Surprised? No, bowled over! :)

I was watching it on the big screen. The hero and the heroine make a grand entry. holding hands, looking at each other with love-struck eyes, his trademark smile brightening up his twinkling eyes. She was coy, biting her lips nervously, looking every bit the smitten kitten that she was. Suddenly, her face lit up, she stopped short, tears welling up inside her eyes. He had laid out the most beautiful table for her; roses, candles, gifts and champagne handpicked just for her to smile her radiant smile…

I could feel the warmth of the tears gushing down my cheeks, I thought it was the scene that made me emotional. But then, suddenly, I could smell the flowers, touch the gifts and feel his strong palms wrapped around mine. That’s when I realised, I was the heroine, and he, he was the hero. The surprise was for me!

“Happy anniversary,” my perimmai said as soon as I received her call. It sounded a bit strange, for I wasn’t accustomed to receiving anniversary wishes...this was our first one, you see. But then, it began to sink in. I was married; married for a year to this wonderfully beautiful human being.

We’d been out, marking our attendance at the reception of a close family friend. We wanted to return home before the clock struck 12, so that we could ring in our first anniversary in the warmth of our cozy little home. As the lift screeched on the third floor, I noticed a shimmery blue thing peeping out of a jute bag, right outside our door. My heart began to thump as I approached it for closer inspection. There it was, my first surprise...A happy moment of ours, beautifully captured and framed, a cute little cake, pink roses and chocolates sent by my ammai, and a beautiful paper lantern. We blew the candle, cut the cake, went to the terrace to fly the wishing lantern and didn’t forget to pose for photos that we could share with you!

Being the girl who’s been brought up on a healthy quota of bollywood flicks and romantic novels, I looked at him with my big black eyes and asked him, “My gift?” He walked away silently, keeping me guessing all night.

The next morning, we transformed into the good traditional bachchas, thanking God for all that he’s blessed us with. The tags of the new clothes were ripped off, and soon we were all decked up, ready to attend a wedding. As I was busy admiring the beautiful newly-wed couple, he gestured that the surprises had just begun. He took me to a shop, ready to buy me a chic new phone. “No,” said I, the love for my old BlackBerry preventing me from accepting the generously-priced phone that he had picked.

We reached the wedding hall, another surprise awaiting me. My bestie Supriya had sent this really expensive grilled sandwich maker, but what made the surprise absolutely special was the hand-written letter she had enclosed within. Runny rose, smudged mascara and tear-smeared blush was what resulted after I read it.

As I stole a couple of romantic glances with hubby dearest who was on the stage, singing bhajans, he signalled that we had a movie date at 2! So, off we went, to relish a sumptuous lunch, after which he whisked me off to an amazing ‘Ramleela’ experience. And then, it was time for some blessings and gifts(!) from elders.

Overwhelmed, I was getting ready for our dinner date, all the surprises leaving me in a daze. But then, as they say, raat toh jawaan tha…

“Petrol khatam,” he said, halfway to Mainland China, to which we were heading. Looking at another fine-dine restaurant close-by, I said, “Chalo, we’ll have dinner here,” a sentence that made his eyes twinkle. As I walked into the restaurant, I realised some fantasies do come true...It looked like a scene from a movie. A cake (yes, another one!), a bottle of fine grape juice, another beautiful picture of ours neatly wrapped in shimmery paper, roses, candles and a five-star treatment...on a table for two…

It took me a while to sense that he had taken all the pains, put in so much of effort, just to see me smile...I felt like a princess, unable to believe that someone would invest so much of thought to make me feel special. I felt guilty, too, for asking him that stupid question I had asked him that night...I buried my head inside his warm embrace, the waterworks refusing to end. As I looked into his eyes, I realised they were misty too...We blew the candle, cut the cake (again!), clinked our glasses and raised a toast to the big one up there, who’d scripted our union in his plan…

He asked me, “Would you want to celebrate another anniversary with me?”...I closed my eyes, held his hand and promised, we would waked into sunset, together…