Date:04/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/08/04/stories/2005080402110200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Day to celebrate that special bond

Nivedita Ganguly

Youngsters get set to celebrate that special bond on Sunday

WACKY CHOICE: A girl checks out the range of cards for Friendship Day at a shop in Visakhapatnam.

VISAKHAPATNAM: A soul mate, a buddy you can share your thoughts with or the pal you can hang around with... there are several ways of looking at the bond you share with the person you call `friend.'

Here's a chance to tell your friends how much they mean to you. It's Friendship Day this Sunday, a day to reaffirm that special bond.

And the mascot of friendship this year is `Bunty and Babli.' Shops have geared up with attractive gifts and offers to lure young friends with the `Bunty-Babli' theme.

Darling's Paradise has come up with a range of special offers on this occasion. "For every purchase of Rs. 500, a pudding glass set is free and on every purchase of Rs. 200, we are giving a six-piece bowl set and a glass bowl with lid free on every Rs. 99 purchase,'' said its proprietor Yeshwant Parekh.

Shops packed

Youngsters can be seen flocking around the gift shops to send a wacky message or a creative gift for their friends.

The funky cards and a variety of gifts, on this `Bunty-Babli' theme, have caught the fancy of the youth, says Yeshwant.

If words fail you and you are feeling too choked to express your feelings, let greeting cards speak for you this season. They might do a better job of conveying exactly how you feel. Just be smart enough to pick the right card.

The shop has around 500 varieties of Friendship Day cards. Just saunter around the stores in the city and you will surely feel like getting your hands on the snazzy gifts lined up for the occasion.

Vying for attention with the cards is the exhaustive line of friendship bands. This time, scented candle wax roses priced at Rs. 35 in different colours are a big hit with the young crowd. And if you want to be different and more creative, try out the range of designer paper bags to carry your gift.

While one need not go the whole hog and gad down the lucre-driven card industry, it is nice to spare a thought for the one person who made sense of all our confused ramblings in the cruel world, shared that balloon or the ice lolly, solved those mysterious mathematics problems, valiantly covered up for us and basically was there for us through `sick and sin'.

So let's say `hurray' to friendship!