Birthday- Short story

My birthday

That was December 2^nd. Even Sun was lazy to get up on that winter morning. My getting out of the cozy, soft bed was witnessed by amma (my great mother) with a cadbury’s chocolate in her hand. It is only once in a year I get a chance to chew that wonderful chocolate with my unbrushed teeth coated with nocturnal saliva. Perhaps, my mom’s confidence in my toothpaste and my regular brushing before bed would have given her enough courage to feed me so. After all, it is once in a year and that too on my birthday. Years down, the same day, I entered the world screaming which was heard by few medical professionals and my tired mom within a closed clean room.

While chewing my chocolate, amma kissed me wishing me a happy birthday. Uncared of the kiss I was concentrating on my chocolate with the fear of probable share to my sister. God bless her, she was there right in front of me wishing me again, followed by my dad. That was a nice morning. After coffee, amma came with mixture of certain powders in two three jars and asked me to take bath with those. It is supposed to have some medicinal values and when applied during an oil bath, it gives a smooth finish to my spring like hair. I went with my dad to temple; the customary ritual we follow religiously.

When I came from temple, amma had already taken bath and was preparing my favourite gulab jamuns. Wav, those small spheres were wonderfully taking bath in sunflower oil. It is fun to watch those white balls turning golden colour when entering the pan with oil. Amma held my right hand with her left when I attempted to pick one from the heap she had made. She admonished me to wait till jaggery process those edible jamuns into appreciable sweets. It is pain to sit infront of sweets without eating them. It is not an uncommon scene in our house. Whenever amma make sweets, she will prevent us the first piece by saying that it should be offered to god first. Childish queries of how god will eat those were gone by now. Gone are the days when elders can threaten me superstitiously about my becoming blind if I eat before those are served to god. Being a student in class sixth, I was matured enough and cannot be fooled so easily. It took twenty seven seconds from then to eat the first gulab jamun. Amma was fast; really I was amazed to see the tiffin readily served in dining table. How she managed to take bath, make coffee, prepare tiffin, pack lunch for all of us, get medicines for granny, prepare special sweet-free pudding for grandpa, clean utensils and make gulab jamuns all simultaneously? She also had to find dad’s missing file, answer our maid for her unnecessary questions. Oops! I was able to manage just a coffee and bath. Amma’s activeness makes me think more. I was lazy to think further and hence proceeded to dining table forgetting everything at the sight of gulabjamun.

Amma takes arithmetic tuitions at home, mostly for higher secondary classes and also for some C.A students. That was a Friday and higher secondary second year class was scheduled on that day. Amma declared a leave for her class. I saw Ranju, Kavitha, Preethi, Keshav, Vijay, Shahul and Rajesh leaving our home with a subtle joy of cancelled tuition class. When they saw me, they smiled at me. Perhaps to thank me for my birthday which won them a stress free morning. But, to be frank, amma’s class never ever have been stressful. It is always cheerful with jokes and fun and some maths in between. All of them loved amma and amma loves everyone in the world except my class teacher as she treats my soft palm very badly with a bamboo cane, a property of sixth standard class of S.M.A. higher secondary school.

Even that day’s school hours were great. Yes!! our class teacher was absent and the period was converted to P.E.T. (Physical education and training), the one period for which we long for Wednesdays and occurs only 50 minutes in a week. Getting a P.E.T on that Friday was a real surprise. In fact, I took it as a birthday gift from god. P.E.T periods are always fun. One group of guys will play football with a tennis ball, hurting each other toes. Another group will sit and chat under the age-old banyan tree. There will still be one group who got to library in P.E.T periods, who were called as elite group by a bunch of teachers who really didn’t know that they were sick stupid who don’t know what to do in P.E.T periods. I was in the football team; not because I’m a Ronaldino but because of my mass grown by mom’s food, I can get enough uncontrollable momentum and foul opponent team. The diameter of my tummy was big enough to stop at least two strikers of opponent team. Still, I was a true sportsman. Please don’t ask, “Who said so?” To be frank, except me, no one. To make others at home say so, I had a witness. Yes, my spotlessly clean white shirt was then red with mud. Before reaching home for the second course of remaining gulab jamuns, I had to sit through two more periods in that cage like classroom. Ramu told that one day he will become the headmaster of this school and will announce complete second half of Friday as P.E.T periods. That statement was worth only a giggle and we were very much used to it. Such type of statements was quite common among us. One-day Vijay told that he would become education minister and abolish exams; one day Siva told that he would become prime minister and would at least remove “thirukkural” (famous set of ancient two line poems compulsory in any curriculum which involves Tamil as a language).

Completely exhausted, I returned from school where amma was waiting eagerly in front of my home for second half of birthday celebrations. Amma must be little sad with the colour of the shirt. She didn’t express, but I was smart enough to understand it in that weary look. She was already upset by my previous day’s dirty shirt. She took extra care to wash and iron it for my birthday and that too is gone now. Common, nothing was possible for previous day’s shirt. Even after washing with the best washing machine of the world, the maximum possible tidiness was the one that was achieved. Hey, now I know everyone would be eager to know about that world’s best washing machine. Its nothing but, me. Ha, ha! I know that it is a bad joke and only Sandip will laugh for it as he is also famous for such bad jokes, which are usually poorer than the one stated above. Ah! Nice to mention about Sandip here. Sandip wanted to give me a treat for my birthday. He took me secretly when everyone at home was sunk in the serial at 8:30 p.m. The monochrome ‘Weston’ TV was centre of attraction for lot of people in our neighbours list and literally there would be struggle for the back row. Many a times, our family members wont get a seat in the hall for that particular serial.

Well, about Sandip’s treat; we walked to the corner M.K. stores at the end of street, which was as bright as a 100 watts Philips bulb. The “M.K.stores “ board was enough illuminated by the streetlight. Entering M.K. stores, Sandip proudly took out an one rupee coin out of his khakhi trousers. He bought a packet of groundnut for 50 paise and the rest of the money was completely spent for two candys (each worth 25 p). Sandip was proud when he offered his treat. Finishing the great treat from my friend, I returned home for dinner. Routine followed then. Dinner, Panchatantra stories from granny, multiplication tables from grandpa and a cup of milk from amma… Followed by our brushing with pepsodent and then to bed to welcome the new day.

Suddenly I was startled. Yes, my cell phone was ringing. After snoozing the alarm, which rang at 7:30 a.m, the past one-hour was spent in the sweet memories of my sixth standard birthday. The cell phone displayed “P.L calling”. I picked up the phone with haste. “ Hey Hari, Selvam here”, grinned that cacophonous voice on the other end. Yes, Selvam is my project leader. His dark gigantic figure came in front of me even in those sleepy eyes. Selvam told that we have a meeting with an important client and he asked me to come to his home so that both of us can go together. I said ‘OK’ before which the phone was already cut. I got up and refreshed myself. Entering my bulk body into a set of formals and partly hanging myself with a ‘Zodiac’ tie, I started. Casually, I tore of the daily calendar to see December 02.

Afterall, It is my birthday.