The Birthday Gift

Keshav and Ayana’s 15^th birthday was just around the corner. They were twins. They were friendly and helpful siblings, they fought everyday (just like normal siblings do!). They were fit and energetic children. They were good at studies, sports, creativity and many more things. 

Sai Srikar Valmiki, their father, was planning a surprise for them. The surprise he planned was a very interesting one. He thought that he would bake a cake and enjoy it with his children and then go to various attractions in the city to celebrate. 

The only problem Sai had to face was that, if the children woke up early on their birthday, Sai would’ve to make the cake in front of revealing the surprise. Therefore, he had to wake up earlier than his children to keep the surprise a secret. But it was practically impossible as he was a 40-year-old man, who slept late in the night. 

He thought about this. Finally, he got a very good idea. He planned to make the children watch a movie on the night before their birthday, so that they sleep late and possibly wake-up late. He would then make Pizza in the morning before they wake and surprise them when they wake up. 

On the eve before his children’s birthday, Sai browsed through movies to show Keshav and Ayana. He wanted them to watch a movie with a comedy story. In the end, he decided on 2 of the greatest comedy movies which Indian cinema had ever produced: Golmaal and Chupke Chupke

He thought that he would let the twins decide which one they would watch. 

After dinner that night, he put the DVDs of the 2 movies and asked them to choose which one they would watch. 

“I want to watch Golmaal. I’ve heard it is very good, and also It is one of the highest rated Indian movies as per IMDb!” Keshav said.

“But I want to watch Chupke Chupke. It is a multi-starrer movie starring great actors like Jaya Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Dharmendra and Om Prakash,” said Ayana.

“So what? Golmaal also has a good cast with excellent actors like Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt. And besides there is a special appearance of Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha as well. I know you like Amitabh Bachchan, so you will enjoy his acting in this movie.”

“But he has a greater role in this movie, so I want to watch Chupke Chupke!” 

“But Golmaal is better, it has almost 5 remakes!”

“I don't care! I want to watch Chupke Chupke and that is it!”

“Ok stop it, you two! We will watch both the movies! Ok?” Sai cooled them down. He was very happy now. Keshav and Ayana would sleep at around 11:30 or 12, Sai thought, which would be better as they would sleep very late and wake up very late!

They nodded for the idea and started to watch Golmaal first. They could not stop laughing. While they were watching, Sai told them that he was very sleepy and that he wanted to go and sleep, instructing the twins to switch-off the T.V. after they finished watching. 

Sai went into the bedroom and slept. He had to wake up early, so he set an alarm for 6:30 am.

When he woke-up he heard the sound of T.V. He was a little disappointed. He thought that his children had woken up before he did. All his plans were wasted. He went into the living room and was so relieved. 

Keshav and Ayana were happily slumbering. Probably they had slept while watching the movie. But what-so-ever, Sai was happy that his plans had not been ruined.

He switched off the T.V. and put a thick blanket over his children and went into the kitchen to prepare the pizza.

He browsed the net for videos on how to make a pizza. Only after seeing 2-3 videos did he realize that he did not have an oven.

He freaked out. He paced through the kitchen, trying to figure out the solution. Then he browsed the net for solutions and luckily, he got it. 

“You could make pizza without an oven,” said a youtuber, in his tutorial on how to make a pizza.

Sai watched the whole video and happily started his work. He had already bought all the ingredients to make a pizza the day before: pizza sauce, paneer (Sai wanted to prepare a paneer pizza, as paneer was his children’s favorite), tomato, onion, corn, green capsicum, baby corn, black olives, cheese and 3 pizza bases.

He first cut all the veggies in desired sizes and applied the sauce to 2 of the bases. He was about to apply it the third when the bottle of the pizza sauce slipped, fell and smashed to pieces. 

When this happened, Sai was not worried about the broken bottle or the spilled sauce but looked at the sofa and saw that his children had not woken because of the sound. To his relief, no one woke

Then he cleaned the sauce and the glass pieces and decided that he would have no sauce on his pizza (which was ok for him). He continued. 

He then sorted the vegetables on the pizza bases and then garnished them with cheese, a lot of cheese. All this he was doing while watching the video. When he was about to see how to bake the pizza without an oven, suddenly…

To his horror the electricity went off, leading to the switching off of the WIFI and finally leading to the stopping of the video. 

Once again, Sai freaked out. But he cooled himself down, and waited for the WIFI to switch on again. It took a lot of time, and Sai grew more impatient. Alas, it switched on again and Sai hurriedly continued. Ayana seemed to be waking up, so he had to do everything quickly. 

He made a home-made oven, as it was quoted in the video. After placing the 3 pizza bases in there, he waited for 15 minutes.

Tada! The pizza was ready! He lifted the lid of the home-made oven and oh! What a smell it was, what a sight it was. At the first sight of the pizza, Sai’s mouth-watered.

He took out the pizzas and arranged them neatly. He could not resist.

He thought of taking a bite of his pizza. He cut his pizza in triangular pieces and lifted one of them to eat and, like they show in ads, the cheese stretched, it looked amazing. When he kept the piece in his mouth, it melted in his mouth. 

He wanted to eat more and by mistake ate all the pizzas, even those of his children. He was perturbed. He had eaten all the pizzas, what would he do now. He thought of many ways to cover his mistake. Of course, he could say that there was never a pizza party and continue on the tours he planned as a surprise. But this idea was not convincing. 

At last, he made a decision that he would take his children to a restaurant and order a pizza to celebrate their birthday. 

And as he planned, he woke his children and wished them. They happily woke-up and got ready. They then went out to all the gardens, museums and amusement park Sai planned to take them to.

When they reached all those places, Sai was pleased to see the excitement and happiness on his children’s faces. 

When the day ended, they went to Pizza hut to have pizza. The twins were thrilled to taste a pizza for the first time in their lives. 

When they tasted the pizza, they were not at all disappointed. Sai also ate a small bite on it. He was satisfied that the day went as he wanted it to go: Joyful and full of Relish.

THE END