The day the world revolved around me :) :) :)

The Mark of the awesome birthday!

Warning: Humongous Post! But considering how my Birthday was, I am at liberty to be overtly descriptive :)

It was Thursday, 5th of August 2010... When I was at the top of the world... The day the song "Aaj main uppar, aasmaan neeche... Aaj main aage, zamaana hai peeche.." fitted my situation perfectly! A celebrity for a day... A dream come true.. The day I realized I am surrounded by wonderful people... And how lucky I am to have them... I am not sure how many of their lives I have touched (for good or bad), but all of them reached for my hands to wish me... and touched my heart...

As usual (usual coz I am a man of many words :P), the story begins two days before - on Tuesday... P & A, who thought shopping for me was more important than shopping wid me for my B'day, were desperately trying to shake me off to get me gifts... made up stories that were just too obvious and in the end, ended up for tea wid me coz of heavy rain... After tea, it was off to Pantaloons @ Cosmos for my birthday dress.. With sale upto 50% off, it was hard to resist... even for me...

First came John Miller... 2 pe ek free... P and I thought we would get a shirt and trouser for me and a shirt for him as I am quite minimalistic when it comes to shopping... P found a shirt for himself and I found a trouser for myself.. Just what I wanted... But search as we might, we could not get a shirt that suits me... In the end, after endless trials and difference of choices between P and A, we ended up buying another trouser for me... Now I had 2 trousers and no shirts.. That's when we noticed the Urbana Offer - Ek pe Ek free... Perfect offer at the right time... Immediately do shirts pe nazar padi.. P ko do aur nazar mein aaya... So, just had to select 2 out of the four... A slightly subsided A ne entry maara and chose 2 of the best out of them... One trial and we knew they were perfect!

3 Shirts & 2 trousers - Rs.3797... Not bad at all... Tab A ki nazar friendship bands pe padi aur usne 4 ka do set le liya...

Trying to keep the story short (which I don't really think s possible!), so I ll jump to Wednesday... P & I bought formal shoes from Bata, wid his at thrice the price of mine... One of the many advantages of knowing exactly what you want and how it will look on you... Oh well, with more training, I hope to reach P's level soon :P

P & A went shopping for gifts in the evening.. this time without trying to hide it :P. A "surprise" party was organized at S&R's place... While having snacks, S let loose that N was coming too (I was surprised then & there so couldn't act surprised when I actually met her) Party was supposed to start at 11.30... I found out, to my extreme pleasure, that my roomie Su would also be coming... But since he didn't know the way, I told him I knew a route that would take only 10 mins and decided to pick him at 11 (which turned out to be a big mistake!!!) By 10PM, I got a call from my lovely sis An who started to sing Happy Birthday but the call got cut.. Took quite an effort to convince her that it was accidental and definitely not my fault... After a lot of coaxing, cajoling and a bit of blackmail, she finally agreed to sing it again.. And what a wish it was... Melodious and from the heart... the b'day was starting to look good, even before it started...

Left office by 11, picked Su up and left on his bike with me being the Navigator... Ppl who know how good I am wid routes would question Su's judgment to trust my sense of direction... But being such a good friend, he trusted me blindly... We roamed in & out of Old Madras Road to CV Raman Nagar twice before we could set our compass correct and reach S&R's place.. By then it was 12 already and the crowd was getting impatient... And while we were still on the way, I got a msg from C, a call from Sa, a call from Ni and surprises of surprises, a call from Pr!!! That's a BBBBIIIIGGGG surprise coz she s bad wid dates... Her memory s so bad that it's actually a wonder that she s even able to remember her own b'day.. and this ability is beaten by only one other person - Vi... which is why, her call was a pleasant surprise...

All in all, I was already high when I reached S's place for the "Surprise" party... and what a surprise it was! Lights out and guided into the spare bedroom with P covering my eyes... Lights on... Eyes open... S, R, A, P, M, Suj, T, D, Mu, Su & N! Phew! quite a crowd! And quite a lot of balloons and gifts... what a superb sight!

So Many Ppl, so many gifts...

Time for cake cutting - Kiwi cake, magic candles, bouquet and 11 ppl... the perfect combo... Cake was cut and by the time I finished a round of giving everyone a bite, my face was smeared with icing and cake... over my eyes, ears and mouth! Every good turn deserves another so started off by smearing some frosting on R and soon all our faces were covered so fully with cream that without our dresses (& our relative sizes) no one could identify who was who... the perfect candidates for GoldSafe - Pehchaan kaun????

