World Cup 2011 Champions - Team India :)

Dear Friends,

I have been away for a while now.  But I am back with some BIG news!!  The ICC World Cup was this year (it comes every 4 years) and INDIA won the World Cup 2011 making all of us Indians proud :D :D.  I am booming with joy and pride.  To give you little more details...here are some facts.

The ICC World Cup was running from Feb. 19 - April 2nd, 2011.  It comprises of 14 Countries (cricket teams) and these 14 teams are divided in 2 groups.  In the group stages, each team plays with every other team from their group.  After the group stages are over, the top 4 teams from each group progresses towards the quarter-finals stage.  The winner of each quater-final stage progresses towards semi-final and the winner of semi-finals progresses to the final of the World Cup.

I was a huge cricket fan back in India but once we moved to US I stopped following it.  I had watched one game here and there during the world cup of 2003.  But World Cup 2011 was the first world cup I followed closely from start to end!!  I have been keeping a close eye on all of India's games and watching all the knockout games (quarter/semi/final) completely even though I had to wake up at 3 AM to watch it!  And I was also keeping up with the scores of almost all the other teams' games.

Australia has been 3 times world champions since 1999 and I had a feeling that this was the year they needed to be defeated because it was like they didn't have any competition.  They were winning year after year after year.  And for the first time, in the quarter-final stage, India beat Australia and Australia was out of the World cup after 11 years of domination!!  This victory let India to progress to the Semi-Final and the biggest game of all because the Semi-final was against Pakistan!!  In all these years, India has never been beaten by Pakistan in the World Cup but this year the tension was high, the expectations were high, and this was bigger than the World Cup Final itself.  Pakistan looked in good form this World Cup and looked determined too but there was no doubt that India was going to win and they did!  India beat Pakistan in Semi-final on March 30th, 2011 and progressed to the Final game against Sri-Lanka.  The final of the world cup was help on April 2nd, 2011 and Team India put their heart and soul in winning this game.

India beat Sri Lanka in the final and became the new World Cup Champions!!  I am so proud of the team and each team member to bring us to this victory.  It was a historic day for each and every Indian as the Indian Cricket Team won the World Cup after 28 years (first won in 1983). I feel so happy and proud to be part of this enormous experience!!! I have had the smile on my face since the World Cup Win and I will never forget this day!! Thank you Team India for this victory and especially to Dhoni for your true sportsmanship and leadership!!!  Not to bore you guys, but I want to say something for each of the team members.

Sachin Tendulkar: He is considered the GOD of Cricket and I want to leave it at that.  He is such a grounded person and he deserved this World Cup more than anyone because he has given this country so much during his entire career in Cricket.  He has made the most runs, more than any cricketer and winning a World Cup was the only thing missing in his kitty...and this year he won it!!  The entire team came together to win this for him, for the country.  Even at the age of 38, he has managed to stay fit, bat superbly, and run and dive to save the boundaries while fielding.  He is my cricket superstar. 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni:  I didn't really know this guy much but came to know him closely in this world cup.  He is one cool headed captain who led this team to the victory.  I was not very fond of his batting since he didn't do so well in any of the games batting wise, but didn't know he was saving all his energy for the Final of the world cup to score 91 (not out)!!  I want to thank him for all his effort and true sportsmanship to be the way he is, to make the decisions he did.  Congratulations to him and to the entire team.  Also I found out that under his captaincy, Team India has rose to fame, became #1 in test matches and ODI, not to mention, he is the captain who got us the World Cup after 28 years!!  Keep it up!

Gautam Gambhir: This guy is completely unpredictable.  For once, he takes runs blindly and runs like a cheetah but at the same time he risks being run out :-|, but he proved to everyone that he is in this business for real during the final of the World Cup.  Who can forget his magnificent innings during the final where he played calmly under so much pressure and scored 97 which brought India closer to the victory?  I really wish he had gotten his century but fate had it otherwise.  But who cares about the century!!  It's the effort that counts, not the runs (not in this final), because God knows what would have happened to the team without him!  Great work Gautam, you made us proud!!

Yuvraj Singh:  This is the Man of the tournament and maximum time Man of the Match!  He is someone who brought India to the knockout stages when India had lost some of its earlier batsman and all the pressure was on him.  He fought back against Ireland, Netherlands, West Indies, and Australia.  He is an all-rounder who stroke hard in batting field as well as bowling.  With his effort, India progressed to the knockout stages, so that's why his contribution is huge in this World Cup.

