My Dear CATS,
Since the cold weather had ensured all our planned treks and excursions got postponed for January, we had to create an excuse to meet everyone.
CAT Riyaal offered his farmhouse as venue and when the professional caterers refused to hold the fort for 25-35 people or quoted prices way over our expectation/budget, CAT Riyaal once again stepped in. We managed to find a cook who was prepared to do it all for us within a cost we had in mind to be reasonable. Even if it meant that we had to go buy the ingredients for him! What an eye-opener this shopping expedition became for me atleast. It was shocking to find that Paneer sold for Rs.90/- in Dec’09 had to be purchased at Rs.150/- in Jan’10.
Yes, I do believe that soon enough Riyaal and I will be able to start a catering business with the experience we have gained last week. If nothing else, dhaba to khol hee leinge! I have thought of a name as well for our Dhaba, ‘Billiyaan Da Dhaba’ or given the fetish both of us share to travel and explore, ‘Musafir-Khana’.
I happened to meet CAT Riyaal’s parents at 6pm the evening before the event. They seemed doubtful about us being able to pull the event off. For a moment I was taken aback, but then with a few thousand spent on the grocery and a list of 27 CATS staring back at my face, there was only one way left for us at that 11th hour. That was to make every effort to make the event as comfortable, convenient and fun for CATS to the best of our abilities.
The day began with fresh meat/fish shopping done by CAT Riyaal and soon it was noon and time to assemble. The day also taught me an important lesson in organising events; never ever make a particular colour as the dress code, which you yourself don’t have in your wardrobe! Wearing my bro’s yellow formal sweater, I left home a little early as I had to buy the after Lunch meetha. I chose gajjar halwa over moong daal halwa from our favourite Baba Dairy. CAT Ravinder wearing yellow shirt joined me at Barista as soon as I had set shop for registrations. Newcomer CAT Aneesh arrived wearing a mildly yellow shirt with his better-half Shanti (which he affectionately insists on pronouncing as ‘bitttarr half’) and his son CAT Hari. Our superbly fit Shanti who can put any teenager to shame, would intermittently waive a bright yellow carry-bag to ensure she was not disqualified whilst Aneesh insisted that Hari was wearing yellow boxers!
It was good to see regulars yesterday, CAT Om was immaculately dressed in yellow kurta, our beautiful CAT Jyoti’s top had beautiful yellow embroidery and she carried a mustard stoll. We had to preen hard to look for yellow on our gorgeous CAT Gauri as we were requested that her dull gold dress trim had be considered yellow enough. Our gossamer faced CAT Sunaina walked in wearing a mustard scarf to tie her hair back. Husband CAT Navi and elder son CAT Angad made no bones about not wearing yellow but simply said that the younger son had made up for both of them. CAT Ranbir was wear a yellow T-Shirt, a Yellow sweater and his track bottoms had yellow trim.
Our Games Master for the day, CAT DeepInder arrived shortly and argued that his beige trouser was indeed yellow when bought and had faded since! Newcomer Chitleen came wearing orangish kurta which we accepted with little debate, along with her one hell of a daughter, CAT Jagrvi, who can give CAT Ansh a run for his money anyday! Our lass CAT Jyotika cat-walked in wearing a yellow sweater. CAT Harpreet in yellow shirt had the task of picking up CAT Neerja wearing a mustard dupatta, our host CAT Riyaal wearing no yellow and fresher to town CAT Sahil who pleaded he be excused as he was not aware of the dress code, before reaching the assembly point. However, both of them gleefully sported yellow arm bands! CAT Ansh declared as soon as he entered that his purple T-Shirt had yellow print and CAT Rachna just about made it into the yellow books.
CAT Ashish barely made into the books with a yellow stoll tied around his waist and CAT Navpreet in his yellow shirt arrived fashionably late as usual. Some things never change I guess.With name tags given and pink hearts pinned on the sleeves or over the hearts of all 27 CATS, it was time to pack into the cars and move together towards the farm house in a convoy. Our dulha CAT Jasmit and dulhan CAT Jasmine met us enroute with the star of the CATS, their 3months old pretty daughter and our first home grown kitten Seerat. Forget the Pa CAT wearing yellow sweater and turban and Ma CAT wearing a sweater peppered with yellow, even the Baby CAT was nicely tucked in a yellow blanket. This was Basant Panchmi as never before for CATS.
