Advance Celebration

Ved Prakash Grover celebrates with chocolate bars

Anjali giving her mother a bite of the peda

For the first time in Club history, we had a birthday celebration two days in advance. It could have been three days had Srichand Arora been a little more persistent yesterday at complimenting Ved Prakash Grover for hitting the ripe old age of 75. And today, if only to allay niggling doubts everywhere about the Sunday party (see post of June 27) at Blue Waters, he distributed chocolate bars to mark the ‘platinum jubilee’ of his life.
But Arora was not giving up on needling him. Barely two years younger, he kept getting at Grover the moment he learnt there would be chocolates for the asking after the exercises were over. “Grover-sah’b will be born after one hour,” he announced dramatically, just when the exercises started. After 15 minutes, he mischievously pointed out that there were 45 minutes left… then half an hour, 15 minutes, and so on, leading many to wonder if there was a midwife also somewhere around.
It was in this spirit of joie-de vivre that we ushered in the celebrations for a landmark anniversary of a very dear friend. On the occasion, this is once again wishing Ved Prakash Grover abundant happiness, robust health and a spirited life ahead.
If this celebration was not enough, we had Santosh Tyagi’s daughter, Anjali to add to our morning joy. She’s down from the U.K. and graced us with her presence after the exercises. Both mother and daughter made for an endearing photo-up – especially that arresting moment when Anjali gave her mother a bite of the peda which were distributed to mark Santosh’s granddaughter’s birthday today. That was quite a coincidence -- effectively, a double celebration today. And as it were, the proverbial icing on our cake.
Happy Birthday, Little Lady!
Jagmohan Papneja:
This wish is in advance so that you can celebrate your birthday longer. Happy Birthday to Ved Prakash-ji. May God bless Anjali also, as always.