Happy 60th bday, India

India has now become a senior citizen, according to V. That's from the Independence day celebrations at his office on Tuesday night.
The kids came home on Tuesday afternoon with flags gifted by the school authorities. Mira held her little flag high as maid carried her home. Ash seemed to have had some kind of programme at school as he had powder on his forehead, lipstick on his lips and cheeks and a tiny flag pinned on his t-shirt.
In V's office, they even cut a cake... There were no such celebrations in my office - I guess there was a flag-hoisting as usual on 15th morning which I didnt attend. I decided to forgo the temptation of overwages for working on a holiday and sit at home with V and the kids. In effect, I got my 2-day weekend on 14-15, since I took my off on 14th.
The two leading dailies in Chennai came up with special supplements to celebrate the occasion.

I had a pre-lunch and a post-lunch/nap shopping yesterday. The latter one at Pantaloons in Spencer Plaza went on till 10 p.m. with me taking 2 hrs to try on shirts and trousers, before picking up 2 shirts, a pair of trousers, a vanity bag etc. - all at discounted prices, on the last day of a sale. The shop was packed, and the trial rooms had long queues and I ended up using the staff changing room which was functioning as a temporary trial room minus mirrors (but plus a mannequin watching me silently) - so I had to depend on V's certification as to how the tops looked on me.
The kids had a great time running around and making friends with other bored kids and shoppers (a lady shopper even gifted Ash Kitkats and he dropped the stuff he had picked up in the shop on to the floor to collect it) though towards the end, Ash got a bit troublesome and had to be kept in custody.
And when we trooped out, most shops had closed and even the car park on the roof had been locked. So we decided to have a quick bite at Marrybrown, a chicken burger each, before finding our way to the roof, the car and out.