Chp 64. Birthday Memories

Two bottles of Old Monk Rum and 78 Birthday wishes at Orkut later, I was just sitting in my room, enjoying this new sensuality of turning 26, in my own version of what I call voluntary solitude, when a strange feeling suddenly hit me. Boy, it felt good and at the same time bad to age older.

But whatever be the feeling, I made a promise that I will not write and crib about how sad I am to be growing older and how everything around me is moving so fast while I am left behind blah blah blah. No mid-life crisis posts here.

So now I am 26. Old enough to start a family of my own but still the baby of my own family. Talented enough to find a decent job but still unemployed. Experienced enough to pass on my legends to youngsters but still riding the silver highway.

As you grow older and older, birthday seems to become a lesser and lesser deal… now it is just a matter of formality. Happy Birthday to you! Oh that is so sweet of you. Muaaah muaaah. So when’s the party? Hmmm I don’t know, am pretty much broke. Ok, don’t forget to invite me if you throw a party. How can I forget you of all the people? Aweee now you’re the sweet one. Take care. Bye.

When I was young (read: below 10 years), I always celebrated my birthday twice a year. Once on my actual birthday and a second time along with my sister Dinpuii on her birthday. I don’t know what that was all about, but at every birthday picture of Dimps, I would also be there with a cake of my own! I guess you can call it sibling jealousy. There were times when I would actually invite my own friends to her B’day.

Birthdays are always memorable those days. I went through some of my old photographs and dug out a couple of them, the really unforgettable ones:

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21st April 1989:

All my three sisters were studying in LaMartiniere’s that time and Mom flew down to Calcutta to visit them or bring them back to Mizoram for their vacation or something like that. So it was just me, daddy and our life long servant U Liana who is more like an elder brother to me, at home. My aunt Pi Rini suddenly came to our house one fine day and told dad “Hey today is mama’s birthday!” Dad was like huh are you sure? And he checked up and yes it was indeed my birthday!

So he got to work immediately. No time to order cake from Zote Bakery. He went through his almirah (The one that he never opens up to me and my three sisters) dug out a packet of neutrino sweets, told U Liana to buy nine candles, and called up my aunties and uncles immediately to send over their children to our place for my Birthday party! LoLx! It was one of the sweetest thing my dad has ever done for me. Check out me and my “birthday cake” below!



And people actually turned up at the last minute. Given below are the party people of my happening ninth birthday bash


[ Cousin Zualteii, cousin Mahruaii, cousin BT-i, cousin VL-i, aunty Zohmingi, cousin Hriatpuia, Me, cousin Atea, my frens Zorema & Tluangtea, my best frens Tlaunga & Sanga (the twins) and good ‘ol U Liana ]

Eventually everything turned out great. I was happy because for presents I got a sketch pen set, a drawing book, a new pair of shoes and a toy gun that makes electronic sounds when the trigger is pulled. So after I blew out the candles, daddy and my aunties made dinner for me and my friends and cousins.



Till today, I think that was one of the most memorable birthdays ever.

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School days:

During my seven years at Montfort Residential Boarding School, birthdays never involved any cakes or parties as such. Instead, a birthday meant you can wear colored clothes for the day instead of the strict school uniform, distribute sweets to your classmates and teachers, and for dinner, your cafeteria table gets a roasted chicken And the best part was, during the dinner, suddenly somebody would start “shhhhhhhhh” and taking his cue, everybody would join in with the “shhhhh” and stop talking, and then a loud big Happy Birthday song, sung by everybody present in the cafeteria. *sigh* I really miss those times. And after dinner, you are usually sprayed with pepsi outside the cafeteria and given a wedgie by your classmates.

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College years:

My birthdays during Engineering College were all memorable. Birthdays then meant getting completely sloshed the previous night and missing the next day of class due to an inferno hangover But my most memorable birthday would be the one during my final year. Ofcourse it was a complete sausage fest as you can see in the pics below, after all, it was Tamilnadu, where the ladies hostels followed the most stringent law ever proscribed.





Sausage Fest indeed but what mattered the most that night was the fact that all my closest friends were there. Thomas, Paolo, Johnny, Jimmy, Varasidhi, Abhi, Jacob, Jazz, Kutti, Ani, Seby, Puia, Rohan, Kevin, Yohan, Arjun, Tony etc And that particular night coincided with Good Friday, and although a majority of us were Christians on Lent, we were all completely sloshed that night.

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So I guess that’s pretty much how I have been celebrating my birthdays these past 26 years. Sometimes simple, but what really counts, is the thought.