The best birthday gift
Photo credit: schmitee from morguefile.com
Mr.Yellow Ball is peering through a window and trying to wake up a cute girl who is still lying on her bed covered by a pink blanket in a girly-pinky bedroom. As usual today also Ms.White Bubbly interrupted the try-to-wake-her-up process of Mr.Yellow Ball by blocking his golden rays which is falling on that lovely, fair, round face. Meanwhile the little Alarmy started to sing by which at last the cute girl woke up and tapped Alarmy’s head so that it could stop singing.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked at the time in her mobile even though she daily kept her alarm at 6:00am and of course it is 6:00am in her mobile too. Then her little thumb danced softly on the touch screen of her mobile which she watched carefully and finally gave a smile as if she loved its dance. Her smile grew wider as she read that text message in her mobile which said,
Oxygen: Landed at Chennai. :-)
After seeing that text, that pretty girl got up happily and looked at Mr.Yellow Ball and Ms.White Bubbly with the same cute smile in her lips.
“Preethi!”, a sweet voice came from the mommy-yellowy kitchen. Ofcourse it must be her mom. Preethi replied at once swallowing her happiness “Yes mom! I got up. I know it is 6 o’ clock” and hurried up to get ready. Shweta, Preethi’s mom looked young even on her daughter’s 23rd birthday. She is wearing her favourite red silk saree presented by her hubby Arjun. Her cellphone rang when she was frying onions. She turned on the speaker with one hand and said in astonishment, “Arjun! Where are you?” while her other hand is still busy in making the onions brown. “I’m on my way to temple. What is Preethi doing?”, replied a cracked voice through the mobile. “She is getting ready. She doesn’t know that you’re coming today” said Shweta adding tomatoes and other ingredients. “Wogay. Don’t tell her anything. I’ll call you after reaching there” said Arjun and hung up before she could ask about his breakfast. “Oh! He didn’t even say bye. Pchh” Shweta sighed.
After almost an hour Preethi admired her own image in the mirror. She is wearing a small red bindi on her forehead, darky-blacky eyeliners, sparkling earrings, golden necklace around her neck which suits her round face, stunning blue saree hugging her body which added more beauty. ‘Hmmm. Not bad. This saree is nice’, she thought.
Exactly 10 miles away from Preethi’s home there is a bakery which is busy delivering the ordered cakes to its customers and Arjun is one of them who is talking over phone without even breathing “Buy more pink colour balloons. Put new batteries for the digicam. The cake is also ready”. After hunging up the call he headed to Nisha’s home who is Preethi’s cousin-cum-best friend.
At 7:00am, Preethi and Shweta are having breakfast in fleshy-orangy dining hall. The dining table looked colourful with plates containing kesari, white idlis, green chutney and red chutney. Shweta has broken her fast already and was arranging the table while Preethi has finished only her first idly as one of her hands is busy in holding her mobile and her thumb again is performing make-her-smile dance. “Stop messaging now and eat first. Otherwise you have to surrender your mobile to me”, said the concerned mom and went inside the kitchen. Preethi nodded her head but the make-her-smile dance is still going on. She is very happily looking at the text messages that she has got.
Oxygen: Happy bday 2 u my dr :)
Me: Thank you :) :)
Oxygen: Xcitd 2 meet me huh?!! :)
Me: Yeah..:) :) ofcourse :):) only two more hours to meet you :) :)
Oxygen: Hwz my gift dr?
Me: What else do I need in this world more than you? I’m loving it :) :) :)
thank you so much :) :) :) I’m very eager to see you :) :)
Oxygen: haha :). K…c u @ 9…gonna ve brkfst now…ll txt u ltr…:)
Me: Bye :)
She only knows that who could this Oxygen be and what is so special about this birthday. She is the only Princess of an upper middle class family run by King Arjun and Queen Shweta. Arjun is the owner of ASP textiles which is one of the biggest textiles showroom in Chennai and Shweta is a home-maker. Both of them wanted to give their daughter best in everything like every mom and dad in this world and they have succeeded too and now as a result she is earning 8L per annum. They are in the land of happiness after crossing a river of adversities in their past life.
Before starting from home, Preethi’s mobile started to ring displaying Kavitha calling.
Preethi said, “Hi Kavi…..Thank you…You know what this day is gonna be the most happiest day of my life…What I wanted the most is gonna happen today…Yeah at 9 o’ clock… Ok… any special plans today?… Great… Ok then bye…”. She hung up and put her mobile in her handbag. She hid her millions and trillions of happiness whenever her mom looked at her by starting some conversation with her. “Mom! When will dad come home?” She asked her in excitement. Shweta replied in a sad voice, “He’ll come day after tomorrow . He has to attend his friend’s daughter’s marriage tomorrow at Coimbatore. This is the first birthday he’s not with you”. Both exchanged worried looks and started to Nisha’s home.
In Nisha’s home, there were pink balloons everywhere. A board saying happy birthday Preethi is kept at the entrance. Arjun and Nisha are running here and there to finish everything before Preethi comes there. “Uncle what is so special about this birthday? Why did u want to give her such a surprise?, asked Nisha keeping her eyes wide sounding eager. “Hmmm. One day she has to go with some other guy to live her life. When do I get a chance to give her such surprises after that? Hope she’ll like it” Arjun said. There was pin drop silence and those words that came from Arjun’s heart echoed all over the room. He was shocked when he saw Preethi standing there with tears in her eyes. She does not know what to do or how to react. She stood still. She looked around in shock. A cake is kept on a table in the centre of the room. Her emotions ranged from surprise to guilt in a few seconds. She is shattered into pieces. Slideshow of pictures of her childhood started to run in her mind which is then interrupted by happy birthday song. Everyone clapped and led her near the cake. She wiped away her tears, hugged her dad. Then she happily cut the cake.
Everyone is enjoying the moment while Preethi is emotionally upset. She has never expected this from her dad. An hour before she was in the excitement of meeting someone. But now she felt that this is the best birthday gift she has ever got and this is the happiest day of her life. She took her mobile and make-her-smile dance didn’t make her smile at all this time. She looked at the text message she has typed for someone.
Me: I’m gonna spend this whole day with my dad
who is my all time hero. Sorry. I couldn’t come
today. C u another day.
She pressed send at last. Now she is relieved. She switched off her mobile and joined with her family members. She realized that how much she is special to everyone there. She started to relive her moments as dad’s daughter.
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