parisian party

As I mentioned a few weeks (Months? Already??) ago, I am obsessed with all things Bollywood, and wanted to share my obsession with my family and friends during my visit to Chicago with a Bollywood Birthday Bash. Well, my party was last Saturday, and I have to admit- it was a BLAST! Since we had paid a fortune on airline tickets to come to Chicago, I didn’t have much money to spend on the party, but I really wanted to have a fun, memorable “__th” birthday. In the end, I rented the upstairs of Schubas on Southport for the fête. Schubas is a very typical Chicago tavern with dark wooden bars and tables, t.v.’s in the corners to broadcast the Cubbies, a “chill out” area with brown leather club chairs, and the classic tin ceiling that you find in a lot of Chicago bars. When you rent their party room, you are restricted to ordering off of their menu: buffalo wings, quesadillas, popcorn shrimp, etc- not exactly Bombay Palace fare…

I hit the ground running when I landed in Chicago. As I had reserved it online, my first stop was Schubas to check out the space in person. Terri, the events manager there, was such a sweetheart! I explained what I wanted to do, and she worked with me on arranging the space and modifying the menu (I asked the chef to change the traditional buffalo wings to curry ones with an Indian cream sauce, and instead of the Greek puff pastries that they usually serve, they were able to make vegetable samosas with a chutney sauce!)

After the food was sorted, I worked on creating the perfect Indian ambiance. Since I didn’t have much time or money, I decided just to choose a color palette and work around that. I had bought some sparkly, “Indian-inspired” pillow cases at a dollar store in Paris, which were burnt orange, ochre, a dusty yellow and a chartreuse, and decided to look for ways to work off of them. My first stop- Marshall’s, where I found cool natural chartreuse-colored candles ($7 for 3) , a box of small, smooth decorating stones ($5) and…a ceramic Buddha head for $7 ( but priceless in my book!!) At Pier One Imports, I found funky orange and copper foil cocktail umbrellas on sale for $3 for a pack of 20, and a mad dash into Crate and Barrel yielded some handy square wooden bowls in my “signature colors” for only $4 for a set of four! I bought tons of amber-colored candle holders at Pottery Barn, plus the bar had quite a few red mosaic votives available for me to use as well. Armed with all of this, I went to town on the bar. I used the pillowcases on the tables, with the square bowls, stones and candles in the center of each one. The Buddha head looked AWESOME on the buffet table- I had found a remnant of some red and gold sari silk a while back and used that as a tablecloth. I put the votives everywhere, and then sprinkled rose petals all around for added color and texture- including on the stairs leading up to the party room. Indian incense was burning at the bottom of the stairs to set the scene as guests came in, and a “Bollywood Wedding” compilation DVD was looping on the big screens, which really added to the ambiance. I had ordered some garlands (well, leis really) in yellow and orange on ebay, as well as picked up packs of bindhi in Paris. As each guest came in, I greeted the women with a bindhi on their forehead, and the men with a garland- That way everyone was included, whether they chose to dress up for the party or not.

I really wanted to create an “event” for my friends, and so I decided to surprise them with a Bollywood dance performance! Dina Mehta teaches Bollywood Dance Workshops at Arabesque and The Discovery Center in Chicago. Dina is a living doll- after she spoke a bit about the role of song and dance in Bollywood films, she performed a couple of amazing dances- and then gave us all basic (yet effective!) Bollywood dance lessons (hips…still…hurting…). She is a wonderful dancer, a charming speaker- and has the patience of a saint- if you have the chance, and you feel up to the challenge, you should really try to take her class!

Through Craigslist.org, I also found a couple of Art Institute students who were Mendhi artists, who came and set up in a corner of the room and hennaed hands (or ankles) for whoever wanted one. By the end of the night, almost everyone was walking around showing off their hippie tats- even my dad got into the action and got a little Inca man (??) on his arm!

I have to admit, though, that the biggest surprise was the cake(s). I had been looking around for a while trying to find Indian-style wedding cakes. I thought it would be cool to have something big and jewel-toned and over-the-top. Alas, over-the-top also equals over-the-budget, so I had to find a Plan B. Then I heard about Icing Images. Icing Images will print any photo to a sheet of edible icing for you to use as personalized cupcakes! Genius!! I put on my beautiful birthday outfit, took a couple of dramatic “Bollywood” poses, and emailed them over. One week later I received 3 sheets of icing circles which I plopped onto chocolate cupcakes, and presented on a swirly cupcake tree. They were a hit!

My visit to Chicago is winding down- the melancholia is already starting to set in. This is such a beautiful city, and I am so lucky to have so many close friends and family to welcome me and my brood each time we’re here- We may live thousands of miles away, but we’ll always know where home is. Namaste!