Great party

The efforts put it by our party committee definitely paid off well. It was a well organized party with games and performance. Dress code was black and/or red. It was a treat to the eyes to see all dressed up. I myself wore a red saree which is 10 years old now. It is the saree I wore for the register wedding part of my wedding. Well, there was no time to relive memories as it was a busy day and a busy night.

Afternoon, we practiced our songs with the instruments and the mics/music system installed in our basement. And we awaited the evening!

Ours was the last but one item. I must say it has been ages since I stepped on any stage. We all sat comfortably with our instruments and even though I had never had trouble with stage fright before, why was my throat getting dry all of a sudden? We smiled at the audience, I spoke some introductory words impromptu and here we began. Singing in a microphone does boost one's confidence.

First song was 'Ajeeb Dastan Hai Ye' - an old Hindi melody. It is an easy, smooth sailing song - we sailed through it comfortably. Next was our key number - it is the song 'Give Me Some Sunshine' from 3 Idiots. We even called ourselves 5 idiots! It involved more coordination than the other song. But looks like the 'na na na' caught the audience - they asked for once more. After all, they have to support us - we live in the same neighbourhood..hehe! We sang it again and we felt on top of the world. B sang a solo from Guns And Roses. Frankly I was running around hunting for our camcorder to record his song and missed most of his song. Nikhil participated in a group dance by kids.

The rest of the night, I saw many talented singers among the folks there. We enjoyed a karoke session (again impromptu!) with old Hindi songs. Dance floor was open as usual. B and I enjoyed a lot more after the kids were asleep. It was fun! It is ironical that even though B and I both can sing and he can play guitar, we never play music together at home - this event brought a new beginning, I hope! I also hope to enjoy some music sessions with our co-players at the valentine concert in future.

Valentine's Day Guilt

Valentine's day started with a load of guilt - my 6 year old son 'reminded' me right on time that we had totally forgotten about the 'little valentine gifts' we have to give his classmates. Oh God! I scolded him for not reminding earlier when we were spending 1.5 days of snow filled 'no-school' days! Both B and I were feeling guilty about sending him to school without the gifts for other kids.

I had to go to work on time today. The thought of going to Walmart and picking tiny valentine cards and goodies and making 21 pouches of goodies 8AM in the morning petrified me. There was no way I could do that. Guilt pangs engulfed me for not having prepared for this moment. Should have shopped on the weekend and packed things into pouches! Whoever thought of this as a task, I totally missed it..now my son will have to suffer!

What if he is the only one to not take goodies in the whole class? I imagined the worst. In front of everyone, what if the teacher calls out 'OK, now is the time for Mr.Nikhil to present his bag of valentine goodies to his classmates'. ..and poor boy stands shy and embarrassed!

Who made these customs I dont know. I still wonder what is the value added to the kids' life because of this. Every kid gets a bunch of such goody bags which they bring home, dump on the table, frantically open this and that , and then totally forget about them. If you are smart, you would not spend too much money and time on those things, coz we all know how shortlived their excitement is. I don't think when I grew up there was any such custom. I feel good for my parents for not having to do such things.

P.S However, I managed to think up an idea of making some snack packs and MIL and B pulled it together. We did not want Nikhil to feel isolated by any chance, so the gifts were delivered to him on time at school by B. Dont want him to miss out on any fun the kids might be getting out of it.