I do this all the time... this last minute scrambling. For weeks I have been seeing ads, and more ads of the Great Indian Festival, Diwali sales and what not. I didn't budge. I snorted in disgust at this blatant attempt of conning people into spending their hard earned money. I was not going to sway. There was no necessity to, in the first place, I told myself. I don't celebrate Diwali and S was not very picky himself. So I sat through it all, until suddenly the Gang decided to come over to our place to watch fireworks for Diwali. That turned things around. From sitting on the side and smirking smugly at the whole jamboree, I now suddenly seemed to have become a part of it. I was now pushed to being a hostess.
Our building is best suited for this pass time as it was bang in the center of a large North Indian population and the skyline on the days leading up to Diwali is generally lit up in giant sparkling colours. It is such fun watching the fireworks from atop the ninth floor of a building. We had a similar gathering last year and were gung-ho about doing so this year too. The Gang wanted to make it a pot luck, but S and I thought we could swing it on our own. Everyone kept saying how it was only to watch the fireworks and to spend time together. But we knew how when we all got together food and the bonhomie binds us so much. So a bit of effort was needed. With one of the gang members, Sa being a dependable contribution to our dinner, we were quite sure things would work out alright in the food front.
But according to Mindy Kaling I had already failed at hosting this dinner.
Mindy Kaling
“I believe the potluck tradition of entertaining is the equivalent of a teenage boy wanting to have sex with his girlfriend but who is too scared to go to CVS to buy condoms. If you can’t handle providing all the courses for your dinner party, you can’t handle the hosting duties of a dinner party.” —Why Not Me?, September 2015
Still, I was channeling Elizabeth Gilbert, my hero. I am happy to report that S's and my intentions match her idea of a good dinner party.
Elizabeth Gilbert
“I consider a good dinner party at our house to be where people drink and eat more than they’re meant to. My husband is a really fantastic cook. His mother is Italian and if you walk into our house, we assume you’re starving. And we also assume that you’re thirsty and that you need good caipirinhas and wine, so there’s a lot of running around, filling up glasses and plates.” —GQ, May 2012
That left making the other part of the evening memorable to me. For S, the very opportunity to sit and spend time with his friends was worthy of being memorable. Not for me. I was of course, trying to get my name into The Novice Hostess' Attempt to Become a Pro list. The over zealous (because it was soo last minute) me thought of gifting the ladies some thing small to make Diwali sweet. The usual sweet box did not count as gift, however sweet it might be. If in fact that was what I had in mind, my options were plenty; life would have been simpler. Amazon, Big Basket and myriad other places were delivering gift boxes, chocolate boxes and nuts to make excellent Diwali gifts. But not for me...oh no. I checked for something different, without realizing that the only thing different I had any luck of getting delivered to me with 24 - 48 hours to go for the festival of lights, was the combo packs that were available on the said websites. Different to me meant a little bit of exotic and/or useful and aesthetic stuff at affordable price.Getting exotic stuff - easy, peasy. Getting aesthetic, useful stuff - very, very easy. But getting all this delivered before Diwali - impossible. There are some things that money can't buy. Like, pre-scheduling a tube light moment. Duh!
Still I ambitiously scoured through Amazon's Big Indian sale and Flipkart's Big Diwali Sale and Big Basket for last minute stuff. I did grab a few good products but after lusting over it and going through various angles of the product, I realize that they assure me of delivery on or before 22 Oct. What?! I rued my initial reaction to all the hype. There indeed were some good stuff if you knew where to look - luxurious soaps and perfumes, spa items, organizers, cookie jars, scarves, lipsticks etc etc. But none that could be delivered in 48 hours...even for a Prime member of Amazon. And Big Basket didn't entertain any deliveries until after 7:30pm on 18th October, the very day the Gang was to land up.
The sudden, welcome showers didn't help one bit and the absurdly choc-o-block traffic made it impossible to try getting something on the way back from work. And I did what we last minute dare devils usually do...close my eyes and hope to Lord that by some miracle the day passes up to expectations. Eventually I came across a hamper of exotic spa that I had purchased on an impulse (see, it is good to be impulsive) and split the contents among the guests. I am sure it reflected my impulsive, ermmm loving nature, and would give a nod to the fact that I do love pampering my friends even if I did a shoddy job of gifting them one.
