My phone’s never been so busy. It’s been busier than that of Tim Cook’s. It’s flooded with a plethora of texts, notifications, calls, missed calls, facetimes, reminders, snaps, etc.
See! That’s the thing about birthdays. All that happens — everything — happens with a pinch of irony in it. And here is the irony:
“All bad things, suddenly, become all of the good things.”
I mean, you don’t complain about your friends beating the shit out of you — yeah, birthday bombs. Rather you enjoy every hit of it — on your back, in your stomach, over the shoulders… and other weird places. But yeah, the point is —
“You enjoy it! Don’t you?”
Then there’s cake on your face, in your hair, on your clothes, on the floor, on the walls, & throughout the entire house. But, unlike every other day, you don’t get pissed. Rather, you enjoy being sloshed in the cake frosting accompanied with squeezed tomatoes, eggs and a whole lot of other things. That too, at 12 in the night. Again, the point being — all of it does not frustrate you (as would do on a normal day)…
“You enjoy the stickiness! Don’t you?”
Normally, you don’t drink. Or don’t ‘drink much’. And when your friends insist (or compel), you just can’t say no — either ways. But, instead of regretting by default, you start to feel happy. Your head is spinning, but for the first time —
“You fucking enjoy the buzz! Don’t you?”
Let me tell you what happens inside that makes it special.
“You let loose of your ego.”
You don’t care about how you look with all that cake & frosting on your face, or in your hair. You, for the time being, stop thinking about what other people will think, & completely forget that there exists some ‘fear of judgement’ sort of a thing. Every fibre in your body starts being you. And that is exactly when magic happens! Because you know —
“It’s your day! Your HAPPY birth-day!”
The cherry on top is that —
“There’s a smiley affixed to every birthday wish you receive. And a bigger one supporting every thank you.”
Everyone around you is so happy. And most importantly, you are happy! After all, seeing people happy, and especially your closed ones, is all that you want from life. Or atleast — from this day.
Things start to get real.
This is the day when real conversations take place, real meets happen, real emotions vibrate, real feelings exchange. The word real derives a whole new meaning just for this day.
‘To the ‘iss-raat-ki-subah-nahi-honi-chaheye’ type of nights!”
Wondering if you could live like this forever? If you could let your ego loose, be happy and keep everyone happy everyday?
I guess, no. And it should not be. Because that is the beauty of it. Misquoting Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spiderman,
“What makes a birthday valuable is that it doesn't last forever. What makes it precious is that it ends.”
If it were to happen everyday, then it won’t be a ‘Happy’ Birthday.
See you next year!