Breaking News: Archie G. steps away from his keyboard and into a Bollywood music video!
(Yes. The headline is true. There is video evidence at the very end of this review. Please feel free to skip ahead if you hate my writing.)
A (sort of) quick back story how I arrived at the wonderful India Community Center:
I play in several recreational soccer leagues. During the week, I play in a couple co ed leagues. As I play goalkeeper, I end up playing on many different teams. Sometimes, as a keeper, you get passed around more than Angelina from Jersey Shore.
When you play on different teams, your body breaks down and you have to settle on a team or two (or three). So through my Palo Alto team, Pulcini, I met my friend Katherine (Katie) and eventually, Francesco (Frankie). And through this team, they met, fell in love, and decided to get married. Oddly enough, they are not the only love connection that was made on the team. Seriously, there's Match dot com, eHarmony, and Pulcini soccer club.
Anyway, since most of Katie's friends and family live in the Washington area, she decided to invite the players from Pulcini to theengagement party. And that's how I somehow, someway ended up at the India Community Center.
Review of the India Community Center:
Frankie and Katie decided to not only host an engagement party here, but to make their friends and family take a couple hours of Indian dance lessons, and then participate in the filming a Bollywood music video. That's right. A Bollywood music video to capture their unique love. This is pretty much what every Irish girl from Seattle, Washington and Italian boy from Pordenone, Italy dream of their whole life, right?
The Indian Community Center is amazing. It looks cool from the parking lot (and there is plenty of parking). The entrance is like a mix of old school Indian and modern California architecture, if that makes any sense.
Upon entering, the place looks clean and modern. But it is busting at the seams with culture. Speaking of seams, you have women walking around in traditional Indian clothes. And that wasn't just from the people in our party that dressed in their best "Bollywood" clothes.
The crowd here is friendly. I was greeted by several Indian men with a smile. I even smelled some delicious Indian food in the distance and I saw that an African-American couple had just gotten married and were having Indian food for their reception. How. Freaking. Awesome.
Frankie's father, Diego, with his awesome Italian accent, greeted me and every other person that showed up. And there were plenty of us. We were escorted to a private dance room, and for several hours we were taught a dance routine by a talented Indian woman and her two student assistants.
For whatever reason, the men had more to learn. Luckily, the guy next to me was channeling his inner Channing Tatum and he knew the routine best. He helped me learn it better during breaks and eventually, we were helping out everyone with the steps.
Randomly, this cute old Indian couple stopped by, we invited them in, and they learned the routine fairly quickly. By the end of the day, we felt like a community. A community of people who were ready to eat, drink, celebrate a beautiful love cultivated from a beautiful game, and eventually see the finished product.
Several hours later, the final music video was revealed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIdGpLQU50k
I hope you enjoy watching it as much I did participating in it. read more