Virender Sehwag: The first game of World Cup which was between India and Bangladesh, this man put up a fighting score of 175 which gave a boost to the team and added to the total of 370.  This gave a great start to the world cup.  After that game, he hasn’t had much luck on batting field since he got out in the earlier overs but still whenever he batted he gave a good start to the Indian team to get the score high up in the first 5 to 10 overs.

Zaheer Khan: He is officially my favorite bowler in Indian cricket team, who was always consistent in all the games and someone the team can rely on.  If the team needed wickets, he was the one to handle the ball to do the job.  He always delivered and never disappointed.  During the world cup, he has taken the maximum wickets of 21, along with Shahid Afridi (captain of Pakistan) to top the charts.

Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina: These two young guns were all rounders for this team.  Virat Kohli is the youngest player in the team who can bat, bowl, and field outstandingly.  On the other side, Suresh Raina is great to handle the batting even under much pressure and deliver a great partnership with the other batsman and stay on his toes while fielding.  These two players along with Yuvraj Singh have delivered some great fielding which has saved many runs against different teams.

Apart from these players, other team players have done their parts when needed the most such as Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ravichandran Ashwin, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan, and Sreesanth, took the wickets when needed, saved runs (and also gave away lots of runs at a time, but the world cup made up for it), and batted runs when needed the most.

So that’s my taken on the World Cup 2011 and the World Cup Champions – Team India.  Sorry for a really long entry but this was a huge victory for India and it’s hard to cover the World Cup highlights in just one or two paragraphs.  I can not tell you how happy and proud it made me when the team India won the World Cup 2011 and the joy it brought to see them so happy and celebrating after the game.

See ya until the next post!!

Qatar Airways damaged our bag - resolved

Hello folks,

I had mentioned in my India Return 2010 - Part 2 that Qatar Airways had damaged one of our bags and I will post on what was the result of the inquiry and claim.  Well here it is.  After 2 months of back and forth conversation, this issue is finally resolved when we got the new bag from them.  Here are the details.

In the beginning of December when I came back from India,  our first stop in US was Washington Dulles airport and we found out that one of our bag was damaged...such that its chain was broken and the bag was wide open.  Thankfully nothing fell out.  I try to contact Qatar everyday only to find myself holding on the line for 35 - 45 minutes and then hanging up since no luck.  Finally I get hold of someone after 40 minutes of hold and the person tells me to talk to Qatar staff at the Washington Dulles airport.  I call the next day and get hold of an agent.  I explained to him the situation that we couldn't file a complaint at the airport since we had to transfer the bags to the final destination and he asks me for my email address to send me the process info.  I get the email within few minutes to send him the following information in order to begin to process the claim.

• Scanned copy of the passport of the traveler making the claim
• Scanned copies of the original luggage claim checks for bags checked in from origin airport
• Scanned copy of the boarding pass of the traveler
• Detailed description of the damage to the luggage with photograph of the bag in question
• The age of the luggage, approximate cost of the luggage, and the brand of the luggage.

The same weekend I got sick so couldn't send the information until the following weekend.  I gathered all the details and sent it in an email to the agent.  3 weeks go by and I don't hear anything and I didn't call them either because it was Christmas and New year weekend, so I thought people might not be working during those times.  I call them after 3 weeks and luckily get hold of the same agent I had talked to couple of weeks ago.  I tell the agent that I have not heard back from anyone regarding the claim and he says he will contact me with the details within half an hour.  Surely after an hour I get a call from him telling me that they are working on the claim right now and will get back to me again in an hour.  Apparently I don't hear from him the same day, and I wait couple of days before calling again.  The agent tells me that the claim has been processed and gave me the reference number.  He told me that someone will contact me within a week from baggage agency to get the replacement of the damaged bag.  I was somewhat happy to know that they were going to replace the bag.

The same weekend, I get a call from Qatar Airways agent to get our home address to send the new bag to.  The following week, I get the call from the baggage agency who asks me whether it's OK for them to send another brand bag since our bag brand was old and that she came make sure that we get something nice.  I was like "No problem" (lady, you are giving me a new bag...I don't care if it's the same brand or not..just get me something nice :D ).  She goes on asking me "Now, we don't have brown colored bag (my old bag color)...the only color we have is black, is that OK?"...and my reply is "Of course!!".  Haha...I was pretty surprised with the treatment and the lady was really nice.  She ends the conversation by confirming my home address and letting me know that we should get the new baggage within 7-10 days.

