celebration Archives - Page 7 of 14

26/01/201311/05/2024

The Makers of a Republic

Those of you who’ve been here before will know how often I’ve cribbed about the fuddy-duddy managing committee of our society that creates roadblocks for all kid-friendly events. Despite them, this last year we managed to have some fun on Independence Day and then again on Children’s Day . However, the two events took the wind out of our sails. When Republic Day came around all the mums were reluctant to take up the responsibility of yet another celebration, what with the kids falling ill, hectic work pressures and absconding maids.And so the children decided to take things in their own hands. A bunch of them (all below 10 years) got together, decided on the events, made out notices then went to the Cultural Committee Head for permissions. Not satisfied, they went around to all the senior society members’ homes, waking them up from their siesta’s, disturbing their peaceful tea-times and shaking them literally and figuratively out of their insouciance.

Soon enough a member came to me with the complaint. Why me? Well because when asked which adults were organising the event they came up with mine and a fellow mum’s name. We got quite an earful about how we were making the kids run around instead of following the ‘protocol’.. yeah protocol is everything here. A completely clueless me heard her out, tried to convince her of my innocence and wriggle out of the situation with absolutely no luck. “Since the kids’ have said it, both of you might as well handle it,” we were told.

Apparently the equally clueless fellow mum had been nominated MC by her daughter while Hrit Naisha had volunteered to get the medals on my behalf.

Come Saturday morning we were scrambling around getting the tables and chairs laid out, organising juice and sweets and herding a bunch of super jubilant kids to the ground for the Sports Day. We had no clue about the number of participants, the sequence of events or even what the events were!

Two dads were called upon to police the finish line till we found out we HAD no finish line. One of them was dispatched to get the finish-line ribbon while the other busied himself fiddling with the camera.

As it turned out we had the most chaotic, most crazy, most happy Republic Day. Oh there were the tears and the fights (I didn’t get a medal, I didn’t hear the get-set-go, I WANT a gold) but as mums and dads that’s part of our lives.

Is it the first time I’ve said the happiest events are often the most spontaneous one?
Check out the happy faces here…

The winners

This is how Wikipedia defines a Republic..
A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a “public matter” (Latin: res publica), not the private concern or property of the rulers…

That’s what we have here – a mini-republic, made possible by the young ones of our society. Three cheers to the new generation.

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY folks.

29/12/201215/04/2017

Happy birthdays are made of these

10 things that make a perfect birthday

1. A late lazy morning and waking up to a phone call from home, then another one from an old old friend, then another one and another and another…..
2. Birthday wishes from the kids accompanied by a big hug and countless kisses. They then follow it up by popping out from unexpected places throughout the day with a “Happy birthday mama”.
3. The maid comes in time.
4. The kids behave themselves.
5. The Husband remembers your birthday and gets the most gorgeous chocolate chip cake ever.. muah.
6. Friends drop in bringing along plenty of laughs.. and a scrumptious cake too… yes one more.
7. Lots of flowers that you didn’t buy yourself.
8. A few thoughtful gifts which also haven’t been bought by yourself.
9. Good food obviously not cooked by yourself.
10. A gift hamper full of goodies from the daughter.. Check out what it had…

The hamper

A pearl flower saved from a Diwali gift box

A pink ribbon.. must have for a girl

‘Perfume’ which was actually some flower petals in a
dessert glass

A single rose bouquet

A favourite Mc Donald toy she gave up for me

Can one ask for more?

26/12/201215/12/2017

Santa still exists

Another Christmas went by with the kids’ belief in Santa intact. I have a feeling, however, this one’s going to be the last. Of late H is playing a lot with older boys and a few days before Christmas he came home saying someone told him there’s no Santa.

“My friend said mamas and papas buy the gifts and tell us they’re from Santa,” said he.
“Well your friend must’ve been naughty and Santa wouldn’t have got him a gift so his papa and mama would have had to get him one. But if you’re really good Santa will come,” said I.

Surprise surprise H bought the argument. Hah!

He made a card for Santa and placed it under the tree. Then he got a brand new pack of his favourite biscuits and put them with the card.

So it was that after the kids were asleep, ‘Santa’ had to not only wrap their gifts and put them under the tree but also squirrel away the card, eat a biscuit oozing chocolate and leave a thank you note in the middle of the night. Yes well this Santa has her manners in place.

The things one has to do for one’s kids!

