Arya’s First Birthday and Naming Ceremony

WARNING: This is a huge article giving a detailed account of Arya’s Birthday planning and celebration. It is written more with the perspective of bringing a smile to me and Yogesh on reading it after a few years. Advance apologies to persons reading this and getting bored.

I don't know why I delayed writing about this when it is so important to me. Maybe it was because words are not enough to describe the planning, effort and the fun we had!

1. Planning:

I was getting anxious as the event date approached. Yogesh and I had decided that we would not hire an event decorator due our budget. But I had made Yogesh promise that we will still do the best ourselves. 

The Cake - Mickey playing cricket!



2. Food:

We hired a Rajasthani Cook who had cooked for 900 people in Namita's wedding 6 years back. It was finger-licking delicious back then. He was somewhat expensive than the other caterers we could have hired, but we thought that food needs to be great to win the event!

3. Cake:
After visiting a few shops, we finalized a butter cream chocolate cake weighing 3kgs from Monginis. The design was Mickey Mouse in a cricket costume. Personally I hate Mickey (Why do kids like a mouse? I’m sure it is a big deal in US because they don’t see mice as often). I think the cake looked good though.

4. Shopping:

We got a beautiful Sherwani Suit in maroon for Arya, a red chiffon Saree for me and a new shirt for the dad. 

5. Invites:

We sent the invite to all friends and family. I called a few of them on phone to stay home prior to the event.

6. Guests:

Some of the guests came from Mumbai and few from Pune city to stay over. It was fun. Few stayed after the event too and Arya got to know them better.

7. Venue:

We had decided that we would have this event in our own society club-house. It was newly painted and clean. It would be convenient for all guests to come and for us to organize things. It is a one floor structure with an open terrace for functions. It can accommodate a crowd of 150 persons easily (catering section separate!)

8. Club house decoration:

Cake cutting done... Notice the lights and flex banner!

As the terrace was not covered from all sides and it was January, we decided to cover it with a colorful Pandal from all sides leaving the top open. We hired a guy to do light strings of various colors thrown on the trees and pandal. It gave a great celebration effect.

For the stage background, we arranged for a maroon velvet curtain with a peach frilly lace on the top and lights again. Sudhir bhauji had arranged for a beautiful flex printout to be stuck on it with Arya’s face and a happy birthday message!

We had got buntings, shiny stars, big cartoons, happy birthday cutout, alphabets of Arya’s name, lots and lots of red and blue balloons, shimmer, table decoration, all kinds of tapes, etc. from Pune city at wholesale rate. Yogesh was frowning on the demands but I'm sure he loved how it all turned out. 

We got musical candles, a “1” to be placed on the cake, and lots of b’day caps and return gifts.

9. Return gifts:

I wanted these to be useful for the kids. So chose apple shaped microwaveable kids lunch plates in various colors! We packed these in happy b’day return gift bags and kept them ready.

10. Balloons:

I wanted many many balloons, so we got a pump for inflating them and stayed up till late night. We made sets of 3 balloons for decoration. Maushi, mom, dad, me and Yogesh inflated about 170 balloons! We kept them in Arya’s room, filling it to our waists.

The little guy cried each time a balloon burst and I became more apprehensive about the balloon thing.

Hanging the balloons up on the Pandal was another huge task for us as they kept bursting or flying away due to the strong afternoon wind. Few balloons were even stolen and burst on purpose by neighboring kids too when we were not around! Somehow we managed to keep few them stuck.

The almost decorated background..

11. Table:
Table was wrapped with my white wedding Saree and maroon net stuck with balloons. We put a white table cloth on it, some stars and it was done! The cake went on it, a musical candle and the “1” letter too. Kid’s b’day caps were kept there for taking.

12. Food arrangement:

The hall for serving dinner had French windows on 3 sides. It was decorated with cartoon cutouts and stars and balloons. Buffet was set up there with chairs in case few people didn’t want to bear the cold.

13. Music:
We got a music system from my dad’s and played light instrumental music in background (The CD was purchased for my wedding but handed been heard so far!).

14. House decoration:
We decorated our house too with cartoon characters, balloons all over, and a “Happy Birthday Arya” cutout.

15. Naming ceremony on 19th Jan, 2012:

B'day aukshan. See the
decorated crib behind.

Before the birthday, we wanted a proper naming ceremony for Arya. Yogesh and I decorated Arya’s crib (the one discarded 5 months back) with buntings and Mogra garlands. We decorated the house with rose bouquets.

I'm gonna buy this cake
today too! Yummy!

Arya was dressed in a Krishna’s costume that was gifted by my friend Nivedita. He looked very cute and adorable.

I invited about 5 women for a quick Haldi Kunku and the naming ceremony. Neelam had got a Palana song written for singing during the event.

Asmita was to get the honor of saying Arya’s name in his ear along with 4 other pseudo names (I think they were Ayush, Harsh, Ashish, etc. dunno).

We tried making him sit in the crib but he wouldn’t. Ideally we needed to pass the baby from under the crib and over it 5 times or so, but he wasn’t as small anymore, so we let it go.

He had just begun crying, so I played a Palana song on my cell phone that I had downloaded from a website, “Halke halke jojawa baalacha palana”.

Asmita whispered Arya’s name & 4 other names in his ear. We had to beat her up with our fists as a ritual, and we loved that part. Done, he was officially named!

16. The real birthday celebration on 19th Jan 2012:
Immediately following the naming ceremony, we had arranged for the cake cutting. We changed Arya to a cute kurti and churidar. There was an amazing strawberry cake that we cut. Kids loved it. Arya might not know what was happening, but he seemed very happy to see so many people.

