My 60th B'day bash

The day began with a treasure hunt set up by my wife to make me hunt for my B'day gifts and in true cruciverbalist fashion the pointers to the locations were in the form of clues which she set up with help from the Chief of the Research &Analysis Wing of THCC namely Kishore

 Pondering over the 'PUZZLE' clue which was

"Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)"

The PUZZLE being the Jigsaw CW given to me by Gita Iyer at the first S&B meet. 

 Retrieving one of the gifts from the 'GRINDER' which was clued as 

"Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)"

Another present, a SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS phone from my wife that was hidden in the BAR

"Lawyers prevent going to the liquor cabinet (3)"

The final gift a 'SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE' from my Sons and daughter-in-law hidden in my FIAT MILLICENTO

"A thousand one hundred ride on four wheels (10)"

At the location of the surprise B'day bash (Kochhar Institute)

The chief organiser, my wife Gita, welcoming the gathering

With Kishore

 Mrs Devanathan, Shuchi and Devanathan (Arden)

 The two B'day boys, my younger son Gaurav who turned 30 (he surprised all of us including my wife by landing up in the morning) and self

 Some of the guests waiting for the cake to be cut

 The Birthday cake

 That looks too delicious to be cut

 Self explanatory

A hug from my mother, seen in the background are my m-i-l and f-i-l, the three of them are at 87, 86 and 92 respectively

Egged on by the guests the B'day boys downed a bottle of Champagne each

A hug from my better half

And a kiss as well. I must congratulate my wife for all the effort she put in to organise the function especially the effort that she went through to keep it secret from me, in which she succeded

Singing my favourite song 'Surangani'

Watch it 

Tired after all the Vodka, Champagne and opening of the gifts at the end of the day

These were the clues of the treasure hunt in the sequence in which they were set out, I have given the answers first so that they can be appreciated, as some of them relate to items around my house and you'll may not have any idea as to what the item is.

DOG COLLAR - Priestly accessory worn by Cocoa (3,6)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA - Wikipedia's predecessors in black and white usually went before Britannica (13)
EGG-TRAY - Place where chickens' ancestors and descendants reside, a cluth of nothings (3-4)
PAPA'S-PHOTO - Italian pope's picture shows the first Colonel in the family (4'1-5)
AVNI's PHOTO - Grand-daughter countenance that looks back from this drinking utensil (4'1,5)
KINGFISHER BEER - Drink got by Buzzer right after the royal angler leads (10,4)

GRINDER - Smile, the German machine is in the kitchen (7)
ORANGE JUICE - Citrus extract has zero range, but has electricity (6,5)
PUZZLE - Surprise, non-plus and befuddle with the broken down crossword to put together? (6)
INVERTOR - Electrical gadget that puts things right or upside down? (8)
NUTS - Contents of Pandora's box are not balanced kept in the fridge (4)
ANDAMAN CHAIR - Island seat found when a guy was covered with a squashed arachnid (7,5)
TOOL BOX - Where you may find a Gimlet, a screwdriver and, maybe, even a Rusty Nail without having to make them (4,3)
HELMET - Protection for the chief: wear it or face a fine (6)
 and finally 'BAR' and 'MILLICENTO' clues for which are already shown above.

Thanks to Kishore for helping my wife to set that up.

And last but not the least a big big thanks to my wife for the treasure hunt and the surprise party that followed.

And above all she set up a online site to allow all my friends and relatives to wish me online at WEEBLY. I would like to thank all those who wished me there.

The millionth pageview of THCC

The moment before the millionth view

and the next page at the millionth view

CV meets Raju at Coimbatore

Rishikesh aka Gridman and Raju had a one on one at Coimbatore on the 21st of Sep. Here are the snaps.

An engrossed setter browsing the collectors collection.

The setter with a collector.

An evening with Arden

Spent a pleasant evening at Bowring Institute, Bangalore with Arden playing host.

David and Arden

Kishore and David

David, Arden, Self and Kishore 

 Kishore and David

Junior Kishore (Kaushal) and Kishore

Kaushal, Kishore, David, Arden and Self

At RSI with Suresh & Kishore 23 Aug 12

Had a pleasant evening with Suresh and Kishore at RSI Bangalore in pelting rain.

