Birthday Bash

So, your daughter's turning 1? You and your wife decide to celebrate this important occasion with friends and family. But maybe you're not sure how to go about it.

1. Plan the event on a school night at 8pm.
2. Be sure everyone knows to bring their kids - especially the ones that have school in the morning.
3. When everyone arrives, arrange for some friendly chit chat for an hour. No, make that two.
4. At 10pm, bring out the cake and candle.
5. While everyone is singing Happy Birthday, start bringing in the dinner. Make sure that you've put on a huge spread.
6. At 10:45, say good-bye to your guests and their nearly catatonic children.

One of the guys on my team followed this plan to the letter. Although the timing was unusual, it was a nice evening. I didn't read the invitations very well and failed to notice that the start time had moved from 7pm to 8pm. So, I rushed over after all my meetings hoping that my arrival at 7:45 wasn't too late. Needless to say, I was the first to arrive.

It was me and his father-in-law, who is an extremely friendly man, alone in a big party room for about 20 minutes. I enjoyed talking to him, even though I felt embarassed about arriving so early. I'm really bad at chitter chatter - but he kept up his end of the conversation nicely. Within 5 minutes I had an invitation to stay with him and his wife at their home in Bombay. He's thrilled to offer us a personalize insider tour. If I ever get there, I'm definitely going to look him up. I can tell he's one of those sorts that knows every nook and cranny of a place.

Numerous times during the evening I was asked where Lyra and Russell were. I explained that she was in bed and really it was past her bedtime. Earlier in the week, I had thought they could come and then maybe organize a quick get away. But looking back I can see that there is no way a get away would have been possible unless someone in the family started throwing up or otherwise indicating serious illness. People here are SO hospitable that they really can't understand that you wouldn't want to visit for hours and hours. They really were almost hurt that I didn't bring Lyra and Russell for a visit - but it would have been a nightmare scenario this morning at 6am alarm clock.