Birthdays Plus

President Joseph had his 41st birthday on May 16 while his wife was in Bangalore enjoying cooler weather with relatives. He didn't want to celebrate alone so he brought a cake and invited a couple of people and we had a Happy Birthday for him at our apartment. The candle is quite clever, opening up when the center candle is lit after which it plays Happy Birthday incessantly. It was still playing the next morning when we put out the trash. Well wishers included Pavan who is secretly in love with Sravani, next to him, who is a sister to Deleep, next to her. We say "secretly" because Sravani let me know that not even her brother knows and in India it just isn't kosher to pay any attention to someone of the opposite sex. Since the population here is 1.1 billion, the arranged marriages seem to be working on that score but little else. As much as mother friends and I would sometimes commiserate, "Too bad we can't arrange a marriage for our children," we can see here that such uniting and all that goes with it is very detrimental in a score of ways.

First birthdays are a really big deal here--sort of a coming out party. This one is for Jason, son of Sangeetha and Praveen in 2nd Branch held on the roof of their apartment building. The little girl below on the right is the oldest child of President Vinod, 2nd Branch and her name is Karen. I'm running into more Karens in India than I've seen in my life.

Couldn't resist this picture of some of our favorite men all grouped together by chance between meetings. Hanok became familiar to us after his role as Brother Williams in the Christmas video. Rajesh is looking for a wife but afraid to follow the advice we gave him. He's the only member in his family and wants a good Mormon girl. Prahalad is 1st Branch mission leader and recently baptized his mother and cousin brother (cousins are called cousin brother or cousin sister). His mother can't speak English but was permitted to join because her two children are members. She is such a sweetheart. We always hug--our best way of communicating. Prahalad (we used to call him Rocky, his easy nickname) is taking piano. Rajesh you've seen before (married to Mary) has developed a close relationship with us for various reasons. He doesn't want it known and there are several Indian members who have discovered our blog and are reading it. Boddu is married to Vani (you've seen him too). He and Vani just learned she is pregnant which they have both yearned for for several years and plan a temple trip for sealing in the next few months. Boddu recently fixed our fan that had stopped working. Now we've got to ask him about our washing machine. Kishore is married to Padmaja and both are dear to us--both are strong and devoted.