The run down to Day 0 – Friday, June 21st
This was an event that was quite an ordeal to plan, simply because it involved hiding it from Geet! Keeping my phone close to me, handling most discussions with people only on mails instead of messengers like whatsapp or viber, deleting conversations soon as I've had them, and somehow keeping all of it clandestine till I managed to get that shocked look on Geet's face.
Anyway, here's the whole story, filled with a comedy of errors while going about the planning.
The premise behind the plans for Geet's 30 bday was that all the people she'd want to have around, and all the food she'd like to eat, to be present on the day of her birthday. Coz when I sat to think of what she would really like on this day, I knew it was the people who were close to her, and the gastronomic desires she's developed lately.
So the idea was to arrange 30 favourite dishes of Geet’s for her to savour, and all the planning began with me calling Naan and asking him to come down. I wanted him to be surreptitious about this even to his parents, as I wasn't very confident of them keeping it hidden from Geet for too long. But then he had to inform them, as they were planning a trip to Tirupati at the same time.
But somehow we all managed to keep it hidden from Geet till he arrived. There was even one occasion couple of days before the birthday when we were at her parents place, and mom was playing along asking where we are travelling for her birthday and stuff, because that was the story we were giving Geet as a decoy to plant the birthday surprise. Of course, not everything was perfect; Geet's dad almost ruined things on 2 separate instances. One was a week before the birthday he actually told Geet to tell Naan to get cash in Pounds and exchange into Rupees. Thankfully he stopped there and didn't give any further details of his arrival here, and thankfully Geet was too caught up with something else to probe further. Then just the day before Naan's arrival, I had bought biryani from Hyd and when Geet was on the phone with her dad, he almost blurted that we should save some for Naan. Her mom just managed to shut him up before he said that by taking the phone away from her and continuing the conversation with Geet.
So that was how the first and most important surprise element, Naan, was panning out. Next on the list was Parul and Aanchal. Parul worked out easily coz she had a meeting in Bombay that week, and we played her story with Geet by saying she would land only on Sunday, while the surprise party we were planning was the day before itself. Aanchal was a little tougher, but somehow in the final week of the birthday plans, she managed to pull off a meeting in Jaipur which allowed her to fly by Bombay before heading back to Delhi.
So that was 3 people coming from 3 different places, and I gave them a list of food items to get from where they were coming – Belgium waffles from London, Dal Batti from Jaipur and sweets from Delhi were some of the things Geet likes.
Next on the list was K. He was a crucial person, coz one, he was coming from Chennai, from where most of the food for Geet needed to be brought, and two, he was one of her closest friends for a long time, and along with Naan and the 2 girls, she would love it if he were there. So I went about convincing him for a long time, and he just couldn’t finalize plans as he was in between jobs, and finally confirmed his travel only days before the birthday. By then the flight prices were so high, that I had to book one way through my miles, and he used a discount voucher on the return in order to make the trip happen. I was really glad he managed to pull it off, coz he got the essentials (food from Murugan Idly and Thalapakati Biryani) and also played an instrumental role in ensuring Geet was really surprised on her birthday. More on that later.
I tried hard to convince him to bring Indu as well, but with a 6 month baby, it was always bound to be difficult. In fact, she had such little time, that when I made a trip to Hyd the day before the surprise party to get some of Geet’s favourite food from there, she refused to even catch up with me for a short while coz she was that tied up. Anyway, I managed to pick chicken and prawn starters from a restaurant there called Rayalseema Ruchulu that Geet hogged like crazy when we visited Hyd, and also picked the usual Paradise Biryani along with some other Hyd favourites like Boondi from Pulla Reddy and Bisticks from Almond House over the trip there.
So this was all the background planning with the people coming from outside Bombay and the food they were to bring. I then went about inviting people from Bombay – Ashok and Tejal who were her school friends, Sushant and Ankur who were friends of hers from Symbi, then all the people from office – Janani, Mallika, Ananya, Ajith, Ninja – all who would come with their spouses and other friends who always make partying at our place such good fun, and finally some of my friends too like Bangdu, Rikesh and Vyoma.
