Celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary – 25 wonderful Years!

Hootoksi Tyabji, Dar es Salaam, 21 January 1997

Engaged in Bombay on the 6'th of April 1971, and married on the 8'th of December 1971, right in the middle of the India-Pakistan war. It was a civil marriage, held at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. Mr. Wani, the Marriage Officer, especially wore a suit for the occasion! The ceremony was witnessed by Uncle Kali, Robert’s cousin Qays and his old friend Rui

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Ours was the first reception that evening in the hotel's recently refurbished Grand Ballroom. Because of the war and resulting blackouts, the guest list had been pared down from about 500 to 50! Just after we signed the register, the lights went off and the sky lit up with ack-ack, and everybody had to bolt to an impromptu air raid shelter in the basement. Dozens of hotel guests were there already, some in their pajamas, and the Japanese visitors excitedly took pictures of us in our wedding finery!

25 years on, I was definitely more excited than Robert about this all-important, impending milestone, and my planning began in May when I decided on the gift I wanted to give Rob for our silver wedding anniversary. I wanted to sing him a song but where would I find the musicians and the studio to do this for me at a reasonable cost? My search led me nowhere, but in November when I was beginning to dream up an alternate idea, I met John, leader of the Masika Band. He owned a Porta Studio and we negotiated a reasonable rate for three rehearsals with the band, extra for a saxophone player and the final recording on one cassette; but in true Tanzanian fashion, things did not go to plan. We ended up doing the entire gig in one hour in a dingy, dark room with one chair and a table with three legs on which was some machinery! Forget three rehearsals "Just sing and my boys will play; we can’t read music," said John fiddling with wires and pushing them into machines, anchoring them in with matchsticks! “Do you know the tune to the song Love Story?” I asked. No, neither John nor any of his musicians had heard of it, but if I sang it once, they would get it! Having come this far I had nothing to lose, and to my utter amazement they picked up the tune in no time at all and did a terrific job of accompanying me, especially the saxaphone player who added trills and harmony, and we were done in just about an hour. I walked out of the "studio" with a well-recorded cassette in my pocket and a song in my heart!

Our wedding anniversary is on the 8’th of December, but in 1996 on the 11’th. it was also UNICEF's 50th birthday, and the Ghanian Queen who is Rob's boss was going to have him fully involved and engaged in the preparations for several events, one of which was to be held on the 8th! Work comes before family in her book and so what if it was his silver wedding anniversary! I was upset but had to come to terms with it, and we decided to book a balloon safari over the Serengeti National Park for the weekend following our big day, ie on the 14’th and 15’th of December.

BUT - The Gods were on our side, and Rob called me on the 5th to say the Queen had changed plans, and now the 7th and 8th of December were free days for him!

HURRAH! too late to organize a big bash, so off I went in search of a romantic spot and I headed towards the Silver Sands Hotel, 20 km. out of town and appropriately named for our silver wedding anniversary. I asked to speak to the manager who turned out to be a young South African chap with a romantic heart and a spirit to match mine! When he heard what I was after, he pointed to the beautiful blue ocean before us and said, "See that large catamaran out there in the distance? It belongs to a friend of mine and he rents it out for dive charters. Why don't you rent it for a couple of nights? I can get him to give you a good deal!"

Now, this was beyond my wildest dreams and I couldn't think of a more romantic way to usher in our big day, so off we went to see the captain and his charming wife and their little dog. They agreed to cook us a terrific meal, have our favorite scotch on hand, and there was a state-of-the-art B&O sound system and video for our listening pleasure. The cost????? hey! how many times do you celebrate 25 years? All plans were sealed, and everyone was sworn to secrecy. Robert was told we were going to spend two nights at the Silver Sands Hotel, and he was comfy with that. We drove over in our Nissan Patrol on the 7’th Dec 1996 around 6 pm and the manager was at hand to greet us, He offered to take us on his motor launch for a sundowner and a leisurely sail. It was a beautiful evening, there was a balmy breeze and the waves were lapping at the bottom of our boat.

As we approached the large catamaran Rob noticed our little overnight bag and before he knew what was happening, we were boarding it! We were welcomed on board by the Captain Chris and his wife, Deserie, a young and friendly South African couple and a Tanzanian chef complete with hat and white coat! and so began the most special celebration.

We had a candlelight dinner served by Chris & Deserie, as the chef they had hired especially for us, was too seasick to stay on board! Replete, we moved to the comfy couch and watched the wonderful old classic movie, Casablanca.

At midnight, we walked out on deck and under a star-filled sky with a sliver of a new moon, we kissed and reaffirmed out deep love for each other. We exchanged gifts, opened cards from loved ones far and wide and even managed to speak to some on the phone. It was magic!

On the morning of the 8’th., after a sumptuous breakfast, we went to Mbudia Island to loll around on the beach, drink champagne, and swim. We were supposed to go back to the Silver Sands Hotel to pick up our car for the ride home, but Chris offered to let Rob pilot the boat to the Slipway, a pier an hour away and not far from our home. This was too good an opportunity to let up, so off we went with Robert at the helm! We alighted in our beachwear and fortunately bumped into a friend who offered to drive us home. We decided we would pick up the car from the Silver Sands the following day.

