Saturday 16 November 2013

Let's rush Your Highness!

"..let's keep the fancy china for something special, like if the Queen of England comes over" - Monica Geller in Friends. With Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla in town it was no less of a celebration. I was brimming with excitement and not just us, the whole Jew town went Monica about it.

Oh! All the Preps.
And then, the checks
Traffic diverted from the last minute tarred road. Walkie-talkie buzzing Kerala Police checks through out the morning. Bomb detectors. Canines squad. You name it.

Still nothing could dampen the perfect day for me, with Viakerala all decked up he wasn't going to miss us. But my heart sank as I saw the entourage approach, tightly packed in between Scotland Yard protection, who in turn were surrounded by a couple dozen Kerala police and High Commission officials acting as the crowd control, and never mind the harmless paparazzi both local and Royal.
Surely when he stepped up the passage, he read the birthday greetings we'd put up for him. But what could be done with the uptight escorts who ushered him through the corridor at lighting speed? I only had to wait for the right moment to break into the circle. I waved a hi holding the gifts we had wrapped for him in the Viakerala bag and guess what, he recognized me!! giving me a handshake he said, " ..Oh! we'd stopped by". Of course, he couldn't accept the gifts because of security reasons.

Only later I learned that his shopping had been done a couple days in advance, which also coincided with the crazy spike in sales we had this week. I am preparing a list from the sales report of Viakerala, let's see what all reached kutty George Alexander at Buckingham Palace. Yay!!