Surely after 2 weeks, we get the new bag via FedEx.  The bag is actually 6 inches smaller than what we had, so it's little bit smaller but it's ok.  Also one other thing I noticed is that when you open the bag, there is sometimes a clothe covering the bag which can be opened with a zipper to see the inside boards surrounding the bag.  I opened that zipper and turns out that one of the side boards of the bag was broken and was fixed up by a black tape.  Haha...I think they gave us a bag which must have been damaged in the manufacturing and fixed it up and gave it to us.  Well, it's ok ...I mean there is nothing we can do.  It's not like the board is going to break in one time use, but I just found it hillarious.

I have said this before and I will say it again to everyone that if you ever come across an issue of damaged bag by an airline, always file the complain and follow up.  In worse case scenario, they will reject your claim and won't do anything, but on a positive side, you might get a new bag to replace the damaged bag.  It's always worth a shot.

Wow...I didn't realize how much I wrote until I read the entire post again :P.  Hope this info helps if you are ever in a similar situation.

Paneer Tikka Masala

So about a month ago, I had bought 1 lb. Paneer and used it to make Shahi Paneer, Vegetable Navratan Korma, and Malai Kofta.  Even after making these 3 recipes, I had about 1/3 of paneer left.  Mostly it was used in making Shahi Paneer, and the other 1/3 was used in making navratan korma and kofta for malai kofta.  So with the remaining of the 1/3 of paneer, I wanted to try out a different paneer recipe.  I looked at the options on vahrevah.com and found the recipe for Paneer Tikka Malasa.  Here is the link to the recipe that I followed from the site: http://www.vahrehvah.com/Paneer+Tikka+Masala:6803.  This time I did not have any variations and followed the recipe exactly as explained on the site (the video).  I did make couple of mistakes which can be corrected easily but that to discuss later in the process.  For now, here is a snap of delicious Paneer Tikka Masala.

Here are the ingredients, preparation, and process steps.  Hope you enjoy making it if you decide to use these steps.
Ingredients:
Vegetables:
- For puree and gravy: 2 tomatoes, 2/3 to 1 onion finely chopped, cilantro for garnishing
- For marinating: 2 tomatoes cut in cubes, 1/4 or 1/2 onion finely chopped in cubes, 1/4 capsicum/green bell pepper chopped in cubes

Spices:
- Coriander powder, cumin powder, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala powder, salt, ginger paste/shredded ginger, garlic paste, sugar (very little if it gets little sour due to curd).

Other:
- All purpose flour/maida (1 spoon), curd thick (1/2 to 1 cup), lime juice (1-2 spoons), oil, paneer finely chopped in cube (1/2 pound), cream fresh (optional).

Preparation:
- Cut all vegetables and paneer in cube shape and keep aside.
- Finely chop 1/2 to 1 onion for gravy.
- Finely chop cilantro.

Marinating Process:
- Take a bowl and add 1/2 to 1 cup of thick curd.  How much curd you need depends on the quantity of the vegetables and paneer cubes.  My mistake was that I took more curd and when added the vegetables and paneer, it was little liquidish.
- To the curd, add red chili powder, salt, lime juice, little bit of oil (about 1 spoon) to mix well.  Mix everything well.
- Add cut vegetables and paneer to the mixture and mix it all well and keep it aside.
- One thing I wasn't sure about is if I was supposed to keep this marinated mixture aside for a while before cooking it on a pan.  I read it on majulaskicten.com paneer tikka malasa recipe that it's better to keep the marinated mixture refrigerated for an hour.  But I just left it aside for 15 minutes or so.
- To cook the mixture, in a non-stick pan, add some oil.  Add the marinated paneer and vegetables.
- Cook them both sides, and once done, keep them aside.

Gravy Process:
- In a pan, add oil and cumin seeds.  Once oil is ready, add chopped onions and pinch of salt.
- Once onions are little transparent, add turmeric, ginger paste, garlic paste, and mix it well.
- Cook for a minute or so and add 1 spoon of all purpose flour/maida.
- Add tomato puree and mix it with onions.
- Then add cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, and mix it well.
- Cook until you see small amount of oil loosing out.
- Add water as needed and bring it to boil.  Once it's boiling, you can add more water if you want to for more gravy.
- Add cooked vegetables and paneer.  Then add some more salt as needed (taste it before and after you add it).  Add garam masala powder and mix all.  Also at this point, taste the final gravy and add little sugar if the gravy is sour.  It is possible that the gravy might be little sour because of the curd and all the tomatoes used in the marinating.
- Add little bit of cream if you want.  This is completely optional.
- Let everything cook for 3-5 minutes and bring it to boil.
- Turn the heat off and add cilantro on top.

