There were three celebrations each as different from each other as the individuals who celebrated reaching the golden goal of fifty years of a lifetime. In their own right they were true occasions for joy and the birthday boy and the girls reached a goal among their friends and family.

It was an evening of delight and the party was a swinging success from the word go when Pakkiasothy Saravanamuttu asked his guests to join him for fifty at eighty. Even though I had to miss out on this evening the feed back was so good that one had to bring the glamour and colour of the event into focus in which ever way possible, with atleast this beautiful collection of photographs taken by Indu Dharmasena to record the happening for prosperity.

The colour and glamour came of course from the stunning sarees the many female guests wore, with Sara’s mother Oosha Wijesinghe setting the lead in a saree of kanjiveram silk in royal blue which had a border and pallu in a red and gold weave in the typical traditional style, she wore with a red blouse and a collar necklace of rubies and gold. His sister Kumudini wore one of the most unusual kanchiveram sarees I have seen. In blocks of colour ranging from yellow to purple, green and pink stripes and red, it was a carnival of colour she carried off with aplomb. Silver grey combined with red in the saree Khema de Costa wore. The saree had a border and pallu in the grey on the red, Khema wore with a deeper grey blouse with a dark red woven border at the base of the sleeve.

The saree Gowrie Ponnaih wore was in a shot orange and green she combined with a deep green blouse. A printed saree in the combination of red, black and white which was in stripes had a border of a floral design in the same colours for Sanwada Abeygunasekera to wear with a simple black blouse. At the opposite end of the scale was the simple ice blue saree of charmeuse Ameena wore with a bare shouldered blouse. The strap of the handbag provided a touch of colour done in cutchwork embroidery in red, orange and ivory.

As always in subdued good taste was the saree of ecru silk with a subtle border and pallu in gold Sunethra Bandaranaike wore with a ruby and pearl padakkam and chain. Black was the background to a border in two strips of gold Sonali Tucker on holiday from the States wore. She made a brief speech of appreciation as did Rajan, Asanka while Rohan Ponniah read from a booklet written on the host.

Ofcourse there was dancing and music to keep toes tapping.

Diversifying from the saree was Ranmali Mirchandani in a exotic batik top in a bold south sea island like hibiscus flowers in red and white she wore with black trousers, and a chunky necklace of large red beads and discs of silver.

Fifty little gold candles on a chocolate cake on the top of which was a gold 50 cut out, flanked by gold stars made the 3unusual and lovely cake.