The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Birthday Surprise

I suppose it's no secret that I love planning surprise parties. The plotting, the scheming, the agonizing over details, the frustration when the surprisee doesn't cooperate etc.

A's birthday rolled around in May. He was rather down and out this year due to some health issues and confessed that he was rather 'unexcited' about his upcoming birthday. 'Well, we'll see about that, buster," I thought secretly as I patted him on the arm and assured him that we will do something fun on his birthday.

It all started, as most good ideas do, with a pretty boy who lives in Mumbai. This friend of A's recently happened to fly down to Delhi and consequently surprise another friend for the latter's birthday. This was a rather pleasant idea, however, no longer as novel as it once had been. Having pretty boy come down now would have a kind of 'oh it's YOU again' impact on the target audience.

A's other friends were scattered in various continents and none of them would be happening to fly down to Delhi during this period. The surprise guest idea was turning out to be a bit of a flop show. It was then that the stroke of brilliance was errr... struck. I can't bring his friends to him, but what if I get videos of them wishing him and put it together as one birthday video.

Ten days of secretive text messages, facebook posts, clandestine phone calls followed. I do not deny that some amounts of harrassment, bribery, threats, pleading etc. were involved. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? Anyway, the videos arrived in sufficient quantity and myriad formats from various corners of the world sent in by close friends and family just in the nick of time - the day before A's birthday.

We played the video at midnight just before the phone calls started pouring in. This would explain my secretive behavior over the previous weeks and throw A off track as to the fact that a surprise party at my flat was also in store for him. Most of the party arrangements had been made and the necessary troops previously enlisted. All that I had to do was tidy up the flat and make space for 20 people while A was at work, receive and refrigerate the cake, and hand over my spare key to trustworthy Pips who would assemble the guests at the flat and wait in darkness for me to bring A to my place at 8.00 pm sharp. It was all planned out. I had even told the guests to park their cars far away so that A wouldn't see and instructed everyone to not call me on A's birthday lest he get suspicious. I was taking the day off to ensure that everything went smoothly while A would be at the office. Everything was accounted for. Except for A that is.

Anyway, the birthday video was a great success. Highly appreciated by A although he spent considerable time asking 'Who didn't send a video?'. Pretty boy and his equally pretty girlfriend had sent in a really cute video 'celebrating' A's birthday in Mumbai complete with a cupcake, 4 candles and a dog wearing a party hat. A's young cousins in Lucknow, for reasons best known to themselves, decided to say Happy Birthday in French subsequently explaining that this meant Happy Birthday in French. A's hulk of a friend in Canada had sent in a variety of videos each progressively more insane than the last. We used a sane (relatively) one in the main video and an insane one in the 'Out-takes' section.

A was sufficiently satisfied that THIS had been his big birthday surprise. A couple of his friends (having been given their scripts far in advance) made plans to take him out for a birthday dinner. All was going according to the PLAN.

Then A proceeded to throw spanner after spanner into the works. He decided he won't go to office on his birthday and spend the whole day with me. 'But don't you have that big conference call, honey?' I said desperately. 'I can take it from home,' said the spoiler. I tried to disguise my reaction of dismay with one of pleasure. One by one some friends of A tried to dissuade him from taking a day off on his birthday much to his puzzlement. In the end, I had to resort to the tearful 'but I was planning to buy you something special as a surprise on your birthday and now it's all (choking sob) ruined!!' A horrified birthday boy promised he will go to work for a few hours so that I could buy his surprise gift and assured me that the surprise was not ruined because he didn't know what the surprise gift was. I am sure he spent those hours in office thinking that I was going to get him that Samsung Galaxy Tab he's been eyeing.

Anyway, A had a rather bewildering day since, when he returned, I had appeared to not have gone out shopping at all. He kept asking me where his 'surprise gift' was and I kept telling him it hasn't 'arrived' yet. We had a nice lunch and then I took A to the mall where I bought him a new shirt to wear for the birthday 'dinner' that evening.

Meanwhile, the troops were busy screwing things up. One friend who was delegated the task of buying the whiskey for the party, realized that it was a dry day in Delhi. Panicked smses streamed in. I in turn smsed various invitees in the NCR area. Finally we ended up with more whiskeys than necessary since all who were asked brought 2 bottles each. Then one of A's friends coming in from Noida got stuck in traffic and requested that A be delayed.

15-16 people waited at my flat, smsing constantly as to the coordinates of me and A. We got ready at A's place. My excuse for taking him to my flat was that I needed to change my shoes. Luckily A is one of those wise men who doesn't argue with women about shoes. A is also only too easy to delay. And so it went on until finally we got the green light to leave his place and proceed towards mine. 'Leave now' was the eloquent text message sent by A's younger brother.

'I'll wait in the car while you go upstairs and change your shoes, then we can go and meet the others in GK,' said A to me in the car. I sweetly assured him that this was fine while inwardly hurling choice abuses at him. I furiously smsed his friend to call and tell A that they will be late in reaching GK themselves so that A would decide to wait at my flat rather than reach the restaurant early. This problem being taken care of, we arrived at my flat. I rushed upstairs while A was parking the car.

Giggling in the dark, we waited for A to come upstairs. And waited. And waited some more.

'What's taking him so long?' someone hissed complainingly from the back.
'What if he gets a call and stays downstairs talking for the next 45 minutes?' came a wondering voice from my left.
'Shut up, everyone!' an authoritative voice boomed.
'Who finished all the shawarmas?' said a shadowy figure next to the dining table.
'Well these guys took so long to come,' came the explanation.
'Sshhhhhhh!!!' I said as footsteps were heard coming up the stairs.

First A rang the bell, which caused much supressed giggling. Then realizing that I must have left the door unlocked, he opened it and stepped inside. The lights went on and 20 people screamed in unison 'SURPRISE!!!!'

I can never forget the look of sheer terror that flitted across A's face for one split second. He looked like a deer caught in headlights for some time before he swallowed and recovered the power of speech. He was delighted and beamed at everyone. Then he looked at me lovingly and pulled me close in a tight hug.

'Aur? Kaun nahi aaya?' he said.