Sunshine Land: March 2009

Last Sunday was 22 March 09 and with Roshni's 15th birthday coming up in four days our lil baby got up from her beauty sleep feeling anxious as ever, about what she would do and wear on the big day -- as usual the exams loomed ahead for all her pals and her, and despite toying with several ideas we just didn't come to a conclusion all thru the day. What we did however achieve on Sunday, was a splurge at a couple of the Malls around our home and at Lokhandwala market' boutique stores -- the young lady was richer by several garments and beamed at herself saying, "Thanks for all the clothes Mom -- I guess we'll celebrate after the exams and we can do a family dinner on my birthday".

Manic Monday arrived and I was fretful about several to-do's at work. At about 5pm I got a call from Rosh and while listening to her animated description of her day at school, my heart kept gnawing at me about the fact that our baby was turning 15 and we were doing nothing grand about it (I know she loves grand things at her age) ... My eyes filled in as I thought of the troubled times she has been thru lately and I resolved that I really did want to celebrate this day for her and show her how many people love her ... I impulsively called a few typical party venues and everything was so unnecessarily exorbitant ... so I called Mum/Papli to check if they would let us use their home as the venue. Mum graciously agreed and said that they would be happy to help in whatever way they could too... Yeaaay!!!!! I was making headway, having achieved the first milestone!

I then called Honey (Fruki' niece) for help with organizing a DJ ... she suggested I speak with Manav instead. Manav was as resourceful as ever and assured me he would speak with his friend who was a DJ and get back to me with his rate and confirmation by EOD. He did call EOD... at dinner time in fact (and since I hate getting up from my meal Fruki picked up the phone) and Manav blurted out the DJ confirmation to Fruki (now Fruki is the last person on this earth to trust a secret with -- he just cannot contain secrets!!! So, I had intentionally not shared any of the plans for the party with him or the kids). Fruki was obviously puzzled at what Manav was saying and gave the phone to me with a quizzical look saying, 'Manav ka phone hai - tumne phone kiya tha kya?' (by this time I had gobbled my last few bites so I ran to get the phone from him hoping that Manav had not done the mindless blurt to my dear hubby ... Alas!!! I was too late and Manav had given Fruki the rate and the confirmation. Nevertheless, I swore Fruki to secrecy (which of course is pointless ... its not that he will blurt out the secret... but he has this habbit of pretending to be puking out what he is dying to say to the effect that the person who is hiding from knows, for sure that something is cooking ... ) uuuuuuuuughhhh he is sooooooooooooooooo annoying!!!! In any case, the fact was that the DJ Ruchir had confirmed to be there for the party on the 26th and would be at the venue by 5.30 for setting up so that all would be ready before the surprise for Rosh at 7pm. Ruchir also asked me to suggest the list of favorite songs that I would like played (I got Dia darling to give me the names of some key numbers / bands). Manav also suggested that we order Biryani from Noorani' at Haji Ali -- chicken tikka and paneer tikka is what he highly recommended. Milestone 2 & 3 had been achieved!

Fruki of course was bursting with very obvious gesticulations like doing the hussle with a silly smile on his face and holding his hand to his mouth in front of Rosh each time she came in front of him or was in the room with him ... its actually very comical and Raunaq and I had a tough time trying to contain himself! By this time which was Tuesday morning 24th March, Rosh was guessing that something was surely amiss. Rock had to be told about the secret as I wanted some of his pals to come for the party too (his pals are absolute squeezable babies -- and they are not yet Young Adults (YA's) (most kids; at least Roshni' pals don't like to be called as kids anymore... Sigh!!!)

Then started the calls to the YA's and Ankita was the first I spoke with amongst the girls and Rohan amongst the boys. They both were mighty excited; Ankita said it was a great idea to have a surprise party and Rohan assured me that he "wouldn't miss the party for the world" -- God bless him for being such a genuine sweetheart. I then drafted an SMS-invite for the YA's and block sent it to them. The confirmations from Rosh' girl school mates were instantaneous -- Dia, Aditi, Arnavaz, Paridhi, Pritika, Kanak, Ritika, Shriya and the boys Molin and Shaun. Molin was a darling and assured me he would get the others from their class to join the party - Sahej and Sid. It was working like clockwork. I had also invited the building gang and had told Rock to invite his friends. Prateek SMSed his confirmation and offered his help in whatever way I might need -- he too was a sweetheart and cam eback to me with confirmations of AP, Aditi and himself. He said that Saurav, Sanjana and Rohit would not make it as they had their 10th Eco paper on the following day!!!:( It was Understandable -- also it was unlikely that Asjad would make it as his parents would not give him permission!? SAAAAAD ... as I know that Rosh would have loved to have all of them there. It would somehow be incomplete... even though some many others were going to make it. The evening before was spent making calls to each of the kids to re-confirm their participation -- I also succeeded in getting thru to Saurav, ordering the cake, ordering the food, arranging for a balloon specialist to decorate the house, asking MaPa to organize the soft drinks and curd (for the delicious mint dip that are a treat with butter wafers and Rosh' favorite snack), buying the Stephanie Myer series for Rosh and giving instructions and coaching to Fruki and Raunaq on what each of them needed to do and say :)

