Balmy afternoons….Boozy brunches!!!

I love meeting my girlfriends over a long relaxing lunch any day over a dinner party which only starts at 10 pm, the food is served at about midnight and you get home by 1am and thus making you groggy and miserable all the next day. And mind you this has no reflection on the amount you have had to drink….its the whole going out of your routine which messes things up. Also ever since Covid, Vinay has become an ostrich with his head pressed deep in the sand anytime we are invited out for dinner. He is fine to go out with me for an early dinner where he comes straight from the office and the two of us have a couple of drinks, dinner and are home by 9.30pm. I therefore decided that the best thing to do was just have a ladies lunch. I find that we ladies love these girlie get togethers where we can laugh, talk , eat and of course drink to our hearts content!!! I had organised a lunch last year but unfortunately Vinay’s Chchaji was very ill and we cancelled everything at the least minute. He unfortunately passed a week later and since I was keen on having the party outdoors it just got deferred to this year. 

So I started talking about it towards the end of December and finding a date that suited all of us was quite a task but we finally agreed on the 23rd January. This actually didn’t give me much time to organise everything so you can imagine the state of anxiety I had despite the fact that my 3 girls were right there to help me. However I think I am one of those people who need to be in control….not of the little details but in delegating the work and making sure things are moving as per plan. I quickly had ‘save the date’ e cards made and although I made a Whattsap broadcast list I was told in no uncertain terms that I had to send individual invites to everyone. Triple the time and effort but who am I to complain….the extremely un tech savvy mother!! Then of course I started making my lists. Caterer,decorator,barmen,alcohol,singer. The list kept getting longer and longer as did my guest list. I certainly didn’t want to have a ‘servants ball’ but I have quite a number of groups of friends whom I might not meet with every day but who I feel I have a real connection to. One example are my golfing friends….now I go way back with many of these and it is nice to sometimes meet off the golf course….and dressed up for a change instead of just our trousers and t shirts. Then I have my morning walk friends who have progressed from just meeting at the crack of dawn to going out for lunches and dinners. We have even ventured out on a couple of holidays together. You can always tell who my oldest friends are as they all call me Suni..My sister in law was also called Sunita ( she has unfortunately now passed away) so she was known by our full name and I anyway was always called Suni before marriage so it just stuck. I remember during the early years of our marriage when my friends used to call and they asked to speak to Sunita my mother in law would always take pleasure in asking ‘which Sunita…Golf walli? She always laughed because she used to say she knew exactly who they wanted to talk to just  from their hello but she still always went through this charade!!!

Then I have my ‘besties’…..we are a gang of seven friends who have pretty much travelled the world together. We try to go on a Girlie Holiday at least once a year and we have an absolute blast. Waiting to see where we are going this year. A slightly new addition to my clan are my ‘book club friends’. Now that sounds as though we are very intellectual and boring but not at all…. We thoroughly enjoy discussing our latest read but make sure to spend the last ten minutes discussing what’s going on in Hollywood and Bollywood!!!

The first thing on the shopping list was my outfit. Rashi and I went to one store and then just decided to go to her very good friend and fantastic designer Richa Khemka. I told her I didn’t mind any colour…the only criterion was that it should make me look thin! Now the poor girl is not a magician….shes a designer so she really had her work cut out for her but she managed to make me a lovely outfit which I thoroughly enjoyed wearing. Thanks Richa!

I told the girls to invite their friends too and Neha and Rashi invited a few but Aradhana didn’t invite any of her friends as she wanted to chill with MY friends which I thought was really cute. Aradhana suggested the caterer and she did a wonderful job. We had Eat Out At Home which is owned by a lady called Smriti Sarawagi and I must say she did a wonderful job and it was a pleasure interacting with her. She didn’t get irritated when we were very particular about the size of the asparagus, the different mushrooms, the type of raclette cheese we wanted and the accompaniments we wanted with this. All the food came piping hot and the live stations proved to be a real hit. 

I left the decorator to Rashi as she is the artistic one in the family and the champagne door was a huge hit. Here we had chosen Make It Matter run by Ritansha  and her attention to detail was fantastic. Everyone fell in love with the pearl encrusted pears….so much so that I think a few went in guest’s handbags!!Rashi also arranged the barmen and the musicians though I was responsible for buying the alcohol which of course means we now have enough booze for another 5 parties!!! My logic is…it’s better to have a bit extra than to run short….after all you don’t need a reason to celebrate!!

I am embarrassed to say we did run short of dessert for a while but I am just blaming Shivani Kanoi the founder of 16th Street Patisserie…her desserts are just too damn tasty so they just flew off the plates. We had originally thought of a certain number of pieces but then we increased it the day before the party and the day of the party Shivani further increased it by 20% without even asking me Despite this the table was empty pretty much half way through the lunch so she sent for emergency supplies from her house ( luckily for me she lives in New Alipore so very convenient) and can you imagine even that finished!! So all I am going to say is that my friends really like good desserts!!! Thanks Shivani!

Being the perfectionist that I am although I had sent out ‘save the date ‘ cards followed by the actual invite I did want to add that little personal touch and phone everyone individually. I managed to make half my calls on Sunday evening but stopped by 8 pm because I thought any calls later than that would be a bit rude and intrusive. I woke up on Monday morning quite early just waiting for the clock to reach 10 am….if I had had it my way I would have finished my calls by 7 am but I don’t think they would have been received very happily! So, phone calls made…another tick on my list! 

So the big day arrives and I of course have not slept the night before….. well many nights before to be accurate   Too many thoughts running through my head but my girls rallied around and everything of course got done. I just unnecessarily get stressed but I guess for me that’s part of the build up for any occasion so I’m used to it. As soon as I got ready then all my worries vanished and I decided that I was going to have a super time and that’s exactly what I did. They say that the success of a party depends on how the guests see it…I differ here. I think the success of a party depends on how the hostess enjoys herself….and I really did. One of the highlights of the decor was the ‘champagne door’. You basically had a door which had a hole in it and you rang the bell and a hand popped out from behind the curtain handing you a glass of champagne!!! It was really cute and I loved seeing everyone’s expressions when this happened. My smaller grandchildren of course confused matters by ringing the bell continuously for a short while so the guy didn’t know whether he was coming or going! 

Overall I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The weather Gods were kind and it was relatively overcast. Everyone enjoyed the food and the cocktails and we even managed a bit of a dance too. Now that this is over I am feeling a bit empty like you do after a wedding.  I suddenly seem to have so much time on my hands but I’m sure that won’t last long. The weather is still good so I plan on playing as much golf as I can and I’m sure I will start thinking of some other project to do and my list making will start again in full flow! And then of course I have to think of my dear followers of my sunismeanderings so need to keep the creative juices flowing here too. So let me get cracking.. hot off the press!!!!