Happy Budday

Some people take a day off on their birthdays but I never miss the opportunity to go to work, meet friends and colleagues and cut a cake or two there and return home for another cutting ceremony at home. In short, ‘hum cake ke liye kahin bhi jaa saktey hain’.  The problem with having a birthday at the fag end of the year is that you first wish people on Christmas, then we have to say thank you to the same and more people wishing you on your day and finally the aggregate of the two days of Whatsapp reaches it culmination on New Year. My usage of the mobile is at its peak during this one week, not to mention my posting the family blog to almost the same set of people once again.

The day started with a very early call with my darling now in the US of A and a round of brisk morning walk. Pulled out my antique clothes…yeah antique you heard it right. D presented me with this check cots wool shirt about 23 years ago. She bought it from departmental store called Snow White during a winter sale at Delhi. I wear it on all my foreign travels and often on special days in winters. This shirt is so special to me that my first passport issued in 1998 has me wearing it, the renewal in 2008 and then in 2017….ageless shirt and an aging man. Hopefully, I will have the same shirt on in 2027 on my fourth passport as well. Can you beat it?

Wishing on Whatsapp is the in-thing and these started pouring in right from the time the sun rose in the Australian continent and continued till folks in US and Mexico went to bed. We are all part of some WA groups and all you need is one of the people starting the chain and then the rest follow. The problem is whether to reply individually or wait till the day’s end and write a nice thank you note to all. I chose a middle path of responding in groups of twenty names per thank you after every 3 hours. This is easy but what do you do with the telephone calls? A couple of years ago I decided that for some really close friends and some colleagues, I would call them up to wish them on their birthdays.  These friends were touched by the personal gesture and now almost all of them made it a point to reciprocate. The calls went on and on, had to excuse myself from digital meetings to speak to these good souls who were making this extra effort and since you were speaking after long, the conversation could in no way be brief. Try picking up the phone next when you get such an opportunity and see the magic happen for the person on the other end.

Messages, too, can be magical. One boy from the Bangalore office recorded a song in Kannada. While every word he sang did not register but surely the essence was a beautiful birthday wish for me. Another lively boy created a card with a collage of pictures. A colleague from Raipur created a video message out of my WA display picture. Then there was this brilliant lady called Rux from Chennai who penned a poem that I must share:

Shibu dear friend may your journeys continue

With your followers who are in vicarious retinue

May God continue to keep you healthy

And fill you forever with your innate sensitivity

Humour and mischief lace your nostalgic forays

Bring some smiles and tears to our dreary days

Taking us back to the days of yore

When on our sleeves, our hearts we wore

And in the present, your humaneness and understanding

Weaves a gentle quilt of loving and giving

What would one wish from God for you?

More of the same and plenty of happiness

Success and prosperity and above all joyfulness

May your wandering feet take you on journeys galore

May your roving eye find the birds and flowers to pen your lore

May we continue to read and rejoice

And bless for your lovely voice

Reflected in each line that you write

Which brings to our hearts, a bright sliver of light

There is hope in the world, we are assured

By all that you write and generously shared!

Speechless I stood and blessed I felt.

Then there is this girl whom I have known since she joined as a trainee and has now turned into a fine lady, who reminded me every day for a month in advance that I must continue a tradition started over a decade ago of getting Bengali sweets for office folks. And so it was, I ordered a large quantity of kheer kadomba, shankh sandesh, shingara and vegetable chops for office. As soon as the parcel came, the team members invited me into a meeting room where a large number of them had gathered. I was presented with a nice bouquet of flowers and a cake to cut. This was no ordinary cake brought from a shop but a homemade marble cake baked specially by a colleague for the occasion….can it get any more personal? Of course there was the traditional birthday song sung aloud which attracted more people into the room and the celebrations got bigger.

As colleagues started pouring in to enjoy the goodies, I took a box full of sweets and shingara and gave it to the housekeeping staff who were having lunch in the canteen. Sharing happiness with these men and women who work all through the year, cleaning all the muck we leave behind at our workstations, canteen and elsewhere, gives a different joyous feeling. The love and appreciation they express with unspoken words is to be felt. And if you thought I would run short of goodies in having passed on a large portion elsewhere, then you are mistaken. The moment I returned to my work station, a chocolate cake landed up, sent by my team members in Gujarat...as they say good begets good and khushiyan baantne se bardti hain (happiness increases when you share it with others). One of the happiest memories is of a birthday about fifteen years ago when all the other staff had left for home, the guards in the office came to my cabin and gave me a small bunch of flowers and a card so beautifully written in Marathi…these memories are life’s little joys you never will forget. I still have that birthday card in my house, preserved forever.

I ended the day early and drove back home. When everyone asked me the usual cliché question, “Where’s the party tonight?” and I would reply with a smile on my face… Flat 1701…. As I entered my residential building, I realized the power company had declared a long shut down that evening. The choice was to wait at the lobby till they resumed supply or walk up….I took the second. With an office bag pack on my back and a tiffin carrier on my shoulder, I started walking up the stairs. Slowly kept moving up, one floor after another…I even thought of resting in between but decided against it….finally reached the 17^th floor….not bad....climbing over 16 floors at the age of fifty eight! After a while the power came on and the two of us enjoyed the loveliest dinner made of all my favourite dishes with loads of love….luchi, alur tarkari, mangsho and nolen gurer payesh.

Aye  zindagi tuhjse aur kya chahiye….Life is beautiful. I get reminded of a beautiful poem by John Paul Monroe, a few stanzas of  which I must share with you.

Drinking From My Saucer

I’ve never made a fortune,

And I’ll never make one now.

But it really doesn’t matter

‘Cause I’m happy anyhow.

As I go along my journey

I’m reaping better than I’ve sowed

I’m drinking from my saucer

‘Cause my cup has overflowed.

I don’t have lot of riches,

And sometimes the going’s tough

But with kin and friends to love me

I think I’m rich enough.

I thank God for the blessings

That His mercy has bestowed

I’m drinking from the saucer

‘Cause my cup has overflowed. 

Wishing our readers a Happy 2022 and may your cups always overflow.

SS