"OLD" Memories

My birthdays would always be in the middle of school vacations. Every summer, on those balmy days of mid-May, I remember spending entire afternoons in my garden in Pune, playing endlessly on the backyard swing, with my pet cat “Whitey” and her kitten “Diana” for company. My sister used to be around, sitting on the steps of the kitchen door that led to the garden, reading her big fat novels, eating crispy snacks made by my mum.

This scene from my childhood home is my most fond memory of my vacation - birthdays.

Today, my terrace garden in Abu Dhabi, my pergola swing and my little cat Rumi, help me recreate this scene from childhood and continue to make me quietly happy. I get ready to embrace the new “old”, bringing back old memories and weaving them into this new phase of life, celebrating forty years in this life.

And as I turn the page from the book of life to a new chapter, I am happy to shout out that the manuscript for my second poetry book has been accepted by a publishing house in the UAE. If all goes well, my book will be published by this yearend, to gently touch many hearts and evoke myriad emotions. (Hopefully more than my first book – Quiet Happiness, published around my 30th birthday in 2012.)

The three most important men in my life refashioned my childhood scene and invited me to our terrace “restaurant”. Head Chef- husband drafted and crafted a special 3 course set menu for me. Rumi, who is almost a year old now, lovingly played her part, sat in a basket, posing as a gift and later waited with me, stretching out at the table for each course to arrive, while the two little men provided live entertainment, as DJ Ary and dancer Aby.

As we moved from the delightful entrée, then to a wholehearted main course to the beautifully plated dessert, the warm evening melted into a pleasant night. The paper lamps on the pergola danced with the breeze and the garden plants swayed in chorus, joining in the celebration. The click of the wine glasses marked my new beginning.

The last decade was a journey into and through motherhood, becoming the mother to two active boys. Maybe the next ten years will be a time to unwind and look back at how they have grown. I have decided to make a list in my mind of the things I am most grateful for at this moment in life and a “To-Do Better” list for the next ten years.

For now, let me keep replaying these little loving gestures, thoughts and memories, to be collected with a lot of care, first in my mind and then documented on these pages, to preserve for a lifetime.

:: Happy 40th Birthday to me :) :: 

:: The Menu ::

:: Party Setting ::

:: Entree ::

:: Main ::

:: Dessert ::

:: Decor ::