100 Happy Days: Day 78 Friends

Happiness is spending time with close friends.

Friend says ‘Don’t cook too much, just make a simple meal, dhal and rice will do, food is not important, we will come over and spend some time with you.’ She does not want to burden me, but I enjoy cooking. I invite more friends and decide to make something special. Friends come over; each one brings something to share (no, its not Dutch party).

There are cakes, chips, chocolates, strawberry milk shake, falooda and ice cream. “We will eat later” they say. There is so much food and too much variety. I should have told them what to bring, planning helps.

Now I need to call another set of friends to finish these goodies.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

100 Happy Days: Day 55 Experiment in the Kitchen.

Happiness is creating a new dish

Friends were coming over for lunch, and I had fully planned Chinese meal on my mind. But, what should I serve as dessert?

Should I order natural ice cream or should I make custard, should I set jelly or should I make fragrant cream? When I have friends over for lunch, I want to make the best of cuisine. It gives me great pleasure to cook for people who love eating my prepared food.

I decided to be creative. I decided to just make a dessert of whatever ingredients I could find at home.

 “What’s the name of the dessert?” they asked

I didn’t know. This was my experiment; I had not yet given it a name. I was not even sure if it would turn out good.

Friends loved it.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

100 Happy Days: Day 3

The magic was in those slender neck glasses; I did not taste the cocktail, but those who tasted it wanted more.

S was happy mixing drinks. She took care to dress the rim with lime and salt. She looked into her recipe folder to check the quantity of each drink. There was glow on her face as she mixed hard and soft drinks to make a perfect cocktail. As she placed the thinly sliced lime on the rim, she coyly looked at me to see the smile on my face.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I will be posting pictures each day here on my blog then share the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

Birthday Party of One-year-old

 9th of August, I am invited for the children party at 5pm and I decide to go. And why not? The kid is my sister’s grandson, who is celebrating his first birthday.

I reach his house on the dot of 5pm (thinking that rightfully children's party should be betwen 5pm to 7pm) but the kid is still in his nappy’s. His birthday suit was brought the last minute and his pants were long, so his mom had gone back to the shore to do some alteration. He is dressed in his new shirt and a nappy. Cute!

“Happy Birthday dearest Hirankh” I say handing him his birthday gift. He slaps the gift few times and then throws it aside. (what does he care if I braved the heavy rains and spend thirty full minutes at a toy store searching an approriate gift which is educational and musical, quite suitable for his age- a musical tea-set which sings different rhymes every time you pour out the content from the kettle into the cups)

“Won’t you open the gift and see what I got you” I say, he looks at me and grins,takes another small plastic toy and stuffs it in his mouth. He just has two teeth up and two teeth down and he is always putting things in his mouth.(to stop the itching perhaps)

 
I start to sing a nursery rhyme, “twinkle, twinkle, little star…” he gets interested. I have been singing this same poem since last six months with actions and now he had learnt to recognize it and imitates my gestures for this poem.

 
I feel good that he is responding and want to sing more nursery rhymes, but the little master with short attention span, soon he is bored and shifts his attention to more plastic toys to stuff into his mouth.

His mom returns from the store and dresses him up and he is ready for his friends. He crawls to the hall which is decorated with lots of baloons and streamers.
 

His first guest, a 14-months-old, arrives at 6pm, one hour late. A loud music to full volume is played and both the kids shake heads and hands as they sit opposite each other.

Soon more friends arrive, all under five-years old. All shy at first, hiding behind their mom’s legs but with little nudging they start to smile and are attracted by the basket full of toys kept in the middle of the room.
 

Hirankh loves kids and he is gurgling and babbling, happy to be amongst so many kids around him. He rolls on the floor, tries to stand up, falls, stands up again, shakes his head and enjoys the music. They play with soft toys, kicking ball, squeezing the noisy toys and jumping on a bean bag. The care-takers stand at a small distance, alert, watching the kids while mothers discuss the likes and dislikes of their children.

Potato wafers and smiley-shaped snacks are served and all kids move to the centre table, nibbling the wafers and dropping some on the floor. Its 7pm and the party has just begun.

The party goes on till 8 pm when the birthday baby cuts the cake.

This was a fun party where I enjoyed one-year-olds interacting with each other…….

Theme Party at Pattaya Beach

80's was the theme and I wacked my brain hard thinking of dressing weird, even brought some DVD to watch the styles of the 80’s, absorbed the pictures of back-combing hair styles, wigs and hair extensions, maxis, mascaras and dark lipsticks, but could not have enough courage to dress in that style, simplicity was my preferred option, with weird and crazy looks best left to those bubbling youth.

My bold and beautiful cousin came into my room dressed in a wig. It suited her, but then everything suit her and becomes a fad, so I just went along with her, holding by her arm, like an accessories for the evening.

The party was by the poolside, closer to the Pattaya beach, one hundred and twenty steps below our hotel room.

Most of the guests were dressed colorful clothes, which would be abnormal in any other situation but acceptable as was the norm. I had seen such scenes in Hollywood films but attending such party had a different effect. My cousin with a bald head, with his hair all brushed up on the centre of his scalp walked pass me and I didn’t recognize him until I looked closely and saw his smile.

And kids were in party mood too, with colorful wigs of purple and blue

Some of them boldly posing for the camera while some of them shy, hid behind their hats

All daringly dressed

All the cameras goes click, click, click,

There was food and drinks and there was music and dance

It was a lovely evening with lotsa fun

The party went on till late night, till the drooping eye lids of children reminded the parents that it was time to head back home.

