Chak Dey Phattey Papa!!

Papa being felicitated by Neeta Ambani, Chairperson of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, with a shawl.

Papa and Neeta Ambani saluting the flag while the sunset bugle plays in the background!!

This weekend was special for my darling Papli and the entire family :) The Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS) had their Annual Day and were also celebrating the 60th year of Indian independence -- their show was titled "Celebrate India ... a musical".

On this special day of DAIS they wished to share the glory of some very important and forgotten heros of our country... war heros, freedom fighters and sportsmen. Their function was held on 2 days i.e. 14 and 15 Dec.

My darling Papa was one of the special invitees on 15 Dec 07 alongwith Mrs Boyce (who was the daughter of Col Tarapore, who had got the Param Vir Chakra for fighting the war of 1965 - he died in the action and was awarded posthumously), Manju Malkani (wife of Squadron Leader Malkani who flew his fighter plane over enemy territory during the 1971 war and was again awarded Vir Chakra). The 3 of them, Mum and I (I wangled an invite as I didnt want to miss the ocassion) were treated so warmly by the administrative staff of DAIS ... we were given tea and some yum snacks while the executive assistant of Neeta Ambani, Nandeeta sat with us and chatted about our lives. Mrs. Boyce was such a lady with all etiquette and all (she teaches ettiquette to large corporate houses in Pune) and a real chatter box -- I simply loved listening to her endless tales and experiences. Mrs. Manju Malkani is the HR gead at HDFC Ltd. and we talked of some of the really cool people that I admire at HDFC like Deepak Satwalekar, Milind Barve, Keki Mistry etc. They were quite amused about the fact that I work with a toy company and asked me which one is my most favorite toy ... Finger Football -- here you have 2 pairs of shoes that have holes in them so that you can wear them on your fingers and you kick around with your fingers playing finger football ... they were really amused!!

At around 6.30 we were taken down to the grounds where the stage was set ... it was a huge stage twice the size of a basket ball, elaborately decorated and having several levels ... it was really GRANDE and looked nothing less than a filmfare set!! Once we were seated we were in the front row, Mukesh Ambani (the rishest man in the world) sauntered in wearing a black safari ... it felt unreal that he was away from us by about a meter or so -- somehow whatever people may say about how Reliance has become so big, it is impressive that he has achieved this feat!!

The ceremonies began with a prayer foloowed by Neeta Ambani giving a speech of which the following lines made an impression in my mind"...DAIS wishes to Celebrate India ... India has more than a billion opportunities ..." She then felicitated Col Tarapore, Sqd Ldr. Malkani and Cmde Inderjit Sharma with a shall each and a token of appreciation.

Mrs Boyce daughter of Col Tarapore who received the Param Vir Charkra for the action in 1965 war

Mrs Manju Malkani wife of Squadron Leader Malkani who received the Vir Chakra for the action in 1971 war

Then Papa came on stage and she felicitated papa with a shawl ... I really got eems at this point and treed all the way to my toes ... this was the first time I had heard in my concious state of papas heroic action during the war of 1971 and when the lady announced "... and for this heroic display of courage Cmde Inderjit Sharma was awarded the Vir Chakra", it felt as if he was getting the award just then. To think, I was just six then and my Malee was a lil baby at 5 - I have very faint memories of papa coming home after the war and having a hurt on his leg and his sword was with him for some reason -- I remember asking him "Papa did the pakistanis attack you on your leg and did you fight them with your sword?" At that time I guess papa must have not wanted to disturb me with details of the bombing and said "yes beta" ... for a long long time I believed that papa got the award for a aword fight with a pakistani who had landed on his ship!! Sigh ... so much for my childish imagination!! Papa received his felicitation amidst loud applause. Neeta then asked everyone to rise while they played the evening bugle that is so familiar in any armed forces base at sunset and a film that showed the Indian flag being brought down for the day ... it all felt so nostalgic and surreal and for a long time loads of navy memories flooded my mind and heart... revati, MBlock, INS Sindhudurg and its dome, the officers, dhruv bhandari, chilka, bakshi and his maths and science tutorial so that I could pass the medical examination, learning .22 gun firing and boating, ramchandran and his puffy milk glasses, INS Shakti, walks with juba and lama in the nights, durga puja, SODA shows, the shiv temple, the swimming pool, amar' library, US club, Dattu, sea pool, st josephs, ashivini, peru-wala near school, 103/123 busses, bus-tickets, Defence Theatre, nalini bamba, aparna, reena and rohin chand, ritu mridhu, nilli puddi, jyoti and diggy, cycling all the way to marine drive - what a beautiful life it was ... SIGH ... the life in the navy seems like a lifetime away ... I really miss it...

Enough of nostalgia ... The musical had a theme of a Baiscopewala showing the kids a new India and telling them tales of the great achievements of our country -- all of this was displayed in a burst of color with the fantastic colors of India coming thru in the costumes and sets, dances by over 900 kids to the tune of some amazing patriotic and folk songs that were all recorded in the children' voices like - aao bacho tumhe sunayen, nanna munna rahi hoon, mera joota hai japani, ae vatan ae vatan humko teri kasam, kar chale hum fida jaano tan saathiyo, wallao rey nakwa ho wallao hey rama (marathi song), Aekla cholo rey (bengali song), vande mataram (new Lata version), Buri nazar na hum pe dalo hum hain hindustani and to top it all all the kids came and congregated on stage with Chak De India and Neeta Ambani joined them in the centre -- all of them were jumping and dancing to the beats of Chak De Chak de India ... everyone in the audience was on their feet, dancing and waving flags and clapping together!! OH MY GOD ... What a resounding celebration of INDIA -- it was just too AWESOME a climax!!!!!!

After the program Ma and Pa went to thank Neeta Ambani personally I went along and clicked some pics of them and then I too shook hands with her to congratulate her on her pet project of DAIS (she being the chairperson of DAIS controls every function of the school) -- Guys her hands felt like warm melting butter or rather as soft as a babys skin. I must say she is one lucky woman in India. I am so glad that she being the wife of the richest man of the world sets a great example for other men and women to follow... the amount of respect and love she has got from her family shows in the beautiful glow on her face. Tha fact that she has been given this project to be run entirely on her own and that Mukesh was present despite his busy as hell schedule - he really need not have been there but he was there for both the days from start of the function to finish and also enjoyed the eateries at the MELA thereafter; all this shows the respect he has for her and the importance she is to his life -- that is what truly impressed me the most! She was dressed in a bridal red sari with some amazing gold embroidery and had diamonds all over her - we were discussing that during the evening she if one is to value her dress she was worth several crores.

The musical was followed by a MELA - there were so many stalls ... ma and pa hogged on some yummy kachori and rasey wale aloo, gajar ka halwa (to die for) and rasmalai from an Ajmer Mithaiwala stall... they also bought a candle from a Blind man called Bhavesh' stall and on the way out we had the best treat ... AAMIR KHAN in person was calling out the raffle draw!!! At this point I clearly went mad with excitement and started yelling out to him ... I would like to believe that he spotted me and smiled :))

I missed both Anj and Mallee tooooooooo much as it was such a super evening in every way ... and yeah I am so glad that at least I could enjoy these special moments with Ma and Pa.