So it was a big gang, and at one point, while chatting with Parul, we counted nearly 30 of them which would have not only been the biggest group at our party, but also perfectly matching the magic number of 30 for the night. But the final number that turned up was closer to 25 given some drop outs, and even getting this many people to assemble in a manner that Geet didn’t have a clue was quite a miracle, especially coz she is really smart as smelling a rat.
I had mailed everyone on the group and given them options on the gifts that I knew Geet was looking for (things like Clutches, which she ended up getting 3 of, umbrellas, which she ended up getting 2 of, and other items like bags and soft toys, etc etc) and also split all the items that needed to be brought home between people. Bangdu was to bring the sea food from Gajalees (again a favourite for Geet), Rikesh the mixers, Ananya and Vyoma the alcohol, Janani and Shiva the items from Hyd that I handed over to them for safe keeping, Ashok and Tejal the food items from Dahisar that Geet used to enjoy as a kid and makes me have everytime we visit her family doctor there, and finally the cake from Westin which Ajith was to get, which was quite the highlight of the night.
The one thing I was struggling to stitch together was the gift that I was to get for Geet. I had a meeting in Delhi a week before the birthday, and used the opportunity to take some old photos of Geet’s to show it to Jeethu and Sachin there and get some ideas from them. Sachin printed the photos on an OHP sheet, and prepared a small box out of it, which I thought I could use as a lamp in such a way that the light from inside would reflect the images on to the walls. I thought it would be really cool if we could have her baby pics reflecting off all the walls. But I was circumspect about this working, and planned an alternate gift as well, which involved getting some sketches she had done as a kid framed, so that I could put it up on the wall on the day of the party. So I managed to give it for framing without Geet noticing, and also asked Rampal to send a guy to drill nails on the day of her surprise party.
I did all of this and thought that between the baby pics bouncing off the walls, and the framed sketches on the wall, I could have a decent gift for Geet, but little did I know both of these would completely bomb. Neither worked out on D-Day, and details will follow.
So with that, we landed at Day 1 – Saturday, June 22nd
The day began with waking up as usual before Geet does, then going through my notes and planning the activities for the day, which included messaging everyone and reminding them of the activities that they need to do for the day.
Then once K called after landing in Bombay, I woke Geet up and we went to pick him up and bring him over to his maiden visit to our place, with one pit stop en route to pick some junk Bombay breakfast like Missal Pav and Vada Pav that K wanted to have.
Once home, K and I got a small window when Geet went into the loo to take out the food packets from K’s bag and stuff it into the fridge. This took a bit of time, coz I had to place them real deep inside so that Geet wouldn’t notice it, and we completed doing all of it just as she walked into the kitchen. We were so glad that I had just shut the fridge and K had just dumped the last chutney packet that we weren’t planning to use into the dustbin, but Geet noticed one packet of sambar that was left behind over the microwave and began asking what that was. Both of us covered saying we have no clue and it was probably something the maid left there, and promptly threw that too in the dustbin. We were so worried that she may suspect we were up to something, but somehow we managed to avert it.
Then around 10:30 I knew I would get a call from Geet’s mom who was waiting at the airport as it was time for Naan to land. So I began rushing Geet in to the shower so that we can leave on time for the “trip” that she and I planned. While she was inside, I left to the airport telling her that I will just step out for 10 minutes to meet a friend and get back.
That 10 minutes turned into nearly 1.5 hours, coz first of all Naan took an age to get out of the airport and after he came out and called me, we couldn’t see each other, and it took me a minute to realize that I was waiting at the domestic airport all this while, while he would obviously arrive at the international. So I immediately sped to the international and got there in record time to pick both of them up.
While on the way back, K messaged saying Geet is almost going to sleep waiting for me, coz I was avaoiding all of her calls not knowing what to say about my delay. Once we got there, I entered the house first, and the plan was that Naan and mom would ring the bell and Geet would go to open it. But when the bell did ring and we asked Geet to check who it was, she knew something was up. Somehow we pushed her to the door, and Naan moves in from where he was hiding singing “Happy Birthday to you”. Geet’s reaction was just priceless at this point. She was screeching and jumping like crazy. I turned on my phone a bit too late and missed out half the action, but the little I got was still one for the ages.
