First Weekend

Siba Prasad Maitra (in red pullover) celebrates his birthday this morning

Siba Prasad Maitra shares his birthday (on December 31) with such legends as Henri Matisse, Anthony Hopkins and John Denver. Why on earth should he then observe it five days later and rub shoulders with the likes of Bradley Cooper and Mamata Banerji?

A bouquet for the birthday boy

Yusuf Rassiwala presents the club cxalendar

This question had been bugging us for a full week till suddenly, the answer emerged in the morning today. The come-down had nothing to do with the personalities mentioned. It was simply that Maitra wanted us to have a gala time on the first weekend of the New Year. And so he celebrated his birthday today.
Maitra had personally hand-picked the eats from a number of sources yesterday, in the process doing quite a run-around. There were laddoos, chaklis, Iyengar Bakery cake slices, cookies and a variety of salties and savories (too many to recognise) rounded off by piping hot tea. In the end, we were all thanking him for not having rushed us with such a lavish repast mid-week, on December 31.

Eager-beavers pore into the birthday calendar

A Saturday treat is always leisurely and welcome.
We dutifully performed

Bihari Milwani with daughter

the rituals of raising the fourth laugh for Maitra, singing the birthday song and presenting him the Club calendar. A bouquet of rajnigandha-‘n’-roses also materialized for him. And Bijoy Gupta did his number, as usual singing a film ditty to reaffirm our bonds of love and amity.
As a measure of Maitra's popularity, we witnessed near full attendance this morning with many faces, not seen for long, showing up. Razia Khan was there, decked up to wish the birthday boy. So was Harish Wadhwa, skipping office. Bihari Milwani had also come, accompanied by daughter Karishma… The latter, by the way, is returning to the U.S. early next week. So this was also an occasion to say her tata-bye bye to us before leaving.

Karun Sharma:
Party items were chosen tastefully and in plenty. Tea was not less than anything else. Environment and enthusiasm along with us wished Maitra Happy Birthday.

Lt Col Angad Singh (rtd):
Happy Birthday, Maitra-ji. May God keep you and the family happy, healthy and bright through the year. Missed the celebration by a whisker.