Triple Bash

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FAHMIDA KHAN!

It was one birthday, celebrated in three parts. One-third was observed inside the Garden with tetrapacks of fruit juice. One-third was celebrated in a fast food joint with hot idli-vada, fresh from the oven and rounded off with chilled lassi, courtesy Banoo Apa. And the remaining one-third was in the ground floor lobby of Fahmida Khan’s building complex

Receiving the b'day calendar

with a conventional cake-cutting ceremony.
The birthday was actually yesterday, but being a Sunday, the celebration had to be pushed by a day. Clearly, it was well worth the wait.
Prior to all this, Yusuf Rassiwala formally felicitated Fahmida with the Club’s birthday calendar amid a round of applause. We did a little jig, raised an extra laugh and sang the birthday song.

Fresh idli-vada from a fast-food joint

Pity Fahmida’s cute little grand-daughter Saleha (ref yesterday’s photo) was not present, but she was there later with her mother, Ayesha lending a helping hand during the cake-cutting.
Fahmida had come suitably decked for the occasion, resplendent in a gorgeous midnight blue salwar-kameez (with gold and pink floral embroidery) which made her look years younger to what we are accustomed to seeing her as. Shekhawat cheekily attributed her looks to “spending the night in beauty parlour” while Yusuf R joked that she “did not look a day over 30”!
But to the rest of us it was the sumptuous treat lined up in phases that took our breath away. More significantly, it was Banoo Apa’s home-made lassi that had left us with a lasting after-taste – long after we were done with all the idli-vada and cake slices. This was Banoo Apa’s personal and by all accounts, a priceless gift for the birthday girl.

Setting up the birthday cake

Fahmida cuts the cake

Shekhawat gets the first bite

Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Happy Birthday, Fahmida and wish you a happy, healthy and enjoyable long life. It is wonderful that we celebrate birthdays together like this. These celebrations stand out as memorable events in life. Banoo Apa is always doing something as an elder sister to supplement the celebrations and otherwise also on a daily basis. Good work. Keep it up and keep laughing.