Happy 21st Birthday My Darling Daughter!

Today my first born is 21. This is it, baby. You are legally an adult! Time to cut the apron strings & turn you over to the world :) I just want you to know that you have brought me much joy and I am very proud of you. We have survived sibling rivalry, a fractured wrist, turbulent adolescent years, stressful exam periods and hey, we are still friends :) I love you and I thank God for the wonderful ways in which you continue to be a blessing to me, your sister & your father. And my prayer for you is that you will always walk with the Lord and experience His love every day of your life in many wonderful ways. God bless you and Happy Birthday!!!!

Turning 50

I’ve been surfing a lot recently, looking for articles and reflections of others who have turned 50. I am surprised to find myself doing this, wondering – why does this year seem so momentous for me compared to all the other birthdays I have had?

And I found the answer in one of the articles I read. At 50, you realise half your life is over. As the writer of this article put it, it makes you think: what has my life been like so far? What have I achieved? Has my life turned out the way I dreamt it would? Have I achieved all I set out to? And what about the years ahead? What legacy will I leave? How will I be remembered?

I am comforted to know that these questions occupy others as well. My feelings are not unique. Admittedly, most of the articles / books I have read have been written by Americans, but the thoughts and feelings of these women (and men) are remarkably close to mine. And I have been learning a lot about how to value my past and to anticipate the future.

So I have decided to write about these thoughts of mine and sorry, but I’m afraid that’s going to be the bulk of my blog postings from now on.I know 50 is too far away for you, my dears, but this is one stage I want to linger on & share. This is something I want to do and I hope that you will participate and leave me some comments along the way, or write on my tag board.

Well, the world is not going to see my 50th birthday like Oprah's and definitely no big party like Elton John's 60th with Bill Clinton on the guest list, but party I will :)

Today is Neena's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Neen!! I thought you needed to be celebrated on my blog & Jennani thinks you are one of my 'cool' friends because of your Hari Potter t-shirt. Have a wonderful wonderful day. You are one of my best :)

Another Birthday Party

Jennani celebrated her 21st birthday again on 10 Aug with her friends. By all accounts, the young people had a good time. I am assuming Jen will be giving the details in her blog so not too many details here…

Maya booked the Karaoke room at her condo for the party & we catered food from Jaggi’s. I was exhausted organizing it on the day itself as all those I had assumed would be around to help had something or other come up. So yes, it was tiring. But it made me happy to see everyone enjoying themselves and Jen looked so happy that it was worth it. A lot of the success was due to Maya’s great idea to have a “Murder Mystery’ game during the party & I must say it was lovely to see all the guests playing along and coming dressed according to their character. For the uninitiated (that included me right until the night of the party), the game can be bought online and comes with clues, character profiles, clues etc and the objective is to get everyone to mix as they try to solve the mystery, identify the killer and his/her motive. The one we selected was called – “Death By Chocolate’!!! Hahaha. What else would WE choose??? :)

I ordered a chocolate cheesecake from 7th Manna (again) and it was mmmmm. Big mistake to have taken it out of the fridge too early so it was kind of soft in the middle, but nevertheless delicious. Highly recommended! We ate the slices that I had kept aside for Maya the next day and the cake was gooood. Oh and we had a chocolate fondue – to go with the theme, of course. Again, a bit of a mistake not to have read the manual before the party because it turned out there must be quite a lot of melted chocolate in the basin for the fondue to function effectively. Plus the power points were placed in a really awkward position in the room so we couldn’t put the fondue on the center of the table. Nevertheless it was fun.

So... my eldest baby is 21 now. Can't really put my finger on how that makes me feel. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe, sometimes I feel I can worry less because the worrying adolescent years are over & sometimes I just feel nostalgic! I guess the emotions will sort themselves out :)

Birthday Celebrations!

We had a double birthday celebration in our family last Saturday. It was Durai’s 50th birthday on 4 Aug and we decided to celebrate Jennani’s 21st on the same day as she would have gone back to the States by the time of her birthday. In fact it was also my sister Menaka's birthday and for the first time both she and Durai were together on their birthdays! So in a way it was a triple birthday celebration.

We had dinner at Khansama Tandoori Village at Science Park 1 and it was a family affair. Some of our relatives came gamely dressed in the red and black as requested in keeping with the Kollywood theme.

The thought came to me that after our wedding, this was the first time both my family and Durai’s family had been at the same function! I guess the next time would be my birthday party in November...

Somehow everyone was really tired that day and we didn’t have the energy to play the games I had prepared. I wish I had had my afternoon nap instead of sitting there and preparing the games. Sigh… Anyway, the important things are that the food was good, Durai & Jennani enjoyed themselves, everyone made an effort to come. It was hard finding a balance of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food dishes within the restrictions of the restaurant’s buffet menu but I think everyone would have found something to eat.

The restaurant was pretty accommodating and let us play our own VCDs so we managed to have Kamal & Rajni videos running instead of Hindi songs. My only sore point with the restaurant was that they refused to let us pack the remaining food to take home. This really didn’t make sense to me as we had after all paid for the food! It is the only restaurant I know that has a ridiculous policy like that. But my sister-in-law Sitha and I conspired to beat the system and managed to smuggle some naans and tandoori chicken out. She was better than me – she even smuggled briyani and curry out! Ha ha..

I ordered 2 cakes from an online cake store called ‘7th Manna’. The cakes were really delicious. Almost everyone tried both cakes and the mango especially was delicious.

But the better memory I have is the faith and trust that the owner, Paul, showed. The term of order was Cash on Delivery. But when they delivered the cake I wasn’t back from Serangoon Road, trying to get a suit for Durai. But Paul was unbelievable – he said I could transfer the amount into his account anytime and just left the cakes with Maya’s maid. I am still amazed at the trust with which he did that. But then the company’s mission statement says it all – it is a company built on Faith; and that’s exactly what he did. Left the cakes on faith that I will pay. Faith that God looks after His own. I will definitely be buying from 7th Manna again!

Here are pics of the rest of the family...

Well, I feel as though I have passed a milestone on this year’s calendar – Durai is 50 and it’s my turn next. This week will be taken up preparing for Jennani’s party with her friends. We are really looking forward to it. We bought a Murder Mystery online and all the guests have been given clues. The theme is Death by Chocolate and the game takes 2 hours to play with clues being given at different intervals. It was Maya’s idea as she had organised one before. Once the next party is over, my dears, we need to start preparing for mine!!! Yay!