"Yes…Yes….Yes..", he kept on murmuring under his breath as he penned down the instruction over a piece of paper.
After the completion of his jotting down he leaned against his chair and stretched his arms, cracking his fingers and glanced at the watch which said 5:45 am.
"Chal Beta Prem. Shuru ho ja", he instructed himself and got up from his seat with the piece of paper in his hand and headed towards the kitchen.
Placing the paper carefully over the granite base, he read out the ingredients aloud. "Flour, Baking Powder, Egg, butter and salt."
Rubbing his palms together he took a bowl from the rack and started his investigation inside the kitchen for other ingredients.
He grinned triumphantly as he found the flour jar. Scooping the flour in a cup he tried pouring it inside the bowl and was partially successful as three fourth of the contents fell on the granite base and one fourth landed inside the bowl.
"Uh-oh", he muttered at the mess he created and ran his hands across his head only to add some whitish effect in his hair.
"Himmat rakh Prem, Ma ke liye itna to karna hi hai na…", he encouraged himself and engaged himself into pancake making.
Prem wanted to prepare a surprise breakfast for his mother who has been tiring herself beyond limits with her domestic chores and helping Prem prepare for his 12th boards. Be it staying up late with him or providing him frequent dozes of caffeine or helping him prepare his notes…she did it all, without uttering an uff.
After constant trying and wasting most of the pancake batter, he succeeded at last and looked at proudly at the pancake which came out squeaky clean and all golden brown from the frying pan to the plate.
"Good Job Prem", Prem patted himself and brought the spoon into the bowl to make another one only to find it empty.
"O no…batter's finished", he panicked and then he looked around the kitchen and found it totally upside down with utensils lying here and there and all the ingredient spilled over the floor and even onto him.
Gayatri woke up with the clatters of utensils. Rubbing her neck, easing the stress she headed to the direction from where the hustle and bustle was coming.
As soon as she identified the destination of the sounds she rushed into the kitchen and turned horrified at the sight in front of her.
Her kitchen looked like a victim of some Tsunami with everything out of place. She was even more shocked to find a total white Prem in the middle of it looking lost.
"Prem, yeh kya kiya tune?", she yelled entering the kitchen and looked frantically everywhere still registering the whole thing.
As Prem stood silent she again yelled at him "and what were you doing in the kitchen that too in this early hour?"
"Breakfast", was all he replied and in answer Gayatri slapped her forehead and turned towards the gas stove and found a plate with a pancake.
"Beta if you needed Pancakes you could have told me na..", she told him softly.
"Ma , Yeh mere liye nahin apke liye tha", he confessed and Gayatri looked at him wide eyed and kept on shifting her gaze from the plate to Prem.
"Mere Liye?", she asked perplexed to which he nodded and turned red due to embarrassment "Ya ma, I wanted to surprise you but everything went wrong and dekho I could make only one.", he concluded sheepishly
Gayatri now smiled brightly and ruffled her flour topped hair at her son's gesture.
"To khilao", she commanded
"Kya?", he asked confusedly
"Ya, khilao", she repeated to which Prem smiled happily and brought the plate near his mother indicating her to eat. She in turn rolled the pancake and tore it into half . She gave the half to him and the clinked the pancakes together speaking out loud "Cheers!!!"