On this day we were blessed to have him with us, and it has been an amazing ride together. From today onward, he will be treated as an adult, as age of 18 is significant in India, giving him right to vote, operate his bank account on his own, go for a driver's license, and many more things. However, he is still a kid for us, a child always remains a kid for Parents. For the first time, he wanted to give a party to his friends, and we don't have provision to celebrate Birthday, and never celebrated earlier. So I was reluctant, because when he was a kid, we tried to make him wear a new dress for him, and a small accident happened. Even though Mom had cautioned to not do that, we did and we were thankful to God nothing much happened. However, now that he is 18, he had his own arguments, saying he often goes to friend's party and he must give them one. So we made a deal, me agreeing with only dinner for friends. I called in a friend, who has a nice restaurant, and got him all the details and he planned the menu as well. And then I left for my native, to celebrate our cricket event and spend some time with Parents. But then the boy called me and sought permission to also have a cake cut on the occasion, which was also granted. Being responsible enough, he did manage everything on his own, and had a nice cake for the event. It was a tough day for me, as yesterday we had the mega cricket event as well (postponed because of rain), but after playing the entire day, I came back in the evening and joined them - I can't miss his birthday. Let me share some beautiful moments of the celebration done yesterday.
The event happened at LAL QILA Restaurant, Patia, Bhubaneswar and they dedicated the entire roof top for us. The ambience was amazing, enough to cover all our guests and known for delicious food quality, they truly exceeded our expectations, serving it hot.
Even though we arrived early, his friends arrived in batches, and some of them were late. So we decided to go ahead with the starters first, keeping the cake cutting ceremony later. In the mean time, we did take the opportunity to capture some nice moments of whoever was coming.
The ambience became super young with all these teen aged kids - we were there just to oversee them. Finally the moment came to cut the cake - the boy did a nice job of making sure, it was well prepared.
These candles are not safe, and the fire raises immediately, so they were asked to be very careful, still got scared.
Some of his friends planned to leave early, so they were requested to finish the dinner and go.
They have got a nice balcony on the roof top, from where the view can be felt. Overall, the place, the food, the ambience, everything felt special.
So we took a break and sat there for some time, allowing the kid their space.
And we waited to take dinner till all his friends left, and by the time we came back, it was almost midnight. Even though the evening went very well, I must tell you a fact that, he faced another problem yesterday - a stray dog scratched on his hand, and she took him to our family doctor who advised to take him rabies vaccine, starting the first dose. So this cautions us again to not celebrate, even though whatever minimal it could be. So today, he went to the temple in morning, and sought blessings from God and stay at home.
The boy is a responsible kid, and understands - he got some birthday gifts from Timezone, and wanted to go there for a hour, but after I denied, he happily spent the day at home, may be we can go tomorrow.
This day would not have been complete, without creating this lovely memoir on this chain, here is a video compilation of the event, for our memories.
Again tomorrow is a big day, our Zero night celebration, a Dad cannot be tired.
This post will be part of my google review of LAL QILA Restaurant, a little hive marketing that I do.
Shot with SONY α6400 with 18-135 mm Zoom Lens
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