I celebrated my 27th birthday without a cake exactly one week past. Being a kid, I was never obsessed with all those evening birthday parties which used to be eminent among my other school mates. My parents were not open with those living styles when I was born which prevailed till my youngest sister was born. The way I celebrated my twenty seven years of birthday has seen its own silent, dull, simple, surprising, exciting, lavish and lonely way to greet each new year of my life.
My initial gala started when I didn’t even know my birth date and when I finally did commit to memory (to save myself from embarrassment while filling in all those forms in schools), I was still living in isolation. I remember my real birthday celebration begun when I was in my eight standards. That day for the first time, I distributed sweets to my class. From then on till I graduated, I had been doing that on my birthday – celebrating with my class mates with few special packets of sweets.
Today I realize that there was what we call the “Peer Pressure” that made me kick off to celebrate. Everyone would bring sweets on their special day and before the first period would begin, upon the teacher’s consent, the birthday celeb would distribute it among the class mates. In retrospect, we would be too shy to even wish “Happy Birthday!” But the day I started marking with rejoice, whoa! I was so happy back then. The feeling that day was equivalent to having got distinction in your exams. I’m glad that I at least broke the isolation. I consider it’s important to acknowledge one’s momentous day, be it in a simple or a grand way; the key purpose is what matters - celebrating together!
Birthday celebrations in college used to be my favorite. It was all filled with surprises; surprise cards, surprise gifts and mid night surprise cakes with your name on it. I remember my first ever birthday cake was baked by my elder sister and my gang of girls during my PU days. As a college student, I would be hugely excited, expecting my girls to do something cool and surprise me. In return, I would save my pocket money to treat them with a simple dinner. Life was never short on fun and frolic.
When it comes to my birthday now, I still feel excited. This time, excited to welcome another year to my age. Eager to get judicious and wiser. Whilst I talk of birthdays, things like distributing sweets on my birthday, cutting midnight surprise cakes, treating dinners (at least I make a point that I do treat them), sending cards and chocolates on my friend’s birthdays and lastly a warm hug to end that special day automatically connects together. But birthday in a way also means giving birth to newness; a new day with new hopes for a new year. It calls for a celebration to say good bye to the passing age and welcoming a brand new year.
Today as a citizen of the modern and digital world, we don’t realize but we are very dependent on technology. Thanks to all those social networking sites that keep us connected to family, friends, work, study and life around. They have served as a rich source of instantly updated information which even reminds us everyday on who’s celebrating their birthday. But there are some idiots who don’t know what they are missing. Some days ahead of my birthday, my BFF were talking about how they removed their birthday details from their profile account in facebook. With each additional one year to their age, they now believe that it reminded them of their growing age which sadly is a thing of concern according to them. With the shifting century, the way of life has also shifted. Now, it seems like growing age has replaced the fun loving and spontaneity in our lives. Birthdays have changed people, the kind of person you become at these times. We are afraid of playing the birthday girl/boy for one special day to celebrate anniversary of the day of your birth. Today, the day that you were born, is a precious day. It’s personally significant to me for the reason that I believe it’s a time to thank for being born.
Well, I believe each of us have this birthday personality within. What kind of birthday person are you?
Newer JC
PS. Since we are on the topic of birthdays... I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful wishes. And Happy Birthday to all who is celebrating their birthday on the day they happen to read this!!!!
PPS. By the way, if anyone plans on to surprise me on my next birthday, I would prefer a Black Forest Cake with more chocolate chips on it than usual.
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| This is what I was talking about earlier, my surprise cake!!! |
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