As we approached our house, we noticed there were many cars parked outside, several with UN number plates, but thought no more of it as we waved our friend goodbye and walked into the house in our beachwear to screams and shouts and cheers and whistles –

“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!” We were surrounded by friends and ushered into our living room, which had been decorated with balloons, posters, buntings and streamers. The time was 7 pm. Our friends had been there since 5, so they had ample opportunity to tank up and give us the heartiest felicitations EVER! We were toasted with champagne and feasted on snacks and cake. There was music and dancing and LOVE LOVE LOVE all around!

That night Rob and I gave Rob my gift and as we listened to "Love Story" we were both transported back in time to wonderful memories of our 25 years together.

...but wait...this is not all. Our celebration went on!

We had booked and paid for a balloon safari over the Serengeti, so once Rob was done with the UNICEF birthday celebration and all that hectic activity, we boarded a flight to Kilimanjaro to continue the sliver year’s festivity. Carlos, our driver and guide for this first-class tour was on the tarmac to meet us with a bunch of red roses from the tour company. We were driven to the beautiful new Serena Hotel and treated to an evening of song and dance by the Masai. What a thrill that was and how wonderfully they used their voices to produce unimaginable sounds.

After a peaceful night and a sumptuous breakfast, Carlos had us sitting high up in the front seat of the Land Rover for our safari in the Ngorogoro Crater. The crater remains the most spectacular repository of wildlife on the planet. We saw zebra, wildebeest, lion, elephant, rhino, hippo, jackal, hundreds of birds, gazelle and the list could go on and on! At the end of around six hours of viewing, as we were driving out of the crater, Robert noticed a zebra that seemed to be very unsteady on its feet and was swaying from side to side. He thought the animal was sick and in distress and pointed it out to Carlos, who let out a whoop of joy and said, "You are very lucky people, that zebra is going to give birth, we will watch." The entire process took 26 minutes and happened in front of our eyes about 50 feet from where we were parked! Papa zebra and Aunties were all at hand standing at a safe distance to ward off opportunistic predators. Mama bore her pain stoically as she gazed glassy eyed at the distant hills, lay down on the ground and pushed the little one out. The baby arrived hind legs first and was covered in a blue sack which we presumed to be the placenta. It lay on the ground for a few moments all wet and fragile but ready to face the world as it began to struggle to stand on its own. After several tries it managed with its hind legs splayed out behind it and with a funny gait as it circled mama trying to locate her teat. The calf was still attached to the umbilical cord but was soon freed by mama zebra who stepped on it and severed it. Now the little one was free to suckle, while she gazed out into the far distance and began to munch on grass. We noticed a male Zebra was keeping watch some distance away ready to chase any unwanted visitors! What a thrilling sighting that was!

The next day we drove for four hours to the Serengeti National Park, an area of 14,763 sq. kms. Over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa’s great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles each year in search of rain-ripened grass. We were fortunate that the migration was taking place early in the year and we were in the right part of the park to catch this awesome spectacle.

That night was spent at another beautiful hotel called the Serengeti Serena Lodge which is fashioned after a Masai village. The woodwork was spectacular, and our room was spacious and beautifully appointed. The management were expecting a honeymooning couple and were quite surprised to see us silver haired folk! We were treated to a free bottle of wine and woken up at 4.45 AM to head out to the balloon launching area to begin our balloon safari.

Unfortunately, the weather was terrible, foggy, rainy and chilly, but none of this deterred our group of 8 and we happily got into the basket lying down on our backs. Once in the air, it was glorious! Imagine watching the migration from a hot air balloon! For as far as the eye could see were herds and herds and herds of animals. It was like the entire plain was alive and buzzing and moving and pulsating with life! we floated above those zebra and wildebeest watching the leaders and the followers, the stragglers and the feisty teenagers. We also saw some civet cats which we were told is a rare sighting. I don’t have adequate words to describe what we saw!

As we floated back towards earth and tumbled out of the basket, right in front of us, just a few feet away laying on the path, was a beautiful male lion waiting to welcome us back on earth! He acted totally cool and nonchalant and was not to be moved by us or the noise of our balloons landing! He took his time, preening, cleaning and enjoying the morning mist while we waited crouched on the ground and in awe of him, before he sauntered off into the far distance.

Our Champaign breakfast on Simba Kopje was canceled because of the rain, but we enjoyed it in the comfort of the hotel. We said goodbye to Carlos and our ballooning friends. We were driven to a tiny airstrip where our own personal single-prop aircraft was waiting to fly us to Arusha airport, from there to catch the commercial flight back to Dar es Salaam. When the Welsh pilot heard this was our silver wedding anniversary celebration, he took us along a special scenic route to view beautiful scenery and picturesque Masai settlements, volcanoes, mountains and streams.

And the icing on the cake? Our Adil was waiting for us at home. He had just arrived the day before from London, to spend his Xmas holidays with us! Could there have been a more perfect ending?