Surprising Surprise!!!!

Disclaimer: Read this at your leisure. The author cannot write short stories.

Surprising Surprise????? , If this is what you are thinking then you are right!!! I was actually surprised to know that someone planned a surprise for my birthday ( Hey hold on, read further, I am not that bad, that I do not deserve one!!).

About my birthday celebrations, almost all of my birthday’s during school went with mid-year exams and me distributing sweets to only those few in school who remembered it in spite of exams. Hey, there was an exception, my last year in the school (10th Std). That year, I had all my classmates sing Happy Birthday for me!!!. Thanks to Politicians (probably) because of whom the exams got postponed.

After that day, all of my birthdays have been almost normal even the latest one!!!!!! To make it even worst many people who wished me all these years forgot to wish me this year!!! They had to be reminded about my birthday by other friends of mine. For some great ones, I had to remind them, that too after taking about the weather for an hour. Actually, they thought I was blessed to this world on the next day!!!!

Then how did this surprise come up???? This came up almost a week after my birthday to prove that birthdays are sweet memories to be cherished no matter what happens on the day.


Thanks to MM and CC (not Crazy Curly), who had same spirits even days after my birthday to put up an eventful Birthday Surprise for me on Gandhi Jayanti!!! With the help of our friends' cum neighbours.

I had some plans until the afternoon of Gandhi Jayanti, as this day is National Holiday (Hopefully its stays the same in coming years in spite of Tharoor’s twitter debate) I had some preplanned meeting and without any hint of things happening behind me I returned home in the afternoon. Here I was greeted by my roommates who left home with a “Tit- for Tat” leaving me alone at home as I reached.

Thinking back I feel so dumb for not evening thinking why these people left me alone at home for almost 4 hours giving funny reasons, which I otherwise could have easily become suspicious. Maybe if it was on my birthday I could have, but I had already convinced myself that these people will make me cut the cake when I treat them, even if that treat be a month after my birthday. Ridiculous na…….. I know, I am that mean at times…… ;)


MM & CC left the place on my bike, about which they always cribbed!!!! MM and CC had some shopping and other plans for MM's long upcoming official trip; you can say that is what they said to me….

When they came back home, CC voluntarily asked, “Aren’t you ready for the evening walk, we supposed to go right?” I did not even doubt this unusual behaviour of CC. Normally she would have bluntly refused to come for a walk at 7 pm, after day long shopping.

After a long walk combined with Grocery shopping, we returned home, CC even managed to buy candles for my birthday cake, easy to fool me you see…. !!!

I rang the doorbell of the house, and the lights went OFF (that is what I thought, w/o even noticing there is light on at neighbour’s….). MM opened the door for us and
Yipeeeeeeeeeee!!!! There was my neighbour along with MM and there was cake at the centre of the hall with CANDLES on it…….. How did candles get there??? CC arranged for the store fellow to delivery the grocery home before we reached……..

This was a surprise I did not expect at all……Wait this is not the only one…

Anyways with the cake, there was a box and a note next to it, which was more tempting than the cake itself and got me curious…….. After cutting the cake I quickly opened the box for my gift like a little kid, and found WHAT? ……………..A Comb (Birthday Gift????).
A NOTE next to it was still waiting for my attention and half of which read “There is something for you………..” TREASURE HUNT, ha ha ha…….GIFT HUNT!!!!!!
Hurray thatzzz Fun……

