Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Chicago 'on fire'

It all started with Piyush this morning. He was in the hall, lazing on the couch smiling all by himself, waiting for his first Bakra!

I was first one to wake up. Went out to the kitchen, hardly even opened my eyes, trying to find a vessel for the tea. I hear Piyush pass a remark, 'dekh yaar aaj kitni snow ho rahi hain'. KYA? snow? 'Nahi' I cried. I ran to the balcony door. I was supposed to take the car to office today, it was my turn.

'Yeh mere saath nahi ho saktaa! Aaj hi hona tha. That too when I decide to drive to work.' And to my amaze, I could see everything so 'white' outside. May be right within I wanted it to snow and that too heavily, so 'white' that no one could drive today and office was called off. And then I hear the slogan of victory, 'April Fool, april fool'. Ahh got me that time. Good one Piyush.

Now I knew what made the prankster have that witty look to his face all morning. But now, it caught to me too. I had to pass it on to someone. I go right to our room and tell Navin... 'Hey no office today! Its snowing.' But the same prank does not work with everyone. Lesson learnt on 'April's fool day'! Anyways. Popat hua :-)

But now, we were a team! Piyush decided to target his office folks while I took the responsibility of my office folks. And Navin, well he was supposed to support both of us. First one on the list was Mutthu! Piyush called him up and told him that there was a big office issue and he needs to log on to the system immediately. Their boss is looking out for him and he better get going and know what to do. Hahah And he believed every word. He panicked for a while and when he was told, its just an April Fool's day prank, he thanked Piyush :-) hahah! He is the only one to thank anyone for playing a joke on him. But he did not forget to use his favourite dialogue 'Kya reh! Idiotic Fella!'

Now, it was my turn. What should I say that would make people believe me? I hardly interact on any production issues with my office people that Muthu's prank could work for me.

So we decided to put Chicago on fire :-) I would say that there was some terrorist attack or something in downtown. There was a curfew in the city (believeable? Well, I could not believe people would fall for that). For safety, office have been closed and people advised to stay at home. CNN, Fox are flashing this news as high alert!

First one aimed was Payal! Tring Tring. 'Elooooooo?' She had just woke up, infact our call had woken her up. Thats the best time to make people believe you. So I narrate the whole news to her. SUCCESS! Payal ka reaction, 'Gyan to aaj jaldi office gaye yaar. He did not know anything'. Poor thing. Happy April Fool's Day Payal! :-) But the best part was when I asked her, Payal tu office jayegi? She says, 'yaar, meri aaj meeting hain. Main ready hoke baithti hoon. Agar curfew nahi hua then I will go to office aur nahi to I will work from home'.

Wah kya dedication hain! Too much.

Phir baari aayi Prashanth ki. Piyush called his manager Prashanth and he too was ready to believe every word. He was watching Fox news and says, how come they are not showing it on the Fox news? Piyush says, dekho dekho CNN pe hoga! Bolte hain, acha kaunsa channel? :-) haha

Divya was not picking her phone. So I left her a voice message. The same news, ofcourse. She told Mumeena, her roommate about the news. Mumeena then called me. Navin answered the call. He sounds very sad and even gives Mumeena the statictics of how many people have been injured and killed in the horrible event. Morever says that Shreya is gone to some hospital to see someone. What? Hospital? hahah what was that. Jhooth bhi thik se bolna nahi ataa. But so what! Mumeena asks in her typical style, 'tell me one thing, how authentic is the news that poeple have died'!

Another person to fall for the prank was Sohani! He went straight to the tv set and started the news channels. Initially we thought Sohani would be the difficult one to fall prey to us but it was our lucky day! :-) He starts looking for the news on every news channel haha.

And ofcourse Tushar. He was the coolest one and calmest of all to respond. Infact his reaction made us believe he was happy.. may be cos of the day off we were expecting :-)

All in all a very naughty and lively morning. Thanks to the master mind behind Chicago fire, Piyush.