Buddy’s Day Party- A special idea by a little girl!

Author and Photographer: Sindhu Jagannath
Party concept: Sameeksha Iyengar

Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was striking 10 at night on a cold Friday in December and I was hurriedly cleaning the kitchen, my mind consumed with thoughts of the next day's class (I teach architecture students). I had to get up at 5 in the morning to cook enough food to last the entire day for both my husband and daughter Sweetu (Sameeksha). Preoccupied with these thoughts I was still in the kitchen when I was startled by an exited squeal. Sweetu came running into the kitchen, her eyebrows raised and grinning from ear to ear.
She declared “Mamma I have an Idea! I'll have a totally different party this Sunday!!!”

The endearing enthusiasm in her voice solely tempted me to say yes (though she was making a statement and not asking my permission), but, I knew from experience that a YES could never be turned into a NO without hurting Sweetu's feelings.


So, with a heavy heart, I stared to say "Sweetu, we still have whole month till your Birthday…." But, before I could complete my sentence, she ran into the bedroom, drew up the comforter and started reading her book. I shrugged and turned back to my work assuming that it was the end of the discussion.
I managed to finish up my chores and joined her, picking up my book to read.
Soon, Sweetu turned to me and said: "Mamma I need your help for Sunday’s party."

There she goes again, I thought.

I might have sounded a little too mean when I replied in an unyielding tone “Sweetu! No party sharty until your Birthday.”

“But Mamma I am not talking about my birthday party…”

I raised my eyebrows and she turned away, her eyes brimming with tears and started flipping the pages of her book in anger. Within a few seconds she fell asleep like an angel. I twisted and turned in guilt for almost an hour.

The next month, when we were planning her birthday party, I asked her about the ideas that she had but she just dismissed me saying ”Those are for Buddy’s day party not birthday party!"
I was taken aback. Curious, I asked her "Whats that? Never heard of anything like that."She went on about it for good 15 minutes and at the end of it I wanted to have the party more than her. What surprised me was the extent to which she had planned the party, the minute details that she had worked out. Of course, at that time I just gave her a smile of assurance and told her that for any party we must have a strong reason. So, you find the reason and we will have the party.She immediately said “Mamma this party is to celebrate the end of holidays and to welcome the fresh academic year!!! And that’s how the date for Buddy’s day party got fixed as June 1st.

The months dragged on and we both forgot this discussion. Then, I was little free by the 3rd week of May so I asked sweetu about the Party and told her that we should start preparing.

As I said that, I witnessed something that is beyond words. The smile that lit her eyes was mesmerizing. I realized how much this party means to her.
Her ideas and concepts were very clear. Most of the program was already planned by her. She had the event sheet ready. It had a welcome speech followed by distribution of badges, quiz, games, art activities and last but not the least, a concert. She had the list of her friends whom she wanted to invite for the party ready.

The theme for the party was REUSE. The seed of the idea derived from her classes in school. She wanted to reuse everything possible for this party.

Plan on the Table

The party fever had caught both of us now. I was bowled over by the idea of Buddy’s day party, so every evening, I sat with her to work on it. She wanted to personally invite friends with invitation cards. But many stayed far away. So, we came up with an alternative. We made an invitation card and sent it to all via WhatsApp. We also invited them over phone. We got instant replies from almost all.

Next thing were the Badges.
Sweetu decided that the concept would be either flowers or butterflies; for she believes that they are the most beautiful creations of God.

Butterflies and Flowers! 

One of my friends gave us star shaped reminder slips which we thought could become the base over which we could attach paper flowers cut from old wedding/party invitations.

We wrote the names of the invitees on it, stuck it with double sided cello tape and 20 Badges were ready.
She then managed to get 50 questions for the witty quiz from her previous year’s collection of TOOTS and the Quiz cards were ready.


She had some informal games planned and I let her take care of that completely (most of it being mind games, did not require any accessories). For the art and activities she thought of two things. Clay modeling and painting. We managed to pool in all the paints, color pencils, crayons, 2B and 4B pencils, gerasers and sharpeners that Sweetu had in her stash for the art supplies. One set for two kids. I was shocked at the collection that Sweetu had! When I told her that she could manage to finish her 10th grade with the stationary she already had, gave me a sly smile and a naughty wink.

Now for the paper to draw, I managed to get unused sketchbook sheets torn from the old submissions from college. We highlighted the borders to make the plain drawing sheets a bit more interesting.

Sweetu decided the topic for that as ”Nature and City”.

As a souvenir, she wanted to give them all Bookmarks since one of the reasons for the get together was to welcome the new Academic year (signifying studies). But, she also wanted to write something about friendship as the occasion was Buddy’s day party. We again used the invitation cards for the flowers and butterflies and made bookmarks. Along with the book marks she handpicked gifts (parameter being the age of her friends). Something that could be used for school work at their level.