We reached the farm house at 3pm where food was already being cooked, chairs lined up and the tent with tables neatly laid out waiting for us. With a quick round of introductions, the game of Hearts was revealed to the CATS. The rule was that you loose your heart to the person to whom you say anything negative (No, Nahin, Never, Naah, Na-Na etc). The person who wins the most number of hearts was to be the winner. This innocuous sounding game of hearts actually brings out the worst possible conniving thoughts amongst the most innocent of us all. Mothers were seen snatching the hearts of their kids, husbands stealing the hearts of their wives. Friends were seen running away from each other to save their hearts. CAT Jagrvi yelled ‘NO NO NO’ the moment she finally lost her heart to give vent to her pent up emotions! Worst was CAT Jasmit taking the heart of his 3month old daughter CAT Seerat. I mean, what the world has come to. Out little CAT Ranbir would run to me and show off each time he won a heart.
Whilst loosing and winning hearts, we moved on to have some refreshing drinks as the day was mercifully sunny, warm and bright. Since we had hired this cook for the first time and with the weariness of CAT Riyaal’s parents still ringing fresh in my ears, I gingerly asked CAT Navi, ‘How’s the food?’ He candidly responded, ‘Look at my plate Supreet. Since I am overeating, it’s a good sign!’ A huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I could have kissed the floor he was standing on!
With lunch out of the way soon, it was time for a kite flying session. CAT Jyoti was the first one to start tinkering with the kite and the dor. CAT Navi joined soon and added a long tail to add weight to the kite. CAT Shanti was quietly weighing her kite on one table whilst CAT Ashish kept a close eye on the proceedings. With 3 different types of 17 kites available for CATS, it was a site to see the whole ground full of catty excitement. CAT Ranbir refused to join the kittens for a tree climbing session being supervised by CAT Ravinder. He pleaded with me, ‘I won’t get an opportunity to fly kite soon with my Dad.’
CAT Jyoti was the first on to attempt but her kite tore off as she pulled on the dor too hard. CAT Navi would not have managed to be the first one to get the kite kiss the sky without the ardent support of CAT Sunaina. CAT Shanti even stood on a chair with her kite in hand to offer a ‘lift’ for the take off. Due to paucity of breeze, more crash landings were taking place than successful take offs! However, CATS do not give up. CAT Ashish finally decided to join the fray and soon enough the ‘Amritsari Team’ had their kite up in the air. CAT Riyaal also had his kite up soon after and there we had 3 kites having a ‘hawaai’ conversation along with the half crescent moon. The whole ground was abuzz with the shouts of, ‘dor de dor de’, ‘sar de sar de’, ‘gayi oye gayi’, ‘tunkaa maar oye’, ‘nahin dheel de’, ‘pechhaa paana main’, ‘bo-kaata nahin hoya yaar’. .. urri urri re patang meri urri re...
This was for starters! CAT DeepInder took reins of the games session once everyone’s arms got tired but if only the CATS knew what lay ahead for them! First game was to form the longest human chain. CAT Aneesh and CAT Ravinder were chosen to be the two leaders. Both had to run to a chair kept at a distance away. After touching the chair they had to run back to the starting line and grab one CAT, tie their one hand to their own hand and run back to touch the chair. The team which had the longest human chain in 3mins was to be the winner. Trust you me (or watch the video if you don’t!), it sounds quite simple but it created hara-kiri amongst the CATS. It was fun watching how a human mind works under pressure. Two left hands got tied instead of one right and one left hand, kids were tied along with the adults. As all is fair in love and war, each team that ran to touch the chair would push the chair further so that the other team had to run more (which ofcourse would be put back in its original position by the game moderator CAT Sahil). Amungst the chair and the cheers, CAT Ravinder’s team this game though CAT Aneesh gave the winning pose!
Hardly had everyone untied themselves that the stage was set to hop scotch with two glasses of water in both hands. The one with the most amount of water left at the end in both the glasses was to be the winner. CAT Navpreet did the trail run and we found out that chairs had to be set further apart to make the hop scotch more difficult. CAT Navi made use of his long legs and set the stage with 250ml water at the end of his hop scotch. CAT Shanti was the first of the female felines with ....ml water. Our brave kitten Ranbir was the kid on the block without changing the distance to compensate for his tiny legs His enormous will carried this little one through amongst loud MEOWS. CAT Jyotika won this game with 260ml water.
