I loved my birthdays…who doesn’t…when u r a kid…I remember I used to wait for it right from the new year…i have a very convenient birthday…one that came along the way…in the middle of the year….so it felt as if entire year wasn’t spent just waiting…I mean I feel for those December people….their birthday…is the never one that just gone by….its always a birthday that’s at the end of the year...the next year...…by the time…u enter december….people r already looking ahead….
So the days before the actual day I used to start counting….a new dress (which my mother used to stitch most of the times)… a new book by default, and some sweets…selecting which chocolates to buy and take to school, and also deciding upon which friend will accompany u to other classes….which fortunate friend…I used to be hyperactive the previous night….
Then waking up…even slower than usual….listening to the voices outside…is anyone there….talking about my birthday….is anyone waiting outside to wish me…then they used to come in bunches…wishes I mean….aai, baba, sis and then the phone calls…most of them…grandparents….relatives…yes…that was the age when the friends didn’t belong to your home….they were ‘external’ entities….
Getting to school with the box of chocolates…attention from everybody…(I cant believe I enjoyed that attention then…)….then in the evening a small party at home….no cake cutting or blowing candles..…just a few close relatives and some neighbouring children..…some gifts…not expensive…but still precious…a nice dinner….with my favourite sweets…and …birthday is gone….
Then back to bed…still restless…but satisfied…a day older than yesterday…aren’t u?
As I grew older…some things changed….now the birthday dress bought from the shop (mom cannot possibly understand the latest fashions…that’s what my sis used to said…it used be her call which dress to buy on my birthday…I never cared for the dress…)….now some more phone calls…most of them friends…and some cool birthday cards….fewer gifts…but now the wrapper wasn’t the important factor….both the cards and the wrappers neatly kept away in a drawer….again a party at home…friends hanging out together….a dinner…cooked by my mother…
Birthday over…back to sleep…but not before carefully writing how the day went by in the diary…my best companion in those days….and back to sleep
Some years later….college days…birthdays started at midnight….surprise phone calls… still no cell phone…so I used to wait by the phone…hoping it would ring…it did ring for a lot many years…next day….some more phone calls, a treat in the college given by me…at a cheap food joint….nothing else changed….the evening treats at home…continued…the near and dear ones never let me down….
Now when I think of it…no 12a.m. calls, surprise or otherwise…waking up with cell phone ringing…99% of the times…parents calling…then everybody wishing at home…getting through the morning chores with phone breaks in between…and at the first chance…switch on the laptop….checking inbox…full of mails…e-cards…read and reply copy paste ‘thank you’ to most of them…then some more phone calls….calls from people you speak only twice a day…on your birthday and on his/her birthday….some more texts…most of them…just a casual ‘happy birthday’…taken from a set format…then to work….suddenly missing your earlier years….accompanying that retrospective mood…..time to indulge in philosophy…am I that old now? What I have done with my life…you know …that resolution thing…that makes your life miserable at the start of the new year…the same comes back to haunt you on your special day…but evening comes as a respite…a small party or eating out…making you forget those thoughts….
But one thing never changed…a birthday is still special….it is a day when you get surprises…or more appropriately u hope that u will get surprises…you hope people remember you on that day…and will try to reach you in some way or the other…social networking sites had made it easy…but it has taken away the charm…it has taken away the satisfaction that so-n-so remembers your birthday….i don’t even buy new cloths on birthday…a book…yes…I still add one book every year to my collection….i gift a book to myself on each of my birthdays….
A birthday goes even faster than it arrives….but it is still special…the fact that you r born on that day will always make it special…’cos at the end of the day…u r happy that u r born….
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