The spellings are all his and those hearts are N’s idea

That’s the inside of the card. I’m glad Jesus Christ gets a mention here.
Regrettably, he’s overshadowed by Santa

And next morning their faces were my reward, if I wanted one. N was a tad regretful. “I’ll also keep biscuits next year”, said she. H, needless to say was thrilled to bits. He called up the entire family to tell the tale of how Santa ate his biscuit and wrote ‘Thank You, H’ on a tissue paper. “You see he was in a hurry”, he explained.

During the day the sis-in-law came by and snuck in some more gifts under the tree. She then asked with a straight face, “What’s that shiny stuff under your tree N?” At which the kids raced there yelling, “Santa came home twice”. “But when did he come we were here all the time”, marvelled an incredulous N. “I can’t believe he came in the day. He’s not supposed to come in the day”, added H, ever the logical one.

He gave up trying to unravel the mystery after a while and finally declared, “This is the happiest day of my life” .

24/12/201215/04/2017

Merry Christmas!

People around here are on a shopping spree. No I’m not the kind to keep tabs on my neighbours’ spendings. Just look at what my two little scavengers brought home.

I hadn’t been able to spend much time with the kids and we were lagging in our Christmas preparations too. So we decided to put all of those ‘goodies’ to good use and came up with some very quick decorations.

We began with drawing some stockings on the sheets..

Cut them out with a hot knife and painted them green and pink..

..and silver and strung them out on a ribbon.

Then we did some bells… which have still to be painted

and some stars and circles too.

.. and then it was time to do up the ‘tree’.

And now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be off.

We have to hurry up and clear the way for shy Santa.

Tonight’s Santa’s busy busy night. Besides clearing the kitchen and

dinner table he has still lots of gift-wrapping to do.

Merry Christmas folks.

16/11/201215/04/2017

We’re Different

If you were to watch the kids of our society playing in the garden now, something might catch your eye – a 6 year old boy in a Spiderman suit (meant for a four year old) with a bat and a girl in a chaniya choli behind the wickets, brandishing a diwali gun for some reason playing pretty comfortablly with the four or five other kids around them.

Each day I think my kids are just too grown up to play dress-up and each day they prove me wrong. I see other children refusing to wear shorts because they’re “too big”, girls loving their fluffy dresses and smart halters, kids feeling awkward if they’re dressed differently… not so for mine. They revel in looking different. How come they’re not embarrassed? I often wonder. How come they don’t get teased to death? To wear a costume outside a fancy dress party is kind of weird by my standards.

So why did I let them?

Well because my standards are never their standards. Weird/scary/silly for me is often fun for them.

Besides, one of my rules for survival states – ‘Allow the kids to do what they want unless it’s life threatening or involves a mess that I’ll need to clear up’.

Plus, there’s a bit of a history.

This year we finally managed to organise a fancy dress and talent show in our society. That was no mean achievement given that the average population here is above 60 and likes to lead a quiet life bereft of so much as the whiff of excitement… specially stuff that involves anything to do with noisy children.

As usual, there was this huge debate at home on who will be what and as usual what I wanted wasn’t what the kids wanted. Hrit was dying to show off his Spiderman costume, a hand me down from his cousin, while Naisha wanted to be Krishna complete with a blue face and body. I, on the other hand wanted for them to do something together, for once. I thought of an earth-moon sequence where Naisha would be the moon revolving around a rotating/revolving earth, Hrit. I thought it was a great idea. Not so, the kids.

After much negotiation they agreed provided I let them wear “what they want” for “however long they want” after the show. Hence.

The show, by the way, was great fun even though we had no budget. Someone got a laptop, another one got the speakers and someone else got a pen drive full of music. A creative mum rustled up some badges while everyopne chipped in with leftover birthday decorations. The mums turned up with their kids and we were set for a great time while the senior citizens snoozed (Yes well.. I don’t quite like their attitude. I’m sure you’ve guessed that by now!).

A few pictures of the event…

A bunch of grapes, a bhajiwali, a nurse aur do mere wale. They’re not in costume because
much of it was paper and I wanted to preserve it till the fancy dress actually started.

Shivaji, a zebra crossing (that had a real flashing red light) and a Japanese doll.
And there’s the girl who could do a hundred cartwheels, as part of the talent show.

The youngest of them all.. a fairy.

Shivaji gets busy with his mum’s camera

Krishna and Radha

Our very cool DJ aunty

For the talent show Hrit Naisha did an edited version of Ek Chidiya, an old favourite of mine. Even though I say it myself, they were pretty purrrfect :-).

During a ‘dress rehearsal’ at home