My ninth birthday party was a grand affair, at least in my eyes. We invited some of my Grade 3 classmates from the Kandy Convent and other girls that were my playmates. At the time we lived in a 'B' Bungalow at the Peradeniya University Campus. It was quite a spacious bungalow style house with a huge garden as well. There was a round about in the front garden of the house with a round hedge in the middle of a patch of grass. A little tar sealed road encircled the mini roundabout. There were several varieties of cypress and pine trees that the previous occupants had planted in the front yard along the hedges. This bungalow was right next to the banks of the Mahaweli River and sometimes snakes used to crawl up the outside drains perhaps from the bamboo groves next to the river?Our 3 older cousins (children of our oldest Uncle) came to help with the preparations for the birthday party. They helped make the numerous short eats ( Sri Lankan savories) for the party. We ordered two sets of bread loaves of from the bakery one was colored light blue and the other light pink. This was for the sandwiches. The sandwiches were well buttered and the fillings included boiled beetroot ,egg salad, and a spread made with canned fish. After the sandwiches were assembled the crusts were trimmed off and each sandwich was cut into four little triangles.
Also on the menu were fish and polos (young jackfruit) cutlets (deep fried balls coated with breadcrumbs. Other items were fish rolls (deep fried fish filled pancakes coated with breadrumbs) and fish patties( similar to samosa).
My Mom had been following some cake decorating classes on the weekends and for my birthday she made me a grand piano cake. She did not have the special tins for the cake so she had to bake two rectangular cakes and cut the shape of the piano with a paper template. The legs of the piano were made out of wood. As I recall we could not find any black food coloring so the key board had to be drawn by hand. The icing on the piano was either a light green or light blue and my mother decorated the piano with roses made out of icing. The cake was a butter cake and the icing on top was also butter icing as was in vogue at the time. That was my most favorite birthday cake, it's too bad that my Dad did not have the camera loaded at the time to take pictures.
I had a thoroughly enjoyable birthday with my friends and family and received many presents. I seem to recall that most of the presents were either dress materials and story books with beautiful pictures, so I had many dresses sewn in the following months. One of the materials was a cotton print of red hearts on a white background and this was made into an a line dress with little cape sleeves.
This account is 33 years old (sorry Author). I am amazed at the recollection of the small details even after passage of a considerable time. I thought I had a very good memory. She has beaten me with hers.
ReplyDeleteMay you have many more birthdays like this.
Born in 1987, I too have lived in the university of Peradeniya bungalows (all my life) with the exceptions of few years overseas when my parents (both academics) went on sabbatical to America and England. my father was a student in the university in the 60s (2nd medical batch) and then joined staff in the 70s. reading your experiences, I recall some of the stories he tells me about his life in peradeniya. my father being an excellent writer, I wish that he too would write and post his experiences. growing up in the university an now an undergraduate at peradeniya I hope that one day I will have enough memories to write about my childhood like you.
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