once upon a time, when Ms Papaya was all of 4, she was asked what she did all day. She very innocently replied “weddin’s and parties”. Undoubtedly we were all shocked! But if any one asked me what I’ve been doing these days it would be parties and parties. Indeed, these last few days seem to have gone by in a series of birthday parties.

It all started with Hubby Dear’s milestone birthday, which he didn’t want to celebrate. But Prima Donna and Anna Shetty took the lead in organising a family party. For those of you who know my family, you would be familiar with the numbers involved. So the girls organised a home caterer who came completely equipped with wait staff. They also organised a bartender much against Hubby Dear’s wishes. But seeing the happy smiles all around, he agreed that it was worth getting Nilesh Dighe of Culinary Foods to take care of the food.

By the end of April, we celebrated another birthday – that of my Ma-in-law who was even more reluctant to blow the candles on her cake.

So it was a relief of sorts to celebrate Ms. Papaya’s birthday this Saturday past.

CELEBRATING A GEN A BIRTHDAY

I haven’t celebrated a kid’s birthday in years so I went down to Abdul Rehman Street in what I call the biggest open air mall in the world.

It was hot and sticky even at noon and the shop keepers were just about pulling up the shutters. It was fascinating to see how boxes were emptied out and wares were displayed on rickety shelves and makeshift stands. This wholesale market has always been a buzz with people buying retail in bulk.

Each shop specialises in a product while some shops specialise in ‘Gift Items”. These shopkeepers are a party planner’s dream and for people like me a great resource bank. These guys have a pulse of what people want and show you what is trending and what is not. They show you what you wish to buy without judging you on your budget

Ms. Papaya had a vision of what she wanted for her birthday and all we had to do was fulfil it. I found some blingy bracelets that the shopkeeper assured me would warm the cockles of a 10 year old’s heart.

A phone call to a wholesale Chocolate Trader in Crawford Market had him share his price and product list with us on WhatsApp. After a quick discussion at home, the chocolates came home within an hour of making the call!

A Gen A party was quite easy to organise thanks to technology but for us oldies it was hard to come up with the entertainment. So used are they to organised parties by Party Planners etc that only a brave-heart would undertake such a mission.

Prima Donna reached a compromise with a bit of the old and a bit of the new. She asked The PaintSocial.com to organise the modern organised party part while we organised he disorganised, play it our way old fashioned part.

The old fashioned part is pretty easy to organise too thanks to cloud kitchens, WhatsApp and some enthusiastic home grown party organisers. Pizzas were organised through TwentySevenPizzas, momos were sourced from Meatigo and the cake was ordered from Celejor. A WhatsApp message to the nearest Celejor was enough to get the cake we wanted to eat. Select the cake, print the photo and light the candles and blow them out.

After some games organised by Anna Shetty and two enthusiastic Dads, the kids began to trickle home with their hand made wooden boxes and a stash of Candy.

So I can relax now till July when the next lot of birthdays come my way.

Ciao