Why I dont drink ....

Many people ask me very often why i dont drink and act as if I am the most sober guy in the party or gathering. This picture blog is dedicated to answer all such queries. I am very hopeful that no one will ask me to even have a sip of liqour in future.
Enjoy the picture blog


No Drink Yet. Everythink looks ok. I am laughing and enjoying the evening.

First Sip of fine French Wine --- fun starts.

The second sip is even more nastier, god only knows what will happen once I take the third sip.

Third Sip and I am on cloud nine, ten and eleven. I even sang a poem at this time

Baba Black sheep

yes papa

eating eating twinkle stars

no papa

how I wonder so open your mouth

Ha ha ha

And this happens even before I finish the first glass.

So All you folks dont ever force me to drink in party. otherwise you know what you are calling for

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Ranganathittu – Day out

The yercaud trip could not be materialized in a short span, hence we decided to go out on a day trip. Ranganathittu was chosen as destination for 29th day of June 2008.

This is a bird sanctuary near Srirangapatna which is 15-20 kms before mysore when coming from Bangalore. Thousands of migratory birds come here during this season.

The journey was spectacular. On our way we halted at Kamat to have jawar roti meal (a traditional north karanataka style meal). As soon as it was known that we are heading towards mysore, everyone unanimously decided to break at kamat even though some of were not hungry at all. This time we tried mangalore style roti too. It was basically a rice roti (which to be frank I found it to be idly-like, so no USP for it).

After reaching Ranganathittu, we took a boat ride. A stream of Cauvery river flows through the sanctuary. Most of the birds make their temporary nest on small rocky islands. This way they safeguard themselves from snakes, crocodiles and above all humans who have farms around the sanctuary area.

The boat ride was interesting. The boat rower told some facts about various birds that fly into this area. We spent around 30 minutes on boat. Sahil, Rahul and Prisha also gave it a try to row the boat.
And once a while I would try to imbalance the boat to hear everyone scream.

After the boat ride, the plan was to get into the hedge maze, but sudden showers hampered the plan. We had to take shelter in a “tapri” style eat out.
4 in evening, lush green gardens around, rain pouring through the roof drop by drop, isn’t this a perfect time to have hot cup of tea and some fresh hot bhajji (pakoras). We could only manage to get hot tea there.

Anyway, the rain stopped for few minutes and we started our journey back. It was a very nice drive. Hardly in India you’ll find a 4 lane international standard road and rain gods joining you for the ride.
It was spectacular, particularly because I was not driving and enjoying the scenery around.

On way back we halted at CCD (café coffee day) with the primary purpose to use the restrooms. We ended up having some snacks and spending time together. Oh I think I did not tell who all were there on trip. In alphabetical order
Geeta, Papa, Mandar Jijaji, Neelam Didi, Sahil, Ketaki, Rahul, Prisha, Mummy, Rajesh, Pankaj

I am sorry I never went to school and learned to order.

Here is the link to slide show. Enjoy !!

The blog is posted here. Click Here to go to blog site

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Mister … I am Three now

Prisha turned Three and stepped into fourth year of her angelhood in June. On 21st of June we celebrated her birthday at the club house. The event was a success with good participation from friends and family members.
Thanks to all the pain staking effort made by Geeta in preparation for the event, everything happened flawlessly on that day. I must say it was one of the most successful events that we have arranged till date.

Meticulous preparation
To make it clear that it was not a mere chance, I would tell you here what all we did to achieve such good results …. So I am going to take you through a training class on “How to conduct parties” ……..
A month before the party, we prepared the guest list for invitation.
I used my tech skills to create an online document ………….. and I think it helped a lot.
To take further advantage of technology, I added information about number of kids and their age.

This proved very helpful to Geeta in concluding number of gifts for particular age groups and gender …. I’ll describe this later.
The best part of creating an online spreadsheet was that it is shareable and both I & Geeta could edit it on any computer in world and save it.
Another blessing in disguise with such a document is that we can use it for all future gatherings too. Just enter a little data and say “abra dabra” three times and you get a list of people whom you’ll see at party.

Whom does she like
Deciding on the cake shape (picture) was also not easy. We scanned through various shapes and sizes and finally agreed on a “Barbie” type doll or “Winnie-The pooh”.
Just as we were to finalize the order, another parent ordered a “Dora” cake. Eureka !, I and Geeta looked into each other and smiled as if we discovered something great.
So what next ………. we asked him to make similar “Dora” cake for us too.
The nightmare was about to begin, when the person at counter told us that he cannot take order for that day as he is already overbooked …………. He claimed that he already has orders for 50 cakes.
The next five minutes Geeta and I were discussing alternatives and repenting that we should have come few days earlier to place order.
A last attempt was made. We spoke to the manager about our need. He looked into our bambi eyes and agreed to take the order. Although we thanked him enough after that, but in all the excitement, we forgot to pay him for the two pastries we had there, while deciding the cake flavor.

Return Gifts
Believe me this is not an easy task, atleast when we are throwing a party. Geeta worked very hard to sort out things which can be given as return gifts. The problem was multidimensional as there were too many factors involved in arriving at “appropriate” return gift.
The first division was based on age group. We divided the kids in three age group categories; 0-2, 3-8 and 8+. To add to complexity, we further split up the lot into boys and girls. To top it all, there was no surety at the time of buying return gifts whether the family would turn up for party or not.
I think we spent maximum time on planning for this than any other item, however we don’t repent. I could see very happy faces when few kids decided to open their return gifts in the party hall itself.
Good Job Geeta … keep up the good work. Next time we’ll have one more classification “How many friends a kid has”

Offerings of the day
Since it was a children birthday party, Geeta and I wanted the event to be full of fun and masti.
We also wanted to have a stage/podium setup (read decoration) which Prisha could relate to. The decorator had something just like that one. See the pics.
In one of the Sahil’s previous Birthday party, I acted as anchor/party jockey in carrying out few kid’s game. Although it was a huge success that time too, this time however I wanted to spend significant clock ticks in greeting guests and making them feel comfortable.
So, the natural choice was hiring an event manger for evening. Must say he was good, he made sure that he involved kids of all age groups (3 yrs to 65 yrs), other than infants and to-be-born-babies, in the games
The dinner was North Indian style. We hired a lady who has done several parties for quite a few people in our friend circle. We went by word of mouth and she did not disappoint. In fact we were quite impressed and most of the people were also very much impressed by the food quality and genuineness of north Indian dishes she served. I am sure she will get many more contracts ……..

The tattoo artist was busy in creating vivid shapes, objects and creatures on children’s face, hands and cheeks. I recollect noticing dragon, football, snake, flowers and butterfly in bright red, golden, silver, bright blue colors.
Sahil sure was happy with a dragon on his arm. If I was there I would have got him a bright yellow-red sun ……… full of energy….

With all people around and her grandparents visiting from Delhi, it was a complete friends and family occasion. In fact, we could make out from Sahil’s comment that he would love to have a similar get-together for his birthday too.
The only not so good thing was ventilation in the room. Next time we will somehow plan for that too.

That’s all folks for the day. Enjoy the slide show.

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