SAWAN KA SINDHARA

As we enter the second part of the year we have a whole load of festivals and  family rituals to look forward to. As the auspicious month of Sawan starts we either have in our homes or attend the Rudra Abhishek where we are totally blessed by Shivji. Then we have Sindhara where mothers can pamper their daughters and granddaughters followed by Ganesh Chathurthi when one gets the wonderful blessings of Lord Ganeshji. This is where the sons and grandsons are pampered as well. We also have Durga Puja and Diwali to look forward to and this is also an important time for sisters to bond with their brothers during Rakhi and Bhai Dooj. 

However today I shall write about “Suni’s Sindhara Celebrations”!!! For the past number of years I have been taking my girls out for lunch or dinner and we have a lovely meal with lots of fun and laughter. This year I wanted to expand on this somewhat whilst keeping the essence the same. So the first thing I did was make a WhatsApp group titled ‘It’s Sindhara Time” and we had to find a suitable date and time. This year I not only had my daughters… Neha, Rashi, Aradhana and Priti but my granddaughters have also grown up and like chilling with us so Avni, Aanya, Siya and Alia also joined us. There is a restaurant called ‘Vietnom’ in The Kenilworth Hotel that I have been to several times and have always enjoyed the food so I decided to host dinner there for all of us. Rather than just having a dinner I wanted to make it extra special so I reached out to the owner Anjana Bharat and requested her to make a 6 to 7 course tasting menu for us incorporating some of my favourite dishes. She also very kindly had individual menu cards printed for each person. Then I decided to get some table decor done and had place cards printed. To make it extra special I added a card with a personalised note for each of my girls written by me. I got great joy and pleasure penning down these lines… this was one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole process for me. To show that I can also move with the times I used ChatGPT to devise a few party games we could enjoy whilst sitting at the table. These also proved to be a great hit with lots of joking and laughter as each girl was caught out!!! 

I must say that the food was outstanding and it was nice to see everyone relishing it. In fact both Siya and Aanya who are the pickiest of eaters probably ate as much as they do in a whole week so that was no mean achievement! 

Everyone came on the dot of time…. In fact in some cases early…. as they know what a stickler I am for punctuality and we spent over 3 hour’s eating, drinking and laughing. There was a no phones policy so no distractions the whole evening. This family time is so nice and I loved being with my girls and I loved being able to show them how much they mean to me. As I age I find that there has been a reversal in our roles. They are the ones looking after me, helping me, making sure I am comfortable and that’s fine… but just doing this small thing gave me so much pleasure and satisfaction that I went to sleep with a smile on my face! 

Now I know I am going to start thinking of what I am going to do next year… such is life!!!