How I was simply overwhelmed during my birthday week!

My besties wanted to overwhelm me with surprises on my birthday the same way I had them during theirs. In retrospect, I think hectic preparations may have been on before my birthday though they gave no indication of it.

Sanjana' portrait of me!

Shalini' painting depicting our friendship

This birthday was a ‘surprise’ in that I did not have the normal birthday thingeys like cake cutting or partying. One of my besties – Sanjana, did surprise me though by spending the entire day with me doing the mundane stuff; her company coupled with the numerous phone calls with best wishes all day made it special though. The birthday party was planned for the weekend @ my other bestie – Shalini’ place. I was curious to find what they had planned but Sanjana who was driving me over did not seem to have anything in place really; I mean I was expecting at least a birthday present. Maybe Shalini was in charge of the presents, I thought to myself. The aroma of Kerala ‘sadya’ (multi-course meal) wafted through my nostrils as I walked in through the door of Shalini' house. I felt soooo ‘happily’ hungry because this is one of my favorite cuisines; it is an elaborate preparation so I was pleasantly surprised & happy that they had made all that effort just for me. Shalini had baked a chocolate cake. They sang the birthday song for me as if I blew the candles; I felt like a little child. The theme of the party was ‘unique & self-produced’; they said. It all started with the friendship scrolls they handed over to me which made me go ‘Awwwwww’. Then came Sanjana’ gift – a portrait of me and Shalini’ – a painting of two friends accurately depicting our relationship. I was simply floored but before I had time to collect my wits, a video had started on their HD television screen. They parted to let me see the video. Every family member in their families and mine spoke beautiful words of wishes and about their relationship with me in general. Collating all the videos from every family member into a single 27-minute video may not have been easy but they did it and the presentation was simply flawless that even I could not help feeling very overwhelmed. I got so many other gifts that I struggled with the packets all the way home. Being so overwhelmed with joy, I opened all the gifts and placed them close and admired them till I fell asleep. What a perfect ending of the birthday week!

Well the start was just as awesome!

My photo b'day cake

My group of childhood friends had planned a ‘destination birthday’ surprise for me for which they had ‘booked’ me in advance. The ‘destination’ was a resort – Orchard Resort, nestled in the Western Ghats near Lonavla with our rooms having a really good view of the mountains. The rains had just started so we sat out in the balcony enjoying that spectacular view and eating all those fried delicacies which tastes best during such weather. I read the letter that my dear nephew Krishna had made for me & reread it till lunch. The lunch buffet was an eclectic mix of various cuisines which we spent an hour or two sampling. While some of my friends had a sound siesta after that rather heavy lunch, the rest of us went off to enjoy the various amenities of the resort starting with the swimming pool. The weather was perfect – the rains had stopped as if to let us have a good swim, it was cool even at 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun stayed hidden behind the clouds. I tried my luck at the pool table but unfortunately I still continue to suck at it even after all these years. I was ok at the rest of the games not very good which left the ‘competitive’ me feeling a wee bit dull. Only momentarily though! Because then we started the game of Dumb Charades Boys vs Girls; each of us trying to be better than the other. There was a lot of screaming and abusing about some ‘cheating’ by the other team; of course, that is to be expected in this game. After the dinner buffet where we focused mostly on the ‘live’ pasta counter, out came the surprise photo cake with my worst-ever picture to boot.

I found humor in that photo however; because it reminded me of those days where even boiling tea was an unmitigated disaster for me. The icing was however the cupcakes fashioned with different aspects of me – author/blogger, traveler, fashionista & the like. Some more games with the usual bickering over ‘cheating’, refreshing sleep and an elaborate breakfast after, we drove back home. That was one of the most relaxing birthday weekends that I had experienced all thanks to my childhood friends.

The best gift though is to have such caring friends who go to great lengths to make you feel special! Thank you my dear friends!