Soon thereafter we divide the CATS into couples (married or otherwise). The males were blindfolded and their task was to stick as many bindis on the foreheads of their female partners in a space of one minute. It may sound easy to read, but not when you are standing and your partner is sitting and you have to ‘hear and follow’ the directions. Imagine hands going in the air with a bindi in hand trying to locate the foreheads! CAT Ashish won this round with his partner CAT Sunaina with 18 bindis. Just watch the photos and you will know that these men could never become make-up artists!
Just as the sun was going down, the soup had started to simmer and some of the CATS decided to walk up the hillock into the woods. For the rest a team building game, Toxic Waste was brought out. As CAT Sahil and CAT DeepInder helped to lay out the game, rest of the CATS got excited by the amount of balls which had suddenly become available to them! I had thought that it would be difficult to get the CATS to play yet another game but how wrong was I?!!
With the game all laid out, the team was explained that their task was to lift a bucket full of toxic waste represented by hundreds of small balls in a tiny bucket hanging off a hook, tied to 10 strings. They had to take the bucket over 3 set of hurdles and them topple over the balls from the tiny bucket into a medium sized bucket at the far end of the ground. The team who put the maximum amount of balls in the bucket at the end was to be the winner. Instructions sounded complicated and the task difficult to begin with, but with the combination of two well versed leaders, staunch faithful followers and the will to successfully finish the task ensured the team was able to save the world from the toxic waste spillage in 4min.20secs. For a change, CAT Chitleen was quite, all the kittens were following the instructions without a single why or why not! CAT Om and CAT Navi took the lead but when the time was right, CAT Om followed what CAT Navi was insisting. This was amazing team work on display. No doubts about the leaders, full faith from the led; ek ne kahi aur dooje ne maani, dono bun gaye brahm gyaani. The team won by default as the other team was yet to return from the woods!
By now the sun had all but disappeared so everyone went back to their cars to get their jackets and pullovers. Fresh firewood was being chopped from the nearby guava and silver oak orchards, so everyone stood around tandoor till the bonfire was lit shortly. Though CAT Jasmit and CAT Jasmine had left earlier with their tiny bundle of joy kitten Seerat, we dedicated lighting up the fire as her first lohri in her absence. CAT Aneesh sang ‘sundar mundariye’ whilst the rest of the catty brigade was the chorus. With the round of mungfali (monkey nuts) over, the round of potato chips began with the special dip made by CAT Neerja.
As we all settled in comfortably around the bonfire, I suggested that a round of Antakshari must begin as the snacks were being served and the drinks table was set. CAT Om took the lead by singing the legendary famous Punjabi song, ‘dil da muamla hai’. It was dark but I am sure CAT Jyoti was blushing away whilst the rest of us were mesmerised by this singing talent amongst us. I had heard that CAT Om sings well, but how well I got to know only yesterday! After a thunderous round of applause, the game rolled on with CATS divided into two groups. One song got belted after the other. CAT Navpreet, CAT Ashish, CAT Om sang well whilst CAT Aneesh was the surprise package of our team. As per him, ‘yeh ker lein jo karna hai, main to saari raat inhein bithaayi rakhungaa!!’ CAT Rachna was accused of being hopping the camps with impunity but to no benefit. If you can imagine, the other team’s answer to CAT Om was 8yrs old CAT Ansh! If we sang a whole song, they would struggle with a paragraph. If we sang the first two lines of a song in response, they would respond with just sound effects of a song! It was simply hilarious and yes, noisy too!
As the bonfire petered out, CAT Riyaal took everyone down the journey he took for seven weeks to explore the south of India. He peddled for 700kms and hitch-hiked for 500kms to explore the known and not so known places. He patiently ran through the slideshow, peppered with running commentaries, narrating the ghost story here, a honeymooning couple there, a full monty here and a no-show there. We had to rush him through his seven weeks journey but seeing the magnificent photos he clicked, his perspective of the subject, knowledge of his equipment, we unanimously believe that he’s a photographer yet to be discovered.
Soon it was time to wrap up more and make a move towards our homes. With hugs and handshakes around, all of us got into our cars to move back into the reality of ‘noon, tael, lakriyaan.’ However, we could not possibly finish the day without a big round of applause to CAT Riyaal (and his parents) who made it possible for CATS to have a splendid day out. We are also indebted to CAT DeepInder for ensuring that all the CATS were kept amply occupied, if not on their toes through the gaming session. Above all, thanks to all the CATS for bringing in enough sense of humour to ensure everyone enjoyed and had great fun yesterday. May I also take this opportunity to thank everyone who begged, borrowed or stole something yellow to wear for the day!
- CAT Supreet
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