Feb 9 was also George's birthday and so it was a double celebration of sorts - though the emphasis was of course on Alice.

Since both George & Rana were in Kerala it was decided that we should hold a surprise birthday party for Alice and Reena - Alice's youngest sibling was part of a fairly complicated plan to create the environment for the occasion so that we would all turn up at Kunnumkulam to surprise Alice and her family - since none of them were aware of the planned surprise. Reena called Alice to say that she would be nearby on business and would drop in briefly to see her. This was partly to ensure that everyone was going to be there when we turned up for the occasion.

We had also made plans for lunch to be catered by a restaurant close by where Alice and family would sometimes dine. We managed through to find out what types of dishes they liked to eat at the restaurant - it turned out that Alice loves some Chinese dishes - fried rice, mixed noodles and chilli chicken to name a few but Kunjumon only likes "nadan" food and so the needs of different family members had to be taken into account in determining what to order for the occasion.

George & Rana together with Leela & Mini arrived in Kunnumkulam around 11:30 am to the TOTAL surprise of Alice and her entire family. Reena was already there with Suresh, Jikku and Akku - they having arrived a little earlier. Thereafter we spent several hours reminiscing, joking and being entertained by little Saira who was thoroughly enjoyed the attention she was getting from the family members who were assembled.

Lunch was served around 2:00 pm - and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Arun and Kunjumon had to alternate in terms of joining us since their business was open and someone had to be there to take care of the customers. Since Alice - as the birthday girl - was not allowed to perform any of the domestic functions relating to the occasion and so Jinnu had to take the lead role in that respect.

The surprise element - plus the need for people to travel considerable distances to get to Kunnumkulam - meant that we could not bring along a suitable birthday cake for the occasion but Reena did bring a plum cake and a regular cake, from Kottayam, as a subsitute which both Alice & George jointly cut to the accompaniment of a little out of tune "happy birthday". We gave Alice a gold pendant as a birthday gift.

After some picture taking to mark the occasion, we all left for our respective abodes.

We were all very glad to be able to share in Alice's special day!