This year was more than special than the previous years as it was the final celebration in Kuwait. We were set to return back to India for good by end of May and it was more like a send of cum gala birthday celebration for Anirud. It was truly a mega fortune spinning party that we will remember for a lifetime.
It all started off like this. We first wanted to decide which should be the venue for his birthday celebration. We had celebrated earlier in Avanthi Palace for his 2nd Birthday, then in our home, twice for his 3rd and 4th Birthdays and last year it was in Pizza Hut which was also wonderful and enjoyed by all. This time around we wanted to make it kind of mother of all parties and went to Mughal Mahal, in Fahaheel which was about 50 kms from Salmiya. Then we also went to the restaurant in Center Point, Salmiya, which was closer to our home and also to most of our friends who resided there. Finally, considering the location we decided it was the best place. We also liked the ambience and Vidya was able to negotiate and get a good deal for the food, though it was pricey.
Once the location was frozen, next task was to get the list of invitees. We invited everyone we knew a bit more closely as it was curtains down for us after this event in Kuwait. The onus was always on Vidya as she is the main organizer and she is pretty good in these things. It comes naturally to her. All I had to do was to give her my list of friends who need to be invited for the party and in writing the birthday invite.
Dear Friends
You are cordially invited to attend the Birthday celebrations of our Son Anirud on 15th May 2014 at “Zaafran restaurant” above Centre Point Salmiya starting at 7.30 PM.
Kindly consider this as our personal invite to grace the occasion and bless our Prince of Hearts on this day.
Our little son will be six years now
And life since his arrival is simply wow;
We wish to share the joyous moments with you all when he turns six
With our lovely and wonderful friends to take many a pix
As we want to recollect and remember
The sprightly dances, games and laughter forever;
Life has been a roller coaster ride
With its share of high and low
But with friends like you, we sailed through the tide
With a gritty smirk and told the storm, take a bow;
We taught our petite son many virtues and morals
Like our parents and grandparents with us
To achieve accolades and laurels
We learnt, life is all about giving back without a fuss;
To those endearing souls that cared fiercely
Like a tiger taking care of its cubs imperiously
Walking hand in hand with a heart brimming with love
This heart of a parent is purer than the color of dove;
Yours sincerely
VidyaKarthik
Once she had the full list, she had to confirm the same to the hotel to arrange for the food accordingly. Next was an onerous task to get return gifts for the kids. This is always a difficult task to decide on what, where to buy and at which price points. It was toys and other stuff for the young kids while it was books for the slightly elder ones. Then these have to be gift wrapped, names to be written on them. Honestly, one hell of a task. Her friend, Priya helped her in gift wrapping the books.
Though his actual birthday was on the 12th May, which was on a Monday, we planned to celebrate it on the 15th May, which was a Thursday evening as the weekend in Kuwait fell on Friday. He wore an Angry Birds Tee for his school…I think he was hooked on to Angry Birds at that time and in fact, My Dad or in laws bought an Angry Birds toy set for him…
Every birthday of Anirud is based on a theme. The theme again is dependent upon what Anirud liked or was fascinated by in the last one year. It also shows the evolution pattern of the child with the passage of every year. Two more important things had to be finished before the D Day. These were the driving factors in determining and finalizing the birthday cake and the other to buy a new birthday dress that goes with the theme. Well, knowing Vidya, she would want nothing but the best for the kid. So that meant, hopping in and out of all the stores until she is satisfied that she has seen it all and can choose the best out of it. Indirectly, it results in a lot of driving around, also shopping in various places and spending quite a bit of energy after office hours.
For the cake, we wanted to order something which had some kind of shapes like the superheroes. Either Batman, Superman, Avengers etc. as he started playing with such kind of toys. We first went to La Baguette and finally descended on Sable. As we went through the menu card, we liked one which was multi layered and it had all the characters which we wanted. It was a quite expensive.
We did not worry about the expense part (it did cost a bomb) as we reconciled ourselves saying that it had to be a fabulous birthday celebration since we were leaving Kuwait for good. It was meant to be an evening to be remembered for long for all the right reasons.
Then, we went around looking for the right fit for the birthday boy. After a lot of search, we finally bought a blue Spiderman tee with a pink trouser. He also had a black Spiderman shoe to match the outfit. Vidya had a designer saree that she had bought in India. And I had bought a new trouser to match my yellow tee.
There was one more addition to the show. Instead of organizing the games etc., ourselves, which was quite a pain, Vidya outsourced it this time. It was a wise and wonderful choice in the end.
I did contribute or organize something from my end. As I worked for a retail organization, I had requested for a lovely designer birthday card for Anirud. And so it came, in the form of Avengers with Anirud with Iron man face. The boy and everyone just loved it.
On the D day…we went in the evening by 7.30 PM to keep the return gifts and also welcome the guests. One after another turned up as expected, everyone in their favorite dresses all bedecked beautiful and lovely.
There were lot of games for the kids, the adults and dance as well. It was overall a fun evening for all people alike from young to old. Everyone just loved the cake as it was something quite different.
Once all the games and cake cutting was over, it was time for dinner as people were famished. The spread again was superb and everyone had food to their heart’s fill.
Then it was time to say goodbye, cheers to all the people. And so it ended…almost fairy-tale like…what will we do for his 7th Birthday…something different…again…
Beautiful Life 