Wednesday, September 1, 2010

What they don’t tell you about Surprise Parties in the Movies

We organized a surprise birthday party last night. The plan was simple – have a party at midnight (the typical, lights off, people hiding in the room, and SURPRISE… when the subject walks in). You have the picture, its in every movie, right ?

Let me tell you what they don’t tell you in the movie. Here’s what happened.

The party was going to be a shock as most of the participants were above 50, and it was well past their bed time.

It was 11.30 PM, I was the decoy, I kept the target(birthday girl - Chetna) busy while everybody else gathered in the drawing room. I am not really good at small talk, so I just spoke about technical things, and after 5 minutes I got pretty uncomfortable. Here I was, talking technology at 11.35 PM, for the first time, while her husband was getting ready(actually organizing things). No way, she is buying it – I was thinking.

And then there was a slight knock  on our door. I tried to ignore it, but there it was again, the slight knock. That knock in itself spoke out – hey I am a secret knock.

So I opened the door, and it was my dad. He didn’t know the location of the target and was coming to meet me. So here’s the first rule -

#1 Everybody needs to know the location of the target.

My dad looked at me, looked at Chetna, and then his expression was priceless. It was a combination of - “Oh Man!!!!!” and “I just woke up and suddenly I have all TV cameras on me and I am wearing just my pajamas”.  Plus his eyes were all red for being awake at 11.40 PM.

He was speechless.

The best I could come up with was - “Ah so you came to give me something … ”

He said - “Oh yeah, right”, and relaxed for a moment.

Then I looked at the watch, I don’t know why, and said - “At 11.40 PM….”

My dad had his expression back on. Chetna had burst into laughter at this point, so I kind of gave up and said - “I guess you got late at work”.

He said - “Oh yeah, right”.

The second rule

#2 Have a backup plan or line ready, in case you slip up

I didn’t know what to do next so I told Chetna, her husband was calling her. So she went to Kuldeep and asked - “Jivi told me that you called me?”

And he says blankly –“No I didn’t call you”

She was rolling with laughter at this point. Our stories were so un-coordinated.

The third rule -

Don’t forget you are in the middle of a secret operation, when under pressure

Though at this point she knew we were planning something, she didn’t really think everybody was in the house already. We had faked that we would go out.

Kuldeep kept one small light on in the drawing room, and we starting going out. Normally Chetna would always turn off the extra light, even if it meant us getting late for a train. Today she just missed it, and walked right past.

We all got outside and Kuldeep looked at me desperately somehow saying it all with his eyes - “Oh Man, she wouldn’t even turn off the light today”

Last Rule -

Don’t count on the target to do those little things, they do everyday, on their birthday

So he faked leaving a key. We went inside, found the key and he turned on another extra light.

Now when we pretended to leave, she said “let me turn that light off”

And then SURPRISE !!!! Happy Birthday!

For what its worth, she was still shocked :)

1 comment:

  1. awesome!!!!!
    simply, this is so understated compliment for u.... i could see your and your father's expression...lol.....happy birthday chetna!!

    ReplyDelete