It's a 4!!

I remember her first birthday like it was yesterday. Well it was, only three years ago. We invited almost every body we knew. Mom and Dad +Ganeshan Subramanian  invited their friends from when they were kids. It was a special day for them, it was after all their first grandchild's birthday. 

The in-laws +ishwarpal singh almost did too, but considering that the birthday was in Hyderabad and their childhood friends were in the North of the Vindyas, they settled to celebrate with the local crowd. So we had more adults than kids. If there were 250 people, 240 were adults. 

It was a big deal. Big venue, big dinner, Driti was becoming a big girl. We were all excited and she had no clue. Her first birthday in that sense was a celebration for us on 'successfully' completing one year of parenting. We survived, and that truly deserved some celebration. Thank you +Santosh Parachuri  and +Lalit Dutt our unofficial yet assigned photographers.

On her second birthday, the number of kids increased. It was beginning to look like a kid's  birthday. The adults still remained in the majority thanks to a family that's very fond of the little one, but we could feel the balance tilting. +Vasudev Singh volunteered and got pulled into shooting the kid for us. She survived, and we have beautiful memories. Thanks V!

The third birthday was when she started demanding stuff. She wanted a 'Chota Bheem' themed birthday, she wanted to dress like the female lead - Chutki, she wanted a cake with the ladoo eating lad. And it was special because she had really started making friends and all her cousins were in Hyderabad just to wish her. +Anirudh Bhide , +Daphne Nongbri +Debabrata Chatterjee, +Srishti Srivastava, +Nikhila Krishnan +Rupa Raghavan 

This one is by far the most challenging. A new place, a different format (All her birthdays in India had a magician and a party host), we had to create some activities to keep all the kids engaged. They would no longer be only wide eyed spectators, they were participants with an opinion. Plus, pizza was replacing samosa.  

She no longer wants to be Chutki, but oh, and how can I forget the PINK! She eats, digests, sleeps and dreams pink. Her closet is filled with more than fifty shades of pink. And frocks. Pink frocks. She doesn't like skirts or pants. She's very clear about that. She's a princess and her highness wears only frocks. Maybe she'll stoop to the level of a gown sometimes, but not when the frock's still an option. 

So in her pink frock she set about dancing with her friends while the instructor led the kids into some dance moves. And we did have the Bollywood numbers playing in the background. If only I had a dance partner, Chammak Challo wouldn't have gone to waste. 

It was the first of its kind for us - keeping the kids engaged in an activity while we socialized. +Vishal Joshi was the photographer for good pics and yours truly for the variable ones. 

Happy Birthday baby, may you have many more wonderful ones and hopefully, you'll also make it easy on us. 

And just as I finish this,"Mamma, for my next birthday, I want to have my party under water, like Ariel!" she announces.