The Bookmarks 

Sweetu’s initial idea for putting up a stall was discarded for many reasons. She wanted to build a stall reusing cartons and other waste materials at home. In the stall, she would keep all her books (which is a fairly good collection ranging from books for little ones to the highschool kids). On the party day she wanted to lend these books to her friends to motivate them to read. Apart from the library, she wanted to sell birthday and friendship cards which she hoped to make out of waste materials. She wanted to display her toys and even planned to gift some toys to her friends if they liked it, as a token of friendship. She also wanted to create designer costumes for that day for which she wanted to reuse old cloths.

Now this was a big business idea for a little girl of 9. Due to time constraints, I convinced her to cancel most of it promising her that it will all be done for the next year’s Buddy’s day party. But she insisted that she has to make cards and sell them. For she wanted to give that money to an orphanage. I teasingly asked her what would be the price for the card and she squeezed her brows, thought for a while and said that it could range from Re 1 to Rs2 and since the cards were to be sold, their quality should be very good. So, “Mamma you should make the cards and write up the messages because my writing is not good and you are the best card maker” was her apt logic.

On hearing this, I just could not control my laughter. I said: "I never made one. How can you say that Sweetu?"

She replied: "I know! I can see your talent inside my mind!!!" And gave me her best trust me kind of smile.

Though I had no clue what to do we got started anyway, using the same concept as the bookmarks.

Sweetu parallely googled for some sayings on friendship and write-ups for birthday cards. We could only manage ten cards.

The best part of the preparatory two weeks was Sweetu entertaining me with her singing. In the name of practice I made Sweetu sing all the songs that she planned to sing in the concert. She had downloaded the songs and learnt it all by herself for the concert. All four songs were for friends. “Light up the world”, "You are the one", "Be a friend" and "Gift of a friend".

The most important task was food. It would be about 30 people in all, kids and elders put together. Mamtha, Sweetu's best friend Pratista’s mother suggested that we could buy paav and make bajji at home along with some snacks and juice. Pratista’s elder sister Tara happily agreed to make cake for the party. My friend Soumya said she would come early to help me make baaji. My friends, Bhagya and Shilpa declared that they would bring paav in spite of me objecting vociferously. Sushma, Saumya and Arpitha said they would bring snacks and insisted me not to buy any. At the end the food was a splendid treat from all my friends to us.

It's Party time!!!

Neither of us could sleep well on Saturday. Me, thinking about preparing baaji for 30 people having never cooked for so many in the 10 years of married life. And Sweetu, too excited to close her eyes.

I was a bit tensed, but Sweetu got up early the next morning, took bath and got ready so quickly that she actually surprised us all at home. We had never seen her getting ready by herself (without some form of poking and prodding) and in less than 20 minutes!!!! She wore her new Butterfly painted, lacy, off-white top and a red capri pant and tied her lovely long hair into a high ponytail. She powdered her face, put on a tiny bindi and applied strawberry lipbalm.

She looked so sweet. All decked up like a doll, she yelled at me “Mamma you are still not ready!!!!! U must finish cooking and help me decorate. Give a reminder call to all the friends. So much more to do and you are still sipping coffee?????”

I gave her my 'don’t worry' smile and told her that the party was at 3 pm and it was only 7.30 am now. We still had time. In response, she just sat on the sofa making a long face as if to say "It is too long a wait!"

Soumya, as promised, promptly arrived at 12 pm and walked in with a broad smile and two huge bags of vegetables. She took over the kitchen completely and forbid me from helping out, saying "See to the other things."

The Yummy Cake

Ah!!! What bliss to have such friends. I happily let her do all the hard work and started arranging other stuff. We changed bedsheets in Sweetu‘s room. A new bedsheet with colourful butterflies painted on it. By 2pm, Tara and Bujju (Pratista) walked in with a huge tray covered with a towel: The Buddy’s day cake !!! A very beautifully decorated yummy looking pink and blue cake!

The hype around the cake 

For the next 2 hours Tara , Bujju, Saanvi and Sweetu decorated the home as all her other friends trickled in slowly. Finally, we started the party at 5 pm with Sweetu's welcome speech and badge distribution. While we ladies got busy talking and gossiping, Sweetu conducted the quiz. We had allocated 30 minutes for that but, it lasted more than an hour. By 6.30, the kids were hungry and we decided to cut the cake. We all sang "Happy Buddy's Day to you" and cut the cake. Thanking Tara for such a delicious cake, we then served Paav Baaji to all in steel plates and cold drinks in steel tumblers (No disposable cutlery!) Aaah!!! Baaji tasted so good and all of us enjoyed it. Including little Chinku (Ananya) who was just 4 years old. Honestly, if not for Soumya, I don’t know what Baaji I would have made. Anyway, it became quite late by the time we finished up with the food and we had to skip art and activity.

