what next?
A few months later Tricia, Anupam and all their friends spent Christmas together.
A couple of months before that, Anupam had moved from the suburbs to downtown Portland.
The apartment was fabulous. Anupam also changed his job.
In April 2001, Anupam headed to India for his sister's wedding. The US was in severe
recession, so he decided to look for a job elsewhere. This is when he also
became a Mensan. He also got a job offer in
Australia. 2 months after Anupam arrived in Bombay, Tricia arrived and the next
day they headed off to Rajasthan to spend some time alone before the wedding.
The day they got back, Anna, came to Bombay, also for the wedding.
Pia and Vikas's wedding was fabulous, but it was ruined by a bit of rain.
For their un-honeymoon we headed off to Goa. We had a fabulous time falling ill
one by one. We drove back to Bombay. Pia and Vikas headed to
Nepal for their time out. Anna, Tricia, Candy and Anupam drove off to Gujarat.
Half the royal family of Nepal was wiped out (assassinated) during that time, Pia and Vicky
had a horrible time trying to get back. Can you imagine being in monarchy, where
one of the princes picks up an assault rifle and takes out all his brothers and uncles :-|
Things like this don't even happen in the fictional country of
Mongolia.
Soon, Tricia and Anupam headed off to Australia. They enter Sydney airport.... they see
many more Asians than White people. Downtown Sydney has a lot of Asian immigrants.
It's quite cool to see Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese etc milling around.
They traveled all over the land down under, went to almost every state. Drove thousands of kilometers.
Climbed mountains, dived the great barrier reef, met people from every country you can
imagine , except Mongolians. We had a fabulous time. We had very nice house mates, awesome friends; We even
hosted people from all over the world at our place. Threw awesome parties, so much so that
people would come from other cities just for our parties. Cool huh? I guess it was Anupam's
jungle juice :-) . We were very sad to leave.
They spent 2 weeks in Bali, which was nice, but they kept getting ripped off... That left a
bad taste in their mouth. They great food changed the taste though. Then they
headed off to Thailand for a month, met an awesome girl called
Som and a cool Italian couple. They traveled from the north of the country to
the very south. They had a fabulous time, but were happy to leave, since living out of
a suitcase has it's disadvantages. Clean underwear does not magically appear
out of washing machines/dryers.
They arrived in India on Pia's birthday. Anupam tried to use that as an excuse
to not buy gifts, very unsuccessfully. Soon after that, they got themselves a motorcycle. A nice
powerful Yezdi (an newer model of a Czech bike called Jawa).
Anupam proposed. He asked Tricia "Do you want to give that baby a father?"...
Kidding! By March '03 they started looking for a venue. Surprisingly, every good venue
close to home was already booked. Anupam got an idea and in May he headed off
to Madh Island, to look for the place he had in his head. After riding 4 hours in the sun and
almost ready to give up, he walked into a a place called "The Resort".
The staff there was very nice to sweaty, stinky, salt crusted Anupam. They showed him the conference
rooms that could be used for weddings. Anupam wanted something outdoors since
they were looking for a date in December. He went outside and saw the lawns aptly called
"Queens Lawns". This was a lush green landscaped lawn, fringing the beach. It was perfect.
And he realized that he will finally score brownie points with Tricia. :-)
A few weekends later Tricia visited "The Resort" and they got a deal for the
location, catering and two rooms in the hotel. They had now got things rolling.
Though they had a location they had no "priest". Now we use the word priest loosely
since Brahmo Samaj is not really a religion. After searching through hell and high
water for 2 months, Anupam found a gentleman called Mr. Basu, who knew the procedure.
He agreed to preside over the occasion. Another job done.
During that time Tricia and Anupam had been looking for a location for their
wedding reception. Again this took a very long time, going everywhere and finding
out that everything was taken. :-| Anupam's dad's friend suggested a location so
hidden that it took them a while to find it, even though it was close to home. But the
site was perfect. Again on the beach, with landscaped gardens, a dance floor and a bungalow.
They booked it! It was at Juhu Beach.
In October, they headed off to Calcutta,
to do their wedding shopping. Met with relos,
participated in Durga Puja and did tons of shopping. Even visited Darjeeling.
In Calcutta, they bought the clothes for the family and friends coming from
outside India. That was another long day of shopping. By the end, Anupam wanted to
kill himself and was wondering why he was doing all of this.
In December, 13 people confirmed from outside India and about 20 from around India.
More logistics were arranged. Things were greased so that no hiccups would
happen during the month from 5th of December to 5th of January.
The Swiss (Daniela, Meme and Jan) arrived first, with a truck load of chocolates
and fondue. Then one by one, Petri (Finland), Bjorn (Belgium), Anna (Sweden),
Dorothy (Tricia's mom), Kathy (Tricia's Aunt), Laurel (Tricia's cousin, US), Jason (US), Maciej (Poland),
Nick (Australia) and the last, but certainly not the least... Jennifer (US, Virgin Islands)
They had a fabulous time and drank tons of beer, the mehendi party was great with
the Bengali rolls.
The wedding was perfect except for Bunty,
our tailor, who delayed everything,
but still things were perfect. The food was typically Bengali. The actual ceremony
was just under an hour, unlike a traditional wedding that can take a whole day or 5.
It was a mix of Indian and western traditions.
The reception was the next day. Again Bunty got everybody late. But the party
was perfect, the Jazz musicians were awesome. The bartenders were also perfect.
The decor was also great...
Kerala was a perfect anti climax to the hectic wedding. We rented a bus and drove from
Cochin to different cities over 12 days. We had a fabulous time. We were so sad to see
everyone leave.
The next few years have been good for Tricia and Anupam, both personally and professionally. Still no Mongolia.
