Red roses -- from a gal to a guy

If you have read Virdi's latest post, you may be interested in knowing this side's story too. So here goes.

In a life that is full of surprises, it is ironical that the ability to surprise has become a rare commodity. In a world where unconditional love has certain conditions, and a no expectations deal has expectations, it has become increasingly difficult to give people genuine suprises. So if you're getting a chance to do it, grab it with both hands, I say.

Which is what I did.

People on this blog would definitely know who Virdi praji is. People who have been on this blog for a while would also remember how Virdi and I became friends. So when I found out that his birthday is on the 11th of this month, I could not resist but come up with a master plan to surprise my dear friend Virdi -- one of the most amazing guys I have never met.

Pure at heart, genuine, happy, selfless. The one who always makes everyone smile. I wanted to give this guy a reason to smile. For himself. So I decided to suprise him on his birthday, by having a surprise package delivered to him. At his office address. For maximum impact of the surprise.

Step 1 - Decide on what to send

Red roses. There was no deciding to be done on this. I wanted to send him a bunch of red roses, not just because it is so rare for a girl to send a guy red roses, but also because he deserved nothing less. And a chocolate cake to tone down the extremity of a girl sending a guy red roses to his workplace! ;)

Step 2 - Find out Virdi's office address

I cornered Kini the flatmate. Found his email in a silly forward that Virdi had happened to send long long ago to many people including Kini and me. Kini readily supplied me with the office address.

Now what happened after that is really funny. One evening, Kini had forgotten to close all his windows before freeing up the computer for Virdi. Virdi saw my name in Kini's inbox, and started jumping up and down, "Oye what's happening between you and Sayesha?? Why is she emailing you??" I had sworn Kini to absolute secrecy, and being the sweetheart that he is, he played along. Instead of answering Virdi, he just smiled.

Virdi, with his overactive imagination immediately created in his head, a world where Kini blushed at the mention of Sayesha and sang romantic hindi songs to himself, and maroed dialogues such as "Kuch kuch hota hai, Virdi, tum nahin samjhoge."

Apparently, Virdi even gave Kini some fundas (read warnings) such as "Achchi ladki hai! She's a nice girl. Don't you dare fool around and betray her!!!" Yeah, Kini told me this himself, along with a plea, "Meri ma, can't you send him the gift asap and get this over with??" Hahaha! Poor thing!

Soon, all of their friends, Shubham, Arun, Priya and others, got worked up about who Kini's "chick" was. Kini's comment space got flooded with queries about the chick. Soon, even his undergrad e-group got involved in the discussion.

I was having a blast. I even suggested that I should send Virdi a 'joint birthday gift' with the words "With love from Ritesh and Sayesha". This freaked Kini out to a considerable extent. Alternatively, I suggested that I should send some red roses with a matching love note (What a heartwarming sentimental song! And what meaningful lyrics!) addressed to Kini at his home address, making sure that it was Virdi who 'accidently' got the flowers and the 'lurrrve note'.

Kini's response to this idea of mine? "Yeah, send the red roses, and a garland too for my funeral ceremony!" Hahaha! :D

Virdi and I were talking on yahoo once, and I dropped a few hints here and there about Kini. Virdi said he was gonna save the transcript to show Kini, so I went a bit more ballistic and said things which would have made even Kini rub his eyes in disbelief.

Then sometime during this hoo haa, Virdi calls me, and in the course of the conversation asks, "Achha yeh tere aur Kini ke beech mein kya chakkar chal raha hai? Tell me what's happening between you and Kini??" and I went all blush-blush (Yeah I can blush on the phone -- it takes special talent!) then he was like "Should I ask Kini then?" I was like "No no, don't ask him! When the right time comes, we will tell you ourselves." That made our sardarji go absolutely bonkers! Awesome fun!

Anyway, along with the Kini story, my surprise plan was also shaping up well.

Step 3 - Find out if sending flowers to his office would be embarrassing for him

I managed to prise out the information that his boss is a real cool chap, and not a jealous and khadoos one who would fire Virdi for receiving red roses at work. Also, I know some of his colleagues (they visit my blog now and then) and I knew they are all very cool.

Step 4 - Find out if Virdi was going to be in the office on the day

Some people take leave on their birthdays. Others resign before their birthdays. I was worried that my gifts would reach the office when Virdi wouldn't be around and my cake would end up in the stomachs of Fao, Hobbit, et al! (If you're reading this, sorry guys, but you guys seem like a scary and perpetually hungry bunch who would snatch the cake from the 12-year-old Virdi and gobble it up!) Kini to the rescue again! I asked him to inform me if he learnt of Virdi taking leave or handing in his resignation.

Now this is where the most important discovery was made. During my discussions with him, Kini brought to my notice (with utter glee) that Virdi's birthday would actually fall on Sunday! Well, that wasn't gonna dampen my spirits! I decided to send the stuff on Friday instead. Anyway, sending them earlier would have upped the surprise value too.

Then I decided to bring it forward by one more day, to Thursday, firstly because I was too excited to wait anymore, and secondly so that if there was a screw-up with the delivery, I could call up the delivery guys on Friday morning and blast them just in time for them to do a make-up delivery before the office closed for the weekend.

So on Wednesday night, as I clicked and dispatched my order, I was really excited. Last morning, I emailed him to make sure he was at work. The moron told me he would be going to work late! I panicked. I kept asking him throughout the day when he would be in the office, but I did it cleverly so he did not get suspicious. Soon it was time for me to leave the office and yet there was no jumpy email/sms/call from him to tell me he had got my gifts. I panicked again. Before I left, I could not resist emailing him "Dude, I'm outta office now, talk to you tomorrow. Sms me if something happening happens today." ;)

I waited and I waited and I waited. It was freakin' 9:30 pm here. 7 pm in India. Visions of the delivery guy giving my precious red roses to his blushing sabzi wali bai and sharing my choc cake with her, crossed my mind. As each half-an-hour slot passed, I got more and more impatient.

Finally, my phone rang. But I was in a very noisy bar, so I didn't hear it ring. Luckily he called again, just as I took my phone out to see why he hadn't called. And there it was, the call I had been waiting for all day! Let's just say that no amount of alcohol in that bar could have given me the high that I got when I heard the excited voice of my dear friend telling me what a great surprise I had given him, and how totally unexpected it was, and how no girl had ever sent him red roses.

He even read out the note I had enclosed, where I had instructed him to save one of the roses and a slice of the cake for Kini for taking so much flak from the public for me. Thank you, Kini, for your help and for being such a sport all the way till the big revelation. Hope you got the rose and the cake slice. By the way, to your utter relief, this marks the end of the love story of "Kini and his chick". And though I set you free with a heavy heart, I will wish that your eventual chick is exactly like me. (Hey, why are you running away? Did I say something wrong???)

Anyway, here's wishing a very happy birthday to my buddy Virdi, who has brought countless smiles to me. May you always stay the way you are. 'Cos you rock. And I rock. Actually, we both rock.

And Kini rocks a little bit too.