aNd I TuRn 25…

"Tring, tring.... tring, tring...", my phone rings in a subdued tone. Thats my ring tone and its subdued because I don't like loud ones. I was expecting Sankool to arrive around 11:15pm. So, my initial guess was it was his call since I had asked him not to ring the door bell but give a call when he arrives. While glancing at my wall clock I happened to receive the call in a hurry realizing it wasn't him. It was 12am and on the other side I hear one of the sweetest 'Happy Birthday' songs sung to me. Before the song got over and I could recover from this pleasant surprise I could hear a hustle outside my door. So, I opened the door and it was Sankool. While still on the phone and getting greeted by Sankool someone else barges in behind him. It's Amit! Amit had come down from Pune and I totally didn't expect him. By this time I kind of managed to keep the phone down but still not completely recovered from the flurry of surprises.

What followed next felt like a gang bang. Amit and Sankool over powered me and I couldn't even cry for help as parents were asleep by then. Amit had ulterior motives as I hadn't caught up with him for a while and had given his plans a slip for many times now. He made most of this opportunity. This surely didn't leave a bitter taste all thanks to atleast a 100gm of gulkand which was emptied in my mouth prior to this.

While I thought everything had cooled down and they were at peace; Sankool had different plans. Sankool brought in a paste from kitchen what looked like a cake batter and Amit joined in for the festivities. They splashed it all over my face and Sankool kept asking me, "Guess! what is it?"

For the record, it was Parle-G mixed with water. Yucks! Finally recession has hit us in the face 😉 For all the shutterbugs here is a better pic.

Varun *thankfully* arrived late (and was not part of the gang bang; could have proved fatal 😉 but scored a few brownie points by getting a Raspberry cake:

Amol and RY called up late night and kinda took me by surprise. Love you.

Amit and I had a lot of catching up to do - had been a while when we met last (that was 26/11). He would be marrying on the 27th of April and I was posing him all sorts of intriguing questions about marriage and how difficult or simple was it to take *the call*. I shall be attending his marriage in Kanpur next week - anyone joining in?. It was 5am when we finally went to sleep.

Now, its around 4pm when I am writing this down and for a second it feels as if all this happened yesterday. And then I am reminded of ragda patice and the special cake mom baked for me in the morning. Thanks mom. Not to forget a flurry of SMSes, calls, missed calls, emails and messages on Orkut and FB from near and dear ones.

Thanks to you all for making this a day I shall cherish.