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| Ready for carolling. |
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| With Sushama, Kishore, and Kishore's mother Kusum. |
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| Christmas lunch at Melanie and Balwinder's. |
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| With Prof. Lakshmi Chandra. |
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| Carollers with Lakshmi Chandra. |
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| Christmas buffet lunch. |
-Brian Mendonca
It was a beautiful Christmas day in Mumbai. After midnight Mass at Holy Cross Church, Kurla, Melanie and Balwinder took us to Delhi Zaika for dinner.
The family trooped in for Christmas lunch at Melanie and Balwinder's new place in Kurla. It was fun to watch Mabelle and Dwayne decorate the Christmas tree with carols playing. The crib - sourced from Don Bosco - had already been laid out earlier.
Jesse suggested we have lunch at home. Mabelle's idea of biryani from Lucky's, Bandra chimed well with everyone. For good measure, we also ordered the malai kulfi. For dessert we had brought along Christmas plum pudding given to us by my brother Kevin and Miriam for our Christmas lunch in Goa. Melanie made the cream to go with it. Michelle stepped in with the soft drinks.
At 4 pm we were invited to Sushama and
Kishore's place in Powai for tea. We were happy to see Kishore's mother and a friend of Sushama's from Nagpur. We donned our Christmas caps, which we picked up at Powai, and sang carols for them. Sushama and Kishore gifted a box of cake for our families plus a ginger breadman-shaped cake specially for Dwayne.
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| Gingerbread man |
We then headed to Bandra where Queenie wanted to source a tailor to stitch a dress. In the labyrinth of Elco Arcade she settled on a silver-haired tailor at a shop aptly titled Glamour. As always, she picked up some apparel at Creations store to the left of the iconic Sagar - a clothes store - on Hill Road, Bandra.
We then set our sights on my Professor Lakshmi Chandra's place at Bandra Bandstand. Lakshmi was my PhD guide at EFLU, Hyderabad. She had invited us for dinner. The distance of 1.9 kms took us almost 40 mins. due to the traffic jam. But Balwinder drove with elan. We reached around 9.45 p.m. but when we met, time dissolved like the roaring sea outside the window. Before we left we sang our carols.
It was a splendid end to a lovely day made possible by our gracious hosts Melanie (my niece) and Balwinder.
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Updated 27/12/25.
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