I Cut the Cake and opened my gift, I found a comb with a note that said,
“There is something for you… Barack Obama will take you there”
I dug the shelf for the book “Dreams of my Father”, which seems to be lost…..
Thanks to next 'note' and a gift which fell down the shelf, that I wanted at any cost……
Looking at me, it said to me…”You are best at it”...
I am best at what? kept thinking, first best thing, no that’s not there….
But the second one was The Kitchen, where 3rd clue waited in the kitchen cupboard …
It said to me… “You are so obsessed with this place that you won’t let anyone stay in it for long”
I did not have to think at all on this….. I read it half and there I was with my 4th clue and a gift……
This one was also nice to me and said “You make _______ in it”
CAKE!!!!!! Microwave, instead of a cake, it gave me my gift and the next clue……
“You love spending most of your time there”, don’t think of any non-sense…..
It’s the idiot box at the corner there….
Idiot box gave the clue by playing the notes on the String of the “Guitar”
Guitar- The pride of our store room, none of the guitars gave me any clue……
People kept telling think out of the blue…….
Store Room having guitar is the clue…..
The clue in the Storeroom screams at me, “It’s too cold for you to get in”
I answered UTILITY, but how cold could it get? We are not in Finland yet!!!
It has to be the Refrigerator, I bet………..
A chilling clue warmly said “You end your day on it”,
My Homoeopathic hair fall Pills, I don’t end my day ON it….
Oh!!! My bed held a gift and a note towards me!!!!! And smiled…
“YEP!!!!!!!!..........!!!!!!! END OF YOUR JOURNEY.”


I unpacked the gift in a fast forward mode and found some BANGLES… Before I could say or react, MM said this is your gift. I did not want to show my disappointment of not finding any treasure at the end of hunt!!! There was hope that said, this not all of it, there is another Gift (not a hair band, hair clips, earrings, nail enamels etc which came along with the clues). I sat with all my small clue gifts thinking, what next???

Then CC told me to wash my hair which had eaten more Cake than I would have!!!! This time finally my battery started!!!!! There is gift along with my towel in the cupboard. I tried not to show my curiosity of knowing where's my gift, but I gave up and Gift was worth it!!!!!!

This was not the end of it!!!! I even found another note and a gift in my handbag (which I carry to work every day) couple of days after the Surprising Surprise!!!!!! Which said, “You Carry it with you every day”.
So sweet of MM & Neighbour who kept the note in the bag that it should have led me too!!!! I can never forget this one
Thanks, M, CC and crew………

MM- Mobile Maniac (Thanks to CC for this name).
CC- Candid Curly (Thanks to CC again for this name and the blog name- I could not find the better name myself)

Music of Your Soul

I walk across the unknown lanes and stop for something familiar...
On these lanes, I have a company of something known...
There is silence everywhere, but something not letting me calm down.....
Is it from the stranger or from within my very own....?
Everything seems known but the decision, unknown....
Find it hard to defend or rather say to oppose...
Feeling of belongingness to seems to exists as long as it persists.....
"In loneliness and in a group, in known or unknown, You are are not alone"
Said to me something, something which is very known....

Listen to me, Listen to your Soul.....
Because I am your very own..........

Nostalgia!!! - In Episodes

After a very long time, call it Season 2 Blogging!!!!! Thanks to people who asked me to Keep Blogging!!!!

Here I am with my very own full-length blog!!!! , in episodes ( just to keep me out of lazy bags and keep Blogging Regularly !!!!!!!!!)


Disclaimer: This not a travel blog or the place where you could get information about the place I have mentioned below. This is just the memories of the 13-14-year-old girl of what makes her nostalgic even after 10 to 11 years!!!!!!.


PART ONE!!!!- Jab We Met!!!!

As a school kid, we all loved travelling!!! but travelling thousands of miles for 3 to 4 days on a train had a purpose for three of us ( For all who don't know the three of us, it's  my mum, lil sister and myself). This was to meet my Pappa, as I call him, who worked in these places where we travelled to during our summer and winter vacation.

Our tickets would get booked months before our midterm and yearly exams got over. To make it even great we mostly travelled the evening after our exams or the very next day. Thanks to Indian Railways, which was trying to upgrade itself from narrow gauge to broad gauge, due to which we travelled more than necessary.

I don't know in which phase of broad gauge did Hubli (where we lived) comes into but we had to travel to Miraj in M'rashtra for about 7-8 hours and then board the train there to North India.


