A Passage to India

Mom, Beatrice & I decide to go to India to attend the weddings of lover-ly sisters ..

...Sharon (with Sean)

...and Louise (with Justin)

Mom's Brother (Dr. Egbert Rebeiro - looking very dapper in a white jacket) is married to ....

... Aunty Emilda, who is the sister of...

... the Father of the Brides, Theo (red waistcoat), seen here with his wife Clarina (electric blue saree) and younger brother Nello (far left with his wife Hyacinth)

Mom's other brother, Benjamin Rebeiro ("Saji") and his wife Theresa ("Simi") meet us at the airport

Amachi (my grandmother) makes sure that Mummy and Santosh are well-fed and watered

Beatrice's help with the wedding preparations...

...is well rewarded at "Hyderabadi Chaat Night" at Uncle Nello's

Oh no! We get lost en route to the wedding...

...but thanks to the bevy of bridesmaids and bestmen, finally manage to spot the Church!

At Church - An Aerial View

The Bridal Entourage

Uncle Nello raises the toast at the reception with a witty and much-lauded speech

Zubin's all grown up now!

At the Reception - An Aerial View

Cutting the 5-tier Cake made by Uncle Nello's eldest Anisha

A Marine for Louise and Justin's cake!



Pretty Maids in a row at the Reception - Bertha, Sunita & Simi

The Couples' First Dance

Bea & I visit with the Rajputs (Poovathinkals) at "India Nite"

Bea and I had a great trip. It was real nice to see everyone again, especially Jojo and Pakku who have been great at keeping in touch over the years. And yet, it was disorientating too. Grandma not being there and not even stepping into Bethany felt deeply strange. Also, the kids were all grown-up. I still remember Talitha and Nikki (my two favourites) as a baby and a kid respectively, and tried vainly to connect them to the two beautiful young ladies bustling about around me. All my contemporaries had children of their own - even Chinna has a young son! Ah well twelve years is a long time. And yet, I can't shrug it off philosophically - I feel sorta cheated not to have seen the kids grow up (especially Talitha) and to have missed all the weddings and other shennanigans.

As blogger has been a super pain recently (especially for people like me i.e. I am even anal about spacing), I won't be uploading more photographs. As is this post took almost 4 months to complete.

So for the rest of my pictures please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/scarnet/PassageToIndia?pli=1

Christmas With Belle!

Christmas this year was at Kelvin & Jennifer's place. Jen went for a classic Christmas look in brown and gold. Kelvin could not make it back and Daddy had to oversee church activities in PeeDee, so it was just us 4 girls for Christmas.

A Close-Up of the Christmas Angel

Isabelle complements the Christmas colour theme perfectly

Post Midnight-Mass picture taking

Grins "R" Us

Eh - I Is So The Cool With My Christmas Presents

Winter Wonderland

After the not-too-bad-reception of our previous Christmas party where only the Angel was arrested....Nitin and I decide to hold another....with a lot of help from our friends.

Teng Kwee designed the invite so well that Beatrice really thought she got invited to some glam-event in - "OMIGOD Changi!"

Vel made us a snowman...

...Csaba and others helped with the tree....

...while Teng Kwee, Venky, Saad and Anuj plan party games amidst a sea of alcohol...

Nitin is really happy people brought food

Some kind souls adhered to the "white tie" dress code; Archana with Esther, Alfred, Deepti and Karthik

Patrick and Sourabh did not adhere to the dress code but still manage to make a pretty picture

But Anne and Malini make a prettier one!

Ooooh Heartbreakers - Preeti and Arpita

Hanging Out! - Adam, Archit, Vel & Ritesh

After last year's fiasco with the Angel - Nitin gets a Star this year instead

...or maybe it was 'cos the Angel was otherwise occupied....

Archana gets a present, 'cos her Bday was the day before!

And Alfred and Esther finally get their wedding present

Vanna White-Like : Nitin and I explain the party game

Reversal of Roles - Nitin is not happy being Vanna White!

Phew! Blogging is hard work - time for a smoke break! Saad, Sol Jacob and Anuj at the scene of the best rendition of American Pie of 2006

Cutie-Pie! Ritesh contributes to the Man-Candy quotient

Ram & Nitin's Pei Lee are colour coordinated

More Man-Candy! Patrick and Csaba with Csaba's Yuan Lee

Sonia's Rachit drops by!

Dancing Time!

Let the Games Begin! - Ashwin picks a card - You either pull out the name of the person you are supposed to buy a Christmas present for or you pull out a forfeit

What an honour! Anuj gets to write his phone number on ...errr...Nitin

Karma! Syah and Patrick draw each other

Write such forfeits somemore - Teng Kwee is not too sure how to go about humping the Snowman

Fine! You may have my pound of flesh but remember no droppies of blood!

Seems I am going to get an ornament every year for Christmas :-p

Post-party, we tell tales around the proverbial "fire"

Its 6am! What are you guys still doing here?!!