Geet by this time had packed our bags and stuff for the trip, and I had to tell her now that it was all a decoy to setup the surprise of Naan’s visit.
All of us were really glad we managed to pull it off and give her this surprise, and now we had to plan for the next surprise that was to happen later on in the day. I nearly gave it away this time, by almost blurting about the sambar packet that Geet found. Somehow we covered our tracks again, and all of us left to Geet’s parents place for lunch.
Parul arrived in Bombay while we were out, and she managed to let herself in as I left our keys at the neighbours without Geet noticing as we left our place. She was just about getting bored when I got back home after lunch and dropping K with some friends that he planned to meet.
I had collected the frames on my way which I had made of Geet’s sketches
placed them on the ground to tell Parul how I intended to put them on the wall, and just when I turned around to setup the “Happy Birthday” sticker on the wall, Parul steps on one of the frames and cracks the glass. I was so upset, but knew that it could get fixed before evening, and so gave it to the shop when I went out to pick K and bring him home.
By the time I got home, Ankur also had arrived to help with the decoration. I explained to all of them the things we need to do; arranging all the food, blowing the balloons, fixing the lamp with Geet’s baby pics that Sachin made, setting up the frames I had brought on the wall, and using the decorating streamers in as many places they can think of. For the food arrangement, I wrote the names of the items on 30 post it stickers and put them up on small stands I made with straws and flower holders. I explained to everyone how this is to be setup in the kitchen. Then I left Parul in charge of the frames, Ankur in charge of fixing the lamp and K in charge of rest of the decorations. I intended to then leave and pick Geet and come, who was waiting at her parents place for me. Just before I left though, Ankur blew the fuse at our place while trying to fix the baby pics lamp, and I had to move him to decorations as this was clearly not happening. This is how the first gift idea for Geet had bombed.
I then went to pick Geet and by the time I cut through traffic and got back, most of the junta had arrived home. However, I got a call from the carpenter saying that people didn’t let him set up the frames and when I tried to call Parul to check with her, she says that Aanchal stepped on 2 of the frames this time, and they couldn’t set it up because of that. I was so furious when I heard this, as this was my alternate, and only remaining gift for Geet, and even this was not happening. I realized later that the carpenter himself had come too late when it was difficult to manage him with all the people at home, but at that point I was so angry with Parul that I just slammed the phone on her. I was not even talking to Naan and Geet while driving home as I was so bugged with this thing not working.
During this whole time, K was being very effective in ensuring the surprise still works on Geet coz he called Geet and started yelling at her saying she was chilling at parents place and I was somewhere outside and he is getting bugged sitting at home all alone waiting for us. He pretty much made her plan the evening out for us by saying that we will all step outside for a drink.
However, by the time we got home, the first giveaway was one pair of slippers that was lying outside the door. As soon as Geet saw that, she got suspicious that were more people than just K at home. Then when we opened the door, she noticed all the decorations and grew more suspicious. I was wondering why people aren’t in the hall to shout surprise. I even turned my camera on to ensure I get her reaction this time, and this was the next giveaway, when Geet noticed me filming her. Then K had to pretty much had to force her into the room where everyone was waiting and this was when even I realized that this was probably the best that could have been done with the number of people who were waiting in the dark there to surprise her. There was no way that the carpentry work could have been done when I was away, and no way to avoid Geet getting suspicious when she entered the house.
But what was still worth it was her expression when she saw so many people in the house. It surprised me too that there really were that many. The best part was Parul and Aanchal hiding inside the bathroom, which was something Geet didn’t suspect at all, because on our way home, she was busy chatting with exactly both of them saying how Naan surprised her, and how we are planning to go out for a drink now taking K and Naan with us.
