Thaindian News

August 23, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): When a week before his birthday, Adnan Sami’s wife Roya announced her decision to fly back to her home in Germany, Adnan got worried. He felt she was leaving him when this was his first birthday after marriage.

But he had no choice but to let her go with the promise that she would return in time for his birthday on August 15. She did return.

Adnan got to know only on his birthday why she had suddenly flown home. Roya had gone to the Vienna Music Museum to buy her husband’s birthday gift - a custom-built curio piano that he had wanted for a long time. Not only is the item very hard to purchase, it also costs a small fortune.

Choked up with emotions, Adnan in Goa, said on his birthday, “I actually had a sneek-peek at the gift when Roya was unpacking on her return from Germany. I saw the tell-tale parcel in her suitcase. I saw several other neatly gift-wrapped boxes in her suitcase. They turned out to be handpicked gifts from Roya’s parents and sisters. I feel I’ve got myself a completely new family for my birthday.”

In Goa, where Adnan flew in with his close friends, Roya organized a surprise birthday party for Adnan to bring in his special day.

Says Adnan, “A few hours before midnight, she proposed we go for a cosy candlelight dinner, just the two of us. I gently asked her about our other friends who had come with us to Goa. Roya told me not to worry, that they’d understand that we want to be together on our own for your birthday. After a wonderful dinner with Roya I didn’t know what time it was when my phone rang. I ignored it. She insisted I answer. It was all my sisters-in-law and my parents-in-law singing Happy Birthday for me from Germany. Then it was my mother, brother, and son from Islamabad.”

This was exactly at midnight. Roya then took Adnan to another restaurant where all his friends were waiting for him. “I cut a cake, we sang, ate, and drank ourselves silly. And to think Roya organized it all. So far I was always in-charge. I had become a bit of a control freak. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to just surrender yourself to a loved one’s plans.”

Adnan will get his special gift from Roya after they return to Mumbai. As far as he is concerned he already has his gift.

“My wife Roya is the gift,” he chokes with emotion.

– Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire