Celebrating my 41st Birthday with a big Party at the Ashram

Yesterday, on 14th October 2012, was my 41st birthday. Many of you have sent me congratulations via email, sms, over facebook, skype, on phone or congratulated me in person here at the Ashram and I want to thank all of you for your love. A birthday is of course just one of the 365 days of the year but for us at the Ashram it is another reason to celebrate. And that is what we did!

Starting from morning, the kitchen was preparing food and the Ashram was being decorated. The Ashram children blew up balloons and the guests of our Ayurveda Yoga Holiday got dressed in nice clothes. In the afternoon we all welcomed our 150 young guests: the school children had arrived!

The party started in that time with games in the garden and the porch. We took pictures altogether and the children got our Ashram guests to play with them. When the sun set, the music started and spontaneously everybody started dancing. Children made dance circles and pulled our guests in, laughing, enjoying, just happy to be together.

When everyone got hungry, the kitchen was also done with the preparations. And once again we had just an incredible dinner. It is amazing what the hands of my mother and her helpers can do! About 200 people had wonderful chickpeas, a delicious mixed vegetable dish, tasty Pulav and a gorgeous Suji ka Halwa, of course coming with fresh bread. We all sat together and ate, it was again an unforgettable experience!

To top all of this, my family had ordered a beautiful, huge cake which we cut and then distributed to everyone! It was a great, chocolate cake and everyone had a good share of it! With the cake in their hands, the children left to go home and it was only the Ashram family left to party. We danced a bit more until my brothers brought out another surprise: my birthday gift by my family and the participants of our retreats was presents for everyone! Nothing could have made me happier than that and I distributed clothes to everyone, enjoying their shining eyes, looking at their new pants, shirts or saris.

The very end of the evening was another round of our favourite party game. We call it ‘the chair game’ and I think people know it as ‘musical chairs’. It was just lots of fun and a wonderful birthday. Thanks to everyone who made my day so beautiful!

See pictures of the birthday celebration