Monday, October 5, 2009

An embarrassing experience in a gift shop

Since 3 days my manager was pestering me to buy some gift for Shiva’s Birthday. On 3rd October, after a late wake up on the weekend, I was just chilling out in my room. It was 7 PM in the evening and my manager called me ‘Shiva is coming to Abu Dhabi tomorrow and I know you haven't brought any gift still. We have to give something for his birthday. Don't forget to buy'. She asked me not to forget 3 times. Like any other normal bastard son, I cursed her for being pain in ass just for a gift.


I went to a gift shop in a near by mall. I walked aimlessly through out the shop atleast 4 times in search of a damn gift, but couldn't find any. I realized 'A guy buying not-too-costly gifts for birthday like silly things for another guy is really tough task'… Finally a pair of cute WINE GLASSES bewitched me. On spot I fancied a happening scene in my mind. Anyway he is getting married shortly and it will be romantic for the couple to dress up in tender WHITE attire and drink RED WINE in YELLOW stemmed glasses - sitting on the rustic wooden chairs with an aesthetically carved table under dim GREEN light with a pleasant fragrance of the perfume with soft soothing music in a cute n cozy studio apartment… Woh… Without any second thoughts I grabbed the pair of glasses and moved towards Greeting Card Section.


I was searching for some specific card but I didn't know what was that 'specific'!!! There were various sections - Father's Bday, Aunt’s Bday, Farewell cards, Get Well Soon cards etc etc... Suddenly a weird thing flashed in my mind and I was excited. There was a Filipino girl at the cash counter and an Arab lady checking some gifts. I slowly walked towards the counter and approached her in lower tone 'hmmmm by any luck, do you have some greeting card given to a guy for his last bachelor birthday...'


Suddenly I felt it was not making sense to ask such a card. I never saw such card till date. Even the girl stood dumb. The lady beside us stared at us. All 3 of us were silent for 40-50 seconds. Slowly, with a naughty smile the girl repeated my words with long pauses 'Last... Bachelor... Birthday... Card…… for a guy?'.Then she said 'no sir, we don't have any such cards'.


Why did I feel weird all of a sudden? Why did they give strange pauses/ staring? Was that too specific? Should I blame my manager for being the root cause? Or is this not weird at all? I slowly moved to left and picked up one decent card - 'Belated Birthday Wishes' card.


Just to boost my spirit and show her I am still in game, I told her, 'I think you should recommend the company to produce cards for Last Bachelor Birthday' :)

This time she was smart and replied instantly, 'Sir, by the time you get marry, I don't think any of your friends will give you Birthday card. It’s nice to see you'.There was THE WEIRD smile hidden in her reply.


I just walked out of the store without any word with a pretentious grin!!!


Whatever it is, I heard of bachelor party, bachelor hangouts, bachelor gifts etc... But this 'last Bachelor year Birthday card' is quite different :P