THE WET BLANKET

Rajiv, Manav, and Tannu were friends and were thinking about new ways to celebrate their friend Sahil's birthday.

- Inderjeet Kaushik

"We celebrate his birthday at home every year, why don't we go out somewhere to celebrate it this time?" asked Manav.

Tannu chirped happily, "Yes, that would be so much fun. But how can we celebrate a birthday without a cake? Let's go buy a cake."

"We will borrow some lamps from Uncle Ravi's shop," Rajiv said, and the others looked at him in surprise.

"Are you celebrating my birthday, or are celebrating Diwali? What do we need lamps for?" Sahil asked.

"You are celebrating your 11th birthday, so we will light 11 lamps and let them flow in the river. Won't that be fun?" Rajiv asked.

Everyone nodded in agreement and went to buy a cake. Then, they got 11 earthen lamps from Uncle Ravi, who was delighted to see someone buy his lamps when it wasn't even Diwali.

They packed all the things and went towards the river.

A gardener had a small hut beside the river. The children knew him as he was the garderner of their society.

"We'd like to use your house for a while as we want to celebrate our friend Sahil's birthday. We thought we could set up a picnic by the river but it is too hot outside."