And....you have delicious paneer tikka masala ready.  This took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes and wasn't too much of a hassle and it came out great.  It serves about 4 people.  Hope this helps.

See ya!

Malai Kofta

As I told you in my last post that I am planning to cook Malai Kofta next, and two days ago my mom and I made some delicious malai kofta.  Good news is that it came out really good...bad news is that it took me 2 hours to make it :P...with few problems but that to discuss later.  I got the recipe from http://www.vahrehvah.com/Malai+Kofta:3262 where they show you the entire process on video.  Again I didn't do everything as it was told and had few variations.  I will post the preps and process that was used in making our Malai Kofta.  Not to make your mouth watery or anything, but here is a snap of the Malai Kofta prepared.

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
- Grated/mashed boiled potatoes (1 cup - 3 potatoes), grated boiled mix vegetables, chopped green chili, chopped cilantro, onions - 1, tomatoes - 3

Spices:
- Cardemom (elaichi - 2), cloves (laving - 2), coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, ginger paste/shredded ginger, garlic paste, red chili powder, jeera, salt, turmeric

Other:
- Oil, cream/yogurt (1/2 cup), cashew/almonds powder (not too crushed), grated paneer (1 cup)

Preparations: 
1) Finely chop cilantro and green chilies. 
2) Shred ginger if you are not using ginger paste 
3) Chop onions and tomatoes to make puree 
4) Boil potatoes
5) Grate Paneer 
6) Boil mixed vegetable and mash/grate them

Kofta Process:
1) Mix grated paneer, grated boiled potatoes, and mix vegetables together.
2) Add some chopped chilies, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, little bit chopped cilantro, little bit salt, add some crushed nuts, and mix everything well.
3) IMP: Make sure there is no moisture in the mixture you just made.  If there is then add some bread crumbs which will take in the moisture and make the mixture firm.  This is where I had trouble because the mixture was soft and when I tried to fry the koftas, the koftas started to break off in the oil :(.  But no worries...that's where my mom came to rescue and she added the bread crumbs in the mixture to make it firm.
4) Make the kofta balls out of the mixture.  Roll the koftas in corn flour or all purpose flour.  Fry them in oil on medium heat and fry until they turn little golden/brownish color. 
5) Keep the koftas aside.

Gravy Process:
1) Make puree from onions and tomatoes and 1/2 green chili.
2) In a pan, add oil and put it on medium heat.  Add Jeera, cardamom, and cloves to the oil. Now here there are two options you can use.  I used procedure A. 

A) Add puree to the oil.  Let it come to the boil.  I used malai kofta ready-made masala from Rasoi Magic.  I added that masala, garam masala powder, chili powder, and salt to the gravy.  If mixture is getting dry, add little bit water (depending on how much gravy you want).
B) Add puree to the oil, add garlic paste, shredded ginger, turmeric, salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili power, garam masala powder, and mix everything well.  If mixture is getting dry, then add little bit water (depending on how much gravy you want).
3) Once the gravy comes to boil, add 1/2 cup cream to the gravy.
4) After adding cream, bring the gravy to the boil and then add some cashewnut powder (2-3 spoons). and mix the gravy well.
5) Then add koftas to the gravy and let it cook for another minute or two and put off the heat.
6) Add cilantro on top for garnishing.

And Walaah! You have your malai kofta!!

After making these last two recipes, shahi paneer recipe seems like piece of cake :D.  Well, don't know what I will be making next and when, but hopefully something new soon.  Until then, take care and see ya :).

Vegetable Navratan Korma

From 3 days I was thinking of trying out a new recipe and in one of the online lists, I saw vegetable navratan korma and decided to make that.  This time instead of manjulaskitchen.com, I tried the recipe from vahrevah.com.  If you search up Korma on this site, it will give you 6 different variations for veg-main dish.  But the recipe I followed is located at: http://www.vahrehvah.com/Navrattan+Korma:6176.  I have to warn all those people who want to try out this recipe that this recipe took me 3 times more time to prepare than it did for Shahi Paneer.  This proved to be very time consuming recipe.  Even in this recipe, I did some variations and this time I am going to list all the steps and ingredients used to make Veg. Navratan Korma.  One thing you need to make sure is that you have all the things ready before you actually start the process.  Because once I started cooking, I realized I didn't have green chilies chopped or ginger shreaded.  But I had help from my mom who was not just supervising the process but helped chopping some of the vegetables and in last minute preps.  The dish came out very well and looks good too.  Here is a snap of Veg. Navratan Korma that I made and then if you also want to try it, I am listing the entire process.

