Birthday Wishes

For any sentient being, very remembrance of his or her birthday evokes a sense of proud feeling irrespective of his or her station in life. The day becomes more special when the protagonist happens to be in the midst of his or her parents, friends, relatives and other near and dear ones.

Though I was brought up in a conservative orthodox family, I never followed a strict line of tradition when it comes to celebrating birthdays and I am a more of liberal in the matter but I have seen people from orthodox families celebrating birthdays with traditional fervor.  A member who follows tradition, on the birthday would gets up at the stroke of dawn and starts the day with an offering of special prayer to the lord, wears new dresses and then prostrates to all elders in family and partakes sumptuous lunch prepared specially for the occasion and celebration would conclude by visiting temples in the evening.   

But ever since I moved to Bangalore, and accidentally becoming an inmate of an apartment, I have seen birthdays assuming a different proposition and playing a very significant role in establishing communication and people to people contact in an otherwise incommunicado and calm apartment dwellers. Only on birthday occasions have I seen an atmosphere of bonhomie among apartment inmates, and not even the spirit of festivals bring them as closer as birthdays. 

Apartment inmates celebrate their wards birthdays in a grand manner. The preparations begin almost a fortnight before by visiting personally to each apartment block and extending personal invitations and after which the order would be placed for specially designed cake for the occasion. The birthday party hall would be decorated with balloons of various size and colors that would add glitter and transform the whole atmosphere into one of fun and frolic.

The birthday boy or girl would stand at the center holding a knife in the hand in front of a specially decked table with a huge cake on it and surrounding the cake would be placed candles that count exactly the number of years a boy or girl would complete. With a beginning of chorus “Happy birthday to you… happy birthday to you…. the cake is cut to sizes and all the candles are unlighted. The young and old sing and dance alike and partake the cake and coke and this is the way of celebration of the emerging class of noveu riche society.

When it comes to celebrating my own birthday, I was never an enthusiast, but over the years there used to be some friends, colleagues and well-wishers around to light up the day. But for the last couple of years this slender number getting thinner and particularly this year, it was more pronounced. As my wife and son both used to be the first one to remember and greet me for the day had become busy for my son’s mid term test preparations and they did not remember to wish me. A few cultivated friends have moved far and have no time to think on such trivial issues like birthdays. Relatives occupied with their own immediate family and have no time to lift their neck and see farther than their own inner family circles.

In my office there used to be one general mailer informing all colleagues about an employee’s birthday and wishes used pour in but for some reasons this year there was no mail and it was a day as usual for me when I entered the office.

I was wondering, on my plight of how I become a non-entity and hardly a soul is cared for my birthday, and with this thought, I just sat glued to my computer, suddenly there came a flash, and a mail dropped into my inbox with the title birth day wishes, seeing the subject, there was sudden rush of adrenalin in me and curiously looked at the e-mail and it was addressed as Linajobstreet.com and it is a jobsite where I had registered some years ago but it has not forgotten in sending me its wishes for my birth day.

A few minutes passed by, there was another mail popped-up and this time greetings were from WYAN.COM a social networking website and it helps connect with like-minded people and I had subscribed to it a year ago. Having received these two messages, with a sense of euphoria, I went to have lunch.

In the corporate circles, afternoon sessions are always considered as graveyard sessions. Immediately after lunch, it takes some effort to ward off that overpowering afternoon catnap. I fought the battle successfully and was just getting ready for the serious work and there came another message like a bolt in the blue, this time it is from Naukri.com a popular jobsite and I had enrolled my name in it a few years ago, and over the years it has never failed in remembering me on my birthday and sending its lovely greetings.

An hour gone by, with puckered eye brows, I was looking at the cost proposition of our online marketing budget spending, another e-mail trickled in with a beautiful birthday message and it is from Tanishk.com, a jeweler, where I shopped sometime ago, asking me to drop into their shop with a family for a surprise gift.

As I was overwhelmed by the greetings from these unexpected quarters, there came another greeting card to add to this illustrious list and it was from Standard-charted bank and was prompt in sending greetings since I have been relentlessly persuaded by the bank to have one credit card.

As my working day was drawing near, the last but not the least, there came a glittering message with special greetings from my personal banker Citibank and it has sent its greetings since my company has salary account with the bank.

On my way to residence, I was mulling over the interesting inanimate birthday greetings I had received during the day and at which time a thought occurred on contrasting celebration of birthdays of our ‘Political Netas’ that I am witness to since the day I became a Bangalorean. Even a small time leader of a political party hogging the limelight with the flexes carrying his photo displaying prominently at vantage points of the city where there is a huge floating population.

And these small time leaders, a certain Bettanagere Ramanna or Gottegere Venkanna become a household faces in an overnight and in the garb of celebrating birthdays they take publicity mileage. If a leader happens to be a seasoned politician and had occupied ministerial offices then the birthday celebrations reach another level of pomposity that all and sundry beeline to greet their beloved leader with garland and cake of his size and stature.

As I was nearing home with the thoughts of these contrasting birthday celebrations, wisdom dawned on me that in this age of power and money worship, the only way the ordinary mortals like me have to seek solace is to understand the fact that we have to be contend with these soulless greetings of inanimate objects.