Birthday Bashes That Take the Cake

For Parents in India, a Chance to Display Generosity, Affluence

NEW DELHI -- Inside the chandeliered party hall of an upscale hotel, with its canopies of balloons and sparkly lights, three video cameramen and two photographers jostled like paparazzi to get a glimpse of the guest of honor.

Waiters in black tie waded through the crowd, serving endless silver trays of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled shrimp and samosas. Several DJs spun fast-tempo Punjabi pop that pulsated from refrigerator-size speakers. There were cocktails for the adults, and for the kids, cotton candy.

This was, after all, a birthday party for a 2-year-old -- little curly-haired Taisa Arora, to be specific. On a recent Saturday night, she wore her Strawberry Shortcake Mary Janes and a princess-like sequined outfit, and yawned as her grandmother cradled her amid the excitement of 125 guests, most arriving after 10 p.m. and only some of them children.

In India, weddings have long been extravagant celebrations of a lifetime, costing families huge sums. But with prosperity growing in urban India, more and more parents are spending exorbitant amounts on children's birthday parties -- sometimes in excess of $4,000 a bash.

"The birthday party is the new wedding in India, and the sky is the limit," said Rakesh Gupta, a party planner who has seen his business double in the past few years. "It's a serious industry now, and people want to spend lavishly and outdo each other. People in India don't like to save. They want to enjoy life and live for today after so many years of poverty and struggle."

For India's wealthier classes, birthday parties are a chance to network with business colleagues and to reunite relatives, bringing together overworked families from cities around the country. Perhaps most important, the parties are a source of pride for Indians looking to demonstrate their new wealth, as parents try to impress one another with opulent soirees.

The Indian economy has enjoyed record growth rates of 8 percent to 9 percent during the past three years, in part because the once-socialist country has opened its markets globally. The country has developed a large service industry, with the technology, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors serving international markets. Although India has the largest number of poor people struggling to survive on $1 a day, its middle class has more than tripled in the past two decades, according to the World Bank.

In cities, swanky stores hawk shiny bathroom fixtures and $2,000 Jacuzzis, and television ads show smiling Indian housewives buying new washing machines and moving into condo complexes.

When it comes to birthday parties, the change has been striking. Gone are the days of the quiet birthday visit with grandparents to a Hindu temple and a simple box of Indian sweets. Now there's the frazzled party planner to hire, invitations with calligraphy to buy, elephant and camel rides to plan, a sports or cartoon theme to pick out, and a moon bounce to choose.

Indian banks, which have long offered low-interest loans for weddings, now offer similar deals for birthday parties. And in a country of 1.1 billion people, where 32 percent of the population is younger than 15, party planners say the birthday industry might one day rival the wedding industry, which brings in $11 billion a year.

The parties are often more for the parents than for the children, a way for them to show their generosity -- and that they can afford to treat their friends, relatives and business partners to a lavish night out, in a country where social status is often linked to wealth.

At Taisa's bash, her father, a real estate mogul, shook hands and slapped the backs of relatives and business associates while a moon bounce was set up next to a merry-go-round. A tattoo artist -- the tattoos were temporary -- stood by, and a crew of chefs prepared more than 20 trays of Thai, Indian and Italian fare for a late-night dinner.