17. Birthday bash:
The venue was ready with colored lights, pandal, decoration, balloons, birthday banner and all.


Arya, Yogesh and me!

   The flex print looked amazing. The caterer was doing his job.

We were ready. Arya was in his new maroon sherwani dress. Mangal looked after him mostly.

The cake was delivered and looked wonderful. When I saw kids reaction to the cake, I knew I was wrong in thinking that cake was not a big deal. Cake is the real key to the event! And Mickey Mouse, sadly, has to be loved.


Cake cutting!

 Many guests complimented on Arya’s resemblance to his dad. Ruchi was very sweet. She took care of distributing the birthday caps to all kids.

Arya cut the cake and we blew the big musical candle over and over again, as it rekindles! The firework rocket was lit and it blasted to shower many shiny and crape paper bits all over the place.



Ruchi distributing cake.

 Ruchi was an angel again and distributed the cake to all. Oh yea, and I had missed out shopping for the cake spoons! But people anyway helped themselves with a second and a third piece!

Next Arya got up on the cash counter to collect all the gifts (figuratively speaking)! He was now wearing a white suit Namita had gifted him.



Dinner buffet.

Indoor seating. Check out the
club house. It's converted to a gym now.

Dinner was served and the indoor cum outdoor seating proved to be amazing. People loved the food!





Nivedita and family, Jayant and
family traveled a lot to reach here.



On their way out we thanked the guests and handed the return gifts to kids. They even got to choose what color they wanted. I got a feedback few days later from almost all moms that their kids wanted to eat only from those plates!

Arya changed to his comfortable clothes. We were the last ones to have dinner and finally relax. After the huge anxiety and effort, the event did go as smooth as butter.

Here are a few photos of the event.



Sinhgad college staff and families.

 

Arya admiring the gifts and
his new white suit

 

Guests



My sisters and their families!
Mani is married now though.



Mom and pranju



Mani and Arya



Dad and all.


 

Fighting Migraine

It is like a time machine. It begins and transports me to a vortex, a zone, stopping whatever activity I am in, bringing to halt the day I was having. When I come out of it, 2 hours or 2 days are gone. Migraine has been a loyal and a bitter companion to me for over 20 years. I have missed so many moments, events and details about things around me. It is not a serious or sorry thing to write about, but hey, it is my blog.

My mom used to say that I’d complain of headache as a child in school. Migraine back then wasn’t so famous. My simple parents didn’t know what was wrong. X-rays, MRI’s were done, but a neurologist was seen only when I was in my teens. Finally the thing got a name – migraine! (It rhymes!). Tablets didn’t provide long term relief. I didn’t want to continue a tablet a day for the rest of my life.

In my 10th standard during migraine I would draw all the curtains in the house, covering each slit of light coming through the door with a rug. I would lie with my head on moms lap until it passed away. My sisters had to bear with the dark house and no TV on for a day or two. I would cover up for the lost time by studying through the night. The headaches were bad back then. Today I am surprised where I got so much strength to fight those.

Of course my family was very supportive about it. They didn’t even know that it was quite common and there were many people who suffered.

It was there in the engineering and MBA too. Again I wondered how I would take care of my career, job and a family of my own! How will I manage?

When I was in MBA, I read about homeopathic treatment for migraine (A big commercialized doctor in homeopathy claimed that he can uproot it totally.) We went. Fee was too high, but my parents paid it anyway. And there was a slight improvement (should I say touchwood?). I continued it for some years and the intensity and frequency was bearable. He didn’t uproot it, did improve my condition a lot.

Presently it is a combination of allopathy and homeopathy. I know what to do at the onset of such a headache and I am well prepared for it. I don’t expect something for 20 years to go away in 2!

Now migraine is a known word. There are so many websites, informative articles in newspapers, so many medicines in various streams, so many counseling groups, etc. In fact people make faces when I give it as a reason to ignore my duties.

Today I'm managing my career and my family with the help of a person I can rely on always – my hubby. Yogesh makes me feel so cared for when I am in the zombie zone (I never expected somebody other than my mom to understand it). I thank him each time I come out of it.

Thought of writing about it as I lost the last weekend at home due to a headache. It's Friday already and I'm thinking how I would enjoy this one!  

Pune is waiting for the rains. I am too.

We havent purchased our raincoats yet. Yogesh too doesn't have one. We, like many dedicated stingy Punekars will buy them only when we get drenched in heavy rains a few times. Sadly we haven't seen the rain that our normal wind cheaters cannot handle. And it is mid July now!

Where is the rain? Have we driven it away?

It may be an inconvenience when you go to office half drenched. It is a risk to drive amidst rains. It is yucky to get mud splashed on you. But I've always loved to feel the rain whenever I can. To look out of the window when it is raining, to drink hot black tea, and to have kanda-bhaji (onion pakode) when it is raining is amazing.

As a kid I always made sure that I go out when it was raining heavily - at least once. I did those crazy things like making paper boats, and I also sent small insects on big leaves to unknown destinations via the streamlets in my building compound.



Rainy road

 I remember when I was doing my MBA from Dept. of management sciences, Pune University, I absolutely loved the campus. I wish I had clicked photos of me there. I knew back then too that I will want photos of me in PU later, but simply ignored it at that time! Well, it is still green, but it doesn't feel the same now. There were times when I would go home from college on my puny little bike (Sunny) soaking in the rain, with people looking at me as though I was crazy. 

I even went home soaking wet in the rain on purpose while I was in my previous company. This year I might have to do it due to lack of raincoat though.

So when will it be?