Birthday

"Tomorrow is my birthday - I am thinking of skipping work", my neighbour said. 

"How do you wish to celebrate it?", I asked the forty year old man. 

"I guess I will relax by getting up late, go to a Chinese restaurant, watch a movie, and in the evening spend time with my friends followed by candle-blowing and cake-cutting", he replied.

This reply triggered some memories in my mind. I remembered the birthdays I used to have as a child. My mother would ask me what I wanted to eat, and make that dish for me. She would spend a few days bent over a sewing machine, and stitch a dress for me. In the morning she would wake me up early, draw a "rangoli", place a wooden plank on it, and make me sit on it. Then she would apply oil to my head and do "arati". After the oil bath, she would light a lamp and ask me to pray to God, and take the blessings of the elders by bowing to them. I would distribute candies to my classmates, and in the evening call all my friends in the neighbourhood and give them the special sweet prepared by my mother. 

No one knew about eating out or cutting a cake. Everything was freshly prepared with love and labour. No lazing because it was your birthday. In fact it would be a very busy day - full of activity. It being the beginning of a new year, we needed to take the blessings of the elders, pray and make a resolution for that year. The blowing off the candle somehow doesn’t go with our tradition. Light brightens everything. Candle should be lit not blown off.

 It’s amazing to see the evolution of this homely affair to a gigantic industry.

Today people are coming up with novel ideas to celebrate the day. Arranging for a clown, a puppet show, a magic show, movie, conducting orchestra, arranging swimming, boating, booking a play area etc. The elders are also in this melee. People celebrate in the plane, hot air balloon, cruise etc. 

Birthdays have become big business not just for card companies like Hallmark, but also for other businesses. People not only have kid’s birthday, there are special birthdays for turning eighteen, twenty one, forty, fifty as "Silver", sixty by Hindus as "Shastihabdapoorthi", seventy, eighty as "Sahastrachandra Darshna", ninety and of course hundred as "Golden". 

For elders computer presentation birthdays are most popular where they show the man from his infancy.  It is not uncommon to see people celebrating pet’s birthday. The dog wears designer clothes, a ribbon with a bow is tied to the dog and a cake is cut - feeding the dog first and then the guests! A unique birthday party arranged by my friend was when she took her friends and relatives to a temple in picturesque surroundings, arranged for a caterer in that remote place, and celebrated with games etc. I have  seen kids bringing loot bag after a party and dumping it if they are not happy with the contents. What a colossal waste!

The day is not far when we would be having birthday on the moon or a spacecraft! Whatever way we celebrate it, birthday is the time to pay obeisance to God and to our parents who brought us into this world. Remembering them and saying thanks by doing charity on that day should be included in the celebration.