But before that a little bit about the birthday tradition in our office. There are two gifts one gets on his/her birthday. One is a serious gift and one is a prank gift. We always ask what the person needs as a serious gift so that we can gift her something that she needs or has been planning to buy since a long time.
Even before my friends asked me what I wanted, I told them I wanted a cookbook as a gift. I love receiving gifts and find it very difficult to control my urge to tear open the gift paper. I was on leave for the entire week before my birthday; my friends got ample time to plan and execute a prank gift.
They all know my total hatred for cabbage. I never touch it. I hate its smell and sight. I sometimes order lunch from a nearby lunch home and whenever they give cabbage, I whine and cry and hardly eat it. So it was not very difficult for them to think about a prank gift. However, I had no idea how creative they could get with a dry thing like cabbage.
My friend S took great pains to decorate a real cabbage with red chillies. She also made a paper cap for my Cabby man. Another friend P wrote a whole recipe book complete with cabbage recipes. The whole team all put together another document that listed all the things I could do as part of the cabbage therapy. This included covering my eyes with cabbage leaves, wearing the leaves as a cap, and a chant that went on:
Cabba cabba abba, abba abba cabba, aowa aowa
The whole document was very, very funny and innovative.
On my birthday, the whole team, or should I say the Cabadi clan, gathered near my workplace and handed me the cabby man and the documents. I was thrilled with their creativity. Thanks a lot for making my birthday so special. I have kept the Cabby man on my desk and told my friends that he will stay there till he stinks and they all start hating cabbage:). Here's a picture of the Cabby man who sits on my desk:
Isn't he cute?:)