Friends at the party

The Floral Badges

Since kids were all in a playful mood, Sweetu engaged them in games. Then, she distributed the gifts and kids selected their book marks. After all the fun the grand finale of the party, the Concert began. Sweetu started singing by dedicating all the songs to her friends. As she sang, two of her friends joined in the song from the movie Frozen. It was lots of fun.

After the concert, all Sweetu's cards sold like hot cakes, raking in Rs.100 which she kept aside for the orphanage. It was almost 8 by then and we had to wrap up the party.

Donations for the orphanage

What left Sweetu and me in high spirits were the hearty appreciation from our friends. Sweetu's dream of Buddy's Day party had come to an end (well... According to her, the Buddy's Day party had just been born). Without the tremendous support from our friends, it would not have been so successful and cherishable.

The Gossipy Ladies Club

Three cheers to all the Buddy's Day party participants for making it a grand success! Thanks to my mother and father (for bearing and cleaning all the mess we made at home), and specially to my brother Vasista and Aarabhi (SIL) who, though abroad, managed to convince me to write this blog.

Tirtha yatra along the Great American East Coast

Author: Aarabhi

Photographer: Vasistha

At a rest stop in Texas, first US trip with parents

My father-in-law stared at the brown ring of bread in his palm.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's a bagel Appa, a kind of bun. Here, they eat it with butter sometimes, for breakfast" I replied.
He sighed and bit into it determinedly.
I pulled a face at Vasistha.
We were at the Boston airport in USA on the layover of our flight to New Jersey; on our way to a short vacation along the east coast of USA.

The Trip:

The day Vashu got his onsite posting at Dallas, Texas, he had started planning for this trip. It had always been a dream for my hubby to show his parents at least one other country apart from our own. Once he married me, my parents naturally got included in the equation. So, here we were, 6 vegetarians. Hunting for a proper meal, reading labels and wondering if the Caesar dressing mentioned on the salad box had eggs in it or not.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It is awfully cliched these days. The whole "Niagara and east coast" trip. Every desi with a relative visiting him/her plans it. Almost like the tirtha-yatra of USA. Even though we planned the exact same trip, I simply do not understand the hype, that is Niagara falls. I mean, our own Jog falls, Athirapalli falls and plenty of others seem more breathtaking than it.

The Change in Plans:

At our cousin Sri Rama's place. A delightful time spent with his family. Shammi is in the grey T-shirt

"Hello Mama, Amami! Yepdi irkingo?" asked our cousin Shammi. We were 3 hours early due to our connecting flight being brought forward unexpectedly. He had most kindly taken a day off and was chauffeuring us to his home. 

"Wasn't that a Stop Sign we just passed?" asked Vasistha. 

Amused, Shammi replied: "It's ok Vasistha, the rules of the road are a little relaxed here in New Jersey."

Speeding was the only rule we had witnessed being broken in Dallas.Used as we were to the mostly strict adherence to traffic rules there, this was news for us. 

Spending a delightful night with his family (with the world's biggest chatterbox of a 3 year old) and after visiting another relative, Sri Rama; we discovered that my dad-in-law's foot ulcer had worsened overnight, he had a burning fever and was in no state to travel. He had been the most enthusiastic person in our little troupe and we were all quite sad. Seeing our long faces, he ribbed, "I am taking some much needed rest here. I'll enjoy a couple of days with the kids. You guys go ahead."

The Story of the Bathroom:

"The beauty in front of you is NOT the whi hou, I repeat, it's not the whi hou!" said Jerry.
The five of us were exploring with our guide Jerry (Take Tours) with a bus full of Chinese tourists.
The Chinese-American accent of Jerry, was largely unintelligible to our ears. His "building" sounded like "beauty", "white house" sounded like "whi hou" and the Chinese translation of the place-descriptions amusingly took twice as long as in English.

Independence Hall, Philadelphia

We almost just passed through Philadelphia; viewing just the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall. The fun thing was using the first public bathroom in the USA (opposite the hall, said to have been the one George Washington used). Reading the board proclaiming this, my dad remarked: "These guys turn everything into a tourist hot spot! Really? A bathroom?"

Memorials and exhaustion:

The Capitol building, "The beauty in front of you is NOT the whi hou, I repeat, it's not the whi hou!"

The usual circuit of Washington D.C took us to the National Air and Space museum (our guide gave us such little time here that most of the museum just got a cursory look-see; just had time to stamp a souvenir coin and withdraw some much needed cash from the ATM), the Madame Tussaud's wax museum and the four major landmarks around the Washington monument: the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, the Supreme Court and the grounds around them (read Korean war veterans memorial and such).

