lemme take back my last post please ...
Yehy!!! it works! yippy..
problem was with "ddl2".. control not there at all cause its an EditItemTemplate and not an ItemTemplate, and i set my template column to be visible false till user clicks edit.
a simple if GridView.Columns(5).Visible=true fixed it.

excellent, tnx Mend.. next que (Q2 from b4... ) coming now..