5th December, 2013

Everything was procured and prepared—they hadn't managed fire-torches, and had settled with candles—before the due time (by 2:57 a.m., to be precise), and while Jaddu, Virat and Ash prepared to sneak into a local stadium near their hotel, Rohit, Jinks and Bhuvi went to wake up the birthday boy—which needed a lot of efforts, since he elbowed Rohit not-at-all-gently and cried, "You forgot my birthday, don't come to me in the middle of the night!"

"Your birthday just started," Bhuvi said.

"Yeah," said Jinks. "It's a 24-hour day, and it's been just three hours—"

"The importance of the hours decrease linearly," said Shikhar grumpily. "The first three hours were the most important."

"Exactly our logic," said Rohit, and whispered to his partners, "Kill all hope first, remember?"

"What are you whispering?" demanded Shikhar. "Where were you guys, anyway?"

"You have to get up and come with us to know that."

Of course, curiosity won out against Shikhar's justified indignation, and by half past three, they reached the stadium. Bhuvi called Jaddu and asked, "How do we sneak in?"

"No need," said Jaddu grandly. "Just walk in. You'll find the night guard very agreeable."

"Why? How?"

"Turns out he and his family are fans of King Kohli. I promised him as many autographs of Virat as he wants for his family."

"Does Virat know about this?" asked Jinks suspiciously into the phone.

"Nope." Jaddu sounded supremely unperturbed. "I bet on Virat's, er, self-esteem that he won't object."

"Yeah, you're safe," said Rohit, and they walked in.

***

"What is that?" Shikhar ogled at the enormous fluorescent green balloon floating above their heads, attached with long ropes to three ground stations arranged in a triangle. Jaddu was pulling on one with great force, and the balloon was presently descending rapidly.

"A surprize for you," said Ash. "According to Jaddu, we can't celebrate your birthday on the ground—though Virat points out you're a grounded guy, too—but according to Jaddu, you have a heart of gold, and you must always float on your birthday."

"He's right." Shikhar beamed. "Can we actually get on that thing?"

"Sure," said Jaddu.

"Not we," Bhuvi said in dulcet tones. "They said it can only hold one person—so just you, Shikh."

"Awesome." Shikhar jumped over to the balloon, whose basket Jaddu had got to land, and then he jumped straight into it.

Ash and Jinks exchanged a glance. Neither of them had thought Shikhar would be so obliging to undertake a risk as this, but they figured he was more similar to Virat and Jaddu, so...

Ash, who felt in his (reliable) bones that this adventure was not going to end well, had also brought along a cake—two cakes, in fact—though he hid the boxes under one of the benches, hoping there were no rats around. The flavours, on which he had spared quite a lot of thought, were red velvet (because it was the most celebratory sort of cake) and chocolate truffle (because if something went wrong, his friends would need the chocolate).

"We need to man all three stations," Jaddu said commandingly. "Rohit, Virat, go over to that one. Bhuvi and Jinks, you take that one. Ash and I will stay here."

Shikhar roared with laughter as that was being done.

"I'll light the candles when he's in the air," said Virat.

"No, you won't!" said Rohit. "I got them!"

"And I arranged them," said Jaddu.

"Really?" asked Ash, who had spent a painstaking half hour planting candles into the soil into a pattern that he sincerely hoped spelt 'HBD.'

"Bhuvi can light the candles," said Jinks smartly, knowing no one would raise a voice against that.

"N-no—that's all right—" Bhuvi sounded so terrified that a disgruntled Jinks was forced to concede.

"You can each light one letter," Ash told Rohit, Virat and Jaddu with an upturned nose that suggested he was above such petty competitions. "Ready, Shikhar?"

"You bet!" said Shikhar.

"We are in South Africa," said Rohit. "Not Australia."

"PULL!" Jaddu shouted. "PULL, PULL, PULL!"

No one except Ash knew what and in which direction to pull. Nevertheless, they all seized a rope each and pulled.

The balloon rose and veered dangerously towards Ash and Jaddu's station, both of who yelled themselves hoarse.

"YOU'RE NOT PULLING IT RIGHT—JINKS—BHUVI, THE OTHER WAY!" hollered Ash.

"NOT LIKE THAT!" Jaddu waved his arm wildly to show the motion of the pull. "YES, THERE YOU GO."

Shikhar could be heard shrieking above them, too, but he was so far above now that they couldn't hear what he was shrieking. Jinks chose to focus on the fact that he hadn't crashed yet.

"THE CANDLES," shouted Ash.

Rohit and Virat both dropped their ropes and sprinted towards the candles. The balloon nearly went horizontal as it soared in the opposite direction.

"ONE OF YOU HOLD THE STATION!"

Fortunately for Shikhar, Bhuvi reacted quickly and ran to take Rohit and Virat's ropes. When half the candles were lit, a breeze rose and doused them. Virat swore so loudly, it must have reached Shikhar, because he yelled something more.

"HE'S TOO FAR UP!" Jaddu yelled. "HE WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE THE CANDLES. BRING HIM DOWN, ASH, BHUVI, JINKS!"

They tried, wildly. After several unsuccessful tries and near crashes, the balloon bore down upon them.

"YES!" cheered Rohit, who'd just finished with lighting his 'B.'

"GET ME DOWN," Shikhar was shrieking.

"No!" said Jaddu. "It's too low!"

"GET ME DOWN, JADDU!"

"ASH, TAKE IT UP—IT'S TOO LOW!"

"HE WANTS TO GET DOWN!"

"SO WHAT?"

"WHAT IF HE FALLS?" cried Jinks.

"GET ME OFF THIS THING! BHUVI, DO SOMETHING!"

By that point, Bhuvi, who was scared out of his wits, was muttering, "I can't believe I agreed to this. I can't believe I agreed to this."

"I can't believe I'm friends with you all," said Ash.

"You procured the hot air balloon," pointed out Rohit.

"When you retell this story in the future, give that discredit to Jaddu," said Ash. "Neither he nor I shall mind the alteration."

"JADDU! BHUVI! ROHIT!" Shikhar was yelling.

"I'LL COME UP!" yelled back Jaddu. "I'LL GUIDE YOU HOW HIGH TO SEND IT, ASH!"

"The capacity is one person—" Jinks tried to say vaguely.

"DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT," was Ash's rude reply.

Jaddu sprinted to the balloon—the basket was still at least two metres above ground—executed an extraordinary jump and managed to grab the rim of the basket.

"JADDU, NO!" Bhuvi screamed, forgetting his station and running to the balloon, as if hoping to catch Jaddu if he fell.

The balloon swerved out-of-control, Jaddu swinging with it, laughing like a maniac as Bhuvi lost his head and screamed his lungs out, Rohit and Virat both ran to take back their station and Shikhar tried to pull Jaddu in.

Once Rohit and Virat had stabilized the contraption, Shikhar succeeded, and called down, "No harm done."

Bhuvi, almost in tears, screeched, "Bring that thing down, Ash, Jinks!"

"TAKE IT UP!" Jaddu overrode him. "A LITTLE MORE, ASH, A LITTLE MORE—LOOK DOWN, SHIKHAR!"

"I already was," said Shikhar. "What do you think I've been doing all this time, worrying about my life and not looking down? What the devil were you doing with candles?"

"LOOK DOWN NOW."

Shikhar did, and since the balloon was finally at the proper height—neither so high that he couldn't make out the words, nor so low that all he could see was the spiralling ground—he understood what they'd been doing with the candles.

He flung himself on Jaddu's neck, crying, "You guys are the best!"

"WHAT IS HE SAYING?" Rohit was roaring. "DID HE SEE?"

"HE SAYS WE ARE THE BEST," Jaddu roared back.

"TELL HIM THANK YOU."

"I CAN HEAR YOU," shouted Shikhar. "AND WELCOME."

"CAN WE PLEASE GET THEM DOWN NOW?" Bhuvi shouted above them all.

***

"I'll get on now," said Virat, the moment the balloon touched the ground.

"No, I'll get on first," said Rohit at once.

Virat shoved him. "Get off, Shikki, Jad."

Jaddu cackled so loudly the air seemed to tremble.

"I suppose he means he will not get off," Jinks told Rohit and Virat.

"Yes," said Shikhar, "and neither will I."

"But you were screaming at us to let you down," said Rohit, indignantly.

"Did you let me down, however?" asked Shikhar.

"Er...no."

"Yeah, so I don't listen to you either."

"Fair point," said Ash, solemnly.

"Don't make us pull you off," Virat threatened.

Jaddu cackled harder.

"By that I suppose he is confident that you won't be able to pull him off," said Jinks.

Everyone knew that to be the truth, but Virat war-cried and ran at the balloon anyway.

"Screw it, Vi, if it's going to be more than one person, it might as well be four." Rohit pulled Virat's arm down before he could grab anything. "Let's just get on."

"It's made for one person," said Bhuvi in vain. "It might have held two, but how can it hold four?"

Jinks and Ash exchanged another of their looks. Rohit and Virat, with much pacifying and apologizing to Bhuvi ("sorry, Bhuvi, but don't worry, nothing's going to happen—sorry—but can you man one station?—sorry again"), climbed into the basket and squeezed in with Jaddu and Shikhar.

The three (relatively) saner people who were left on the ground did not see any choice but to pull the ropes. By now, they'd all got the hang of it, and the balloon soared into the air rapidly.

"WE'RE FLYING!" Virat cried. "ROHIT, WE'RE FLYING!"

"We flew from India to South Africa yesterday," said Rohit.

Virat reached around Jaddu to give Rohit a punch. Rohit dodged, and so the punch got Shikhar instead. Shikhar punched back anyone he could get.

The balloon wobbled.

"YOU IDIOTS, STOP IT," roared Ash.

Jaddu joined in the fray.

The balloon tilted.

Virat had finally managed to poke Rohit and yelled in triumph.

The balloon crashed.

***

Luckily, there were only bruises (though a lot of them) and no broken bones.

Also luckily, the first thing that was heard under the mountain of balloon-rubber was Rohit's anxious voice asking, "Are you all right, Virat?" thus dissolving their fight immediately.

Ash and Jinks kept the 'I told you so' unuttered but very obvious with their looks. Bhuvi was too concerned to remember that he'd also been in the 'I told you so' gang, and fussed around the four crashed boys till he was sure there was no lasting damage. Both Virat and Jaddu were inclined to overplay their injuries, but a glare from Jinks put them straight.

Afterwards, they sat eating Ash's useful cakes (everyone approved of the flavours heartily) with dusty (and for some, bruised) hands, smearing some of the cream on each other, but not much, since the night's antics had made them pretty hungry.

And a tiny local stadium of Johannesburg was witness to the consecrationof a bunch of seven who were to stay on together all their lives.