Notes from behind-the-scenes...

The thought struck a few days before March 31st. It came out of nowhere, and as a result I know that it was planted there. But I think it remained in my subconscious for a few days and only on the 31st did it actually surface and prod me into action. I typed out an email. The words mega baby shower figured somewhere in the subject.

I remembered my first baby shower ever. It was thrown by some of the people at work and their simple gesture moved me manyfold. It set the right tone for receiving the blessing of my little baby, Winkie. And during my second pregnancy, everything was soo.. low key and casual with nothing celebratory about my imminent motherhood other than the excitement within me. And when I found myself the recipient of a very unexpected baby shower from people I had known for such a short time, I was totally bowled over by the gesture.

These were the memories that played in my mind when I sat down to write that email. It was at first sent to all the bloggers who were on my address book. There was no question really of their affirmation of the idea, for we are not anything if not an enthusiastic lot! Everybody wrote back with a 'Yay' and the first task of that week was to gather all the troops so no one was missed out. All those people who were regulars at the blogs of all the expecting ladies were contacted. (At first, I had written with 6 ladies in mind...Kodi's Mom, Boo, Poppins, Maggie, Desigirl and Lavs. And as the group numbers swelled, I came to learn of Random Vignettes,Planethalder and Rohini too.) So that's what we started with. One person each designated to comb the blogs of each of these MTBs (moms-to-be, a phrase coined by the mastermind Gauri) and get in touch with the potential members. So if you have seen some of those random 'Hey, can you get in touch with me over email' type of comments on blog spaces, you will know what they were all about. :)

Gauri in the meantime had hatched a divine plot. As UTBT rightly says in 'The Making', there is no doubt that some of these MTBs must have seriously crossed Gauri in a previous lifetime. You will all know the intricacies of the riddle PLAN, but a quick synopsis nevertheless. Clever riddles were coined to reveal the identities of the bloggers on the riddle chain. So the MTBs start on the first riddle, solve it and know who it points to. And they make their way there, only to solve another. This scene was supposed to replay some 50-60 times revealing the mammoth proportions of the venture and also give the MTBs the workout they needed! :)

Kiran, Altoid and Sue volunteered their services and together with Gauri, they formed the team of Riddlers. In the meantime, recruitment was going on in full swing from my end, and when the numbers slowly made their way to the 70 member mark, it was obvious some kind of a cut-off had to be in place, else the riddle team would be combing blog posts for many months to come up with riddles. April 5th was cut-off for recruitment. By then, my head was a blurry of names, nicks and blog identities. I lost track of whom I had emailed, whose blog I had left a comment on and who I should have followed up with a 2nd or 3rd time. So all those who didn't make it into the group by this time, I offer my apologies. I don't think it would have been possible to get this aspect perfectly sorted out.

The next cut-off date was the 10th and this involved a formal oath taking, in true solemn fashion, right hand raised, somber expression and all, and it went something like this...

I hereby solemnly undertake that I will...

[1] Commit to be available on the 25th of April, to post my part of the riddle, and keep the chain going.
[2] Once committed, will not back off due to any reasons, except any unforseen ones, in which case I will intimate the rest of the group.
[3] Not enable comment moderation on my blog so the MTB comments can be seen by all.

Yes, it was as fancy as all that, and everybody played along to this little eccentricity of mine. There was until Tuesday (8th) to respond and commit to this thread, at the end of which we had 49 people hosting the riddles. With that done, all riddles were finalised and the work started on flowcharting the chain the riddles would pass through. Altoid and Gauri must have exchanged many an email on this one and liberally pinged one another to get to the final chain. I got a copy from them to refer to if ever the MTBs sent out any SOSs to crack the riddles.

By this time wishes had started pouring in from the members. April 15th was set as the last date for this, and they poured in steadily. A separate team of wish COLLECTORS (Asha, Amrita, Daisy, Orchid and Reshma) was formed in the meantime. They divided the members amongst themselves and collected those corresponding wishes to post on the blog on their designated days.

The blog design deserves a huuuuuge mention at this point. Its a wonder to me how it all came about right from who I had in mind to design the blog and the actual wondrous output. Only a few weeks before, I caught one of MayG's first comments on my blog. Since it was a new person, I followed her link to find out more about her and hit upon her ultra cool and vibrant site. I think it was just destined that this be the way it was, because she was the first person who popped into my mind when we all decided to create a separate shower blog.



I wasn't even sure if she knew any of the MTB blogs and when I wrote her a mail with my request, I crossed my fingers hoping for a yes. She wrote back so enthusiastically saying she'd have a wonderful change from designing corporate logos and the idea sounded like so much fun. I was thrilled to say the least. I knew the real treasure lay in the compilation of wishes that the members would be bringing forth, but the added punch of beautiful packaging for this treasure would really make an impression. I was sure the MTBs would not have really expected a specially designed blog! :) So we worked out an end date of April 17th. And from the 18th onwards the collectors could start uploading the wishes.