The first time I travelled this long to meet Pappa was when I was in 5th standard, I guess so. I only remember where and when all we travelled but not the classes studying ;). Hey, don't take it as, I met my dad when I was in 5th standard, it was then he moved out of Hubli leaving family there, just not to disturb our schooling. As it was the first time we travelled my grandpa,( I call him Ajja) planned his Delhi trip around the same time to help us reach our dad safely. Ajja is particular about the time when he travels and my Mum (mummy) looked totally against him that day.


My grandmom (Amma) goes to any extent to make you eat good food even in worst times. Amma along with my aunts prepared all our meals for next 3-4 days at home and packed it for us. Mummy in all her excitement packed to carry entire house with her!!!! This too is totally against my Ajja who's motto was " Always travel with very minimum luggage". To add to all this we had my paternal cousin in early twenties travelling with us, who had her set of bags to dress perfectly,  during each day of our stay with Pappa.


With a van full of bags we left to bus stand and for my mummy's bad luck for some reason we missed the afternoon bus to Miraj. I still remember the look Ajja gave to my mum that day, which clearly told, "Oh God!!! what do I do with this daughter of mine", poor Ajja.

Ajja who traveled in public transport mostly in spite of facilities he got from his job, had to get his office driver to drop us to Miraj as we could not delay anymore even sun was prepared to say his Good Nights to this part of the world and our train would depart as soon as the sun said Good Morning!!!!!. Along with the driver, Ajja asked my uncle(Maama) to accompany us, you see my grandpa is this cautious when he travels!!!! But I don't think even this much of planning will help when things were going to get worst :).

"Ah!!! All well that ends well", was the expression mummy had on her face. Poor mum little had she knew she had to get more of Ajja that day. Any Guesses here!!!!!


Most of the jeep journey I kept sleeping Only to add to my mum's burdens I woke up when the jeep was not moving anymore!!! I asked Ajja, " Miraj Banntthuuu?" , (Did Miral Come?). And again Ajja gave the same look to my Mum who was sitting in one corner of the Jeep with all her luggage at her feet.


Actually, the office jeep got punctured on the Highway approx after 30 Kilometres from the nearest city, those days travelling 30 km was not as fast as today, Thanks to roads. This happened at 1-2 am in the night. Thanks to Ajja who asked Maama to accompany us, who went with our driver to fix the tyre, as the driver did not carry spare with him.


Ajja stayed back in the jeep with us. My sister and myself slept back, only to be woken up by my mom, when we were in the narrow lanes of a city, this time with my usual habit of reading the boards of shops, I realized we were in Miraj and it was nice pleasant morning and I said "Aiyeee , Miraj Bannthhu!!!!! , a ? was replaced with ! this time. But still, Ajja gave same look to my mum.

We had missed boarding our Nizamuddin Express which already had departed an hour ago. Can You beat this one!!!!!

Poor Ajja did not even take us to the hotel, took us straight to Railway Station got the tickets Cancelled and then booked unreserved Sleeper class ticket for next day and then took us to the lodge very next to Miraj Railway Station so we can be on time next day.


The Next Day, we finally got into the train, with 10-11 Bags + 2 kids ( my sister and myself who are no better than those huge bags), Mummy, Cousin and Ajja in his early 70's. We girls could only carry the water can and Ajja's small briefcase which he carried even for 15-day trip. Every other bag was beyond our capabilities and the older ones had to manage them.

In the train, we had to adjust with other reserved seat passengers until the TC allocates us the seats of the passenger who missed their train on this day!!!!

Probably if Jab we Met had been there then, we would have said, "Babaji!!! Ab Aur koi excitement nahi chahiye , Boring Bana do ji iss journey ko".

However, it was not that boring, as Mum met her childhood friend (who was also travelling with her daughter to meet her husband who was in Indian Army) for her relief she can at least talk to her friend. As much as I know my Mum, she would not have spoken to Ajja entire train trip directly without having us as mediators, and would have wondered what conclusion my paternal cousin come to witnessing the entire drama!!!


This is what happened " Jab We Met " our Dad. And In My Mom's perspective Jab She Met dad in the Great city, with one of the seven wonders of the world, which an emperor built for his beloved, Taj Mahal, Agra.

The END- Part One