Adnan Sami’s perfect gift

When a week before his birthday, singer-composer Adnan Sami’s wife Roya announced her decision to fly back to her home in Germany, Adnan got worried. He let her go with the promise that she would return in time for his birthday on August 15 .

Roya did return and 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 his birthday gift — a custom-built curio piano that he wanted for a long time. Choking with emotion, Adnan says, “I actually had a sneek-peek at the gift when Roya was unpacking on her return from Germany. There were gifts from Roya’s parents and sisters too! I feel I’ve got myself a completely new family for my birthday.”

Roya also organised a  surprise birthday party for Adnan in Goa. Says Adnan, “A  few hours before midnight, Roya proposed we go for a cosy candlelight dinner, just the two of us. I 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 on our own for my birthday. Suddenly my sisters-in-law and  my parents-in-law called from Germany and sang Happy Birthday to me. Then  it was my  mother, brother and son from Islamabad.”

Post the dinner, Roya also took Adnan to another  restaurant where all his friends waited for  him. “I cut a cake and we  sang and ate drank ourselves silly. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to just surrender yourself to a loved one’s plans,” ends Adnan.