Mehfil-e-Aam

The day started off as usual sometime in the afternoon, a li'l earlier, as ahem, lemme call this person X for now. Yea, so X happened to call me in the morning to lemme of his/her arrival in town. Me was too sleepy to take the call, so got back later and fixed a lunch meet at 1330 at a spot roughly 7 minutes from my bedroom; a new place called Old Fox (wats with Hyd hoteliers and foxes...).
A coupla days ago, well, lemme label this person as Y for now, had arrived too... so, same appointment given to Y as well. Now, Y didn't know X was in town and neither did X know Y was in town. Both wanted to give folks around here surprises; my clever engineering helped me realise their wishes, and as a bonus, they shocked each other with their arrival at the lunch spot and running into each other (well, apparently they had been hesitating to approach each other, and I had expecting them not to have even recognised each other; I had failed to take into account, their rendezvous sometime early this year). Back to the story, when I finally managed to land up there (about 17 min late), these guys were actually over the shock, a pic I was planning to capture and present here :(
Anyway, a li'l catchin up and later, devised our next point of landing would be Darsheel's. He was leaving town for the weekend, so imagine his surprise when I was talking to him, and Y walks past him and a li'l later X does!! Darsheel was almost looking past our shoulders again to check for more of em coming in (In fact both X n Y were also upto something on the similar lines at Old Fox). Yenniways, took off from there and landed up at Universal, and picked up an eggless blackforest for Mahesh.
X left after here to catch up on some sleep (late nights really not X's cuppa). Y n me headed back home, dropped off the cake and went over to Salil. He managed to recognise Y within 43 seconds of setting his gaze on Y (I read on a tee once, that 38.75% of stats are all cooked up - I hope u get my point ;) ). Another hour of dilly-dallying in memory lanes later, O drop Y off, and head off to attend to my alterego-superhero duties (details later - no queries will be entertained!)
5h 10m later, X calls; I tell X to land up at my place and wait downstairs with the cake and the car keys (my alterego-superhero duties took longer than I had imagined as I'd gotten).
2356 - I arrive
2357 - I decide driving would take longer, and dumping my stuff in the car and then taking off also would; so, I pocket the keys and tell X the plan. X clambers on and off we go.
2359 - Rasoolpura - Mahesh's mum is trying to find out where the cake & the people are. Somehow, aunty's involvement leaves no scope for Mahesh to even imagine there maybe a prank in the air. Aunty, on the other hand is actually on our side always - my regular partner in crime wherever Mahesh is the intende victim. B-)
0003 - X calls and wishes Mahesh; enquires whether Vinod "bugger" had wished him yet; signed off saying would be arriving in Hyd in the morning and would see Mahesh then.
0012 - Landed outside Mahesh's place; exchanged a few hellos with his younger bro outside.
0015 - Mahesh: X ka aana to surprise hi hai, tu (me) wish time pe karna hi shock laga... (please note, this is the "before" photograph)
0017 - The cake is all ready and Mahesh is on it with full gusto...
0018 - The first piece he gobbles himself... (Redemption was just a li'l ahead and all these added up to the after-effects)
0018 - finally gives a bit to aunty and aunty feeds him a piece too... (Mamma ka laadla... (this is where u go awwwwwwwwww...))
0022 - The eating and feeding turn FINALLY comes into my control and suddenly everyone's chanting for a chocolate facial; I, oblige the audience...
The white blob was the erstwhile pink rose on the cake... :D
A small round of snacks, we all troop out of his house. At this point Muskaan (my fav kid in the household - but, yea she deserves a full post all to herself, and if you ask me, Mahesh can actually maintain an entire blog on her antics!!) rushes out and hands him his gift - she's not used to being up this late. All for Mahesh Bhaiyya, and OFCOURSE Vinod Bhaiyya as well!!
After opening it there, we send all the folks indoors, waving out good-byes and goodnights and escort Mahesh onto the asphalt outside his house. And then we kick-started his 24th year in a royal way. Of course, I don't have any pics of that Grand Finale, but should be posting them soon enough. X, sadly though didn't join in this ceremony. I feel he doesn't wish Mahesh's well-being and bright future as I do :P

Anyway, Mahesh, Many Many Happy Returns of the day again!! :D

P.S.: Pics also here. More will be added as I receive em myself.