Niya's First Birthday

The party is scheduled from 7 PM on Feb 13th @ BFC Restuarant , Koramangala.Carrying the cake from the bakery in 7th Sector to the restuarant in 1st sector is the first challenge.Elaborately packed in the form of a pyramid over the cake base , Shajichettan and Deepthi held on to the cake carefully while my driving space was squeezed into a tricycle riding posture.Slowly and carefully , we reached the restuarant and could see a KL registration car in front of us.
Hardly expecting it to be true , I passed the comment - "It is a KL registration car- might be one of our guests."Much to my surprise , it was Binoy'a and Deepak;s family.To add to this , we could see Sudhakaran Maashu and teacher waiting at the restuarant.As Binoy went further to park the car , Shajichettan and myself took the cake to the 2nd floor party hall.While coming down , I told Mash and Teacher that I was going to get my daughter.
Drove hurriedly and got Niya , Divya , My mother and Divya's mother to the restuarant.We had reached 5 minutes past 7.Soon people started trickling in and the event had taken off pretty quickly.Totally unprepared , I had even forgotten that there are certain sequence of activities that need to be done - Cake cutting , Dinner etc.I was happily playing with kids , chatting with different groups while Divya felt uneasy at the disarray that this was turning out to be.
Sanath and Aashish ( Divya's cousins) had set up the music system between my first visit and second visit to the hall.SBI Branch Manager was one of the distinguished guests known only to me and hence I kept finding time to go talk to him.
Rameez was on his way from Kerala in his car.He was coming a day early so that he could attend this function.I felt I should wait for him to arrive for the cake cutting to start.Most of us were college friends of mine or Divyas and hence I did not bother much about keeping them waiting.Same held good for our relatives.In between all this , a few elder family friends got delayed as Rameez came in shortly after 8 PM.
As soon as Rameez and family turned up, we started the cake cutting ceremony which went off pretty well.Niya actually blew off the candle , pretty good for a first birthday!Photographer started clicking off.He started getting in groups to pose for photographs.Divya started complaining to me at this trend while I felt otherwise and we were having arguments on the stage!!Well , as things turned out , the arranged photography sessions quickly died down.
Once I got a gap from photography , Sanath instructed me to invite the guests for dinner.I followed his instructions and soon a queue came into being waiting for the food.Meanwhile , I ensured that BFC service ensured that all the guests were given a piece of the cake.The delay in starting which loomed as a drawback in the initial phase of the party had gone off and now things were more at ease.People liked the food.Some of my friends told me so as well.
Then there was the hurry for getting the right return gifts to the right kids.While this was a scheduled party , this was impromptu as well in that very less thought had gone into how the execution would be.Niya was having the hardest time dressed as a princess.Dressed as a princess , she felt suffocated and Divya being the understanding mother had quickly changed her dress into something more comfortable.However , the rush was still annoying her and she was crying pretty often as was her other batchmates.
Once all the guests had left , group of relatives were left.I had again set myself into a not-a-care-in-the-world mode.I was in the mood to let the night go for another hour or so talking non-chalantly about things that don't matter.Well,soon I went down to settle the bill and the return home started as well soon after the bill payment as everyone else had by then reached the respective cars.
On the whole,it was a very positive experience.I have hardly been at the giving end of any social experience and this one was pretty encouraging.Thanks a lot to all of us who took the time and trouble to make it!