My brother's 60th birthday celebration.

My brother Dr. Lakshminarsu’s 60th birthday was celebrated recently at Garden retreat Resort. It is located at a distance of 45 Kms. from Paradise, Secunderabad, on Karimnagar highway close to Mulugu town. Brother’s eldest son Dr. Sudheer hosted the party. My brother was informed that instead of having a birthday celebration at home our two families that is brother’s and mine will have a daylong party at Garden retreat Resort. He was told that on the day of his birthday we would be starting early, have breakfast at the Resort and with a variety of recreation in between have lunch, evening tea with Chaat and return home towards night. He was not told of various other family members who were invited to join us in this celebration.

On the day of his birthday as we were preparing to leave to the Resort all other family members began to arrive at our house one after another and greeted brother. He was pleasantly surprised. As per brother; 10 of us including Sudhiksha-our tiny granddaughter were to go, but it turned out that as a surprise an additional 27 family members joined the party. There was our sister’s family and the families of our two nieces. Then the families of my sister-in-law’s brother and sister and Dr. Sudheer’s father-in-law and sister-in-law’s families joined us. Every family turned up in their cars, and we all proceeded to the resort as a caravan of eight vehicles.

After reaching the resort by 9:00am everyone went round exploring the beautiful Resort, the gardens, the recreation facilities, the Ostrich and other birds there and so on. Then we had a special spread of breakfast. This was followed by cake cutting, exchange of garlands between brother and sister-in-law and elders blessing them and youngsters wishing them the best and seeking their blessings. The huge cake and the garlands were also a surprise to brother. Then most of us spent a lot of time in the swimming pool. Everyone kept themselves busy the whole day playing Table-tennis, Volley-ball, and Carroms. After a sumptuous lunch some members retired for a nap in the rooms provided for us and others kept busy playing Anthakshari and Dumb charades till late in the evening. Then we had Chaat and Tea and just before returning back to the city we posed for a family photograph. Some of us were tired after the daylong entertainment as you can see in the photograph but everyone was extremely happy to be there that day. The day turned out to be a very memorable one for all of us because of the large family gathering and the nice time we had. A few family members who were abroad at that time could not make it; persons most missed were Dr. Udhaybhasker and Dr. Hina, brother’s son and daughter-in-law.

Large-size copy of the family photograph which is at the top of this blog is given to each of the families that attended the party. It is to remind them of the love and affection they showered on my brother and the good time we had on that day, even several years later. And this blog is also for that purpose.