Birthdays were always special to me.
Birthday month for me would mean shopping spree. As my birthday fell in later half of June , I would be among the first few students in class who would celebrate their birthday in new academic year.
Birthday month would mean all new things. New uniform, new shoes, new umbrella , new books , new birthday dress, lots of chocolates and some gifts to distribute :)
Every birthday would bring some kind of excitement. As far as i remember at the start of new year itself I would check the calendar to find out if the poster card picture for June was beautiful enough. Then would start comparing it with March, Bro's b day month . Then would brag about it to my bro and would find some or the other reason to tease him.
The very next thing to do was to check if birthday falls on weekday or weekends. I would be more happy if it fell on weekdays cos that meant 1 day no school uniform , lots of special attention in school, pampering from teachers and lots of gifts from friends.
Right away from 1st of June the countdown began. 1 week well in advance all my colony friends knew they had to attend birthday party at so and so date at so and so time :)
Sometimes I wonder If , I even told them what gifts to bring :D. Thank God for erasing those memories.. I would be so embarrassed for it now :).
Bday celebrations in school meant distributing chocolates to all classmates , teachers and sisters. Teachers would get 1 dairy milk and sisters 2 dairy milks :D.. Higher the ranking bigger the size of chocolates. Celebration at home would mean calling all colony friends for cake cutting .
Dad would bring nice Chocolate cake or some other kind which would look interesting enough with big flowers on it. (It was most attractive part of it and I bet everyone wanted that piece ). Then Candles were must to decorate the cake. Number of candles were equivalent to my age then. My name nicely carved on the cake. Home nicely decorated with balloons and lots of crap paper stuff.
Cake cutting knife dressed nicely with lace . Snacks would include potato chips, biscuits, samosas , chocolates and cake. That's all about bday preparations. Next interesting part of birthdays were gifts. Usually in those days gifts which i received from my friends would be Story Books of Twinkle, Chacha choudary , phantam etc etc. Then stylish Pencils with mickey mouse rubber. few interesting toys, dolls etc. Mom and dad gift would always be the most awaiting gift of the evening. I remember barbie dolls , cycle , mickey mouse watch as gifts given by mom and dad.
Childhood days were so innocent. As i grew up Birthday celebrations in college was quite a group affair. Applying cake on face or dumping face into cake was a normal affair. Party at nearest restaurant was the birthday treat. Gifts would include perfumes, watches, teddies,cell phones, Tee shirts etc etc.
Now After joining office things haven't changed much. Same birthday cakes, Birthday bumps, restaurant treats continues.
And yes my excitement about birthdays haven't faded yet. That's because even today i saw the calendar and realized my birthday is just 1 month away and that too on Weekday :).
My obsession with birthday's still continues .....
