Shruti Goradia's Posts
Birthday No. 1!
To make my husband's 30th birthday his most memorable yet - I enlisted a few friends and brainstormed on a theme for a fun party. After rejecting a bunch of ideas based on what he loves - like sports, computers, poker, we settled on his favorite actor - Govinda.
Govinda is a very popular Indian actor, known for his great comic timing, awesome (sometimes ridiculous) dance steps and garish costumes - with great ease he dons yellow pants and a purple shirt, loud prints and lots of shimmer. (Why my husband likes him is beyond me). All these idiosyncrasies made for a great theme and a potentially fun birthday party.
To establish the theme, I downloaded some of Govinda's movie posters, superimposed Vishal's photographs on them in Photoshop and hung them all over our living room along with multi-colored party paraphernalia. All the invitees obliged and dressed as the actor (the girls chose outfits from his leading ladies). A friend from NY sent me a DVD with his music videos that we grooved to.
All the planning and execution for the party was done in a week's time with the help of our friends who rolled up their sleeves and worked with me late into the night.
We spent most of our time on the piece-de-resistance - a collage capturing Vishal's 30 years. Govinda starred in a bunch of movies with a 'No. 1' in their title - 'Hero No.1', 'Coolie No.1', 'Aunty No. 1', etc. Deriving inspiration from the movie titles, I used pictures of Vishal from his childhood to now - with the captions reading 'Baby No. 1', 'Sportsman No.1', 'Friend No. 1' 'Husband No. 1'. etc.
Not wanting to destroy any of the original pictures:
- I scanned all the pictures
- Re-printed them
- Cut them, laid them out and then stuck them to form the collage.
- To ensure the longevity of the collage, I used archival quality paper for printing and the mounting and framed the whole piece. Well actually, I split the collage into 2 frames - one of his childhood and one of more recent years (30 years worth of pictures is a lot of pictures).
The party was a huge success. The movie posters, the collage, the music videos, everyone's outfits and enthusiasm were just the perfect recipe for Vishal's best birthday ever (until he turns 40!).
What have you done for a special occasion?
