Good morning!

I had planned to share a recap of all the events this weekend. But, per usual, I become a bit wordy when it comes to sharing things and, well, I gotta break it up into parts. But, let’s talk about Saturday!

On Saturday morning, we were all running around getting ready to leave for Chino. The dads were drinking chai, watching the Tennis Channel, waiting for the rest of us to finish getting ready.

As I was packing up our diaper bag with all of Ishu’s things, I could see – from the corner of my eye – Nani hustling over to the garage door.

I helped her down the step and she sat down on the bench to put her shoes on. She smiled real wide and loudly proclaimed that she was the first one ready to go.

I got the honor of driving the birthday girl. The drive took a little longer than usual because the onramp to the freeway was closed and I kept driving around, thinking I was clever because I could find a different way, only to find another closed on-ramp.

But no matter.

Because we can’t possibly be late to the party if our car’s got the birthday girl in it, right? The party starts when she gets there.

We had a nice welcoming crew when we got there and Nani was escorted to the backyard to be greeted by everyone waiting for her. The guest of honor!

Ishu had fallen asleep in the car so he was a little slow to warm up.

But his mama, on the other hand, was really freaking excited to be reunited with everyone. I know we all just saw one another in August for Arjun and Sherene’s wedding. But still. With everyone’s crazy work schedules and now with kiddos in school, it’s impossible to have every single person at events these days. Which is exactly why we tried to jam-pack the weekend with other celebrations. Who knows when 100% of Just Cuz and JAMIVA would be together next?!

The thing that I find most endearing about the events our family puts on – whether it be our wedding in my parents’ backyard or this havan in the Chino backyard – is that it’s chaotic and not-at-all formal. You can try as you might to set up chairs and create the illusion of a quiet ceremony.

But the kids will be zooming around the backyard on their bikes. A family member will get up and move around to take pictures. Another kid will be hungry so a mom or a dad will run inside to grab a snack. Three guests decide they’re too hot so they move inside to sit at the dining table and watch from the window.

It sounds like I’m being sarcastic when I read that back out loud.

But I’m absolutely not. It’s what I love about our crazy, higgledy-piggledy family.

If an outsider peered over the fence to look in the backyard that day, they’d likely wonder who the celebration was for. After all, only half the attendees were sitting on chairs watching the pooja take place. The rest of us – myself included – were standing in the back, following their kids around the backyard, or running in and out of the house to grab things.

You could argue that, by doing all that, by not fully attending to the pooja, we weren’t exactly celebrating the birthday girl.

I’d argue the opposite.

I’d say that every single thing taking place in that space was a celebration of Nani.

Her great-grandkids running in circles. Her grandkids trying to feed their children and make sure they weren’t going to dive into the pool.

We had Mamas and Papas spoon-feeding their kiddos khichdi, Nanis and Dadis singing Itsy-Bitsy spider to their grandbabies, a revolving bedroom door where people took their kids up to nap for a bit.

We had mirchi paneer and masala dosa, hot cacao and masala chai, and pistachio kulfi and birthday cake.

In the late afternoon/early evening, the kids used the sound system to karaoke to Hamilton and Michael Jackson. There was dancing and lip syncing and crying and laughter and so much palpable love and joy shared on that special day.

It was all a celebration of Nani.

The community. The loud, in-your-face and in-your-space village of people that are connected to one another because of their shared love for this woman.

We’ve never done well with sit-down and stay-quiet events. We’re loud. We’re proud. We’re a product of this beautiful human.