Just Another Day

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun.  Enjoy the trip.

As a child, I simply loved celebrating birthdays with cake cutting ceremony, balloons and gifts 🙂 Lunch also used to be a major event with an extensive menu of at-least 7 different types of dishes. Not that I had any huge birthday party…it was just a family affair. Later in teenage, when I developed a close friendship with my classmate and neighbor, she became the sole invitee to my birthday celebration. As soon as my birthday was over, I used to countdown to the days remaining for the next birthday. 🙂

Then I went to hostel. I still remember the first birthday I celebrated in hostel; the midnight wishes, receiving card and gifts, the cake smearing more than cutting, midnight snacks and cold drinks, dancing routine and the birthday bumps, giving treat to friends next day or someday in the week. 🙂

Then I came back home and though again there was no invitee, celebrated birthday with same enthusiasm. If my birthday was after summer vacation at work, I distributed sweets at work and gave treat to colleagues-friends. Although I had the policy of taking leave on that day if there was nothing urgent.

After marriage, birthday celebration has been with D alone. But with cake and balloons nevertheless and of course gift, movie and restaurant lunch/dinner. And blessings/wishes from both sides of the family.

But this year, after many years, I had to go to work. Though it was a holiday due to fourth Saturday, there was exam scheduled on that day and those coming to work will get a compensatory leave later. So for the benefit of an extra leave I decided to go. It was an enjoyable day. I distributed sweets to all colleagues present and my lunch group colleagues-friends gifted me a saree which was a complete surprise. By the time I reached home it was 5.30 pm and we were going for dinner outside so no time to bring cake, cut it etc. So there was no cake and no balloons. Just a quiet dinner at Barbecue Nation. Well not exactly quiet…with the loud music and servers doing a dance routine 🙂 That is Barbecue Nation style.

D’s 6-year-old nephew called to wish and inquired about my birthday celebration and after hearing that I didn’t cut any cake and didn’t put up any balloons, concluded that I had a very “boring” birthday. Sigh!! 😦

So I think, as my mother used to predict, I have grown out of the phase of usual birthday celebrations and counting days to the next birthday. Someday in the coming years I may even forget its my birthday. God forbid!!! 😯

But then……….Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.  ~Chili Davis

P.S. for those who don’t know, my birthday was on 22nd June and it was also my WordPress birthday as in I had moved my blog from Blogger to WP in 2008 on that very day.

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