A girl selects friendship bands at a shop in Patna. Picture by Jai Prakash

A day left to the Friendship Day and the best buddies in town are making a mad rush to the stores to get the perfect band.

Magadh Mahila College student Geetika is among the early birds who planned ahead for the day — it falls on the first Sunday in August. “I wanted to have the prettiest band to tie on my best friend’s hand. I made it a point to get one before all the good ones flew off the racks,” she said.

Gift stores and the local markets are flooded with friendship bands, gifts and bracelets perfect for the occasion. If some are getting personalised gifts, others are ordering in bulk with eyes set on August 4.

Namrata Choudhary, the principal of Shanti Juniors, a playschool on Frazer Road, has decided to celebrate Friendship Day with her students. She said: “This week, I placed a bulk order for friendship bands. Every year, the kids in my school tie friendship bands to each other. This time, however, I asked the children for their choice of bands.”

The top picks are Doraemon and Shin chan.

The manager of Archies Gallery on Boring Road, Santosh Kumar, said: “The children these days are more specific about the friendship bands they want. We keep bands featuring cartoon characters and superheroes such as Chhota Bheem, Spiderman, Shin chan, Doraemon and the old favourites, Tom and Jerry. The Tom and Jerry and Shin chan friendship bands are flying off the racks.”

He added: “We also have gift combos, greeting cards, friendship certificates, soft toys and musical cards on sale at the store. Gone are the days when there used to be universal friendship bands. Now, there are friendship bands specifically for kids and young girls and boys. The bands with ‘friends’ or ‘best friends forever’ written on them are the favourites. These are priced between Rs 25 and Rs 120.”

If some are scouting the stores in the city, others are browsing through the Net for that perfect friendship band.

Krithika, a 25-year-old teacher, is one of them. She has ordered personalised friendship bands from www.snapdeal.com. “In search of fancy designs and friendship bracelets, I went through almost all the gift shops in the city but there wasn’t anything that caught my eye. At Snapdeal though, I found personalised friendship bands for which I could even select quotes or designs and they came at affordable rates too,” said the happy 25-year-old.

Personalised T-shirts are another favourite as well. The Archies Gallery manager, Santosh, said: “We have got more than 50 orders for personalised items. T-shirts with quotes or pictures on them top the list.”

Aryan, a student of Arcade Business School, has got four such personalised T-shirts to make his friends feel special. “For this Friendship Day, I ordered personalised tees with a quote and our group’s picture on it. All of us have decided to wear it on Sunday,” he said.