Written by a Happy Mom of a 5-year old) Celebrating a kid’s Birthday is no mean task. A lot of thought goes into deciding the party theme, decoration, menu and party games. This year, i chose colorful papers with my son Aryaman’s picture as invitation card. The Birthday theme was cartoons. The kids were asked to dress up like their favorite cartoon character and a surprise gift awaited the best dressed kid. My 5 year old bundle of joy was brimming with happiness seeing balloons, streamers, cartoon cutouts hung all around. The kid’s game was rather simple and exciting – bursting balloons! The kids went rather wild with joy on getting the surprise gift of candies and chocolates. Finally, time to cut the cake and burst crackers. It looked like another Diwali celebration. Then everybody binged on the special delicacies prepared for the occasion. It was followed by a little dance act with the parents also pushed into it by the kids. And finally after all the kids got tired dancing to the tunes of ‘ALL IZZ WELL’, ‘Gol, Gol, Gol Golmaal’, “Shiela ki Japani” as one of the younger one calls and the clock also clicking 1:00am, it was time to bid adieu. As soon as all the guests left, we intended to go to sleep but Aryaman just could not hold on to his anxiety of opening gifts. So one gift pack after another, he opened them and was elated at receiving toys. He was dumping the clothes gift packs – they don’t excite most kids anyway. And we received a very different gift this time- ‘a PVR gift card ’. The following weekend we decided to use the PVR gift card. Luckily, a kid’s movie Reo was being shown. I was a little anxious that like our previous experience of “Rang De Basanti” we might have to leave the movie mid-way again this time. But I can’t help smiling at what actually happened. My kid not only sat through the entire movie but was also bursting into laughter every now and then. He enjoyed the popcorn though cold drinks are a still no-no with him. All in all, more than the movie I enjoyed watching my kid’s expressions throughout the movie. Later, we played games at the games corner in Forum and had a quick bite at the Transit. Must say, it was a weekend delight and this time no preparation required from my end. So I could just sit back and enjoy. And yeah, through this gift card, many more avenues of watching movies together have opened up. All thanks to ‘The PVR gift card’ and to my friend Pooja for thinking of a different gifting idea. Now gift cards are also my favorite gifting option and I select the type of gift card depending upon the age of the receiver and the occasion of gifting. – Megha Misra
