Niya - 5th Birthday Amey - Naming Ceremony

Niya taking a break from her play time to cut her cake.

     Every time we attend birthday parties , we tell each other that we need to give our Niya such a celebration as well, preferably the 5th. That thought materialized today a few hours back and I sit here to record some of it for us to re-read later. Amey , Niya's younger brother's naming ceremony ( irupaththettu ) lined up nicely in time. So we had both the events celebrated together.

My father calling Amey's name thrice to his ear.

    We had invited over a few of our family friends - Jimmy, Steephen , Reshma , Sajan and their families - Reshma is Divya's college junior , Jimmy,Stephen and Sajan are still Manhattanites where as I am ex-Manhattanite. True to being ourselves , we were not even ready when Reshma and Sabeesh arrived a little after twelve and I was struggling with an 'Iron-as-it-likes' while my parents welcomed in the guests. Sabeesh is from Vadakara which is very close to my parents' home town Thikkoti and we threw in some leads across but none connected as yet but am sure some common friends are going to be there.
     Shortly after we settled Sabeesh and Reshma in, Steephen arrived and like last time when they turned up , I missed the gate call again as my cell was not on me. So Steephen had to call my home phone and get me to be at the cell phone and gate him in. Stephen and wife Dhanya were from Trichur as was Reshma. So they had a similar conversation as well trying to establish some pre-existing links. That is typically how conversations start and then more of the ice broke and conversations started flowing in. Jimmy and family arrived a little later as well. I went out and ushered them in. Everyone did manage to find a seat , the extra sofa / chair  that we had purchased a month or so back were fulfilling their price, delivering value.
      Sabeesh had worked in Balley, which was a Manhattan-founded company and could hence relate to most of the Manhattan centric conversations that were in swing. As Sajan and family had another birthday party , we were not expecting them little late.  So we did not wait for them and conducted the naming ceremony first. Jimmy's compass application in his phone showed us where exactly East is!  That is how things are now, to know how cold it is, you don't rely on how your body feels , you look at the weather app.
     So we put a sheet on the floor and my father in his white traditional mundu and white shirt sat down facing east. Amey lay on my father's lap. Typically for functions like this , there are certain specifics that need to be met. I am pretty bad at specifics on anything - I like to get by with the general picture as much as possible. I believe it was Reshma ,  asked about the timing of the function. So I announced that we are not hard-core on this and we just want to get by as is many families like us.That set things at ease.

 Well, my father did play his role out pretty well - called Amey's name to his ear three times ,    

My father touching three drops of milk to Amey's lips

put one drop of milk with gold ring thrice into Amey's mouth. 

My mother tying bracelet ( aranjanam) around Amey's waist.

Then my mother tied the gold bracelet(Aranjanam) around Amey's waist which my parents had brought from India when they came in December.

  

Big sister Niya touching milk to Amey's lips thrice.

This is again a custom that the father's parents tie aranjanam around the son's waist. Then I put three drops of milk in Amey's mouth , working on my previous experience with  Niya and so did Divya. Forgot this on the first pass, Niya did the honor as well and correctly too - three drops of milk on her brother's lips with her mom's ring. Then I passed over the ring to our guests who decided not to take it up. So , we had completed our naming ceremony.

       I was worried that our ceremonies / our inefficiencies would leave our guests hungry but they did get to their lunch in ok time, I hope. So every one had food from the buffet set on the breakfast counter,   ordered from Madras Chettinad restaurant, a mile away. The food was ok. Divya had prepared Samiya payasam which was quite delicious. Everyone had their fill and meanwhile Sajan and family arrived. I was not expecting Sajan for lunch as they had another birthday. To our luck , they had decided to give us the privilege. We felt grateful to all our friends who had spared so much time for us. Weekends are precious time-pieces to recuperate from our work-weeks. 

      Meanwhile , conversations were flowing in nicely which was good. Next , we had Niya's birthday cake cutting which she was not really interested in as she had to break her play-time with her friends Adiv(Stephen's son) , Adrian(Jimmy's son) , Unni/Gopi (Sajan's sons) and Aarav(Sabeesh's son). This was her third celebration of her fifth birthday - once from her pre-school , once just-family from home with Divya's payasam / the second cake etc and this was the third one for the weekend. 

Niya blows off the candle and declares she is five.

Divya giving cake to Unni (Sajan's son) 

 This was mostly a quick affair - a quick 'Happy Birthday singing' , cake into pieces into paper plates etc. We continued our discussions around our profession , immigration etc.  Sajan has to shift to new home next weekend and hence have work to catch up on and was the first to want to leave. Jimmy had a church visit to go to and slowly everyone started to leave. Niya wanted to go with Unni to Sajan's home and found her place in their car. We had to pull her out and she felt a little sad when all her play-chums left.

Meanwhile, Sajan and Jimmy took up some event photography and captured some of the moments for us.

Sajan's Dad with Sabeesh's son Aarav as Sabeesh looks on.

Steephen and wife Dhanya

Jimmy, wife Reepa, Angelina and my mother.

My dad and Sajan's dad

   
      Thanks to everyone who came in - It was indeed great time to spend. This is the first time we went over calling in individual families for dinner.  Niya is sifting through her gifts , Amey is sleeping happy, We are wondering how to find the space to arrange the remaining food in the fridge. Life goes on..