Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, after fiddling around with the idea of starting my own blog for the longest time ever, I finally found a story worth starting off with. The title is deliberate and significant, for two reasons – first, because it is my debut blog article (Happy birthday to me!) and second, because I found my blog unveiling story on my birthday (Happy birthday to me!). So without further ado, here goes:

When my sister and I were little girls, we always made a big deal out of birthdays. Birthdays then, were all about wearing new clothes, getting a plethora of gifts, being surrounded by friends and family from all corners of the city, gorging on delicious biryani from that favourite food joint, cutting at least 2 cakes, one of which will be smeared all across the face and being pampered throughout the day. It was all about feeling like a princess for at least that one day and having the time of our lives. However, as we grow up and move to different cities, we realise that birthdays, may be, cannot be the same as it were in that time. Given our busy schedules and our commitments towards corporate slavery, we are bound to spend a lot of our birthdays at Office, doing the work we, or at least I, hate to do, unless on the lucky occasion when the birthday falls on a weekend. Add to that a hasty evening where friends pour in after work and you have a drink or two, play some music and conclude that you’ve had a good birthday. The photographs clicked go up on Facebook almost instantly, to confirm that the time spent was, in fact, marvelous.

I still believe in birthdays though; Usually, I try and take a day off on my birthday and irrespective of how old I am getting, I ensure that I have a good time with my near and dear ones around, wherever I am. However, this year, my birthday fell on a weekday and it seemed impossible for me to take a day off. Plus, my parents and my sister were all away in different cities and the thought that I would not be able to meet them on the birthday, was a little saddening. So my husband and I decided that we will wrap up work the earliest possible and head to a good eatery, just the two of us and enjoy a quiet birthday, like grown up people. Some of my friends insisted that we catch up in the evening but I knew, given their work schedules, it would be a little difficult for them and hence gave it a miss, promising that we would celebrate one of the weekends, when all of us can come together and spend more time.

Thus, the day arrived. Being a July born, rains are no new news on my birthday. There have been years when my house looked close to a ‘shikara’(a house boat) on my birthday evening with the rains flooding our alleys back home in Calcutta. This year was no different. The day was as gloomy as it gets, with torrential downpours bracing the city of Mumbai, my home since the last two years. Ma had sent a light pink kurta as a birthday gift, which I planned to wear to work that day. I paired it with a white churidar, after much thought, even though it was likely that the rains were going to spoil my light coloured clothes after all. But the decision seemed to be the most fashionable option and hence I went with it. Bags nicely packed, jewellery and make up in place, I dolled up in my birthday best to start for work. My husband and I got a cab without much difficulty and we headed to work, discussing what all we will be doing after we get off in the evening. I had ordered some snacks from a South Bombay Irani Cafe and we stopped over to pick up my order. The owners of the place are these two very elderly Uncles, who, upon our arrival, shouted out to the kitchen boys saying ‘Baby ka parcel ready ho gaya’? (Is Baby’s parcel ready?). These Irani folks, use ‘Baby’ as a gesture of affection for little girls (Baba for boys) and of course, I was all doe eyed hearing them call me ‘Baby’. A big yes came in response to Uncle’s question from inside the kitchen and the aroma of freshly baked cake and piping hot patties filled the restaurant. My parcel was ready and we hurried with it inside the cab, taking care that the rain did not spoil the food. Dropping off my husband at a local train station, I reached Office well within time and hassled to catch the lift to the 8^th floor. The otherwise grumpy liftman waited for me to board and gave me a big smile saying ‘Aaj kuch khaas hain Madam?’ (Is there something special today Madam?). I told him that it was my birthday and took out a chocolate from my bag to hand over. He looked so happy with the chocolate that it seemed all this time, all the grumpy man needed was this to smile! He wished me a fabulous day ahead and I got off at my floor of work. To my surprise, a rush of ‘Happy Birthday’-s greeted me upon my arrival! My desk was beautifully decorated and had a little surprise note with a chocolate, reading ‘Happy Birthday Madam’. Such a gesture from my office colleagues was definitely overwhelming, particularly since we are on war footing every day. The rest of the day at work progressed without much difficulty, whiling my hours in work and in attending phone calls pouring in from friends and family in all corners of the world. Unbelievably, the birthday was so far, exceeding my expectations in an otherwise blue day!

