A busy Sunday, and a Birthday

It was a busy crazy weekend ever. Saturday was busy as kiddo had swimming in the morning, then he had a birthday party in the afternoon. Then I had a piles of jobs to be finished in the evening. Actually , Sunday was Mr. Man’s birthday. As it was Sunday I decided to celebrate in our traditional way. In weekdays it is not possible to celebrate in an elaborate way other a small cake cutting, and a dinner. 

Two handmade cards, one from me, another from kiddo

No, I didn’t give a party. Actually both of us love to celebrate the birthdays, specially his and mine strictly within family. We only give party for our son, as he is still little and loves to celebrate with his friends. 
Anyway, when I’m talking about traditional way, before telling you what I did, I want to explain a little about it. In any family occasion like birthdays, the lunch is a very important affair. We usually cook five kind fried vegetable, lentil soup, one vegetable curry, chicken/goat meat/fish (at least one non vegetarian item, we usually prefer fish and goat meat), one sweet pickle , and numerous sweet dishes. This is the type of lunch is served not only on birthdays, but also on bridal shower, when a newborn  first time eats rice, and many more.  Though I’m telling it bridal shower , but same occasion takes place on the bridegroom’s side. Actually, it is called as the last lunch as a bachelor.

Breakfast with stuffed fried Indian bread (Luchi), Potato Curry (Dum-Aloo), pudding, a typical breakfast of any celebration.

In the celebration of first time rice eating of the newborn (around the age of 6 months) we arrange the same way for the newborn which I’ve mentioned already. But it is ridiculous, that a newborn will eat that much. So, the tradition is all the food is touched on the lips of the little one, and then mom’s brother will eat all delicious food. If the mom has more than one brothers, then either the oldest, or the youngest will eat. Isn’t that funny? It is really a fun event indeed, just like the bridal shower. To us all those celebrations are fun event.

Before the British came to India, we had a very different way to eat. At that time people sat on the ground on small individual carpets, call “aason", made out of burlap, and kept the dish before them on the ground. The tradition was that the male members of the family ate first, then the female members of the family would eat. Not a good tradition huh? Those nicely embroidered small carpets were made by the female members of the family, and that was a way to flaunt their embroidery  skills. Actually, India is very diverse country, every region has their own tradition, and it is the tradition of Bengal. When I’m talking about tradition, one more thing I should to mention. Our traditional crockeries are made out of brass. In old days people used to eat and drink in brass utensils. Then we have changed to steel utensils. Currently people eat in either steel or porcelains, and brass utensils are used for all these auspicious occasions.
Here, I don’t have any brass utensils, so I used porcelain, and bone-china. 

Lunch

Anyway, for Sunday celebration, I started preparing Saturday evening. I cut all the vegetables. I prepared the prawns, marinated the chickens. I started cooking since morning on Sunday. Within 12 in the afternoon I finished all cooking including dinner, and the cake. Suddenly, Mr. Man decided to go to a movie. And the show was 2:30 in the afternoon. So, I had a very little time in my hand. Still, I managed to do all the tradition I wanted to do. With fried five different types of vegetables, one of his favorite vegetable dish, prawn curry, chicken curry, sweet pickle, I arranged the plate and the bowls, and let him sit on a traditional small carpet. That small carpet is very dear to me, as it was made by my mom, when she was a young lady. I think the carpet is more than 50 years old. Though that worn out , and became very fragile, but I want to keep it. May be in future I’ll frame it. 

"Aason", small carpet, made by mom years ago

Anyway, we managed to reach the movie on time. After coming back he cut the homemade chocolate cake. We finished the dinner with his favorite mutton-biryani. 

Mutton biryani