My Best Birthday Ever!

May 10^th, 2014 - Saturday:

The day started off with Pooja and Sanjana waking me up singing a Birthday Song for me, and wishing me with  beautiful greeting cards they had hand-made for me! So the day started pretty big I must say.

Just to be different, and for a change, the special breakfast was arranged on the terrace of our apartments. The weather was just pleasant and perfect! Souji prepared my favourite Rice Bath garnished with deep-fried onions. Souji had ordered an exotic 'Ice-Cream Cake' full of Nuts and Cherries from Ibaco!. The Ice-Cream cake looked fantastic and demanded to be devoured as we cut the cake in the presence of little ones Ruchir, Pooja and Sanjana. 

Souji called up a few close relatives and made sure they were joining the 'Birthday Party' that night, letting them know that we had not decided where to party, but will be partying for sure!!!

Now that the evening program got decided, we thought it would be great to take all of them to 'The Village - The Soul of India' @ the Central Mall on J.P. Nagar 100 ft. Road. You can read more about the 'Village' here. 

Nobody had visited this place other than Souji, Pooja and myself. We thought it would be a nice time to take all of them there. We quickly made reservations at this place and were all set!

We visited both Parents and In-laws during noon and had a light lunch, keeping in mind of the evening program.

By 7:30 PM, everybody (Parents, Brother's family, In-laws, Co-Brother's family) arrived on time at 'The Village'. The concept here was very fresh and different, a truly one of a kind restaurant in Bangalore and a must visit for those who haven’t.

The ambiance is the most striking feature of this place as it's done up like a small village. There are posters stuck of old Hindi movies like Sholay and Mother India, just like in villages. There's a Police station in a corner, A Banyan tree in the middle which seats a guy who tells astrology, a tattoo artist. A barber shop where you can try on different kinds of wigs, a bullock cart, a lorry, a school and even a Central Jail! The Street side hawkers give out Chaats, Gol Gappas, Ice Golas, Chana, Juice, Lassi, Bonda etc and many other village side eatables.

They have a never ending spread of cuisines from around India (Gujarathi, Bihari, Rajasthani and other North-Indian spreads).

The Village keeps everybody entertained by involving folks in Dandia dances, puppet shows and Musical Chair Games. 

The best part came when they announced my name over the public address wishing me on my Birthday!. This was totally new and I felt super special.

The Musical Chair saw about 40 people participating with much fanfare and took about 10 rounds to reduce to a total of 3. Miss Pooja beat the crap out of the competition and fought her way to the last 2 men standing. The nail biting last round saw the whole of the Village witness a grand-finale of a 25 year old youth Vs the 7 year old Pooja! The music stopped and Pooja jumped on the only chair and sat on it and won the competition in great style! The whole crowd went euphoric with her winning and congratulated her on her achievement. It was such an amazing scene watching the wonderful match with loads of fun and revelry.

The kids loved the puppet show and made sure they saw this at least twice!

It was nice to see the kids enjoying every minute of their time here. Pooja, Sanjana and Nisha got themselves Tattooed while Ruchir was just happy seeing so many people having a great time-together. It was great to see Mom and Mom-In-Law dance to the many tunes of Dandia with Lathi /sticks, well supported by Souji, Pooja, Sanjana, Lavanya, Nisha, Asha, and Deepu. 

The party went on till 10:30 in the night, and by then everyone of us were quite tired enjoying a wonderful time.

I never dreamt that the day would be so much fun like this, but it couldn't have been any better. Thanks Souji for making my Birthday, the Best Ever! 

Here are some photos and videos that we took during the day! 

Photos:

My Best Birthday Ever

Video of Pooja winning the Musical Chair competition: