Honoring Mama on her 80th!

This was a momentous occasion for us as brothers and sisters to have the opportunity to honour our mother on her eightieth birthday and I am grateful to God for this. It was a total surprise for her as she thought that there would be a prayer meeting and dinner on her birthday and that was about it. But her day began as usual with all the birthday phonecalls from far and wide. We had planned this elaborate day for her about a month and a half in advance. We planned to arrive in Chandigarh the day before and surprise her on the morning of her birthday and what a surprise it was! Not only was she shocked to see Nafisa and me but also my cousin Vimal and his wife Aruna and kids Sahil and Rhea and also my cousin Premal from Allahabad as well. Then the grandchildren hijacked her to have lunch and spend the day at my sister's home, while we got busy getting the house done and the preparations for not only the prayer meeting with Punjabi Zaburs and songs by the Chandigarh Bible Fellowship, but also the dinner for about fifty odd people with the shamiana being put outside and the catering to be done. By the time she got home in the evening, she knew that this was bigger than she had thought of.

Well, the evening was such a joy, because it started with Rohini participating from Canada via Skype on video. Mama got her big gift from us all - a lovely Lenovo computer with easy access to the internet and the use of Skype! Talk about being zapped, even though she has emailed a little and skyped a bit, Mama never thought that she could own her own computer since she can't see very well. This computer is a big size one and she can see the print in large size and even though she takes her time, she can get by, and the joy of talking to her loved ones is well worth it for her! Shalini and Amal, Sushant and Kavita had organized the whole thing to a T, even doing the test run on the Skype secretly from Kavita's office on her laptop late in the night, with Mama thinking that Kavita is really working overtime! Kavita also worked hard on making a lovely scrapbook with all Mama's siblings and in-laws, children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews and friends putting in their handwritten bit and this was presented to her as well.

The fun part of it was the grandkids singing "We are Family" for her with the accompaniment from Diya's cellphone. Later, the children sang a song, penned by me with inputs from Kavita and Rohini and Rohini giving us the tune, which she taught us through voicemail to every one of us. We were able to put it together quite decently for Mama and she was touched and amused by it! Proshant, Nihar and Siddy and Viky got Mama a cake in the shape of a huge 80, very pretty and very tasty. The fellowship was good and so was the meal. Mama enjoyed it and so did we.

Shuniela Rubra was born on April 10, eighty years ago to Anand Benjamin and Sushila Chandulal, their eldest child, in Simla. She had two younger brothers - Jangbahadur Anandswaroop and Asanand Allahyar. Soon after her youngest brother's birth, her parents shifted to Narowal in Pakistan where her father pastored a village church. He died when she was seven years old and she studied in the boarding at Kinnaird School, Lahore. When she was in her first year at Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, Pakistan came into being and her mother, grandmother and brothers had to be uprooted from the family home in Narowal and come to Tarn Taran in Punjab, India where they started life afresh. That is where she met her future husband, Eric Das, the youngest son of Dr. & Mrs. Andrew Prabhu Das. Eric insisted on marrying Shuniela inspite of her not having completed her college and her mother was constrained to agree, so at eighteen Shuniela Chandulal became Shuniela Das. She had five children, Rohini being the eldest, then Shalini, and myself, then Sushant and finally Proshant. By that time Chandigarh the new city of independent India had come into being and Eric and Shuniela made their home there. Shuniela completed her education with Eric's support and then went on to become a teacher, teaching at Auckland House School and St. Edward's School in Simla and later at St. John's School in Chandigarh. She became a proud grandmother in 1977 when Karan was born and has six other grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She took premature retirement in order to look after her ailing husband in 1987 when he had a stroke which paralysed him partially. She became a widow in 1995 but has participated vigorously in looking after her various grandchildren from time to time. She is an enthusiastic churchgoer and attends two churches on most Sundays - the Chandigarh Bible Fellowship where her son Sushant is one of the elders and she is part of their worship team as well as the small cell group and she has her own prayer group that meets on Tuesday mornings and then she attends the evening service at the Christ Church CNI where she is part of the evening church choir. She is a social lady, and still is in touch with some of her school friends; she attends on occasion my father's retired Forest Dept. group that meets once a month; she goes for her walk in the neighbourhood and has a different set of friends nearby and she connects with her old teaching colleagues now and then. She loves spending time with the younger generation!

I never attended such a hi-tech birthday as this and I'm happy that Mama's eightieth birthday was the first one. May God bless Mama with shalom peace for the rest of her time before eternity!