Things went beautifully as per schedule. All the wishes came in by the 15th. All the nitty gritties of posting were worked out amongst the collectors by then. Posting began on the 17th, I think and everything was formatted and perfected by the 22nd. The collectors did a fantastic job in collating all the wishes and putting it up on the site exactly the way as the member would have intended.

By this time, riddle flowcharting was done and Gauri sent forth a draft of that first email to be sent to the MTBs. I, with my penchant for pictures, learnt to embed many a picture in gmail and added the visual aspects of it. The draft email was ready. We also finalised the riddle templates...as in all those little verses that went before and after the riddles to direct the MTBs on what they were to do at each blog and give it a lyrical, whimsical spin. [Mags did us a very big courtesy, by returning the favour with on-the-spot concocted riddles of her own.]

Gauri and Altoid then began the laborious process of emailing each person's riddles to each member's inbox. I know for a fact, that this would have taken a lot of time and precision. Thereafter they even emailed everyone back with the identity of the person their own riddles pointed to, so each member would know if the MTBs were on the right trail.

Somewhere in the middle of all this and in fact much earlier on in the planning stage, DDmom, came up with the rather novel idea of a tangible memoir for the MTBs to take home from this shower. She visualised a little signature book, where the header shots from all the member blogs would be depicted as each person's signature, followed by a little write up on the 'Making of the shower'. She gathered around her a group of head-hunters (Dotmom, K3, Trishna, Sunita) as I refer to them, and together they alloted the work, made lists, snapped headers, resized onto pages, and sent it along to the final person to collate and make into a pdf file. Mayg sent along a template patterning the look of the blog, so that tied in with the actual book. It was professionalism at it highest, and creativity at its juiciest. UTBT penned the words of the now historic 'Making' and and the way she ended her write-up says it all..."It takes a village to raise a baby...and this is OUR VILLAGE."
While this was going on, Sujatha came forward to write the making in poem format. Given all the verse that would find its way into the riddles, a poem seemed to be the right touch to tie it all together on the shower blog. She also undertook a personal project to chart a map of all the places the wishes were coming from. One look at it and one would be impressed by the geographical span of the whole venture.

Shower date was 25th. Riddles were to be up by end of 24th. Signature book was ready by the 24th. Blog up and ready by the 22nd. Riddles good to go and all emailed by the 23rd. Everything just fell in place on its own. The enthusiasm was at a steady high. And the personal talents which the members brought to the table were amazing, and put together, it humbles me to see the force that we can become in a united common goal.

There was a point just when the plan was initiated, when I sat down and said a prayer, submitting the whole thing at the feet of the Divine Energy (right, Broom? :))...asking for that energy to flow through all of us as we invest ourselves joyfully to creating joy in turn. And throughout this whole process, that was single and evident. I must admit though, that the plan was initiated with the happiness of the MTBs in mind. But its not something I remembered at each and every turn of this one month. It was the joy of the work that kept me going, on a personal level and the excitement of lending a hand in building something, no matter what the end result might look like.

Of course all such zen flew out the window the day Boo and the other MTBs got on the trail a whole day sooner than we had planned. And it took a while to realise that I had no control over the outcomes...and to enjoy what unfolded as and when it did. Once that was established, it was easier to drift with the tide. The MTBs solved the riddles a record 10 hours from the time they got on to it. Way before the hour that that first email was to be sent. At that point, we sent out the email anyways and it acted as the last link in the chain and the puzzle was whole now. Tremendous work ladies! And to think we tried to make riddles simpler and highlight the clues for you!!!

They got their username and password and logged on to the site. I was asleep by this time, and woke up to their reactions only the next morning. My heart was full sensing the emotions behind the words they wrote to document their reactions. I know that feeling very well. Of an overwhelming love. Of going down on your knees and bowing to something much larger than life. Its not the kind of thing you can really put in words. At best, 'gratefulness' comes close to it.

There were many things I took away from this last month. For one, it has been an eye-opener in human relations for me. I have had the painful experience of seeing my own egos play out in front of me. I have been humbled to see the progress I have yet to make in this regard. I am touched beyond mere words, at the near-perfection possible when enthusiastic, talented, creative minds come together in the act of creating happiness. I have understood the sacrifices involved in being a team. I have understood the importance of firmness as opposed to being popular and well liked all the time. I have learnt, that even in enthusiasm, one must not get carried away by the currents of it, and remain firmly rooted in the sanctuary of balance and subscribing to the bigger picture. I have made a few more new friends along the way and cemented closer ties with the ones that were already around me. I have felt the resounding emptiness of a fulfilled project on the day after. I have appreciated the need to take a day or two in reminiscences of what was, before making way for what will be.

God bless all the minds and hearts that came together for this one big MEGA thing. That was the real miracle of it all, that spanned several countries and 2 dozen cities!

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For a more comprehensive picture look it up here on Indian Mommies!