Anil's 50th Birthday Party

It was a real honour to be invited to Anil Aukluck’s 50th Birthday Party.  Anil is a wonderful accountant, trustworthy and reliable, hard working and considerate.  He is a friend of my much admired friend Ganesh Nanda.  I’ve had the joy and privilege of attending Indian concerts with these two men and their wives. They are so concerned with family and community. I’ve had the joy of meeting their children.  Their wives are happy beautiful women who are strong and admired in their own right. I loved meeting Anil’s daughters. They are a going concern.  What father with three beautiful daughters and his sister’s daughter could remain sane in this high energy mix.  Yet Anil is calm and spiritual.  I think that Ganesh turned to spirituality to survive his children passing through adolescents to become the successful young adults they are today. Anil is right in the midst of the storm but remains serene.
He is an artist too, doing lovely drawings and paintings.  As I listened tonight to Harish Kumar, the famed music director Tabla player, Ganesh told me that Anil also plays flute.  Being on Facebook I so enjoyed seeing video of Anil  riding horses with his daughters on beaches but here he is a musician as well as accountant and painter.  There’s no end to his talent.
The night was a great success.  It was held at the Hall on Ross street. I’d been to the most remarkable of Hindu Sikh weddings there with the most beautiful of brides and most handsome of men. As tonight the ladies were all dressed in festive sari’s and the men in black jackets and slacks.
A young couple sang and played guitar on stage, Ganesh’s young friends, all very modern, a contrast to the traditional setting.  In the background through the night scenes from Bollywood movies played on the many large screens around the hall.  Ganesh pointed out famous stars.
 Laura and I began the feast with samosa appetizers. I loved the fish the best.  The spread was magnificent.  Both Laura and I felt that was the meal only to find out later that there was another feast to continue.  Laura loved the vegetarian curry but I could swear the goat curry was a delicacy unheard of, that strange meat to an average Canadian palate, melting in my mouth.  My girth gained as we feasted and feasted.
Ganesh and his truly lovely wife Anita were the best companions.  Ganesh and I talked politics quietly, he has great hope for the future.  With Canadians staggering before the plummeting world oil prices Ganesh’s gold business is doing very well, as gold holds value when other currency fails.  Meanwhile Anita was showing Laura iPhone video’s of her grandchildren and these two grandmothers were in heaven discussing much more important matters of domestic politics.
Anil’s wonderful daughters had made a film of Happy Birthday greetings with songs and hilarity from all over the country and as far away as Britain. A much loved baby,  dancing to the Indian music in a video clip, definitely stole the show. Anil was on the verge of tears with such a gift of love from his daughters, family and friends.  It was so touching to see his parents and other old people wishing this great man well. The young and sassy friends however called him by his nickname moose!
Then the women were dancing, first the young, then the old and following their lead all the men poured on the stage.  Anil was lifted on shoulders of friends along with his wife and the two lovers danced across from each other high above the crowd.  Next Ganesh and I were invited too. Who would have known, my spiritual community leader friend turns out to be a regular dancing guru.  Some inner tabla took over and he and Anil were young men again. The music was infectious so I couldn’t help but join in.  Such laughter and fun.
When Laura and I took out leave the party was going strong.  What a wonderful night to remember.   Happy Birthday Anil!
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Derek Baker and Naomi Goffman's Wedding

The night before at the Canucks games all the guys missed Derek.  But when Laura and I saw Naomi at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church kissing Derek we understood why Derek was a changed man.  Naomi versus the Canucks, the Canucks might as well not even suit up.
Watching Derek walk down the church aisle beside Naomi one could see he was  a taller feller now, maybe by a foot or two, and stronger somehow, liked he’d just had a whole can of spinach.  Naomi was stunningly beautiful like a fairy princess from a Hobbit movie.  Seeing them wed together brought the thought of destiny to mind, like God still walks on the earth and this union was preordained by  unseen force.
The reception was at the Quay in New Westminister.  As Naomi and Derek love to travel and were set to depart on a travelling honeymoon the theme was international.  Every table had a little globe with lonely planet books under it.  Laura and I found ourselves at the Indonesia table with friends of Naomi and Derek’s.  A lovely young fascinating couple had just flown in from Germany and sat across from us.  Beside me I talked with a funny and brilliant young couple who worked in physiotherapy and speech therapy.  They played music together in the evenings, her piano, him guitar. We talked about classic music and chamber music.  I had the briefest awkward moment when I mentioned “Proud Mary”.  Beside them were a truly spectacular couple who Laura and I suspected modelled business fashion in Milan.  Laura and I conspired all evening to steal their utterly adorable precious little baby.  She wore a little pink sweater with gold lame booties and  had a red head band with a red flower. She was all yawns and smiles.
Dereks gorgeous sister had been an airline stewardess.  We were all given hilarious instructions for the “flight” where the exits were and what to do in case of emergencies. All the while the bridesmaid husband dressed in kilt and scottish regalia pointed out exits and demonstrated putting on party masks in case of a drop in attitude. Speeches followed. Derek’s mom had found his battered and torn childhood teddy bear and presented this to the couple.  We learned that his sister had named Derek “Supersnoop” as a child.  Naomi whooped with laughter. Naomi's mom and brother told of her childhood in the country and her many accomplishments.  She is obviously far more than a pretty face.
As Derek and Naomi love breakfast ,the time they always take together for each other, the feast was a breakfast feast of eggs bennies, sausages, bacon, everything breakfast. As I too love breakfast best I was in heaven.
Naomi has a dance group and they were all there for a fun ballroom performance. It concluded with Derek strutting in and stealing the lead dancer from the troupe.  After that everyone was on the dance floor.  Party hats, tinsel hair, wings, inflated air guitars, air saxophones,  and elton john glasses! Everyone was costumed at some time in the night.  It was truly a young people dance and us in the older crowd loved joining in.  Laura and I danced to Johnny Be Good at half tempo. It was one of the slower numbers.
Later we enjoyed standing on the cool balcony chatting with family watching the boats on the river.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening so I didn’t complain once about missing my couch, NCIS or Hawaii 5:0.  Laura and I danced more that night than we each had danced in a whole year.
Derek had been my personal trainer after my foot injury and once again had shown me the joy of bodies in motion.
With all the dancers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, with all their physical zest and laughter,  I remembered medical school when we as interns and residents  with haggard cadaverous looks from nights of calls and endless study gathered together to watch our fellow health care workers wondering if we’d not made a terrible error in choosing medicine. The poor Nanaimo doctor whose place was beside ours at the table was called away from this best of times to save some life.  Truly a tragedy.  Being at this wedding and reception was  the best play therapy ever.
Thank you Derek and Naomi.  May God’s blessings go with you all life’s journeys.