Karan Johar's birthday party on Monday night was a night of patch-ups. Especially for the Bachchan boy. Vivek Oberoi and he hugged each other, he exchanged hellos with Karisma Kapoor and chatted at length with SRK. But the surprise patch-up of the evening was between Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Bachchan.

Says a source present at the party, "After Shahrukh dropped Aishwarya unceremoniously from his home production Chalte Chalte, she never forgave or forgot that. Things between them got worse when SRK and Gauri were not invited to the Abhi-Ash wedding. But the final straw was reports of Shahrukh having said unflattering things about Ash during a verbal war with Salman, last year.

While Salman maintained that SRK had made debasing comments about Ash, SRK swore that he had too much respect for women to demean them. At the time, Shahrukh had called the Bachchans' family friend Amar Singh and had explained to him that he hadn't said anything demeaning about the Bachchan bahu, but the damage was done. Battle lines were drawn.

But on Monday night, when Karan brought them together, both sides decided to put aside their differences and make a fresh start. Says a source, "A few minutes into the conversation with Ash, SRK apologised to her." He said, 'I think I owe you an apology because in some way I have wronged you." Ash gracefully accepted the olive branch offered. After that, Abhishek, Ash, Shahrukh and Gauri stuck together — dancing, chatting and laughing.

As the party wound up, Gauri asked her usual group of friends back home to continue the party there. She also invited Ash and Abhishek to come along, and they all piled into one car and headed for Mannat. Other couples like Hrithik and Susanne Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, Kajaal Anand and Arjun Rampal and Mehr Jesia joined them later. The group partied at SRK's home till 6 am and left after having breakfast." Happy endings are so much fun.