Birthday Special

Some birthday specials are detailed in this blog.

I was born on April 22nd. That day the doctor took the water from my nose and brought me back to life.

I was a fatty kid, so I never used to swim on the floor. I was a chubby baby with big eyes and chubby cheeks.

Seeing the photo, you could have understood that I was a very hungry child. That's why I stopped drinking milk in 6 months. Mom fed rice and brought me up.

My mom was feeding breast milk to my sis  for several years. So I had this jealousy towards her. Parents used to feed her lots of fruits as well. If they had given me fruits instead of rice, I would have been white as milk right. 

My skin tone was dark. My sister and father were very fair. Mom was fairer than me.

Before she used to point out my skin tone, I used to make fun of my sister. Saying that we got her from the road or adopted from Orphanage etc. What can I do, but say all these to hide the sadness of my skin tone and be calm.

I was like an alien. Maybe all the second children must have been almost like this.

One day I started walking, much without struggle like other kids.

I have heard my mother say that, because I was a chubby baby many people used to come and pamper me.

So like that my childhood passed in a bunch of chubbiness. 

Later, I have become full skinny with just bones. The eyes all were in a hole. If I take off shirt, I would look like a skeleton.

I don't know if it was because of that, my father tried to buy mutton in between. But later with only vegetables cooking in the house, we all became cows.

It was the same structure I had till the 10th standard. After that, when the hostel life started, the flesh inside my skin started to grow.

I don't remember any birthday celebrations when I was young. In our caste, only star birthday was celebrated. And don't say caste, don't ask caste, don't think caste. So I'm not writing my caste name.

There was no cake cutting in any birthday celebration. It used to be a feast. In other words, a vegetable meal with four sets of curries. Seeing a leaf with all these things, it will be like looking into a vegetable garden.

I had no interest in vegetables. Cabbage, peas and pumpkin are all that I like.

Nowadays, cake cutting is done on birthdays and so on. In the past, my mother used to make cakes in a cooker.

Then there's the matter of birthday gifts. But I haven't received much. I'm still hesitant to take any gift because of that. But What's a birthday without gifts?

My father and mother bought me everything I needed when I was young. That's why I didn't have to ask for any gifts. When my father gets his salary, he leaves the money in the cupboard. He never used to ask who took it and why or how much.

But most of the birthdays we were at my ancestral home. Because it used to be summer vacation. That's why there will be many people for the birthday feast.

Since my birthday is after this Vishu festival , the gifts I used to get were very less. Relatives could have become bankrupt after paying Vishu kaineettam to all. So when they come and because my birthday is after 1 week of Vishu, altogether (vishu plus birthday)some amount I used to get.

And so the birthday specials will continue. It seems that it is better to stay away from the birthday matters, because your age will be plus one, when you have a birthday. I wish my birthday could have been on twenty-ninth of February.

So any gifts are accepted. Vishu is different and this is different. Vishu will come and go away, but age will not increase. But birthdays are not like that, it will stamp one more year of ageing. 

Wishing you all happy birthdays in advance and happy ageing.