Of birthdays and celebrations

I love celebrating birthdays, especially mine. The funny thing is when I was a kid, my birthday was just another day of the year for everyone including myself and not much importance was given to it. The first time I ever cut a cake on my birthday was when I was 16 years old! When I turned 16, for reasons only best known to my progenitors, suddenly my birthday celebrations assumed epic proportions and was treated like a festival of sorts. My mother would prepare this elaborate meal that consisted of at least 5 courses and 2 desserts and only my closest of friends and my maternal grandparents and aunts (all of whom lived close by) were invited. The not-so-close friends who dropped by all day long were served snacks and juice. And then came the presents. Anyone who came home would get me a present and a card, simply because it was the cardinal rule and had to be followed in order to gain entry into my humble abode. See, I wasn’t greedy or evil for that matter. But for someone who never really had traditional birthdays as a kid, this was my chance to make up for all the lost years. I absolutely loved to be the center of so much attention and would go around announcing that it was my birthday to anyone who cared to listen.

So with this being the state of affairs, imagine my bewildered state of mind when I realized that M does not believe in grandiose when it comes his birthday celebration. Well, its not that he does not enjoy being pampered on his birthday or any other day; just that he does not expect it or demand it and will not be disappointed in case it doesn’t happen. Unlike me; I do not think this kind of behavior is normal and will not endorse it or resort to it. Ever. So the man refuses to wear new clothes on his birthday because apparently he hates it when people go, “Hey, happy birthday. And look, new clothes!” He refuses to tell me what he wants for his birthday present. Now it is not like he does not believe in receiving presents; just that he wants to surprised. Of course he will be surprised because the only kind of presents he likes has to be electronic and must beep and light up. In fact, the first gift I ever gave him was a remote-controlled car and I secretly feel that it was then ,that his belief that he had made the right choice, was infact reinforced. Now, do you have any idea how extremely exhausting it is to think of such contraptions for every gift-giving occasion?

So during one of our random conversations, when he mentioned offhandedly about how he would just love to get hold of some books written by Mark Tully, I immediately knew what had to be done. I browsed through a couple of bookstores but none of them had a copy of No Full Stops in India. And I couldn’t even buy it online since he would be around when it would be delivered and that would spoil the surprise. So I placed a request at a local Barnes and Nobles and pestered them until they had a copy of the book for me. I was sooo excited about having bought the perfect gift for him that I blurted it out to him, 3 days before his birthday.Errrrr so much for not wanting to ruin the surprise!And the next day we went over to M’s brother’s house and the first thing that my BIL did was to thrust this gift bag in M’s hands. M thanked him and kept the bag aside and continued with the conversation. After 3 minutes, my BIL couldn't take it anymore and yells excitedly, ”Open the bag right now and see what we got for you.” So M does as he is told only to discover a Micro Flyers wireless indoor helicopter inside the bag. M grins happily. And my BIL is chattering away about how he thought of the gift and went about buying it and couldn’t wait to give it to M.

Its M’s birthday today. He plans to wear the new outfits that I got him for his birthday on Friday. He will not be getting any gifts today as his wife and brother turned out to be over-excited-blabber-mouths. (See what the pressure of getting the perfect gift can do to people?) I made kaju burfi for him last night in an attempt to make up for being an over-excited-blabber-mouth. And also because he absolutely loves kaju burfi.

Our conversation from Sunday night after I just got home from the Sathya Narayana Puje at my aunt’s place:

I : I got Bisi Bele Bath for you. My aunt made it. It tastes really really good.

After inspecting the aforementioned BBB,

M : It doesn’t look like the BBB you make. I don’t think it will taste just as good. So no, I don’t want to eat it.

:-)

Happy Birthday, M!