So what should have been this...
Ended up being this...
Anyway, what I really wanted to say through this post was that in spite of the advances in online shopping, the only thing that can save a last minute shopper on a day like this is to get their butt out of the house, bear the crowds and physically shop for Diwali...in other words, become the infamous "last minute shopper" in view of the whole world.
And if you are a host who has an impulsive nature...kill it; if you are a host who does not get the whole picture of a festival that you don't celebrate...delegate that bit; better still, delegate the whole hosting to someone whose cup of tea that is.
But according to Mindy Kaling I had already failed at hosting this dinner.
Mindy Kaling
“I believe the potluck tradition of entertaining is the equivalent of a teenage boy wanting to have sex with his girlfriend but who is too scared to go to CVS to buy condoms. If you can’t handle providing all the courses for your dinner party, you can’t handle the hosting duties of a dinner party.” —Why Not Me?, September 2015
Still, I was channeling Elizabeth Gilbert, my hero. I am happy to report that S's and my intentions match her idea of a good dinner party.
Elizabeth Gilbert
“I consider a good dinner party at our house to be where people drink and eat more than they’re meant to. My husband is a really fantastic cook. His mother is Italian and if you walk into our house, we assume you’re starving. And we also assume that you’re thirsty and that you need good caipirinhas and wine, so there’s a lot of running around, filling up glasses and plates.” —GQ, May 2012
That left making the other part of the evening memorable to me. For S, the very opportunity to sit and spend time with his friends was worthy of being memorable. Not for me. I was of course, trying to get my name into The Novice Hostess' Attempt to Become a Pro list. The over zealous (because it was soo last minute) me thought of gifting the ladies some thing small to make Diwali sweet. The usual sweet box did not count as gift, however sweet it might be. If in fact that was what I had in mind, my options were plenty; life would have been simpler. Amazon, Big Basket and myriad other places were delivering gift boxes, chocolate boxes and nuts to make excellent Diwali gifts. But not for me...oh no. I checked for something different, without realizing that the only thing different I had any luck of getting delivered to me with 24 - 48 hours to go for the festival of lights, was the combo packs that were available on the said websites. Different to me meant a little bit of exotic and/or useful and aesthetic stuff at affordable price.Getting exotic stuff - easy, peasy. Getting aesthetic, useful stuff - very, very easy. But getting all this delivered before Diwali - impossible. There are some things that money can't buy. Like, pre-scheduling a tube light moment. Duh!
Still I ambitiously scoured through Amazon's Big Indian sale and Flipkart's Big Diwali Sale and Big Basket for last minute stuff. I did grab a few good products but after lusting over it and going through various angles of the product, I realize that they assure me of delivery on or before 22 Oct. What?! I rued my initial reaction to all the hype. There indeed were some good stuff if you knew where to look - luxurious soaps and perfumes, spa items, organizers, cookie jars, scarves, lipsticks etc etc. But none that could be delivered in 48 hours...even for a Prime member of Amazon. And Big Basket didn't entertain any deliveries until after 7:30pm on 18th October, the very day the Gang was to land up.
The sudden, welcome showers didn't help one bit and the absurdly choc-o-block traffic made it impossible to try getting something on the way back from work. And I did what we last minute dare devils usually do...close my eyes and hope to Lord that by some miracle the day passes up to expectations. Eventually I came across a hamper of exotic spa that I had purchased on an impulse (see, it is good to be impulsive) and split the contents among the guests. I am sure it reflected my impulsive, ermmm loving nature, and would give a nod to the fact that I do love pampering my friends even if I did a shoddy job of gifting them one.
So what should have been this...
Anyway, what I really wanted to say through this post was that in spite of the advances in online shopping, the only thing that can save a last minute shopper on a day like this is to get their butt out of the house, bear the crowds and physically shop for Diwali...in other words, become the infamous "last minute shopper" in view of the whole world.
And if you are a host who has an impulsive nature...kill it; if you are a host who does not get the whole picture of a festival that you don't celebrate...delegate that bit; better still, delegate the whole hosting to someone whose cup of tea that is.
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