First week of January

January 1

Today is Sujit's birthday. At 10 p.m.(here; i.e. 8:30 a.m.there) I called him to wish him "Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns of the Day". But he was not up yet, having had a New year party till late yesterday night. So I offered my wishes and told him to continue with his sleep.

Today we celebrated the New year. Had a get-together at Prabhakar' place. Ulhas brought a one-liter bottle of "Black Lable". After drinks we went to Bamboo House for dinner. The restaurant was packed, not a single table was vacant, groups were waiting outside for tables. We were eleven in all. But the owner is a client of both Prabhakar and Subhash. He made special arrangements for our party. He opened the hall on the first floor, exclusively for us. One captain and four waiters were attending us. We had a lavish dinner of chicken and fish (prawns). I had neer dosa instead of naan.

January 2

Manoj arranged a lunch party at "Barbecue Nation", a new restaurant opened about three months ago at Kalyani Nagar. Originally from Bandra, Mumbai. Nitin and family is here; so we were eight persons. It was barbecue buffet. Every table has a barbecue sigree at the centre and were served hot tikkas. In all three veg and three non-veg tikkas were served. Beer was complimentary - on the house. After generous servings of starters, there was buffet lunch. The spread was lavish with chicken, mutton and fish preparations, soups and salads and other accompaniments such as papad, achars, etc. Also a variety of desserts. Food was excellent so also was the ambience.  

January 3

Ram Dabadghav, a school class-mate, now staying at Chicago, USA, came to India. He is having an apartment here and he comes practically every year. Today he celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary at Hotel Coronet, Apte Road. It was a wondeful get-together of close friends. Cocktails started at 7 p.m. At 9 p.m. cake was cut. Ram and his wife Smita presented a beautiful dance performance which was followed by dinner.