:: Birthday Ramblings ::

Foreword

I had intended to put up this post on the 7th of April, a day after my birthday. But owing to the constant reminders of Mr. Murphy and his famous law, the two floppy disks that I had with me to get stuff from my computer at home to the browsing center got corrupt. And I was either too engrossed with TCP/IP and Embedded Architecture or was too lazy after that to purchase new floppies. Hence, the slightly delayed post. But what the heck..I don’t give a damn anyway.

I might even go to the limits of adding another corollary to the never ending Murphy Database of why things go wrong

“ Just when you are without an Internet connection at home, and you have a time specific blog post to upload, the two floppies that you use will go corrupt.”

I know that was pretty lame, but what the heck. This is my blog, and I say what I want to!

Just how important are our birthdays? Are they just like any other day in our lives? Why do we go around celebrating us growing old? Why do people make such a big fuss if you forget to wish them a happy birthday? Oh, and most importantly, what is the point of birthday parties anyway?

These are just some of the questions that were running in my mind when my Mom, my Grandma and my Sis woke me up in the morning of the 6th of April, to wish me a happy birthday. The whole day was spent with not too much of activity, and though I was receiving lots of telephone birthday wishes the whole day, I felt I just didn’t get enough. Is turning twenty really that much to celebrate? The point I’m trying to make here is that birthdays are nothing but illusions.

When a person calls and wishes me a happy b’day, I immediately put him/her on my list of people to call on their birthdays. I call this the ‘They-Wished-Me-So-I-Have-To-Wish-Them’ list (Please Note that this doesn’t go for really close friends and relatives). For example, I got a call from this girl (name not mentioned to hide from embarrassment) I had studied with in school in the 7th standard and she wished me a happy birthday. Now, I had no idea of whom I was talking to when I picked up the receiver. And when I put down the phone, I immediately added her to “The List”. Though this doesn’t guarantee that I will do it, given my memory power that’s failing with every birthday, and the energy levels I radiate that are generally attributed to a Sloth, you can assume that at least I had an attempt at it. But I feel obliged to the people who’ve taken the pain of calling on me.

Me against birthdays is a whole lot more than personal. I look at birthdays as a national waste. Of the 1 billion-odd people living in India, there are about 40% who can afford to celebrate their birthdays with parties. Now, averaging that, you get about 10,000 parties happening all over the country everyday. And putting the cost of each birthday party at an average rate of Rs.1000 spent per party, you get a grand total of a million bucks spent everyday, just for birthday parties! Oh yes, don’t forget to add the money people spend on the gifts to hand out to the birthday baby.

Is the gift you received for your birthday really significant to you? Chances are that you don’t give a damn. Unless it’s a pen or a book that can be put to good use, chances are also that you will lock away the useless gift or put it up in the showcase, where it will do nothing but gather dust.

And just why do we have to celebrate the ageing of a human being? If we had to celebrate the ageing of man, why the fawck (word changed to cleverly conceal inner meaning) do we mourn when a person dies?

And then, birthdays feed anger and breed violence. You might feel like going and strangling a person close to you for having forgotten your birthday. (I won’t mention whom; I might just get away with murder!) With this, I say that if you know me, and if you forgot to wish me a happy birthday, you are welcome to do so. As they say, better late than never.

And uncannily, Agent Smith’s words during the final fight of Good Vs Evil seem to fit right in.

“Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of Perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence, that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them is artificial as The Matrix itself.”

After all is said and done, and all the dust is settled, let me point out to you that the stuff you’ve been reading is totally the views of the Author’s alter ego (The dark side, if I might add!).

This is the good Vivek speaking..Please don’t ignore the 6th of April next year..