 Suresh and Kishore exchanging notes

Self, Suresh and Kishore waiting for the downpour to get over and head home.

Dinner with Raju at Coimbatore 21 Aug 12

Had a pleasent evening at home in Coimbatore with Raju and his wife Sapna along with my sister, her husband and common friends of theirs IK Govind (who retired as DGP of Tamilnadu) and his wife Raji, all (except me and my b-i-l) being theatre buffs, I'm sure Shuchi being one herself would have enjoyed their company too. Few pictures below.

 Sapna & Raju Umamaheshwar

 Sapna & Raju

Sapna, Raju, Satyanarayan (my b-i-l), Nirmala (my sister), Raji Govind, DGP IK Govind (Retd) and Self

S & B 5 at Bangalore 12 Aug 12

It definitely was a memorable evening and we all had a great time. Thanks to Kishore, Gita, Kuldeep and  Kaushal for being such wonderful hosts. Photographs speak for themselves.

 The welcome board created by Kishore. Please solve the clues and post in the comments.

Rishikesh aka Gridman, Kishore, Sujeet and Richard

Tanu Kulkarni from The HINDU, Gita Iyer and Shuchi

 Devanathan aka Arden

 Richard, Khushnoor and Tanu Kulkarni

Rishikesh, Bhargav, Kishore, Richard and Shuchi

 Richard, Shuchi, Khushnoor, Sujeet and Gita

Tanu Kulkarni, Rishikesh and Bhargav

Standing L to R - Kishore, Shuchi, Richard, Padmanabhan, Devanathan, Gita Iyer, Bhargav, Sujeet and Self

Sitting L to R - Khushnoor, Gita Gopinath, Rishhikesh, Gita Kishore and Tanu Kulkarni

 Gita Iyer, Shuchi, Gita Gopinath

 Devanathan, Kishore, Padmanabhan and Bhargav

 Self, Padmanabhan and Kishore tucking in

Three Gitas of the THCC Family Kishore, Iyer and Gopinath

Read about the event at this link.

Kishore's trip to Chennai Jul 12

Report by Kishore

I had been to Chennai (somehow I still call it Madras) over the last weekend to call in on Uncle Sam's consuls to get their green signal for my proposed sojourn to the US of A. CV was kind enough to help me with the hotel booking at a short notice. We met for dinner on Sunday night and a couple of photos taken at that time are attached for uploading to THC families.

We spent a nice hour and half together and they also gave me a nice book "Management -Say it with fun" which has great cartoons by Gopulu of the Ananda Vikatan accompanied by cryptic one liners by R Natarajan- a thoughtful present.

 Mrs Lalitha Bhargav, Mrs Gita Rishikesh, Mr CG Rishikesh, Mr CG Bhargav and Kishore

Mrs Gita Kishore, Mrs Lalitha Bhargav, Mrs Gita Rishikesh, Mr CG Rishikesh and Mr CG Bhargav

We also visited CV's house where I had the occasion to look at his wonderful collection of books, especially crossword books, which provided an insight into the pre-computer era setting methods. We also met CV's daughter in law and grand daughter. We were also treated to a sumptuous and toothsome dinner.

S & B 4, 11 Feb 12, Chennai

Here are some of the snaps taken at S&B 4.

 CV welcoming Ajeesh as Padmanabhan looks on

Devanathan(Arden) looks on

 Nikhil and David

 L to R Sudhakar Rao from the back!!, Ajeesh, Dr Sumitra, Dr Pankajam, Bhavan & Amudha Bhavan

Ajeesh, Dr Pankajam, Amudha Bjavan, Bhavan with Devanathan taking a look see.

L to R  Devanathan (Arden), Padmanabhan, Muthaiah, Rengaswamy, Sudharshan Rao, VP, Ajeesh, Amudha Bhavan, David John, Bhavan, Chaturvasi, Sudhakar Rao (Sudharshan's brother), Anuradha (Sudarshan's sister), Dr Pankajam, Rajalakshmi, Dr Sumitra

and here is the link to the article that appeared in The HINDU on 12 Feb 12

S & B 4