A new beginning, into a brand New Year…….2009

We have stepped into a brand new year 2009 and I have been so busy since the day one. They say that what you do on the first day of the year, you are likely to do it the whole year. Well then, 2009 seems a promising year and looks like I am to have the best of time throughout the year. Amen! I have been having family get together almost everyday. With Babaji in town, there was a large family in Mumbai visiting me. Anyway, on last day of the year 2008, my cousin (who has come to India without her spouse and kids) tells me that she did not want to go out for the New Year because her husband her asked her to stay safe. So she asked me to invite my friends and we could celebrate New Year just chilling at home. That sounded like a good idea. I invited few of my friends home for chilling in my house for 2-3 hours. On 31st night, my friends and their kids arrived at 10pm and the party started. I had made Samosas and Ragda, and my cousin made lasaniya (a baked dish), My friend brought Pineapple cake and I ordered Natural Ice cream. I had organized the games which had first and second prize as incentives and that became the best part of the evening. After having some snacks we started the first game, that was of acting out a situation. For example, a situation where your maid wins a lottery ticket and has become richer than you are and you react showing jealousy and regret or in another situation where you go to the market and you are getting cheated by vegetable hawker and you are protesting….. There were many different situations and the best actor won the prize. At 12 midnight we cut the cake and served it with ice cream, wishing everyone a ‘Happy new Year’, watching crackers from my balcony and then we returned back to resume our games. We then started to play ‘Snakes and Ladder’ which also had prize for the winner. This game was fun when playing in the group of adults and children. I had never had so much fun before on this board game. Climbing the steps, being bitten by snake or killing the pawn when he lands in the same slot added fun to the game. This game was never ending and it went on for more than an hour. Next game was throwing the dice and excluding the player who has minimum number on the dice. After most of them went back by 2am, my friend and I decided to do some networking, surfing and playing 'Spider Solitaire' on Computer and didn’t realize that it was 6am and it was time to sleep. We all were kids during this night, screaming and shouting like younger children, pinning for the prize and during that moment, we forgot that we are living in the competitive and dangerous world where security is lax. Just one month ago, we were glued to the TV, watching the terror, that had capsized my city of Mumbai.

March Read Meet under Open Skies.

One more lovely evening, I attended with my Caferati folks, this time in South Mumbai, Kemps Corner, to be exact. The theme this month was on sharing notes on the workshops that we had attended during Kala Ghoda Festival in February 2008. I was surprised by the number of people who were anxious to attend. The members at the read-meets were dwindling lately, sometimes as low as five members, but this read-meet was choc-a-bloc. Writers were waiting for some other members to drop out, so that, they could be accommodated. Was it because there were notes to be shared or was it because it was at a convenient location? Whatever, I think people always need a reason to attend, especially if they are not a regular. And, members who attended were not disappointed. Who would? A read meet on a terrace, facing the sea, a generous crowd, who is willing to share their knowledge with people, some of those, whom they are meeting for the first time, a perfect hostess, Kareena Merchant, who made everybody comfortable with her warm chats and tasty chaats and a meticulous organizer, Suniti Joshi, who did lot of leg work alone and yet, so precisely perfect. Hats off to Suniti, who always takes extra effort and time and responds to every member patiently! I was lucky this time to find two friends, who were willing to share a taxi with me and we reached at the venue on the dot of 5pm. After warm up and the introduction of 27 members in Kareena’s house, we went upstairs to the terrace to bathe in the sunshine amidst the cool winds of the open seas. The meeting continued with poem read by Jaya Bhandari, a fiction by Soma Sarkar and a descriptive poem by John. So engrossed was I in their readings, that I forgot to watch the sun-set. (Actually I was sitting in a wrong direction, facing the tall buildings and a cliff of the ‘Hanging Gardens’), But I saw a black bird, resting up there, on a TV antenna, who wanted an audience too, but his verses swayed in the breeze. A short break after the readings was not very short because the snacks were too tasty. It takes time to eat Sev Puri, sandwiches, batatwadas and walnut cake and drown it with a cup of tea/coffee. Second session started with Suniti sharing her ‘Performance Poetry’, Ramesh on ‘Writing for Children’, Samarth on ‘Screen Writing’ Archana on ‘Pastoral Poetry and Kareena on “Freelancing’. I was aware of the time limit of the read meet, and I wanted to hear about other’s experience (and not waste my time, hearing myself speak,) therefore I had prepared notes (Xeroxed it 15 times) on the points that were discussed during the workshop on ‘Getting Published’ and I was happy to distribute it to those, who were interested. I am glad I did that, because the meeting had extended for too long, (9:30pm) and it was getting very late to reach back home. Some of the busy members had to rush off half way to attend to their other commitments, and I was glad that I was able to share my notes with them too.

Ad on Indian TV.

Indian film star Kajol is the brand ambassador of Tata Indicom and we have ad on TV which I find it quite interesting. In one ad, she is traveling by car and she sees a gentleman who is having a car problem and is stuck in the middle of road. It is apparently his wedding day and he is desperately trying to contact his to-be-bride but he is unsuccessful because of the network problem. His fiancée is upset when he disconnects the line suddenly. Kajol makes a quick guess that this Guy is having some network problem, it is his wedding day, and he has to reach in time. She hands her phone and a car ride to the wedding hall (a woman is giving lift to the stranger…how strange, I wonder how many women would do that?) she guides him to continue talking to his fiancée and also helps him on the topic as to what he must say (one lesson she teaches him is how to butter the lady by talking love quotes instead of giving any other explanations for unpunctuality.) The guy reaches the wedding hall, still talking, while we see Kajol following him happily. (Wasn’t she going somewhere before she saw him?) She asks the groom to introduce his bride-to-be and even poses for a photograph! Moral: A Tata Indicom network makes you generous, friendly and intelligent. You can even be a party crasher! Should I get one too? Image source: http://www.agencyfaqs.com/