#100HappyDays/ Day 50 - Part2 (The Master Plot)
"Happiness is - Jigsaw puzzles getting completed by magic!"
Most of you would probably not know much about the 1983 ODI Cricket World Cup held in England. As kids, we had a lot of excitement in following the fairy tale progress of the Indian team through to the finals where we were faced with the most formidable opponents - West Indies.
If I was a betting man, I would not be considered a patriotic citizen, but then that reflects the odds of that game. And when we made a measly 182 runs batting first, I was ready to gamble all of India on WI recording a hat-trick of World Cup victories.... So much so that we actually had the TV shut down at home to avoid watching the depressing drubbing which we were about to be handed.
The relevance of the above story is that my preparations for Urvi's birthday had probably no better chance of success than India winning the World Cup. My army was assembled but I had no clue where to begin. Having bravely recruited my angels across different teams and continents, I was now on a one-way street .... Driving against the traffic... Anyone remembers the opening sequence of the latest Bond movie "Skyfall"?
But then you don't climb Mt Everest in a single leap. So I started breaking down the challenge into smaller chunks. My blueprint started off by laying down all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle on the floor and picking off one piece at a time:
"Charlie's Angels - Set 1" - their task was to confirm participation of their respective families for a meal and agree on a common location which would be convenient to all. It was left open ended in order to find the date and meal where we could get maximum participation. After silently watching a few exchanges of heavy-duty (just kidding) whatsapp negotiation, it was settled that the last possible meal of the Easter weekend and coincidentally Urvashi's Birthday was best suited to all families... i.e. Monday dinner (21st April).
For location, my preference was to get the family to a temple for prayers and then proceed to a restaurant. If that wouldn't work, we could all assemble at any mutually convenient restaurant for a meal.
Reasons for this were:
1) I genuinely wanted to have the family get together at a temple to seek the blessings of god on this happy day
2) This was the best chance to attract less suspicion and more acceptance from Urvi and I could potentially get more time before I had to talk about visiting a temple on her birthday.
3) An opportunity to thank (bribe!) god in person to make this plot successful)
4) Best chance to keep FIL (hope you are finally getting the acronyms right!) happy with last minute changes in his schedule - something that makes him uncomfortable.
Call it God's blessing for our audacious plot, providence or pure coincidence, elder SIL came up with a brilliant suggestion viz. meet up at Swaminarayan Temple at Neasden for prayers and have dinner in the adjoining restaurant which belongs to the temple trust. All seemed happy with the date/meal/location and the plot was beginning to take shape.
My lessons from this mini-success were that getting the right team together for a particular task and empowering them to contribute ideas as well as make the decisions is probably the most important element to achieve success. Imagine what fun it would have been if I had reached out to the two BIL's instead of the SIL's and elder Sister. Not only would the secret have been at risk of being blown....given that they wouldn't know where to begin without involving their respective spouses, but we probably wouldn't have succeeded in getting anything agreed or executed successfully.
By now I was feeling a bit upbeat and hopeful of still pulling off an unbelievable win. This felt just like the moment in time when we switched on the TV and saw the WI score stuttering at 66-6. Job well begun is job half done. Food and family fixed, I now turned my focus on creating a magical surprise for my dearest wife.... Something unique and audacious!
To be continued...................stay tuned for more thrills and spills as the plot careens from one turn to another twist at breakneck speed!!
Love n Light
God Bless
"Happiness is - Jigsaw puzzles getting completed by magic!"
Most of you would probably not know much about the 1983 ODI Cricket World Cup held in England. As kids, we had a lot of excitement in following the fairy tale progress of the Indian team through to the finals where we were faced with the most formidable opponents - West Indies.
If I was a betting man, I would not be considered a patriotic citizen, but then that reflects the odds of that game. And when we made a measly 182 runs batting first, I was ready to gamble all of India on WI recording a hat-trick of World Cup victories.... So much so that we actually had the TV shut down at home to avoid watching the depressing drubbing which we were about to be handed.
The relevance of the above story is that my preparations for Urvi's birthday had probably no better chance of success than India winning the World Cup. My army was assembled but I had no clue where to begin. Having bravely recruited my angels across different teams and continents, I was now on a one-way street .... Driving against the traffic... Anyone remembers the opening sequence of the latest Bond movie "Skyfall"?
But then you don't climb Mt Everest in a single leap. So I started breaking down the challenge into smaller chunks. My blueprint started off by laying down all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle on the floor and picking off one piece at a time:
"Charlie's Angels - Set 1" - their task was to confirm participation of their respective families for a meal and agree on a common location which would be convenient to all. It was left open ended in order to find the date and meal where we could get maximum participation. After silently watching a few exchanges of heavy-duty (just kidding) whatsapp negotiation, it was settled that the last possible meal of the Easter weekend and coincidentally Urvashi's Birthday was best suited to all families... i.e. Monday dinner (21st April).
For location, my preference was to get the family to a temple for prayers and then proceed to a restaurant. If that wouldn't work, we could all assemble at any mutually convenient restaurant for a meal.
Reasons for this were:
1) I genuinely wanted to have the family get together at a temple to seek the blessings of god on this happy day
2) This was the best chance to attract less suspicion and more acceptance from Urvi and I could potentially get more time before I had to talk about visiting a temple on her birthday.
3) An opportunity to thank (bribe!) god in person to make this plot successful)
4) Best chance to keep FIL (hope you are finally getting the acronyms right!) happy with last minute changes in his schedule - something that makes him uncomfortable.
Call it God's blessing for our audacious plot, providence or pure coincidence, elder SIL came up with a brilliant suggestion viz. meet up at Swaminarayan Temple at Neasden for prayers and have dinner in the adjoining restaurant which belongs to the temple trust. All seemed happy with the date/meal/location and the plot was beginning to take shape.
My lessons from this mini-success were that getting the right team together for a particular task and empowering them to contribute ideas as well as make the decisions is probably the most important element to achieve success. Imagine what fun it would have been if I had reached out to the two BIL's instead of the SIL's and elder Sister. Not only would the secret have been at risk of being blown....given that they wouldn't know where to begin without involving their respective spouses, but we probably wouldn't have succeeded in getting anything agreed or executed successfully.
By now I was feeling a bit upbeat and hopeful of still pulling off an unbelievable win. This felt just like the moment in time when we switched on the TV and saw the WI score stuttering at 66-6. Job well begun is job half done. Food and family fixed, I now turned my focus on creating a magical surprise for my dearest wife.... Something unique and audacious!
To be continued...................stay tuned for more thrills and spills as the plot careens from one turn to another twist at breakneck speed!!
Love n Light
God Bless
No comments:
Post a Comment