Noyon’s Birthday
5th March was Noyon’s birthday… That morning, Rayhana was dressed in a pretty sari and was waiting to catch Jess & I as we were walking out to catch a CNG for work… She anxiously asked us if we were going back to Pathshala for dinner… We weren’t sure… That’s when she revealed that it was Noyon’s birthday and they were inviting us for dinner! The news was confirmed by Mothi who caught us again, after we parted with Rayhana, to tell us that it’s Noyon’s birthday…
Yup… They really wanted us to be there… =)
The timing couldn’t have been better… The night before, Jess & I had gone shopping at new elephant road… We bought a lot of accessories and things… I even bought a necklace and earring set to match my green salwar kameez (it’s made of silk and muslin, I believe… The shopkeeper said it’s silk and muslim… but that doesn’t make any sense.)
The thing is, at one shop, I told Jess that I wanted to give Noyon a toy guitar so that he could play with it, the way he plays with mine… Then I looked up… and saw that they did sell toy guitars there! I bought a very nice black one with glitter on it. Came with a little pick too!
My only dilemma was when I should give Noyon the toy... I didn’t want to keep giving him toys when there was no occasion, I was going to spoil him silly that way… It’s a taste of how I’m gonna spoil all my own kids or my sisters’ kids in future… I even thought I wouldn’t give it to him until I left for good in June… But the birthday was a very cool opportunity to give it to him…
Jess & I came back late from work that day, because we had some video logging to do… (That’s our main work now…And it’s really tedious…) But that was ok… The party started later than that… Noyon came to my room looking very smart with slicked up hair, a nice little shirt and pants… He looked so handsome I had to take pictures of him… Even took pictures of him playing with his new guitar…
The gift presentation was funny too… I took it out of my cupboard… And wouldn’t show it to him… His eyes lit up! He knew that it was for him…And kept on asking me to give it to him… Even voluntarily said please and thank you… The best was, I got two kisses out of him… He really looked very happy when I finally presented it to him.
It was a real party on the Pathshala rooftop! There were balloons and Mothi had a radio on playing some bangla children’s songs. One of the songs on the CD was happy birthday… So we didn’t even have to sing the birthday song for Noyon.
Noyon was the cheekiest birthday boy ever… He blew out the candles before his dad had the chance to take pictures of him… So the candles had to be lit again… He was so excited to cut the cake that he was running around with the knife before the cake was even brought out… Once he cut the first piece, Rayhana took over… But Noyon didn’t have enough… Whenever Rayhana had her back turned, Noyon would go back to the cake and attempt to cut another piece, which he successfully did once. Rayhana had to take the cake away…
But remember… This is Noyon we are talking about… The dirty/nongra Noyon… He was dancing to the music with a plate of cake in his hand… The cake fell on the floor of cos… He picked it up and blew at it, as if that would remove the dirt from it… And attempted to eat it… Good thing someone took it away from him…
After cake, we had dinner… Jess & I had the privilege of dining with Noyon’s family… And have his birthday pulau and mutton curry… It was fantastic! But Noyon spilled drinks on the floor and on the bed… Nothing new… I’m just very amazed by how unfazed Rayhana is by all this… She nonchalantly scooped up all the mess and went back to being the host! Noyon has a cool mum I tell you…
So now, Noyon is 5 years old. An older, cuter and smarter little boy he’s going to be… Hopefully cleaner too… Jess & I have been teaching him to wash his hands… And he’s doing it quite willingly now… Think if we keep it up, he’s going to be very mild-mannered and polite by the time we leave Dhaka…
Strangely, I just thought of Noyon as Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes… if you don’t know about this comic, you should be ashamed and run to the nearest borders to get the whole collection and read it!)… So now he’s normal Calvin… If we succeed, then he’d become the mild-mannered alter ego Calvin. “The physical manifestation of Calvin’s good side.” Cool huh!
Yup… They really wanted us to be there… =)
The timing couldn’t have been better… The night before, Jess & I had gone shopping at new elephant road… We bought a lot of accessories and things… I even bought a necklace and earring set to match my green salwar kameez (it’s made of silk and muslin, I believe… The shopkeeper said it’s silk and muslim… but that doesn’t make any sense.)
The thing is, at one shop, I told Jess that I wanted to give Noyon a toy guitar so that he could play with it, the way he plays with mine… Then I looked up… and saw that they did sell toy guitars there! I bought a very nice black one with glitter on it. Came with a little pick too!
My only dilemma was when I should give Noyon the toy... I didn’t want to keep giving him toys when there was no occasion, I was going to spoil him silly that way… It’s a taste of how I’m gonna spoil all my own kids or my sisters’ kids in future… I even thought I wouldn’t give it to him until I left for good in June… But the birthday was a very cool opportunity to give it to him…
Jess & I came back late from work that day, because we had some video logging to do… (That’s our main work now…And it’s really tedious…) But that was ok… The party started later than that… Noyon came to my room looking very smart with slicked up hair, a nice little shirt and pants… He looked so handsome I had to take pictures of him… Even took pictures of him playing with his new guitar…
The gift presentation was funny too… I took it out of my cupboard… And wouldn’t show it to him… His eyes lit up! He knew that it was for him…And kept on asking me to give it to him… Even voluntarily said please and thank you… The best was, I got two kisses out of him… He really looked very happy when I finally presented it to him.
It was a real party on the Pathshala rooftop! There were balloons and Mothi had a radio on playing some bangla children’s songs. One of the songs on the CD was happy birthday… So we didn’t even have to sing the birthday song for Noyon.
Noyon was the cheekiest birthday boy ever… He blew out the candles before his dad had the chance to take pictures of him… So the candles had to be lit again… He was so excited to cut the cake that he was running around with the knife before the cake was even brought out… Once he cut the first piece, Rayhana took over… But Noyon didn’t have enough… Whenever Rayhana had her back turned, Noyon would go back to the cake and attempt to cut another piece, which he successfully did once. Rayhana had to take the cake away…
But remember… This is Noyon we are talking about… The dirty/nongra Noyon… He was dancing to the music with a plate of cake in his hand… The cake fell on the floor of cos… He picked it up and blew at it, as if that would remove the dirt from it… And attempted to eat it… Good thing someone took it away from him…
After cake, we had dinner… Jess & I had the privilege of dining with Noyon’s family… And have his birthday pulau and mutton curry… It was fantastic! But Noyon spilled drinks on the floor and on the bed… Nothing new… I’m just very amazed by how unfazed Rayhana is by all this… She nonchalantly scooped up all the mess and went back to being the host! Noyon has a cool mum I tell you…
So now, Noyon is 5 years old. An older, cuter and smarter little boy he’s going to be… Hopefully cleaner too… Jess & I have been teaching him to wash his hands… And he’s doing it quite willingly now… Think if we keep it up, he’s going to be very mild-mannered and polite by the time we leave Dhaka…
Strangely, I just thought of Noyon as Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes… if you don’t know about this comic, you should be ashamed and run to the nearest borders to get the whole collection and read it!)… So now he’s normal Calvin… If we succeed, then he’d become the mild-mannered alter ego Calvin. “The physical manifestation of Calvin’s good side.” Cool huh!
posted by thebemusedphotog @ 2:00 PM
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