Arjun turns 5

On the auspicious occasion  of Gudi Padwa, the Hindu New Year, on 27th March 2009, my son Arjun turned 5 years old. His growth has been nothing less than phenomenal for both Sawani and I and we have cherished every moment of it. It has been an absolute blessing and both of us thank the almighty profusely for giving us Arjun in our life.

This year on the 27th March, we celebrated Gudi Padwa in the morning hours by raising the traditional Gudi and praying to God for a happy and wonderful year ahead and thanking him for blessing us with the love and warmth of our parents, the joy and happiness of family and the amazing gift of raising a child. Arjun’s grandpa and grandmom (Vijay and Neela), my parents, came from Pune especially to celebrate and be an integral part of his birthday celebration. They actually undertook an uncomfortable 16+ hrs bus drive to be with us in Bangalore. Amazing. Arjun has been really enjoying their company and just loves it when they are here. Infact, in the night he needs to be tucked in with his grandmom every night.

In the evening, we celebrated Arjun’s birthday at our home in Brookefields in a nice homely fashion, with invitations specially made by Arjun to his little friends from the apartment complex. We got cake from a nice little cake shoppe at Indiranagar named CakeWalk, and other munchies (dhokla, gulab-jamun, sandwiches, chips, cold-drinks) and everyone had a blast. This year Arjun wanted a spiderman cake, so we got a spiderman mask cake made and I must say it was extremely well made. It was a fun filled evening, with music, cake, cold drinks flowing (literally) and the amazing kid banter.

For the night we had invited some of our next door neighbours for dinner. Sawani and my mom spent almost half of the afternoon preparing for dinner. It was a lavish spread of chicken, vegetables, shrikhand and a lot of other stuff. The chicken turned out especially well (I had some hand in it) and we partied till late in the night.

Photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/yranade/27March09GpadwaArjunBday#

Some videos are embedded below…

Video 1: Arjun’s Ovalna

Video 2: Arjun’s Birthday Cake

Video 3: Happy Birthday To You

 

Cheers,
Yogesh