Sunday, May 13, 2007

Birthday Surprises

A first birthday is often celebrated with as much gusto and gaiety as a wedding ( not mine though, it was just a simple affair, only close family, not the wedding, my birthday!).
I had the opportunity to relive my childhood about a week back at a distant cousins first birthday party (I didn't relive much though, just chomped away at the appetizers, trying to catch the eyes of the waiters carrying the soft drinks while children zoomed past, cackling like the witches of Salem).
While I chomped on the millionth spring roll, I glanced across the room. Yes, a magician wearing shiny suspenders, an extremely energetic entertainer, a large highly decorated cartoon shaped cake ( dunno which cartoon, it was quite tasty though!), and 30-odd sugar crazed children.
two hours and many more oily spring rolls later, i had had 3 glasses of extra fizzy soft drinks,a plate full of rich food and had witnessed three of the most common games to be played during birthday parties. no prizes if you guess them.
finally i bid farewell to the baby girl and the other children and everybody else ( though no body paid much heed, they were all sugar crazed, you see), and walked away as my recently-turned- one cousin enjoyed for the last time, her very own first birthday party.

Monday, May 7, 2007

How I Met My Mother

Well, technically, I met my mother eighteen years and eight months ago in a spotlessly clean bright-white hospital room somewhere in the city of Bombay. About two days back, I realized that I wasn’t completely correct. I had been meeting my mother, the same woman who suffered through mine and my sister’s tantrums (there were many of them!), who sat back at home, not pursuing her dreams so that we could have a hot home cooked meal, and who pampered us enough for the melodramatic actors that we are today. Yes, I realized that I had been meeting my mother every day for the last nineteen years, who became a new woman everyday, forgetting the times we made her cry, repeatedly praising us for our past glories, and getting to know us every single moment she has known us.

And so this mother’s day (which incidentally falls tomorrow), I wish that I would get to meet my mother every single day for years to come.