A different birthday bash

While we’ve long held that lavish birthday parties are passe, the other extreme to which most people swing is not celebrating it at all. Though that’s an entirely acceptable at any stage of adulthood, we were very moved to hear about the manner in which Parvez and Roshni Damania’s teenaged son Arish brought in his special day - with children around his own age at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy orphanage in Matunga.

We hear that the Damanias have been quietly doing their bit for the children’s home for several years now and someone or the other from the family visits every Sunday to keep track of how the kids are doing. We’re still not sure how much charity events hosted by the swish set at SoBo five stars actually translates in terms of real help for the underprivileged, but we can tell you that spreading some real happiness in their lives really costs very little.