Birthday Fun

The annual physical exams for both B and I were scheduled exactly on my birthday. So we both took off from work, dropped the kids off and reached the doctor's office at 9AM. Good news - my weight had not increased even though we all think it looks like it! We were out of docs, getting ready to watch Avatar in IMAX 3D. We grabbed a coffee and bagel before the movie.

Avatar was great. I am not so much of a 'sci-fi' person, so I was skeptical about it. I loved the concept behind it as much as the IMAX and 3D. 3D was not like thinngs jumping at you - but the realistic portrayal of Pandora. It felt like we are in Pandora doing all the things in nature and greenery ourselves. Absolutely beautiful!

After the movie, we stopped for lunch at Bahama Breeze. Nice lunch and then back home in time to receive Niks when he comes from school. After both the kids were home, Nikhil wanted to go out for birthday dinner. The fact that B and I roamed enough and got tired did not matter.
We took them to the Food Court in the mall, where we finished a long pending work.Oh, Nikhil gave me a cute gift of a hair clip, a lipstick and a car freshener - all bought with his pocket money when B and he went to grocery shopping. I love eating out. I love movies. I love to talk endlessly to B when kids are not distracting the conversation. That is when we get a lot of things planned and sorted out. I did all of this yesterday.All in all, a great relaxing day with the men in my life.
The day was made beautiful by the pouring emails and FB and orkut scraps from friends. It was a truly special birthday!

That One Long Minute

The test was 4 hours long. The past two weeks have been so hectic and strenuous with preparing for the PMP certification exam. I had a red jute bag full of PMP books and I would set out to either Barnes and Nobles or the Penn State Great Valley campus. I had 'my' sofas in both the places. My little corners of study where I could open a book and forget about the rest of the world. I had put in my best with full support from all at home.

But the questions are so tricky with two answers that are really close. Every answer I clicked, I was trusting my instinct based on what I studied. After one pass through all questions and a second pass through the 'Mark for Review' ones, my thoughts centered around the what the outcome is going to be. I tried to shake those thoughts away telling myself the outcome is going to be based on what I do NOW. As there was only 1 minute, I thought - I have done all I could and I would really be broken if I don't make it! I prayed to God because that is all that I could do now. My heart was thumping so hard I could hear it distinctly as if it were on the table, next to the keyboard.

A survey screen about the testing center followed. I clicked through choices like 'Excellent' and 'Good' for the survey. The survey ended and I waited for the screen to refresh with the result of the exam.

The white blank screen refreshed and I could read the word 'Congratulations, you have passed the PMP examination'. My joy knew no bounds. It was the moment for which I worked hard. But I realize that the result could very easily have been the other way - had some questions been more tough, had I clicked a different choice for some answers. As I gathered the print out of the 'success' screen, I was truly happy. After the day I got laid off, this is the first day of achievement.

I called B and told him the result. He was thrilled. He told Nikhil who was in the car. And Nikhil said "Look, Amma, I told you anything can be DONE on my birthday". Yes, he turned 8 on the same day. The evening was spent in Olive Garden with family where we got the waiters sing a surprise birthday song for him and he truly was surprised and shy!

Birthday memories

Today is my birthday! The best thing about this day was Nikhil coming up to me in the morning and evening and hugging me repeatedly and saying "Happy Birthday, Amma!". Remember some of the old birthdays where every moment of the day felt special! Every second was to be savored and thanks to nice friends around, one got the most attention, well wishes, greeting cards and gifts. It looked like he is going through similar emotions for me!

This year I felt birthday is like any other day. In the past, I used to feel that I need that special attention or something special done for me.

When I was a child, birthday meant getting a brand new dress. But nothing more than that. Altough people talk about single children being spoilt by parents' pampering, I did not get that kind of attention from parents. They treated me like a normal kid - sometimes more like an adult. So the first time I got pampered was really when I went to Women's College, Trivandrum to study pre degree - by friends. A group of 4 friends, we started the tradition of getting birthday cards, buying icecream and in our own way, celebrating each other's birthday.

When I went to Engineering College, Trivandrum, the first year was truly a totally new and different experience. Friends did not mean girls alone, anymore. I still remember my first birthday in that class after our tour - when we were all not just classmates, but had become friends. A tradition of spending close to Rs.300 emerged and that was the first time, I 'fought' with my father for money. He was shocked to hear my demand for money for birthday because I wanted to give a treat to friends! Anyway, he obliged - as he always has been my dear friend too!
He still would recall that incident where the changes in me shocked him!

Anyway, I really enjoyed every bit of the day with gifts and cards. The gift I cherish was an audio cassette of the Hindi hit of that time - Raju Ban Gaya Gentle man.The next year, when I received my birthday gift from B, little did I know that this tradition/relation was to go on for forever! That too, was an audio cassette of the movie Uzhavan by ARR.

Then we started working - so had more money at our disposal. The day started with phone calls and progressed with birthday emails from friends who worked in other companies.It invariably had a lunch with colleagues and a dinner with collegemates.

Then B and I got married and the first birthday after wedding, B hid gifts all through home like a treasure hunt! That was fun.

Years pass by - now I hear B and Nikhil whisper something to each other. Wonder what is cooking!

A one liner from the closest friends, emails from new blog-friends whose wish took me by surprise, an e-Card from Appa, talking to Amma yesterday night for the occasion, a phone call from a friend warmed up my heart and that is all I need now to feel happy about my birthday!

Forty

One of our friends turned 40 yesterday. And we almost missed the date. B met his wife at Nikhil's swimming class and she mentioned it to us. She had cake ready at home and we could visit them to watch S cut the cake and wish him a Happy Birthday!

B calls me frantically on the way back from swimming - 'Do you have a birthday card for him?'
I replied helplessly - 'How will I have a 40th birthday card in stock?'
He remarked - 'May be we should buy a bunch of them and keep them at home - looks we will need them often'.
And we LOL ed!
Yes, we have been hearing one or two friends turning 40 recently! This is certainly a milestone for them, it also leaves us with a feeling of 'Oh my God, we are also growing old!'.
This is the first time I am wishing a friend 'happy 40th'. The last time I wished anyone for 40th was my DEAR APPA - I gave him a birthday card and a watch ( I think it is a watch that I gave!).

And I chuckled - 'Ya, before we know it, may be will need one for ourselves'.

Well, there is some more time to go before that!

So at 8PM, as soon as kids finished dinner, we started out to visit them and give the birthday 'boy' a surprise. We stopped by at Giant to get a birthday card that had 40 written on it.
We cut the cake, took some pictures, sipped some wine and chatted a while.
Many many happy returns of the day to my friends who are turning forty soon!

Nithin turns three!

Happy birthday to our dear Dappu (nickname for Mr.Nithin!)

From the tiny little infant to the naughty, shy boy that he has grown into now, the journey has been interesting and enjoyable. When he giggles aloud seeing his Chacha's (Achacha is big bro) funny pranks to make him laugh, all three of us are amused. When he screams at the top of his voice to show his protest, the bird toy from India chirps aloud unable to bear the decibels.

Saturday day evening, dad and big bro' went into Toys R Us to pick a toy that would amuse the birthday boy. Of course, we could not take him into the store - to avoid ruining the surprise and to avoid buying 5 toys which he points to. I killed time in ROSS with Nithin while they shopped. Then we hid the gifts in the basement without him seeing them.

Yesterday night, we made Mango Pie which is a favorite of both the boys. Today morning, we placed 3 candles on top of the mango pie and both the boys blew them together. Nithin got his Curious George toy in the morning and was excited. More excitement to follow in the evening!

Dad and me went down the memory lane thinking of the day of delivery, dropping Nikhil to D's house for a night's stay and heading to the hospital. The first time Nikhil ever stayed at a friend's place without us. But we could not have done without that help - we could focus on contractions, pain and the beautiful after effect. 3 years flew by!

Greeting Cards

I remember when I was in high school, I started getting interested in reading the contents of greeting cards. There was this small shop in Vazhuthacaud, Trivandrum close to Forest Office. My dad and I would go there for some reason and I would want to read all the cards. The sentimental lyrics caught me the most. I think at that time, I bought the birthday card for my Appa and gave it to him as a surprise when he turned 40. He was so happy and touched to get a card from his daughter for the first time.

Then as I grew up, in Ayurveda College, there opened the heaven of beautiful cards. It was rightly called Greetings Galaxy. We loved to spend hours there, browsing through the aisles of cards of different categories. I enjoyed the humor in some of the cards. These cards so well written that it was so tempting to buy them all and give it to someone. Some cards were so good that I would start thinking - who would I give it to, if I buy this one. We were in college by then, so there were always birthdays of close friends - we would buy cards that closely match our feelings to the friends - and fill up the entire card with more words - poetry, humor and heartfelt wishes.

Then there were stickers of so many kinds which would enhance the emotion or add to the decoration. It used to be a project to create and complete a birthday card for a friend and we all enjoyed every minute of it.

I remember Sunitha and me spending hours to write a card for our friend Kaveri's father's retirement. The amount of creativity we put it into it, and the opinion clashes that came as a result of it is enormous. But we enjoyed it and the end product was perfect.

Valentine' day etc were not of so much importance that time. I have given only very decent cards to my present day husband when we were college mates - when we used to stumble across cards with little bit of adult content, I used to feel they are yucky.Me and a friend used to wonder who in the world would even exchange these kinds of cards. We were too naive then. The way I was brought up, I still cannot somehow enjoy such kind of humor. All I cared about was sentiments, emotions and I am sure when close friends gave us cards, it really felt so good. We treasured them so much.
We used to keep track of birthdays of all the friends.

Saving money to buy a gift for close friends was equally enjoyable. Thanks once again to my dad whose money I have used for years to make my friends smile. The gifts were typically items you used to get in Galaxy kind of stores. We also bought shirts for boys. Audio cassettes of movie songs were the next top hit. Hair clips or ear rings topped the items for girl friends.

Years passed. Now I am married with 2 kids.How time changes is unbelievable. I never spend more that 2 minutes to pick a card. Mostly it is birthday cards for kids. Even when picking a card for an adult, I never have the time to relish the wordings anymore. And when writing the cards, I seem to have run out of all the stock of wordings I used to fill them with. It is a one liner and names of everyone in my family and that's it.

I am sure it is the same with many of you as well. If not, I really appreciate the effort and care you are taking to tell someone that you care. That is very important, after all.