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| Smiles for 2026. |
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| Lunch is served. |
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| A helping of food. |
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| Friends and family. |
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| Sampling the biryani. |
-Brian Mendonca
After a whirlwind trip to Pune we got back to our place at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai around midnight on Saturday, 3rd Jan. It was imperative that we returned, as we were hosting a New Year lunch the next day, i.e. on 4th afternoon.
With not many hours of sleep we made it for what was left of the 9.30 a.m. Sunday Mass at Divya Kripa church, in Sector 5. It was the feast of the Epiphany - which traditionally marks the end of the Christmas season. The first reading was one of my favourites from Isaiah 60. It is also set to music.
The house had to be spruced up. It was almost 11. We had just 2 hours. But we did manage to take down the regular curtains and put up our festive ones. They made for a gorgeous backdrop for the group photo. Sita, our ever-willing house-help from Allahabad swept and swabbed the house.
Some of the food was sourced from Pune. My sister Vanessa gallantly parted with her sorpotel. We carried our precious cargo with us in the cab. Melanie and Balwinder brought the fugias and the family - Jesse and Mabelle - from Kurla. They also picked up the beer and the food we had sourced from Kurla - the Portuguese Chicken Xacuti made with roasted coconut, the pulao, and the beef croquettes.
Muscatel red wine from Goa flowed in full measure with glass after glass being refilled. However many opted for just water citing health reasons, and that they had to drive back.
Luna cooked and brought a delicious Sindhi mutton dum biryani, to which she sprinkled ghee milk and raw turmeric for added flavour before serving.
Luna's mother Deepa graced the occasion with her presence looking regal in her sari. Debajit was very excited about his audiobook on how to make communication work for you. Agnelo spoke about his travels and life in Africa. Clinton came with his family. We missed his dad, the ebullient uncle Ossie, and a regular at these do's. We missed Rajan too. But we did the best we could, gathering the fold.
Many were invited but not everyone came. We had just enough to occupy the seats in our little hall. As the day wore on, Hari, the caretaker, brought in more chairs from the society store .
After the hearty repast our friends took their leave, some happy to have some of the food to take back with them. The family left around 5.
We were leaving for Goa the next day. I could see some frenetic packing ahead. Queenie, Dwayne and me were glad that we had hosted our customary lunch in Kharghar amid the gaiety and thankfulness for the New Year. There were so many who made this meal possible.
I didn't get down to playing 'We Three Kings' on our Yamaha C40 classical guitar, but we were a merry bunch that afternoon.
And so the three kings returned.
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Photo courtesy: (top) Balwinder; (the rest) Brian Mendonca. Video by Brian Mendonca. Updated 11/1/26.
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