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It feels real good to be writing after a long gap… yup experiences galore! Little lengthy, pls. bare :)
Sitting in a park, a day in Feb, sharing a moment with my little angel and Sangee there was a flash of a thought… how about springing a surprise for the man who goes all his way out for family, friends, known, unknown; one, who has and continues to make a world of his own : a world of equals, a world of fun - D-man Mr.Gops – Yup, this package was presented to the world on the 30th March …. (keep guessing the year!)
It was a small thought that later shaped up into a beautiful, amazing day / moment on 27th March ( 3 days prior as a wk end is always better!) – for him yes but most importantly for us who planed this surprise – yes, this is all about our experience…
With Sangee by my side, I first began with making a friends list – most challenging task ofcourse! whom all to invite because his is a large world :) After rounds of drafting, we came up with Invitees list of just about 22! Next step was to get a nod from each of these 22… yup most were a little surprised to receive a call / email a month ahead of the birthday but we had to because the invitation included some outstation close family & friends, who, thanks to the famous financial year ending couldn’t join:(Next time guys! Following this, all I got to hear from the rest was ‘Yes – just tell us the date & time’ – gops, you are really blessed man!
Ya, I can hear you asking “what’s amazing, interesting in this?” – this is the usual… Hold on folks, I have not yet shared the fun part!
As the day was nearing, to plan & prepare and maintain this a secret was a task; it was most challenging for Sangee as she feared spitting it out during any talks:)Pat on your back Sangee for holding on till the very end:)
Most of the planning discussion was done over phone calls taken in the super cool ‘resting room’ of IBM! Comedy of errors was many, to quote one: During lunch, Kumar calls “do Jazz & I plan to buy something; Let us buy a cake? What do you say” – and next to me was D-man; what am I supposed to say?!? But wait the major fun was awaiting us… just 2 days before the party, @ office we had to get involved in an audition for a major inter-corporate music competition… while he was the judge, I had to be there to organize and manage the event exactly on 27th March! Wow, wasn’t this required to add to fun:)So, bang I go calling all involved because each had a task to do! All I got to hear was “What, its at your place lady; how do we do it if you arrive late? How do we manage the surprise?” – only answer I had was ‘lets just go with the flow’:)So, tasks defined, I go to Gop’s place on 27th and hand over my keys to Sangee – yo, all happened very much under his nose –
Best part was the audition program was to end not before 7 pm!!! Haha, all the while me & Sangee were crossing fingers that the turnaround should be less – selfish yes, but you know ;) – actually the turnaround was pathetic! (another time on this) – In between, I kept visiting my then favorite place the rest room – to check on progress, to place order for food (hehe! Don’t mind I only placed order;)) and to my dismay the ‘talapakatu’ guy wasn’t taking my call; grrrr… but had to wait till I would reach home and had time because it was for the main course.
So, set free around 6 pm, we get on to the car and there comes Sangee’s phone “sree, no one has come yet? What if you guys reach early?” – sitting nxt to me was him – so, I start messaging… had to bring a major change to the plans:)so, asked her to reach her place fast… then, I created a on-the-spot script – ‘gops, let’s have dinner together! & he goes – check with sangee da, she might have prepared...then I get into an animated dialog with sangee where she goes ‘nothing much sri; we can go out :)’ so, its finally decided we go out; he will pick me up in about 45 mts – heef! Relief. I run to my place and find cuty friends working around – Prisi shopped for the decoration stuff and prepared the house, Sree and Sukanya decorating, aunty cooking for uncle (home made curd rice – yummy), vivek, berks, and kumar shopping… then on till 1 hour I was on phone – placing order, checking others who were missing – cake, starters, drinks was missing along with them:)- as the time was nearing, I receive the first call from Gops ‘are you ready, can I start?’ – ha? How can he start because most of them were on their way; how do I save the surprise??? ‘gops, I just came down to shop for curd / milk (hehe! Pld for outside dinner and shopping for curd! Weird) give me few mts, I will be home' my first escape. Then, I make calls to all and give them 15 mts to reach wherever they are! Am sure they must have been cursing me because plans went ulat-pulat! Just when I hung up after following up with the last person, did I hear my phone saying ‘gops calling’!?! yeeks… wondering what wld be my next escape I pick the call and he says “are you ok?” I say “ya ya; just 5 more minutes; I will be back, was stuck in a phone call” – ha ha, as I got to know later, he started wondering what’s wrong with this girl! then it was Sangee’s turn – “sri, he is getting restless; its better we leave”:)So, in the next 5 mts when my phone rang I said “you start gops, come over” crossing fingers that all should reach!
Guess nature was with us as in the next few mts everyone reached and we had the lights switched off (Earth hour too!) and candles lit all over the front hall! Blare goes my doorbell and thankfully I peeped to notice only Sangee standing at the door step (else, she would have received all decorations:) – there she says “he is down parking the car…”; the next few seconds were the most anxious period of that day, I should say… Man rings and bang we go “Surprise………” – see the video below to notice his reaction – but hidden beneath was a surprise for us – entering the hall, he says ‘actually I guessed it!’ – we were all dumb-stuck for a second – then he says ‘not till I reached the staircase; when I reached here a talapakatu guy askd me for 11/6 with 16 biryanis’- man! That guy had left by then, else I would have specially thanked him for this help !:(! But ya, still he never expected the group that was present – not a single person from there; he expected office group… from then till 2 am we had the best possible moments! Fun, Fun, and more Fun… Still. he didn’t know what else was in store for him next – because the D-day was 2 days later ;)
Once again, talai you are worth all the wishes / surprises / luv you got this birthday! Happy birthday once again:)
Heartfelt thanks to you all who made this a joyful surprise and memorable celebration: