birth day celebrations

I have often wondered and often passed stringent comments on thsoe who used to celebrate birth days.In fact i do not recall any celebrations in my house hold itself till i turned 15, of any bith days, be it that of father , mother , sisters or brother.

Perhaps my hardened stance on birth days is due to lack of celebrations of any such birth days in my younger years or perhaps it may be attributed to my own revulsion at the way in which some of the political leaders used to make it as an advertising compaign to reach their ends.

I think my first remembrance of a birth day was when my father turned 60 (Shastiapthapoorthi celebrations).And mind you i was hardly 5years old and thus the memories of this event were as temporary as a passing shadow.

The time when i realised the importance of a birth day was when i moved to my sister's house, when i was about 13years old.My sister and brother in law, in their income, which was then just sufficient to make both ends meet used to celebrate their birthdays, those of their siblings and that of mine too.Even then i used to think it as a waste of money as i knew how difficult to earn a rupee in those days.But my brother in law(in his best moods) is a person whose passion, enery and enthusiasm in such matters is sort of contagious and whether you wish or not you will be engulfed by it.

There will be invariably a visit to the temple in the morning hours, follwed by some sweets at the house, some outing to a theatre near by in the evening ,preceded by a session at a near by hotel (it used to be invariably My coffee bar near Shathi theatre in those days).The sessions at the hotel used to be fun (and at times embarassing too) as he(my BIL) used to order for a plate of bajji or Mangalore bonda(to which my wife developed an instant liking in those days and may be for the same reason i developed an instant dislike!!) and then start cutting it and distributing to the memebers of the family.(If you count it there will be atleast half a dozen members ).Obviously with the first round of distribution the tiffin is over.

What was behind that distribution is love and affection,A desire to treat in the best way possible not withstanding the limitation of resources and ensuring every ingredient is present (thogh in limited manner)to make it lively At this point of time in life when i spend hundreds of rupees on any outing and when i compare the outings i used to have then and now, and the levels of satisfaction derived,then and now, the former is a winner, hands down.

And the habit imbibed from my BIL slowly grew and as it normally happens , found its outlet when i became a lover/husband/father in that order.And slowly the pleasure of giving, rather than the pleasure of receiving started sinking in.And also the message behind such celebrations.

The birth is a god send gift to us and lease period is in suspence..In the intervening period, it is not merely enough if we have our love and our affection on those around us unless the same is given an outlet in some form, be it words, be it some gifts ...

And only very few people like my son have a gift of words to show their love and affection with out any contamination whatsoever..Those who would like to have a glimpse of his vocabulary , reach and depth may pay a visit to his blog "The endless
horizons" .

This post is not intended to have a reference to the blog, it is a reference to the
energy, love and affection that such words can show on one's birth day making him/her feel as if he/she had really done something worth justifying their living in this universe.

If that be the case every birth day is worth celebrating, for it is reiteration of values, bonding, friendship and ever lasting love and affection..AND THAT IS THE LESSON LEARNT ON THE 60TH BIRTH DAY....