Playing Hostess
I have built some sort of a reputation among my social circles as a party organizer. In fact, a friend of mine from Hong Kong recently asked me to organize his reunion dinner/party during his weekend visit to Singapore after four years, because he'd heard about the parties I've thrown previously. An international reputation - what next? :)
I have always been one to take charge of any social gathering and play hostess, even if I am invited as a guest. I remember fondly the big Mallu gatherings for Onam a couple of times, when I would get to display my hospitality in its full glory, at other people's parties :P But the first party that I handled on my own was for Varun's birthday in Dec 2006. I shopped for the party, dashed about between the two floors of the house to serve drinks, keep the snacks flowing, put together simple finger food, clean up the shattered bottle, and what not. Everybody loved the party, which went on till 10am. I'd passed out of exhaustion by 6am but the guests were well-fed throughout.
Then there was the tenCube retreat for three days and two nights which involved two intense hours of grocery shopping for the big BBQ, and arranging food and supplies for the next couple of days, apart from which, I also took minutes for all the endless sessions/meetings.
That was followed by Ritwik's belated birthday party for which I drew up the guest list, invited everyone and persuaded a good number of them to come to the other end of the island, shopped and COOKED *gasp* And hey, I can cook pretty well too, much to everyone's surprise! And of course, there was the big gathering of all my friends when my parents were in town, with fabulous catered Kerala cuisine, at Tito's place.
Then there was Vikram-Sebastian-Darius' combined birthday plus St. Patrick's Day celebration party - purchasing decoration and face paint for the theme party, handling difficult people, choosing a caterer, deciding on a menu and budget, planning for 100-120 guests and so on. Mind you, the party was on the same day that I ran the 5k women's race, watched a jazz concert and arrived at the party when it was halfway through [ Wow, I'm Superwoman ;) ]
During the course of these numerous events (more than those mentioned above), I have often thought about doing this as a part-time job, especially after I came across websites of some fantastic event management companies, such as Purple Sage and Mercury. I don't know about that yet but making some dough out of this is not a half bad idea, so if you're looking for someone to organize a party or two, ping me :) Hopefully, the events are not in the next few months because I have to get my damned exams out of the way, followed by extensive post-graduation travelling. So keep me posted about events from July. Thanks.
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Lest it seem like I handled EVERYthing on my own (which wouldn't be possible, even for Superwoman :P), thank you to all those who helped in so many ways - Ritwik, Tito, Divya, Rohit, Ivy, Manikandan, Darius, etc. Could not have done it without your help at various events :) And thanks also to my Army upbringing, which has taught me to socialize and host parties like a pro, if nothing else :D
I have always been one to take charge of any social gathering and play hostess, even if I am invited as a guest. I remember fondly the big Mallu gatherings for Onam a couple of times, when I would get to display my hospitality in its full glory, at other people's parties :P But the first party that I handled on my own was for Varun's birthday in Dec 2006. I shopped for the party, dashed about between the two floors of the house to serve drinks, keep the snacks flowing, put together simple finger food, clean up the shattered bottle, and what not. Everybody loved the party, which went on till 10am. I'd passed out of exhaustion by 6am but the guests were well-fed throughout.
Then there was the tenCube retreat for three days and two nights which involved two intense hours of grocery shopping for the big BBQ, and arranging food and supplies for the next couple of days, apart from which, I also took minutes for all the endless sessions/meetings.
That was followed by Ritwik's belated birthday party for which I drew up the guest list, invited everyone and persuaded a good number of them to come to the other end of the island, shopped and COOKED *gasp* And hey, I can cook pretty well too, much to everyone's surprise! And of course, there was the big gathering of all my friends when my parents were in town, with fabulous catered Kerala cuisine, at Tito's place.
Then there was Vikram-Sebastian-Darius' combined birthday plus St. Patrick's Day celebration party - purchasing decoration and face paint for the theme party, handling difficult people, choosing a caterer, deciding on a menu and budget, planning for 100-120 guests and so on. Mind you, the party was on the same day that I ran the 5k women's race, watched a jazz concert and arrived at the party when it was halfway through [ Wow, I'm Superwoman ;) ]
During the course of these numerous events (more than those mentioned above), I have often thought about doing this as a part-time job, especially after I came across websites of some fantastic event management companies, such as Purple Sage and Mercury. I don't know about that yet but making some dough out of this is not a half bad idea, so if you're looking for someone to organize a party or two, ping me :) Hopefully, the events are not in the next few months because I have to get my damned exams out of the way, followed by extensive post-graduation travelling. So keep me posted about events from July. Thanks.
---
Lest it seem like I handled EVERYthing on my own (which wouldn't be possible, even for Superwoman :P), thank you to all those who helped in so many ways - Ritwik, Tito, Divya, Rohit, Ivy, Manikandan, Darius, etc. Could not have done it without your help at various events :) And thanks also to my Army upbringing, which has taught me to socialize and host parties like a pro, if nothing else :D