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
- Potatoes (1 large potato), Caroots (1 cup), Green Peas (1 cup), Green Beans (1 cup), Capsicum (1/2 cup), Cauliflower (1/2 cup), Onion (1 onion finely chopped), Green Chilies (1 to 2 finely chopped), Cilantro (finely chopped)

Spices:
- Cardamom (eliachi - 2), cinnamon (taj - 1), Cloves (laving - 2), Jeera, coriandar powder, cumin powder, garlic paste (1 spoon), shredded ginger, salt, black pepper, garam masala powder, hing

Dry Fruits:
- Cashews (1/2 cup), almonds (1/4 cup), raisins, pineapple

Other:
Paneer (chopped in cubes), Cream/Yogurt, oil, and butter

Preparations:
1) Chop all the vegetables (potatoes, carrots, capsicum, peas, beans, cauliflower).
2) Cut the Paneer in cubes.
3) Onion, green chillies, and cilantro should be finely chopped.
4) Shred the ginger.
5) Boil the vegetables (add cauliflower to the boiling bowl after the other veggies are half cooked so cauliflower doesn't get over boiled).  Also I boiled potato cubes separately in microwave (3 times 5 minute cycles).
6) Boil onions and cashews in water separately.  Once cashews are bit tender, remove the water (leaving little bit in there) and make a paste out of it.  Keep the paste aside.
7) Cook Paneer in butter and once they turn light brownish, keep them aside.
8) Cook cashewnuts, and almonds in butter until they get little brown and keep them aside.

Process:
1) In a pan, add oil, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and jeeru.  Mix well and add garlic paste, shredded ginger, and a pinch of hing.  Mix everything together and let the mixture get little brownish.
2) Add the cashewnut + onion paste, and chopped green chilies to the mixture.
3) Add coriander powder, cumin powder, and garam masala powder.  Mix it all well.
4) When the oil starts to separate and the mixture becomes little bit dry, then you can add little bit water (half or full cup).  Mix well and bring it to boil.
5) When the mixture is bit creamy, add the boiled vegetables, fried paneer, and cooked dry fruits.  Add raisins, and few pineapple pieces.  Mix everything well.
6) Add salt to taste, cream or yogurt as an alternative, and black pepper.  Mix everything and let the mixture cook for 5-7 minutes and let it come to boil.
7) When it's almost cooked, add finely chopped cilantro and turn off the heat and let the pan sit on stove for a minute or so.

And there you have your Vegetable Navratan Korma :D.

This was definitely a lot of work compared to Shahi Paneer, and that's why a 45 minute recipe took me 1.5 hours.  After using up 6-7 bowls, 2 pans, and couple of other cooking vessels, for cooking, the navratan korma was so worth it!  The kitchen was in a bit mess afterwards, but also got it cleaned after eating :).

Hope the detailed preps and process helps you if you decide to make this for yourself.
Next, I am planning to make Malai Kofta, so stay tuned!

Tata until next time :)

Shahi Paneer

When it comes to cooking, I don't have much advice to give or much to say because I don't really cook much....I help a lot in the kitchen but barely cook.  But recently I have started cooking different things starting with Aloo paratha (potato stuffing tortilla), Bread pakora, Onion Pakora, Bhindi masala (Okra), Aloo sabji (potato vegetable), and few more things.  Couple of days ago I wanted to try a paneer vegetable recipe, and from list of all the delicious choices such as Shahi Paneer, Butter Paneer Masala, Palak Paneer, and Paneer Tikka Masala, I decided to make Shahi Paneer.  One of my friends had recommended manjulaskitchen.com site couple of months ago to me and I had saved it in my bookmarks, so when I decided to make Shahi Paneer, I referred to this site with few variations.  With following the directions from the site, Shahi Paneer turned out to be Deeeeeeeeeelicious!!!  Here is a snap of it...

