Dear Dad,
Out of all of the years, it had to be this year that we all can’t be together!
You better visit me too, don’t spend all day with mum 😉. It’s ok, you can stay with mum, let’s pray and hope that the virus doesn’t break any more families apart and that we can either learn to live with it or preferably make it extinct.
Can you believe it’s Boxing Day already?
I’ve got a question for you!
I can already see you shaking your head and you have the worried look on your face!!!!!
Don’t worry it’s not one of those questions, make sure it’s ‘vegetarian’ as you would say!
How are you celebrating it today? No doubt you’ll be keeping mum
company for us, You’ll be letting mum know you’re there, but I do hope you get to eat and drink lots more than last year. Don’t worry when we can finally have our Boxing Day your space at the head of table will always be there for you!
Dad, do you remember all those New Year’s Eve parties we had! I reckon we had about 10 starting from 1987 to 1997 until I got married.
Christmas Day would normally be at one of your Mama Ji’s houses, we used to play board games and so many other games like hide the sweets and charades or at Polo Masi’s house. We always enjoyed a proper Christmas lunch with all the trimmings and crackers and the best part was there wasn’t a pot of daal in sight!
But the conversation coming out of those lovely Christmas lunches were our New Year’s Eve party! It was like everyone had cleared their calendars for the 31st of December to make sure they were at ours!
Every party had the same theme, dress up as if you’re going to the ball, food, drink and help yourself! We had an open-door policy, the more the merrier!
Dad, one of your jobs was to find the badminton net! Do you remember the night before? you, mum and us girls would blow the balloons up, hundreds of them, some we would stuff with confetti (sounded like a brilliant idea at the time). We would carefully help you hang the net up on the ceiling and put all the balloons in. Mum would be constantly reminding us not to switch the light on. We soon realized why when a couple of them popped!
From early morning on New Year’s Eve, mum would be in the kitchen cooking and cooking and cooking !!!!! Mum would make ‘biting’ (starters) as you would call it and a full Indian dinner!
Dad we would help you pick the furniture, or rather Kawal did! To make as much space as possible, while me and Bubbly would tidy around. At our first party, Suman was only a toddler and was just loving this huge space! Running up and down the lounge in her pink striped Babygro.
Dad, you always loved supervising us while we cut the pineapple and cheese into cubes and put them on sticks! You’d make sure the cubes were just the right size ! Sampling them ‘just to make sure’.
As we got older you allowed me and Kawal help you with the ‘bar‘. You’d put all the drinks from your cabinet on the breakfast bar, along with sliced lemons and ice buckets, you made it look so nice.
You even allowed me and Kawal to make the welcome punch! It was our concoction! Our signature drinks! In went a bottle of gin! A bottle of vodka! A bottle of wine! Fresh fruit! And some tropical fruit juice to hide how strong it was! You would catch us tasting it ‘I think that’s enough, there won’t be any left!’, you’d tell us, we would reply with ‘one more taste just to make sure’. You’d soon join in with the tasting and mum would say ‘I’m watching you three, isn’t there any work to be done, our guests will be arriving soon!’ All in Punjabi!
Confession time dad, me and Kawal would serve this to everyone who came into our home that evening! That’s how we got our party started!
Our party would start about 7pm, at midnight the radio would be turned on so we could hear Big Ben, but we never did as everyone was so loud ! the balloons came down, the party poppers were popped and the silly string sprayed sticking to the ceiling and walls, you giving mum a sneaky hug/peck! We’d see the New Year in! We’d do the conga out on the street , the neighbour’s never moaned about the noise, why? because they were part of the conga train too! Soon after we would have more guest arriving, like mama ji (mums brother) after playing at one his shows, then the party would start again. At about 4am our guests would start to leave, and others we’d find sleeping on the stairs or under a table! Anywhere there was space!
Dad do you remember when you sprayed the champagne all over the wallpaper, someone bought it to your attention, you replied ‘it’s ok don’t worry, enjoy yourself!’
I remember one party Bubbly dressed up in a beautiful baby pink lengha. Being the best dancer, she loved dancing showing of her moves, she looked like something out of Pakeeza (very old Hindi film). She was only 6 or 7.
As time went on, we all got older, the parties stopped, this didn’t stop you and mum venturing out on New Years Eve. You both would go to the gurdwara and see the New Year in there, the next morning or rather afternoon when I would call you, you would always say how beautiful the hymns were. It’s one of the things you enjoyed.
The new year is meant to bring new hope with it, so you can make new memories. It’s the old memories I love to share as I didn’t realize at the time how good it was, and I can only hope that one day when my children are adults they have their own special memories like me to share, thanks to you and mum x
Miss you Dad, stay safe
X
Cherish your memories! Write them down so you never forget and you can pass these stories on!