A celebration with a difference

Last week we celebrated my father's 90th Birthday.  We call it 'Navati' celebrations.  This is the first celebration we organised for my father in life.  We kept it very simple and informal.  We didn't have any decorations.  It was at our house, as it is.  We didn't follow any 'modern traditions' such as cake cutting, passing on a piece of cake in a dozen mouths, clapping and singing the most famous song etc.  I feel, such formal modern traditions make events very mechanical ones, and personal touch is lost.   Personally, I am very uncomfortable with those 'modern traditions'.

Me, my wife and my sisters did all the arrangements.  As my father loves and enjoys puja, we did a small puja at home.  Also, we invited few people whom we felt he would love to meet and talk to.  As his mobility outside is limited, we felt we will invite people home, who would love meeting him and speaking to him.  It was overwhelming to see his brother and nephew came with their wives came all the way from our village in Kerala. That touched us in general and him in particular.

Most people we invited came, had chat with my father and all of us, and had traditional snacks we arranged.  At the end of the day he was excited and felt very happy.  

All his Grand daughters came from distant places.  Grand sons couldn't make it, for which he felt a bit sad.   Most of our friends and relatives we invited came and we had a nice time with them. 

Our driver came up unexpectedly with a shawl and touched my father's feet. That touched all of us.   My father's eyes filled with tears.  

Overall, the day was very satisfying for my father and all of us. His energy levels were very high throughout the day.   Most people who came told us that it was very emotional and touching moments for them too.  Those words are enough for us for delight and satisfaction.

Here are few more pics.

My Good Morning Messages of Feb

Most of us are WhatsApp users. Just users or addicts? 

WhatsApp has simplified communication, even for not so tech-savvy people.  Now each one is a member of at least half a dozen groups.  Some are family groups, some are work related.  I used to get annoyed with the same posts being forwarded in almost all the groups.  At times, a message that you forward comes back to you in seconds!  This reminds me of an old saying "You get what you give" :)

I do get annoyed with these innumerable good morning messages that we get in different groups.  They are all advises and quotes.  I tend to believe that those who send such advises / posts, do practice them in life.  But few instances of interaction with the people who send the advises, revealed that many of them don't even bother to read those posts, but just forward.  I don't know what to call such attitudes!

Couple of months back I too decided to get into this good morning posts bandwagon.  But NO FORWARDS..  I chose a group with parents and volunteers of 'persons with intellectual disabilities' and everyday I created a card with quotes related to different aspects of 'persons with intellectual disabilities', and posted in the group everyday morning.  I kept getting responses once in a while.  Messages on the card are created by me.  But I created the background (using images in public domain), that goes with the chosen messages.  

I thoroughly enjoyed creating them.  I did miss 5 days in February.   Here are all the cards I created in February.