Two-lunch Sunday

We had a wonderful time last Sunday, the last day of April. It was my cousin sister's birthday party and lunch at Mathura's. And it was also planned to be a cook-it-urself lunch party at Athya's place. Hmmm... I am supposed to make the welcome drink and the dessert at the latter.. but my cousin's grandfather had personally called to invite me for the party - something u don't turn down for sheer courtesy. Now what am I supposed to do..? Moral dilemma.. Now the best thing NOT to do in a situation like this is to ask my mother what to do.. in a case of friend vs. relative (esp if the relative is very close on my mom's side), there will be threats to accomplish what she wants.. Despite this I did have to ask her for permission to go... Finally after some arguments and a talk with my cousin's parents, I managed to fit in both the events.. I stay till the birthday girl cuts the cake, eat the soup and the 1st course at that lunch, leave as early as possible without offending the biggies (read elders) and go to the 2nd lunch party.
And I managed to do that too.. Although what I ate at the birthday party made me quite full already, I didn't wanna tell this to my friends... They were waiting hungrily for me till 1:45pm.. If I turn up and tell them that I already ate - that's it - I'll be murdered on the spot by a dozen hungry engineers (now it's too late.. they can't do anything.. he he he).
On the way to Athya's place, I had to pick up Reshmi on the way for the party... She said she wud be leaving in a couple of days and just wanted to say goodbye to our gang in person.. We both landed up in Athya's place around 1:45. MSP was waiting in the parking lot to show us in... Athya's friends - Varun, Srikkanth,Arun, Roshan, Mithuna were there... And of course our ppl, Enthu Karthik, Srividhya, Ramya, Thilaga and RP.. Cooking was still in progress...
It took another half an hour for the welcome drink to arrive... MSP gladly took over my part of preparing the watermelon juice.. I gave the idea of floating tiny watermelon bits like they do in the college canteen.. But the glass of juice that they gave me had king-sized chunks of watermelon.. larger than the bread chunks in the tomato soup I had earlier that afternoon... Kudos to MSP... Good job man!
Next came the soup... supposedly vegetable.. not bad... After this they brought out the main dishes - Vegetable Pulav, Noodles and Curd Rice.. along with the assorted side dishes as well. The dishes were arranged neatly in the center of the room and pictures were taken.. The 'BEFORE' snaps.. The chefs along with their creations were photographed together for later use as evidence. All cell phones had emergency numbers on the ready.. And then it all began..
First I gave the pulav a shot.. not bad, just lacking a bit of salt and masala.. My olfactory skills played a life saving role here - to smell before i ate... ok that might appear bad manners.. but who cares anyway.. Though the earlier lunch wud have survived me for the rest of the day, I ate without complaining.. Enthu Karthik was whispering comments about each and every dish into my ear.. for later suggestions to the host... Next was the noodles.. much better.. I had a second and even third helping of that.. (Guess I cud survive my grad life with limited culinary skills after all) Then the curd rice was unveiled.. multi-colored specks ornamenting a white background.. I decided to play safe and didn't touch it.. Turned out it had grapes and even tuti-fruti bits.. Hmmm... After that, Reshmi had to leave early and so I had to drop her off at the main road. So before she left, we all took a few group photos. Too bad she had to leave before the icecream..
And these ppl did not wait for me to come back from my errand... They had started with the icecream without me... how unfair.. Kwality Walls Triple Twist.. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... it was delicious... The only thing not home-made that day ..
Following the big lunch, we all lazed around too tired to do anything, when the two great voices in our midst were requested to start a 'kutcheri'.. A big lunch followed by music.. what else can one ask for...
Enthu Karthik and Athya's friend Varun from IBT were the stars of that afternoon.. Song after song after song.. requested by the audience. Varun's animations and Karthik's serious looks while singing made us all laugh.. we took videos of this kutcheri in a digicam and uploaded them for all to see.. I knew most of the lyrics to the songs, and although I don't have a great voice, I just enjoyed singing along in a low, unheard voice.. The joys of music...
It was a jolly good time but all good things had to come to an end.. The entertainers both had to leave early for some personal appointments.. And along with them, the other guys also went.. After that, some time was spent chatting.. A final drink - musk melon - prepared by Thilaga - arrived.. Mmmm - excellent... now that's interesting... tell me how to make more of this...
About the time we were up to leave, Athya took a can of snowspray and sprayed it all over Ramya's face and hair.. we sort of made her look like Santa Claus.. And captured that for posterity :)
Now that was a great day.. Two lunches, musical entertainment, and lots of laughter.. Unforgettable day..