Rosh talking with Saurav and getting greeted by Sanjana

The big night arrived ... I mean the night of 25th March, 12 midnight -- and Sanjana who had been secretly coordinating with me to be there to wish Roshni personally at sharp 12; gave me an SMS stating she was outside our door (where do these YA's get their energy!!?) at the dot of 12. I was yawning my head off thinking of the next day at work as I opened the door and gave her a whispered big hug ... she carried with her a chocolate pastry and a candle, a rose and a card -- we lit the candle and then I called out to Rosh to come to the living room -- Meanwhile since it was already just 12 midnight she was already on the phone with Saurav (the first to wish her) -- she jumped with joy at seeing Sanjana and loads of photos and hugs and kisses were exchanged ;)) I hugged her, Fruki also got up hearing the chatter, while Raunaq had wished her a few minutes before 12 and passed out for the day; the four of us had a tiny pastry cutting ceremony for her :) It was a beautiful moment and the 16th year of my baby' life had just begun!!

The next morning the 3 of us woke up Roshni with the traditional happy birthday singing around her bed and gave her the gift, a butterfly gas balloon and cards -- she beamed with joy saying thank you so much trying to open her eyes! We led her to the living room where the delicious pineapple cake awaited her -- as she blew the candle out, I prayed silently for all her wishes to come true. She was thrilled to see the books and squeezed the balloon saying thanks Mom, Papi and Raunaq!! Off to getting ready then, into one set of her new clothes looking as adorable and gorgeous as ever!

I battled several issues at work thru the day in the hope that I would leave by 3.00 - No luck!!%$#@; as my boss was busy as hell and I just couldn't time with her before that ... Sigh ... WHAT DO DI DO!?? I had started getting frantic calls from Papa and Rosh asking when I was getting home!? Soon ... is all I could say!? I finally just left at 4.30 as I would have gotten really late for the party and would have not made it in time for the surprise that I had put together. I reached Mum's place by 6.00pm after a frustrating ride thanks to a really daft cabbie I had hired. Fruki was already there with the cake (with JB [acronym for Jaat Buddhi - this is what her Gang calls her?!!], Natti, Rosh and Baby Shaikh [this is what darling Dia calls my baby] iced onto it) and crisp butter wafers. I started making the dip and told Mum and Pa to PLEASE clear up the mess they had made with all the dhaniya and pudina they were peeling on the dining table. In the middle of all this maddness Rosh kept calling me to check on when I would get home and what the plan for the evening was -- I told her I was on my way home and that we were going for dinner with Nana and Nani. Fruki suddenly said that I should not go and pick up the kids, "Let them take a rick". Rosh the princess refused to take a Rick and said she wanted to be picked up PLEASE. So Fruki went to fetch them. Meanwhile, the guests started arriving in groups of 4-5 and soon we had over 30 YA's all over the house -- the music blared to the latest hits and all of them kept asking when Rosh was to arrive while moving to their favorite tunes!?

Fruki finally did arrive with Rosh and Raunaq and made a pretence call to me to come down with Mum and Pa. I said 'Come up yaar for God's sake [I just couldn’t bare the suspense any longer and my anxiety of making this surprise actually happen was it its all time high] as Mama wanted Rosh to cut a cake before leaving'. Rosh was quite disgruntled to have to break journey as she was very hungry and wanted to get to the restaurant soon and she protested that we could cut the cake there ... she trudged up reluctantly while I took a couple of minutes to quieten the YA's as they were cackling with excitement about the final moment by now and debating if the deck should play happy birthday or if they should sing it instead ... SHHHHHHHHHH I said just do whatever comes to your mind then ... I peeped thru the peep-hole and saw them stepping out of the lift and coming to the door and then ringing the bell ... I opened the door and said Hi darling ... HAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPY BIIIIIIIIIIRRTHDAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY screamed everyone as Rosh cupped her mouth and jumped with joy ... seeing all her friends in amazement. Almost everyone I had invited was there -- Dia, Ankita, Aditi, Shriya, Arnavaz, Pritika, Kanak, Paridhi, Ritika, Molin, Sahej, Ayush, Yash, Fauvi, Shaun, Saurav, Sanjana, Prateek, Rohit, Akshay, Praneeta, Aditi, Ayushi, Aditya, Shashu, Yathu, Harsh, Avtej, Rohan, Aishni, Mateen and Farishta. We first cut the cake and then clicked a group picture of the entire gang and then the music took off to a blast as they swayed and moved to the beat of all the latest hip hop numbers ... I do believe that the YA's did have a great time after all ... To complete the evening finally Asjad, Akhlad and Azhad arrived towards the end for a few minutes just to give Rosh a bouquet ... I know my Rosh had a beautiful day ... I did too ... God bless you my princess for many many more!!!!