Once the surprise was done, we got everyone out of the room to the hall where Geet cut her cake. Then we took her into the kitchen to show all the food that was laid out for her. Then people who were waiting to leave soon, like Tejal and her husband, Ajith and his wife, pulled her to the room to give her the gifts they bought, and it took some time between that and my pouring everyone a drink, before we got to making our toast. Geet promptly said that she wishes she turns 30 every year coz this was the best surprise she had.
It didn’t take much time after this little speech for people to get drunk, and pretty soon, we were having dance off’s as part of the theme for the night, which was “30llywood Night”. This was a theme that Geet herself came up with, and invited some people to come over on Sunday for a party on this theme. She had absolutely no clue that people would be landing up on Saturday itself, and although she couldn’t get into the costume that she wanted to be in for Sunday, it just didn’t matter at all, coz all of us got drunk and began dancing crazy.
The party had everything; Shiva gyrating to his funny moves, Chaitanya proving how he just cannot dance, Bangdu doing his usual lustful steps, all the girls proving how they are so much better than us boys when it comes to shaking a leg – especially Tina with her belly dance and Aanchal with her full prong Bharatnatyam. Soon the party moved to the fun room with Ananya and her “le dibbi” which kept many of us occupied for a long time. Then people making funny poses in front of the camera, and finally moving to youtube to entertain the really late night party maniacs.
It was somewhere around the Youtube session when I think I passed out. I just couldn’t keep up with the energy of the rest of the guys, especially Nikhil and Mallika, who just went on and on and on.
The last thing I remember was heading into the room to just crash out, and finding a small portion of space in the bed that K was sleeping in on the floor, and crashed out next to him.
The day after – Sunday, June 23rd
I woke up hearing Geet, K and Naan chat. So much better than waking up all by myself to a quiet morning most days. What made the morning even better was the hangover I had. Not a very bad one that would make it painful, but just right to know that I had a really good time the previous night.
Geet and I made breakfast for all 4 of us and we just chilled out, catching an afternoon nap, and waiting for Parul and Aanchal to join us in the evening for a night of chilled out gaming and drinks, this time with the right cutlery, and not the plastic cups that were used during the mayhem the previous night.
We had a really good time playing taboo. There were some insane moments. Like Geet asking what happens when air evaporates, and Aanchal actually responding to that by saying Steam. K was stunned both ways listening to this. Then there was K himself trying to explain Argentina, and he went on and on saying it is a city in Brazil! It was a real fun night, and finally when the clock was about to strike 12, we all headed out to the park outside, and in spite of a little rain, we still managed to give her bumps out on the park. Then we played one game of hide and seek like little kids and got back home to crash out for the night, which was finally opening up to Geet’s real birthday.
The real birthday – Monday, June 24th
It was a rainy rainy day on Geet’s birthday. We somehow managed to get to her parents place and decided on making a trip to Madh island for lunch with her family, Parul and Aanchal. I had to work this day for a bit in the morning given some meetings I couldn’t avoid, and ended up delaying the rest as I got home only around 1p.m.
We got out of home by 3p.m, but given the weather, none of the taxi’s or auto’s were willing to drive to Madh island, and none of the car vendors like Meru, Mega were confirming on coming home either. We needed one of these as there were 7 of us including Geet’s family and Parul-Aanchal. We turned back home and called the company car vendor to send a car, and by the time that came and we left home, it was nearly 6p.m. Traffic had almost begun to build, and with a bit of difficulty, made it to The Resort in Madh island just before the sun completely sank in. We quickly captured a few photos and then had some tea with starters and drove back home.
It was a quiet birthday day, and rightly so given the mad party 2 nights back. It was so mad, that Geet and Naan got their stomachs upset, and looked immensely tired. Surprisingly I was pulling through. It was the rainy day concept in MVIT – when I was wondering whether I should get wet coz mom had frightened me my whole life about stepping out in the rain, and Sush tells me that if I just let myself go and blissfully enjoy myself, nothing would happen. That day I played in the rain, the first time I did that, and I didn’t fall sick. So the rainy day concept is that you can put yourself through anything, but as long as you are genuinely enjoying doing that, you’ll be fine J