From the recipe online, what I changed was that instead of frying the paneer in oil, I fried in butter and then added oil for the puree.  Also I added half onion to make the puree.  I did not use ginger or paparika in the ingredients.  Also I had to add just a little bit more sugar since my yogurt was bit sour...so the best for anyone making this would be to taste the gravy after adding all the spices and yogurt to make sure it is tasty and you are not missing anything.  And with that, you have the delicious Shahi Paneer ready.  You can eat it with toritilla, paratha, or naan.  Enjoy!

India Return Trip 2010 - Part 2

Washington Dulles International Airport:
We reach Washington Dulles around 1:40 pm in the afternoon.  Soon we get transported to a mobile lounge to be taken to the International Arrivals Building.  There all the wheelchairs are waiting for its passengers.  The person takes us to the 1st floor where our customs will be cleared.  There are actually 2 lines from here.  One is for the citizens and one is for the non-citizens.  The line for non-citizens must be 3 times longer than the line for the citizens.  Since my dad was in wheelchair, we passed through that line and went straight to the officer's counter.  The officer asked us couple of questions like "why did we go to India?", "What did we buy?", and "roughly how much do we think the items are worth in total?", etc. and then stamped our passports and we were off to the baggage claim.  I got to tell you that since last time I was at Washington Dulles airport, this building has been remodeled because from what I remember, the place was very small that everyone would be bumping into each other.  But this time, it's big and very spacious.  In fact, they have new baggage claim conveyor belts that are longer and the space is enough to handle all the passengers from 2-3 international flights at the same time.

I swore last time I was at Washington Dulles that I will not fly though here again but the remodeling of the place has changed my opinion.  Last time, our baggage came almost after 2 hours and this time, almost all the bags had already arrived before we even got there, only to find one bag in complete surprise.  One of the bags was in such a bad condition that its chain and lock were completely broken and things were falling out of the small space.  Thankfully, due to the tag/string that they put in the middle of the bag in Ahmedabad held the bag together otherwise we would have nothing left in the bag.  Also we had tied the belts inside the bag which held things in place but still it was not enough as there was a possibility of things falling out when they transfer the bags.  Unsure on what to do, we took the bag in whatever condition it was in and headed to the transfer desk.  Unfortunately, we had nothing with us that we could use to tie the bag with.  We went to the transfer area where we needed to transfer our bags for the connecting flight.  I asked the agent who was going to screen the bags before transferring if he would be able to tape the bag or tie the bag somehow to prevent things from inside falling out.  He assured me that they can take care of it and told me to just leave the bags.

It was a bit of relief to get an assurance from the agent who said they will be able to take care of it once the bag is screened.  We leave our bags and head to the next flight gate.  All of this process must have taken us anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours.  And I was worried that we might miss our flight if we keep the connecting flight at 5:30 pm.  It turns out that we were done by 3:30 pm and it would have been nice if I had kept the flight at 5:30 pm, BUT I did not.  Instead I had assigned our flight times to be at 9:50 pm at night which would get us home after 12 am :(.  Well I had decided late flight simply from my last experience at Washington Dulles.  Who knew that they are going to remodel the place to make it better and faster for the passengers?  Well, we had no choice but to wait till our flight.  We were all so tired that we were falling asleep on the seats near the gate but at least one of us had to stay up since we had 3 carry-on bags, 1 purse, 1 hand bag, and a computer bag with us.

From Washington Dulles, we had to catch the United Airlines, so we were in Terminal C.  Now, this terminal is pretty small compared to Terminal A and B, and it can get very congested near a gate close to a flight departure.  I was just waiting for the time to fly and ready to go home.  Finally, we boarded around 9:20 pm, and flight took off on time.  We reach Denver earlier than scheduled and head to get our bags.  Thankfully, all the bags come back in one piece and in good condition except the one that was ripped apart from Washington Dulles itself.  The agent who told me that he will take care of the bag by taping it somehow to keep it together did not do anything!!!  The bag was as it is we received in Dulles airport and he didn't do anything to keep it together.  It was late and I didn't have energy to get mad.  And who am I going to get mad at?  It was just some agent at the Dulles airport, not a particular employee of United Airlines or Qatar airways.  We gathered our bags and headed to pick up area where one of our family friends came to pick us up.  We got home around 1 am and I was wide awake :P.  I wasn't sleepy at all, but had to force myself to sleep to avoid jet-lag.

About the damaged bag, I had to follow up on it with Qatar airways and that can be a separate post in itself :).  Till then, See ya.  I will post the details on the damaged bag soon.

Tata!