As the clock struck 7, I wrapped up work, bid my colleagues goodbye and headed for the evening session with my husband. I quickly changed into an appropriate evening wear kurta, which my MIL (Mother-in-law) sent from Calcutta. My husband told me, ‘Meet me at Dadar Station’, and I accordingly took a train to reach as directed. I might add here that my husband believes in giving at least one surprise on a birthday. This year, he had kept our evening destination a secret, therefore only giving me instructions to reach him, so that we could take it up from there. I reached Dadar without much difficulty and despite the rain, I had managed to stay mostly dry. For those who are not from Mumbai or do not stay here, it is pertinent that I introduce Dadar Station at this juncture. Dadar Station is also a terminus, which means that about 50% of the Mumbai population meets there every day and 50% of the Mumbai population means, almost an entire country.If you ever want to experience the worst of Dadar Station (why would you), it’s in the rains. The station is at its murkiest, dirtiest, wettest and crowd-iest best, especially with the frequent disruptions in the train lines due to the rains. As soon as I got off the train, a pool of people hurdled themselves on me, with an effort to get on the train and a splash of water greeted me, reminding me that life at Dadar is not so easy with the rains around. I quickly moved to the nearest dry spot in the station and took out my umbrella. My husband told me to switch over to the Western line, to board another train, where he will meet me and I started walking in that direction. Suddenly, the downpours increased exponentially and the rains were roaring all through Dadar Station! The roof on my head, an umbrella etc. made no difference at all with water wading in from all directions. My birthday mood was gradually going down and down while I was walking through the Dadar murkiness to reach my husband. The evening outfit was almost ruined, thanks to all the splish-splash and I hurried to reach my destination. Having found my husband finally at the station, we rushed to catch the next train in the Western line, concluding that going out and taking a cab would be riskier as no one would want to drive in such weather. We got on with much difficulty and waited for our destination station to arrive. An elderly man in the train helped us get a comfortable standing space, even though it was crowded as hell. I smiled at him, thinking that the evening isn’t that bad. When the train docked at the station, the crowd automatically pushed us out with much force and just then, somebody stepped on my slippers from the back. I lifted my foot to find that the slipper had torn apart, the base lying near the edge of the platform and the remainder of it, still lying on my foot. I paused, looked around at the dirty station and the fact that I was not indoors yet, pictured myself walking on the road barefoot, on my birthday and was just about to start crying my heart out!Suddenly, a very lanky boy came forward to tell us that he could fix my slippers. My husband and I politely refused him, trying our luck in fixing it. He watched us for some time and came up again, insisting that he could fix it in a jiffy without much effort. He took my dirty slippers in his bare hands, asked for a handkerchief to use as a tool and fixed it in no time! He told me, ‘Meri sister hoti, toh main uski madad toh karta hi’ (If it was my sister, I would have obviously helped her). I was absolutely awestruck with this gesture! Rain was lashing through the station and I meet this boy, ready to board the next train, who comes up just to help out a stranger. We were overwhelmed! He was about to leave when I hurriedly took out a chocolate and told him ‘it’s my birthday today. Thank you so much for helping out’. He said a big thank you and left, smiling in glee.

Thereon, nothing seemed as bad as it was that evening. My husband took us to this cosy little pub downtown. We ordered our drinks and they served us some steaming fries on the house. The DJ was playing just the right kind of music and we got happy high soon enough, drowning ourselves in the spirit of the evening. Soon, there was a cake on the house and the DJ switched to a happy birthday song. I cut the cake, finished the drinks and we settled the bill to move to a biryani joint, which was next on the list. My evening ended with gorging on delicious Kolkata style biryani, while we were joined by two other friends who had braved through the Mumbai downpours, just to surprise me and celebrate my special day. We closed the day in long chats and the usual banter, reeling over the sumptuous dinner we just had.

As we boarded the cab to go home, I noticed that it had stopped raining. On my way back, I thought of all the people who did make my birthday, apart from my close ones, worth remembering – the Uncle at Irani Cafe, the grumpy old liftman, the elderly man in the Dadar train and the lanky boy who fixed my slippers. How these small gestures go a long way to make our day! I was a content and happy birthday girl. So yes, Happy Birthday to me!