With the arrival of Nainika and Rivaan at the lodge, the full complement of the 'children army' was in position. The day belonged to them and they made the best use of it! While the new arrivals Nainika and Rivaan started to explore the place and get the moorings, Eshaan, Shreyas, Reyansh, Rishik and Shourya got busy playing table tennis & air hockey. After their exploration was over,Nainika and Rivaan joined the other children and they all started to play hide & seek. With so many children running on the wooden floor,the foot steps started to sound more like Swahili drum beats !
A poet's words
'aata hai yaad mujhko bachpan ka zamana
woh doston ki sohbath, woh kah kahe lagana',
rang in my ears !
It was raining outside and the weather being what it was, we enjoyed the hot & aromatic coffee more than ever !
While Dolly and her team got busy preparing 'dal makhani' & 'jeera rice' for lunch, Uday made the plans ready for a trek to 'Panther top lookout'
After lunch, we headed to the trail at 'Panther top lookout'in two batches. Myself, Durga and Gayatri were in the second batch. While everyone else including the children did the total walk, we three did only a short stroll. After this, all except Chaitanya, Hari, Uday, Vijay and Ricky returned to the lodge to make preparations for the surprise '40 వసంతాల party'. The remaining five did the 'Piney knob trail' also, before returning to the lodge a little latter.
Srilatha, Divya, Sravanti and Dolly spruced up the basement. The children were kept engaged in a game of cricket by Kishore.
Srilatha decorated the wall with a lovely birthday banner and a beautiful caricature drawing made by her of Gayatri.
Master Chefs Eshaan and Nainika with the help of the other chota chefs Shreyas, Reyansh and Rishik baked the birth day cake
The ingredients were Oreos, milk, baking flour and lots of love !
All except Gayatri & Durga gathered in the basement and the lights were put off.
Durga led Gayatri to the basement.A pleasant surprise was then sprung up by switching the lights 'on' simultaneously singing 'Happy birthday to Gayatri' in chorus by all !
Gayatri became emotional!
Who will not become so, when love is showered in such measure?
What a great show by all the girls!.
As someone rightly said,
'the best things in life are not things, they are daughters !'
'చందమామ అందిన రోజు
బృందావని నవ్విన రోజు
కన్నతల్లి ఆశలన్నీ సన్నజాజులై విరిసిన రోజు'
అని మనస్సులో నే పాడుకున్నాను !
After cake cutting and exchanging of pleasantries,we watched the video presentation elegantly compiled by Srilatha.
with that, the 40th birth anniversary celebrations of Gayatri came to a close leaving with each of us a treasure of pleasant memories!
Excellant photo coverage of the event was done by Kishore & Chaitanya !
We had 'biryani' with 'mirchi ka salan' & 'raitha' for our dinner.
After dinner the singing session started on a lively note. Everyone participated enthusiastically.
Mersmerized by Nainika's soulful singing, baby Vidhur took to center stage and amused everyone.
(lil Dev Anand) Rishik won the hearts of all with his ready singing.
The duo of Chaitanya and Harish maintained the mood of joy all through, Chaitanya with his ready wit and Harish with his melodious singing.
The session ended at 1AM.
Good Morning!
Stay tuned for the next episode...
