Pre-poned Birthday Celebration

Our time here is slipping away. Today Joyce and Sekar planned and held a small early birthday celebration for Kaia since we’ll have left India by the time his real birthday comes up on the 21^st. They had been planning for a few weeks to celebrate his birthday together and they both took off the entire morning and afternoon to prepare for the event. They didn’t tell us where it would be held, only that it would be for dinner and that they would be treating us.

They picked Basera, mostly because Sekar knows that Kaia loves their playground and food. Basera serves a wide menu but they’re really known for their kabobs, which are succulent and very tasty. We arrived at 7:00pm, right when they open for dinner (much earlier that either Joyce or Sekar usually eat dinner, which is around 930-1000pm). Joyce had purchased a beautiful new red sari for the occasion and even Sekar was dressed in semi-formal attire.

In the trunk (which we were instructed not to open) they pulled out a black forest birthday cake and a large box wrapped in silver paper and we all walked into the restaurant. Kaia was very interested in eating the cake, so we actually led off the evening lighting the candles and singing happy birthday, even before the menus arrived! On the cake was an airplane because Joyce knows how much Kaia loves airplanes and that he’ll be taking off on one very soon.

We enjoyed a very nice meal together and, of course, Kaia was fixated on the large box. He finished his meal and it was a steady stream of “open it! open it!” Finally, we relented and we tore into it with Joyce at his side. What was inside were two very thoughtful gifts—a train set and a small drum/tambourine. Joyce and Kaia have enjoyed making music together, often turning over the laundry baskets and pots and pans to use for drum sets, and Sekar knows that Kaia’s cheap plastic “Super Expresss Train (yes the box has that many sses)”, is falling apart. Expectedly, Kaia was estatic and right there on the restaurant floor he was interested in setting everything up.

It was a very special and memorable night for all of us and the emotion was hard to control at times. Seeing the deep love that these two people have for Kaia, and he for them, and knowing that soon they will be apart just breaks my heart. He has already started to say that he doesn’t want to “leave India, India is my home!” and I know that it isn’t going to get any easier.

Why I Love this Time: Through his close relationships with Joyce and Sekar he has a very different understanding of family and love for others. I hope that it will be something that he carries with him for his entire life.