Thaaram Xmas 2025 Celebrations

 

Old fashioned Vipin Vasudevan
Vipin has not caught on to the current trends. The flat hierarchy thing. He doesn' really get that. So, he is very respectful to other Thaaram members elder than him. It starts with the affectionate "Chetta.." vili but it does not stop there. He listens patiently to all the suggestions coming from all the folks he interacts  with while handling the overall coordination of the Christmas celebrations this year. Vipin has a huge reservoir of patience, and humbly gets thing moving in the right direction. Another old fashioned thing that Vipin sticks to is hard work. He is always available to put in his work, and his time, late nights, early morning - whatever it takes.

Hats off to you Vipin - awesome work!

Unreasonable Girish
The entire sound setup of the event for the songs and dances, ambient music came from Girish. Girish comes in in the morning of the event - with the laptop for the karaoke, two sets of mike receivers for the four mikes, the mixer to mix the input from the mikes and the laptop, and then a transmitter to transmit the sound on to the two wireless receivers that are attached on to the speakers with welcrow, and from the receiver the output is wired into the speakers for the final delivery of sound. 

All that plan and engineering, the equipments, the effort is done single handedly by Girish. You can't course along the guard rails of reason when you need to have great things accomplished.

Teary eyed Manu
For the potluck, Divya's assigned item was Kappa and Ulli chammandhi. In one of the group song practice sessions, Manu came in with Anjali with a sales mike, and an onion peeler machine. He followed through with washing the onions, and peeling off the entire set needed for the event, as we all watched teary eyed. 

Banerjee's leadership
Banerjee's welcome speech carried the essence of our get togethers. He has this ability to cut through confusion with his clarity. For the flashback video, while I was considering themes - I had first suggested Ludovico Einaudi's "Una Matina". He was quick to cut that down with - you can keep your sad songs at home, we don't want it here. And then was just as quick to approve Yanni's "In the mirror". 

Again, while the group song participants considered backing off from the challenge of the finale "Avesham" song, Banerjee was very clear - No way, that is the only thing we have in the medley. 

Vijesh and Nimmy's absence
Vijesh and Nimmy were active with all the preparatory work for the event. Nimmy even had one batch of plum cake prepared, but unfortunately got hit with illness and had to stand out for the event. They still made their presence felt with their charming smiles in the flashback video. 

Live Appam and Porotta
The propane stove was surrounded by the enthusiastic food team led by Priya and Sajee, supported by Divya & Vipin, Anju, Manu, Ranjini, Leena chechi etc as people took turns. The warm appams and porotta, and the rich chicken and beef curries made for a sumptuous dining experience. Thanks to all the volunteers who put in all the work to make for a wonderful feast. 

Mahesh's appreciations
So after the group song, Mahesh said he liked the selection of songs. Wow! That was so heart warming to hear. The song selections and the stitching together of portions to form the karaoke is a lot of organic creative work that gets lost in the attention that the singers get on the final performance. He also mentioned that my red jacket bollywood style get up gives me an Amitabh Bachchan vibe.  
Thank you to everyone who offered their kind appreciating words but the award for the best appreciator goes to Mahesh.

Games
Bharathi and Ramesh conducted the games event like champs. It was evident that they have already had sufficient experence with conducting these games. Games were off to a great start with the right mix of chance and skill. It was very well organized, and everyone had fun. 

Food
Food was great. When food is great, you eat a lot, and then you get a little delirious. And so, the games unfortunately did not continue. 

White Elephant 
Bharathi also organized the white elephant game. Personally, I would have traded the white elephant game for the games that Bharathi and Ramesh had saved up. 

Kids' gifts
Anju Mahesh ran the kids' gifts exchange. This is definitely a good keepsake for the kids. 

Chairman Gafoor
Gafoor had higher priority commitments and hence could not find time to join the event. Even in the middle of his busy schedule, he found time to arrange the chairs for the event. Ramshi and kids arrived after the event to join for the banter. Aiza amazed uncles and aunties around her with her direction of photography talent making for some nicely posed photos.

Even keel Mithun
When the games were happening, initially our team was leading, and then suddenly we were toppled down when the second game odds hit against us. I was discussing that with Bharathi, and that is when Mithun agreed with my view, but also presented the view that the second round was actually more challenging, and that is why the other team got the benefit. 
He is a decoration expert, and always has the right solutions on how to get things done. The THAARAM sticker remains that had to be removed from the wall as part of the cleanup - Mithun was clear that he should not use the chisel. I have observed his even keelness over the years. Can't recall a single off note from him. 

Perfection seeking Anjali and Divya
On the night before, while the decoration team was busy setting up the hall, I excused myself to support Divya and Anjali on the group song. Both of them are perfectionists, and brings up many fine nuanced observations on how to improve the song. I thoroughly enjoyed the session. We followed up with a mike sound match exercise in the morning, which was then followed by the actual performance. It was like one of our practice sessions was the performance at the event. 

Performances
Sneha started the performances with two short songs - one english, and one malayalam. Both of which were sung with a lot of feel. Matching her previous year performances.  Then we had dance performance from the Sruthi-Arun and Raaji-Ajith kids - energetic performance. Then there was the ladies' group dance. Nicely choreographed and well presented. Then there was the kids' song performance from Dana-Vipin and Swathi-Jithin's kids. The kids were hardly to be seen but the talent was clearly evident.

Mythili performed just as well as last year. Well done Mythili.I missed the kids dance that followed. Then Girish's "ee chillayil ninnu" performance performed with a lot of heart. This was followed by our group song. We missed Vijesh. If you think we did not do well, you should watch last year's group song. Arushi Arun's solo dance which I might have missed, followed by Niya's solo song. Niya did well. Thanks to her dad, she is starting to come out of her shell. Then I sang "Saagar Kinaare", and I will remember how Rejy chettan gave me a half hug and said he really enjoyed the performance. 

Also,  as our lung muscles were struggling with "Aaha armadham" breaths, Praveena cheered us along with claps while the rest of the crowd did not. We are as conscious on the stage as in the audience.

Wild Life
After dropping off chairs, while returning back to the hall, Arun noticed something bigger than a racoon on the road. Looked like a coyote. We drove straight to find out, and indeed it was a coyote, and it had just crossed the road from the side of the pool to the fire station, and Arun saw it observing us observing it. 

It was a wonderful evening, and just as Banerjee commented in his welcome address, I can feel the community bonding together nicely. Merry Xmas!