With Abe Lincoln

Walking with the Beatles at the wax museum

Grecian Colonnade huggers, right out of a movie song

Behind the Lincoln Memorial

We had some fun taking pictures in front of the huge Grecian colonnades, but were mostly tired by the long walks these places required us to make. At the end of the day, footsore and mostly exhausted, the elders decided to take some much needed rest and Vasista and I set out to get the last of the pics around the Lincoln Memorial in the fading light of the day. The lake waters and the huge golden statues flanking the roadway behind the memorial were really mesmerizing.

Glass: Infinitely varied, Inexplicably beautiful:

Gorgeous Tulips

The second day saw us making a loooong journey by bus through green valleys. The tall trees were sadly lacking in flowers but were mysteriously shrouded in mists. They vividly reminded us of our Nilgiris. We were to visit the 60 year old Corning Museum of Glass.

My MIL Rajani with her favourite pieces

The museum was absolutely wonderful! The meager 2 hours (including the lunch time!) that we were allowed to spend there was nowhere near enough to really enjoy and appreciate the amazing glass artifact displays. From exquisite tulips (contemporary) to 3500 year old glass-wares, the museum has it all. THE favorite place for my mother-in-law whose love for color, glass and intricacy was thoroughly satisfied here. We barely had time to rush through the museum and see a quick hot glass show, where professional glass-makers blow molten glass into vases, bowls and other such pieces of art.

The glass making show at the Museum, mesmerizing molten glass

The Hype:

A view of the falls

Our next stop was the famous Niagara falls. Such hype has centered around this falls that our troupe felt quite a bit let down when we finally saw the falls! At the risk of repeating myself, I concure that it is beautiful, and wide, aand well maintained. But, to call it the best waterfall would be stretching it. After having seen the majesticness and lush greenery of our own Gagana Chukki-Bhara Chukki and the Jog falls during the monsoons; Niagara seemed ordinary enough to us. 

Still, we had come to visit it; so we did the usual touristy things-went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride and watched the short movie about the falls in the IMAX theater.

On board the Maid of the Mist

Had the first truly filling lunch of the entire trip at the small Punjabi mobile cart outside the Chinese mall. Since we all were starving and quite desperate for a proper vegetarian meal, the simple roti and dal were a heaven sent blessing.

The truly great thing was the lighted view of the falls in the evening. It was something worth seeing. Jerry had arranged for us to watch a cultural show- a dance and display about the American Indian people. Though the costumes were a little too garish (I suspect they were pandering to the crowd and not too authentic), this too was worth the pretty penny.

The Native Indian dance

Vivid blue of the St. Lawrence:

The last stop on this particular trip were the 1000 Islands. After making another long bus journey from Niagara to the jetty on the St. Lawrence river, we set off on an hour long cruise down the river, past the big mansions of reclusive billionaires. 

The stories of the Bolt castle, Skull and Bones society of the Deer Island and the alleged shortest International bridge made spicy little tales for us to carry home.

The story goes that George Charles Boldt was a billionaire hotelier of the eighteen hundreds who drew up plans to build a magnificent 6 story castle for his wife. But, her untimely death put a halt to the construction for nearly 75 years. The castle rebuilding restarted only in 1977. Quite a tale worthy of our Taj Mahal.

The Boldt Castle Yatch House, the actual Castle was hidden among trees and we couldn't get a good enough pic

Not much needs to be said about the elitist society of Skull and Bones (select students and alumni of Yale University) which Hollywood has immortalized in the movie "The Skulls". The summer retreat of this society is located here on Deer Island.

Alleged shortest bridge in the world- Zavikon Island

The Zavikon Island has two parts with the smaller Island allegedly being located in the USA and the larger one in Canada. This is a false but popular tale carried by most of the tourist guides (including our own). The Island is actually located entirely in Canada.

Our official photographer ;) against the backdrop of t vivid blue of St. Lawrence river

We enjoyed amazing vistas of the castles and the brisk breeze which set our clothes flying hither. The background of the vivid blue of the river made for some amazing portraits for our family.

A truly memorable experience for us all.

p.s. Before I came up with the current title for this post, I had considered using:
OK, TX for all the great memories... we see you (CT) & enjoy (NJ)... All my friends would envy (NY) us...
The most atrocious title ever! But I couldn't help it. I just had to put in all those state names in it; it was just too irresistible.
These are the states we visited in the USA:
OK- Oklahoma (of the clanking oil wells)
TX- Texas (of the blistering sun and flattest land I'd ever seen)
CT (my CU)- Connecticut (lovely state, of which we saw so little)
NJ- New Jersey (of the Indian-style driving)
NY- New York (of the weirdly clean and posh Chikpet feel)