Photo shoot - done... washing up - done... what's left? of course... it was time for the best part - gift opening ceremony! Itne saare gifts kisi ko nahi mila hoga.. Kya gifts hain! None of them non-essential... none of them just-for-the-sake-of-gifting... A set of much needed RBK socks, a pair of awesome ID Shoes and a heartfelt card from my sweetheart A, a super shirt and touching card from my sweet sis N, a fitting sexy black jacket and a card with personal msgs from the whole group! I am tired just telling about it! Just when I thought I should pinch myself to believe that I really got so many gifts, P got this wonderful idea (wonderful to the group, not to me) of B'day Bums! A strong kick and a hard hit from everyone along with an extra kick from M everytime someone tried to be mellow... 10 mins later, we all sat down to talk... my bums were still sore and I was sitting at an odd angle for sometime... But I was just glad I wasn't hit where it "hurts" ;)

All The gifts for me :)

I am wearing everything new :)

Till that time, my darling R and my big bro S started preparing dishes for dinner... 30 mins later, a tired R and others set the papers for dinner... Dinner ended with small swigs of Single Malt by P & Mu and Pan for everybody... Soon it was time to leave and I left with Su assuring and reassuring him that I would show the proper route this time.. We did reach in 15 mins and after a bit of chatting, slept off...

Finally, the D-day - My birthday! Woke up to my Mom's call... Mom & Dad gave their blessings... I was still in my sleep... Got wished by Bro, Sil and friends & colleagues including a surprise call from a sick Ch, a call from my very good friend DJP, a call from a special friend SB and a msg from my best friend SS.

Wore my birthday dress, the new shoes and a pair of socks from the set that I had already bought... and how can I forget, my awesome new black jacket! Reached office by 11.30 and found my cubicle beautifully decorated with alternating blue and white balloons... A splendid sight - balloons on my desk, decoration papers strewn here and there, bouquet from the previous night, the card from the group...

Just when I thought things can't get any better, enter C - with 2 gifts in hand and a big smile... I started opening the gifts, with some help from impatient A and C... Waah.. Ek bag... ARE WAAH! Wildcraft ki bag?!?!? I was floored... And the next gift - A pen set... Two very good gifts from C.

Then got a call from Security "Sir, a courier has come". I could hear P in the background, who had just reached office, saying he would collect it... In comes P with a gift from my lovely sis An... By now, I was impatient with anticipation.. opened the box hurriedly and found a Phillips Shaver - Just what I always wanted... and a greeting card... it was a nice and funny card... until I saw the back of the card... and I was blown away... An had done something that only she could have done (as far as I know, no offense to others who can!) - hand crafted the whole back of the extra-wide card with my name and some wordings... The best card ever! And I am ready to fight whoever comes to challenge that!

I had reached cloud 99! And there was no way anyone could pull me down... Was being wished right, left and center by all my colleagues... by then, decided to go for lunch and went to Dominos - Me, P, A, C, H and He... After lunch, Me and P went to K.C.Das to get sweets and snacks for everyone! Nice sweet and mixture, thought a bit costlier than I had anticipated... Was pleasantly surprised by the ppl who came to wish me.. including a client who had to come to visit our office and two of our account side managers... and my fav crush too! simply awesome...

You must think that's about it.. what else can there be... I was thinking the same.. but boy, was I wrong! There was cake cutting planned in the Cafeteria... P and D were talking about getting a cake from Raagam or Iyengar's bakery the day before... both of which are considered radioactive and quite toxic... So when I was herded towards the cafeteria like a soon-to-be-sacrificed goat, I didn't expect the next set of events... Came out of lift and could see at the least 30 ppl standing there.. okay.. it definitely can't be that kind of cake.. too risky wid so many ppl... it had to be the "good" cake if so many were invited... but wait.. what's this? 2 cakes? it must be for Mu farewell.. combined cake cutting presumably... wait.. 3 cakes? okay.. Mu's birthday s coming up and he is not going to be in office till then... WAIT A GOD DAMN MINUTE!!! 4 cakes???? is that for M's bday too??? But he is here only... By that time I reached the table and what do I find???? 5 beautiful cakes.. all of different flavors and each one having one letter of my name V-I-V-E-K... I was so shocked, I could not say anything... 5 cakes for a single person! In office! With 30 ppl! D to the rescue - He joked how if they had tried to write my whole name, they would have had to spend their whole year's salary..

