I was the kind of person who loved birthdays. Be it mine or somebody else’s .Birthdays always excited me. For me it was not merely a day but rather a week and sometimes even a month!!! Buying dresses....shopping for shoes.......deciding the right cake... the perfect guest list....well the planning goes on like forever. But as the years piled on the craze waned off. Birthdays in my life lost their sparks. I vividly recall my 15th birthday when my house was overflowing with people and there was no space even to set a foot. Ours is a huge family and few of my friends paid me surprise visits too. So it was an unexpectedly big party and almost everybody in our apartment was invited as it was kinda my last birthday home though bless my college people I’ve been home every summer since I got into it. So it has been a bliss!!!!! Well as the people mobbed in, greeting everyone, sitting and chatting with every guest for a few minutes became a reiteration. My study table started creaking under the weight of the gifts piling up on it and I started feeling as if the welcome smile was plastered on my face. It was 11:30 by the time the last guests went and as my mother waved them goodnight and turned to me I saw in her eyes profound exhaustion. Maudlinly but blithely I hugged my mother and thanked her for throwing me such a sumptuous party.
Unwrapping all my gifts before going to bed was a birthday ritual I never procrastinated but that day as I headed for my room I could feel the enthusiasm draining out. I didn’t realise for how long I sat on the bed before my parents came,tugged me into bed and kissed me goodnight. A lot had changed that night, a lot had happened.
Now every year on my birthday I plead to my parents not to invite any guests. I plead to them not to plan for it weeks ago, I plead to them not to get me unwanted gifts. Now I just want to spend it with the people who brought me into this world, who made my life beautiful and who made me who I am today.
