MBA: Party with folks!

In this post I will tell a story of a great party, how we did it, and why you may want to do it.

I thought that I will almost never write a diary-like post. I always found it interesting that people found it interesting that the blogger went to the bathroom four times that day – yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I had visualized my blog as a wiki with a focus on art, usefulness, and deep thought. However, I must admit that it is the simple stories that unfold everyday in everyone's lives that make people connect with each-other. Moreover, they always say that never say never! So here it comes – the story of greatest family get-together at Chicago Booth I have had the pleasure of being a part of!

A dozen days ago, CY – a fabulous and an amazingly energetic lady - and I, began to cook something up. A party! We both love people, and derive energy from social gatherings. It was almost natural to us to invite people to share our families' happiness at our graduation. However, we struggled with the party date. We initially wanted to organize something on June 19th. However, my room-mate was leaving on June 17th. By the way - he still owes me money! Can you ask him to pay up? (He also beats me up, especially when he doesn't understand jokes like these.) We realized that a lot of our class would be gone after the graduation on June 14th. So June 19th didn't work for us because we wanted all of you to come. Therefore, we decided on a date of June 12th, albeit with trepidation. We thought that the turnout would be low given a hectic day of activities that Chicago Booth had organized for the families. We would have been happy had 50 of you fine folks joined us in our humble celebrations!

We sent out an Evite, and waited for people to accept. Much to our joy, as days passed by, the count ticked up and stabilized in the 50-60 range. We were happy, and began to work for the party in earnest. Thankfully, we had amazing logistical support from CY's family – parents and husband - and Iday, a blogger of i4iday.blogspot.com fame. We went to Costco to buy stuff for the party, and I had to restrain CY from buying everything. I was not aware of that side of hers – the side that retailers love! I tried to find issues with every beautiful thing she picked up, and had to eventually say, "CY! We don't really want to go down the path of you buying everything that looks good. We would be ruined" That made her come out of the shopping reverie and go about her business.

We assumed that there won't be any more responses, and made ready to have fun with 50 people. It was a stroke of luck that I checked the Evite dashboard two days before the event – just as a matter of curiosity. I know that not checking it regularly was dumb. However, remember that the "dumb" word exists because people often do things that make that four letter word remain in existence. Much to our surprise - 81 of you great folks had decided to join us! I frantically called CY, and told her about it. Soon, the accept number went up to 100, throwing our plans into a tizzy. Here, I must give a big hand to CY & family, for being able to cook the most delicious food for over a 100 people in one day. Hip hip hurrah! Prior to that, I didn't know people had pots that big at their homes!

The D-day arrived! As my parents and the family of Nammo, and that of Ganjaturtle, a blogger of ganjaturtle.blogspot.com fame, floated through events at Harper Center, the Party Task Force was setting things up. We rearranged the furniture with special focus on creating large open spaces for mobility. We lined the sofas along the walls, reduced the numbers of chairs from four to two a table, and arranged the beach-chairs in the balconies in twos to facilitate small sub-groups. We setup alcohol, water, beverages and three different types of rice preparations, one chicken curry and three different types of vegetarian curries. CY's selection of venue turned out to be absolutely fabulous! We had a great view of the city through floor-to-floor windows, chandeliers which were both beautiful and very firmly fixed, and an option to get fresh air on the balconies, or canned air in the party room.

As the posh Chicago Booth official event at InterContinental Hotel ended, people began to trickle in. Soon the arrival of guests became a torrent. We estimated that circa 150 people turned up. Perhaps more did! People were upbeat and happy about the graduation of the class of 2009 – and it lifted the party atmosphere. CY & family, and Iday were amazing hosts, and I tried my best to create some humor. Many people had flown long distances from far-off lands to attend the graduation. One family came directly from the airport! Thanks a lot guys! Over beer and Indian food, people mingled, laughed and joked. We had a little scare when we ran out of vegetarian food. However, CY's great mother rushed to the kitchen and came back with more food quickly, and rescued us. Talk about Special Weapons and Tactics Mom! We were glad that the food, the mood, and the alcohol all held up. Everyone stayed and had fun for a solid two hours. After that, the party began to thin. We ended with multiple rounds of amazingly strong tequila. I remember little of what happened after that because other people were drunk!

We thank you all for making such an amazing evening possible. It was fun beyond our imagination. We hope that among you we have many new lifelong friends, and we are really happy that you came! Special thanks and congratulations to the families! Without your support – there would have been no Booth Class of 2009!

Classes of 2010 and 2011 – I would strongly encourage you to cap off your experiences with a family party. The folks were the soul of the party!