5 Awesome Cakes ! ! !

I admit - I almost cried! Never has such a thing been done for me! And never was it done in OFSS... Ohoo.. By God... No words whatsoever... with the whole crowd of 30 or so ppl singing happy birthday, I sliced through 5 cakes! Everyone got to taste a flavor that they wanted.. and some more cake on the face... phew.. the day was just getting better and better... what a day it was!

Wait, it isn't over yet... I know what you are thinking! Still more?!?!? Yes indeed! My Billi who had told me that she would take sweets from me only after she gets me something (which I thought she was just kidding) did actually get me something unexpected - Chocolates!!! And that too four of em - 1 Five Star Fruit & Nut (which is the default one I buy when I feel like buying a choc), 1 Temptations (Which is the choc I ask for whenever someone keeps choc as a bet), 1 Bournville (The choc I wanted but never really bought it coz I had to "earn" it) and finally, 1 Kinder Joy (The egg shaped choc wid choc on one side and a toy on the other side). I still don't understand how she unknowingly got all the right chocs! And wait... One Red flower (Not a rose, but something better!). The red flower is so good and bright that it still sits proudly on my cubicle in a wine glass of water...

It was evening already and A said she would leave soon and left as she was tired... P said he would leave too... And since I had not worked since morning, I thought I should at least complete some part of my pending work before I left... Was just doing that and P came back... WTF!?! With more gifts!! :O :O :O He got me 3 bright colored t-shirts (since I had only dull ones and that too very few coz of which I always ended up wearing a color that did not in any way match the color that A or P would ask me to wear on Fridays)... ruko! the list is pending... One Bulchee Belt and one Bulchee Wallet and another card!!! Now everything I wore was new! Was overjoyed by that!

Then decided to leave soon... Ended up going for tea@Raagam (which, by the way, is considered the best in the whole area, unlike their cakes!)... Was planning to go to my bro's place and drop M on the way.. But knowing P and M, I should have realized it would not be that simple.. They had to plan something... and it had to be booze... that's when Mu said he has never been to Purple Haze (A pub near office).. And since I didn't have any urgent thing to do and I had promised to drop M, I had to go along... P, M, Mu and L together had two towers of Beer in less than 45 mins!!! Then when we were stepping out, we noticed a group of drunk guys standing outside singing pro-punjabi slogans... I commented to M that these guys would get beating and get us beaten up too (This is based on a previous experience of getting beaten up for all the wrong reasons... but that story deserves a post of it's own :P)

All of my friends were in a senti mood and were hugging each other and reiterating how much we "loved" each other! Bang comes a Pulsar.. Two cops on it... Wonderful beating to the other group... in less than 3 secs all of us had dispersed and by the time I got the bike out of the parking, P had already reached his place! Damn, that guy was fast... I dropped M on the way and reached bro's place.

I was so excited that I couldn't sit down at all... or change... or freshen up... I immediately started telling him the whole story... By the end of it, while I was still jumping up and down excitedly, he told me how he and my dear sil had got me two shirts... Two Muscle fit shirts! As expected, they fit me quite wonderfully, but I didn't have the body to suit them yet... But hey, that's an inspiration now :)

Finally, still flying high, I tried to go to sleep and finally fell asleep... And that is how my Birthday ended... I challenge anyone else to beat the b'day I had!!! Actually I myself don't think that my future b'day celebrations would beat that!!!!

A very big thanks to all my dear friends who made it such an unforgettably wonderful occasion with specially big thanks to (alphabetically) A (I love the shoes and awesome idea for the 5 cakes), An (Best card ever for now and forever!!! and for the much needed shaver), C (Superb bag that has become a part of me now), P (for the belt, wallet, t-shirts and for all the background activities!), N (For the nice shirt and card), Billi (for the nice set of Chocs and the flower) and S, R, M, Suj, T, D, Mu & Su (in no particular order) for the sexy jacket & the wonderful wordings on the card. Thanks a ton guys... Love you lots and lots!!!

And I will sign off by saying only one thing about the whole thing:
YYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!