Happy Birthday!!!

Once upon a time [not so long ago ;)], God rolled the wrong dice [yup, even HE makes mistakes], and on the auspicious hour of rahu kalam, I was born.

Every year, to remind God of his momentous mistake, I decided to ‘celebrate’ my birthday. I used to get up at 5.00 am, have an early bath, wear new clothes, go to the temple to pray for a long life (duh!!!), come back and seek my parents’ blessings. I also prayed for toys, video games, a bicycle and the usual temptations of a normal, boring child. The highlight of the day was the ‘gift’ of a grand sum of Rs. 5 given to be spent as I liked. Amma used to prepare sweets and there used to be a ‘saddhi’ lunch with vada-payasam. The day was like any other. After this morning ritual of prayer, I used to go to school, study, play cricket with friends and return home… a normal, boring, peaceful life some wud say. Evidently, birthdays were not much of an event in my life.

Today, ‘Birthday’ has a different meaning. I am woken up at 12.00 midnight. Kicks in the butt, cake on the face, cold water poured from a floor above and loud clapping in the dead of the night. A new twist added in the form of gulal smeared all over. I already feel ‘one year closer to my grave’ ;)

I will wake up at 10.00 am, too lazy to have a bath. [the bath at midnight to remove the cake and the gulal helps assuage the guilt]. There is a temple in the campus, but then, I’ll be too lazy to go there too. But, from the comfort of my hostel room, I’ll pray for a dream job with a six figure salary, a bungalow in Malabar Hill, and a Merc… the usual temptations of a normal, boring guy. I’ll have a special lunch outing maybe, but I’ll sure miss the vada-payasam for sure. I log on and there are sooo many budday wishes on Orkut. I’m playing cricket on my computer instead of the real thing. But then, life remains the same – normal, boring and peaceful… and Birthdays still don’t have much of a meaning in my life.

Tomorrow is going to be essentially a Xerox copy of today… assignments to be submitted, studies to be done and friends to be bugged…

Have I grown any wiser over the past one year? Definitely not… Do I feel any older? No way… Then, what difference does this ‘birthday’ make? Why do we celebrate it? I dunno. I don’t care too…

All I can say is - Keep rolling the dice, Boss!!!

Some useless trivia to end – I am told that the ‘Happy Birthday’ song is the most sung song in the world. Dunno if it true…