Kirti was 11 years old and he celebrated his birthday for the first time. He called his four friends to his one-room house. They had never been to a birthday party before, and Kirti had been surprised that they had brought him gifts. He placed the gifts in a corner and went out to play with his friends. When they were tired, they came in and ate the samosas and jilebis made by Kirti’s mother.
After his friends had gone home, Kirti sat down to open the four presents from his friends.
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He opened the smallest parcel first. It was a pencil box. He knew Prashant had given him that. Only he knew that Kirti’s pencil box had broken a few days ago. Kirti was thrilled. He put his pencil and sharpener in the box and clicked it shut.
The second parcel contained two books. Nothing was written on the brown wrapping paper, and there was no card. The name of the previous owner was written inside. He was sure Raj had gifted these. He lived near a second hand bookstore and often brought books for Kirti to read. Kirti opened one book and then the other. He didn’t know which one to read first!
He picked up the third present. It was long, and rattled a bit when he shook it. He opened it to find a homemade kaleidoscope. “Only Deepak could have made this!” he exclaimed. Deepak’s father owned a bangle shop and Deepak loved to make things with the broken bangles.
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Kirti picked up the large rectangular parcel. Sudhir must have brought it. What could be so big? He shook it to see if he could guess what was in it.
The wrapping paper was thick and almost like plastic with a colourful design. He began to pull it off carefully, without tearing, only to find more wrapping paper. He peeled this off too, but found more paper.
“Is Sudhir playing a trick on me?” he wondered. Maybe there was nothing in the parcel. Maybe it was just a huge collection of wrapping paper. Kirti began to pull at the wrapping paper impatiently. “I don’t care if it tears,” he muttered. But instead of tearing, it just stretched a bit.
Soon, many wrapping sheets lay around him — all brightly coloured on the outside and plain white with large splashes of blue and red and yellow inside.
He saw a small note inside. It was wrapped around two black and white dice. Kirti read what was written on the note. “This is a game my uncle is selling. Join the paper together (look at the numbers), read the rules in the corner, and then play ‘Toss and Turn’.”
Kirti burst out laughing. “Oh, that Sudhir! Why didn’t he tape the note outside?”
He arranged the wrapping paper after checking the numbers and taped the paper together. Kirti and his parents played the game and laughed loudly as they moved their hands and feet on the paper on the floor.