Dual birthdays

Hmmm. Just another day. Except I get greetings and gifts. Sometimes surprise dinners and lunch treats. Yes, I still go to work. I go through the motions of taking calls and trying to do work but most of the time I get to do nothing.

Not having enough resources, my family never really celebrated birthdays and other special events. I don’t think I ever missed having a party. Only because not one amongst us members had one. So it was fair and square for all of us. As we often say, what you don’t know won’t hurt you.

It was only later on that I have come to realize that I lacked something. Or did I really? I became conscious of the difference when I attended the 18th birthday of my college classmate. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known. I might have guessed that it was just a regular goings-on.

I have come to accept the situation. For the principle of my parents is true. Why spend so much on birthday celebrations when you can use the money for one year’s tuition fee? I am a product of this. I was able to finish school. The children of my father’s colleagues weren’t so lucky. They chose instead to be frivolous for a day and leave unfinished the schooling of their kids.

Until now, many years later, we still don’t celebrate birthdays that much. I have learned to spend it out with friends and colleagues.

I view birthdays cynically. You just get a year older. You get greetings. You get gifts. Most often than not, I try to review the past year ( I also try to do this every new year). But then it is over and then it is the next day. Just like any other regular day.

Maybe it is not a good way to celebrate your birthday. But then, that is how it is.

Today, this blog has just been born.