"you see, dude... the problem is with the date of your birthday. it's just not close to any of those historic days... like august 15th etc...", i started explaining to zack. it was a lame excuse but i had to say something.
"hmm.... ," zack groaned. "anyway, you guys better come tomorrow evening."
"errr.. did prem call you?"
"nope, but i've invited him too along with sitara. i think you better call him up and tell him why he's been invited."
"no problem dude...", i said and put the phone down.

"shit! shit! shit!", was all i could say after that regrettable talk. and to top it all the ultimate question now was: are we going to buy him gifts seperately for his b'day and wedding or are we going to buy one and say it's for both, wedding and b'day? or are we going to buy anything at all?

before i could come up with an answer, it was already saturday. the day england was playing their first match. the day zack had invited us. the day we still didn't know whether we were buying a gift or not.

i left early so that i could catch a match at zack's place. of course, that 'thing' of my bike started popping out of the socket and every five minutes i had to bend down and plug it back. though it's fixed now, the 'thing' popped at any place it pleased. over the flyover. under the flyover. under the underbridge. on the main road. off the main road. in the middle of the night. in the middle of the day. 11:00 am. 11:05 am. 11:07 am. in front of a signal. after the signal. if anyone had to find me, all they had to do was look for a guy kneeling down... begging his bike for fogiveness.

on my way, i reached the point where one road leads towards zack's home and the other towards landmark. i checked the time. 6:15. i had to reach there by 6:30. so i called prem to see what he was doing.

"prem... where are you?"
"am at a mechanic's place."
"huh?"
"something came off my bike..."
"when are you coming?"
"around 7:30.."
"errr.. listen dude.. i have to see this match so.. i was thinking why don't you guys buy a gift and come to zack's place... i'll pay you later."
"i doubt... i just checked my account, the salary hasn't come in yet... and i just paid 600 to the mechanic."
"what about sitara...?"
"she just bought something big for her dad and she is broke too..."
"damn.. ok.. i'll call you guys later."

friend? england? friend? england? friend? england...? inny... minney... minneey.. moooh! i chose the road towards zack's place. i can always buy gifts later.

after few 'pit-stops', zack called in to say that there was no power at his place. "my england!!!!!!", i screamed. i called prem so that he could come to landmark to help me figure out a gift. zack was getting a gift after all.

prem was already at landmark with sitara and was giving me missed call after missed call. i, on my part, was heading towards office until it hit me that i was suppose to go somewhere else. by the time i reached there, prem already had few suggestions while sitara was wildly opposing it. and in the midst of all that, all i wanted to know was the score. so, i called mandi and asked him about the game. after a comforting conversation, i switched my mind towards the gift.

books were something we didn't want to buy. knowing how zack gobbles up books we did not know what he had read and what he had not. then the games caught our eyes. 'Prince of Persia 3: The Two Thrones' for his computer. we all had smiles on our face. but then again... we didn't know whether zack already had the game or not. it's been more than two months since any of us had been to his house. but we were willing to take the risk.

as we walked towards the cashier, DVDs and VCDs caught our eyes.
"what about movies?"
"yeah.. why not?"
"ok... there is one problem though.."
"what?", sitara asked.
"well... it will remind him of his wedding gift."
"meaning..?" poor sitara.
"well, we had promised that we'll buy him a DVD player as his wedding gift and buying him a movie might not be a good idea," i finally explained.

so a game it was. prem was already excited about it.
"man.. we can load the game and start playing.."
"whaoo.. i am not coming with you guys...", started sitara.
"ok.. let's try the toy section."
"are you mad...?"
"nope... but you never know."

we scanned every toys until we came across this huge cute looking green frog. i picked it up and said, "what about this? kermit the frog."
"you crazy? he's married for christ's sake.."
"hey.. it looks cute...", i explained as i held it close to my chest. "and it's soft."

we debated for ten minutes. sitara wanted to hold it just to check. and then, she fell in love with it. "i want it", she started demanding. never. never take a girl (any girl) to shop, especially next to those cute looking stuffed animals.

so, prem and i, finally settled for one of the tellytubbies. the red one called "po". well.. it was safer. we did not know whether zack had the POP3, but one thing we were sure of was that he does not own a tellytubby because he just hates them. prem had heard him say once, "how can they make shows like this?"

as we walked out of landmark, sitara's smile was as wide as kermit's. why shouldn't it be? her 'gift' was bigger than zack's. and as we handed the gift to zack, his smile was reduced to "oh". nevertheless he put up that fake smile and thanked us all. probably deep inside he was thinking, "to kick or not to kick?"

eh-ohhh!

(concluded)