24 Carat Necklace...

Do you remember Slam Books - the ones which have these standard questions (What is your favourite colour / movie / food...) which we used to pass to friends in school / college to capture details and memories of our life - n - times. I was going through the book and came to the place where, in the last page, I had filled it out for myself. And the answer to the question - What is the craziest thing you have ever done? - brought a broad smile to my face, as I remembered the incident...

It was my friend's birthday and we were this big gang of guys - n - gals who decided to gift her something she would remember for a long time... in short we decided to play a prank on her and I was the master-mind!

She was very fond of jewelry and had a large collection of chunk as well as junk pieces which she would team up with her outfits. So, being the faithful, sensitive and observant friends that we were, we decided to gift her - yes, you guessed it right - jewelry and that too a 24-carat necklace! Her excitement knew no bounds.

The D-Day dawned bright and clear. Armed with a gift-wrapped box, we entered her Birthday Party. Balloons, streamers, a large number of common and uncommon friends and relatives greeted our gang. In fact, she had been so excited by our proposition of gifting her a 24 carat necklace, she had told it to all her guests. So when we entered, all eyes automatically drifted to the gift-wrapped box in my hand.

After the cake-cutting ceremony (and a large piece in my mouth), we decided the momentous time had come when we'd gift her, her birthday present. With guests gathering around, all of us together, chorused a BIGGG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her and handed it over to her. The box was bigger than a normal jewelry box but our innocent friend herself gave an explanation for it - 'Box ke andar box, uske andar box, usmein mera necklace hai na?' (The gift is within a box which is inside another box, isn't it?). We suppressed a giggle.

She removed the wrapping and pulled out a string of... 24 bright orange, garden-fresh CARROTS!!! We howled and doubled up with laughter, seeing the incredulous look on her face. She too took it in a sporty spirit and actually wore the Carrot Necklace with us in a group photograph. Of course, we were not heartless and after all the shrieks, giggles and snorts of laughter had died down, we gave her her real gift - a necklace with a stone-studded carrot as pendant - to remind her of her 24-carrot necklace!