How I Celebrated My **th Birthday

At 2330 hours on 23rd March, I was talking on the phone with my family when they said that they would call me up at midnight. I said that that was not necessary, considering that birthdays no longer are special days in my life. They never were actually, except I used to cry and feel sad when my birthdays used to come to an end. But that was during earlier years of my life. They called me not at midnight but at 2357 hours. I cut the phone and called them back because I had a cheaper mobile plan from Reliance.I told them that my birthday had not started yet,to which my sister replied that they heard the bell ring at the Portuguese Church which is about a kilometre away from my home. That guy never rings the bell on time. I distinctly remember he used to ring the 4 o'clock bell at 0410 hours when I used to cram for my engineering exams. Even as I was speaking on the phone I heard the beeps which indicated that Keyur was calling me. After speaking to Keyur, I sat on the terrace parapet(safe place--fall not more than 3 feet) pondering on the things which I still do not have or have not accomplished. Thats when I heard some hushing in my house. My roomies were not knowing about my birthday and I was happy about that because I was spared of those nasty kicks which Saumil got on his butts(I would have prefered to use a***). But now this hushing bothered me and as I entered the hall, Saumil asked me 'tera birthday hai kya?'(Is it your birthday today?). He was sleeping in the hall, because the fan in his bedroom was out of order-now for almost six months. The second phone had probably disturbed him. He confessed that he had swithced on the TV to check the time while I was talking on the phone and because it was exactly midnight he thought that it was my birthday.Lateral thinking. After about a minute of chatting with Saumil, I retired for the day. I was in dead sleep at 0545, when Nirmal gently asked me to move my hand aside. I was sleeping in some awkward position(no pun intended) and was blocking the access to the wardrobe. That did not disturb me much and the next thing to disturb me was the alarm set to 0715 hours on my mobile phone. I snoozed and went to bed, only to be waken a few minutes later. This time I did not snooze the alarm and was again into deep slumber before I somehow woke up at 0805 hours. I was trying to go to office early from the past one week(No reason being specified here. Draw your own conclusions). I was dressed up by 0845 and thats when Saumil told Harish that it was my birthday. Harish who had come at 0230 the previous night and was sleeping on the floor using the rolled bed as a pillow somehow managed to open his eyelids and then somehow managed to wish me. Saumil then said, " kya neelbhai birthday ke din shave nahi kar raha hai?"(Why did you not shave today?). I just said, " kya farak padta hai?"(What difference does that make?) and switched off the TV and bade goodbye to Udayan Mukherjee. We took an autorickshaw to the main road because it was a different day and different because we were late. Once into the Infy bus, I got a comfortable seat. Snigdha got into the bus at the next stop. She sat next to me, but I never told her that it was my birthday because I am a modest person and I did not want everyone in the bus to wish me. Manish called me to wish and I was sure that Swapnil and Heramb would call me sometime later in the day. Manish, Swapnil and Heramb are few guys from whom I do not hide many things. After I reached Infy I waited for Saumil to alight from the bus. He was sitting in some remote corner of the bus and it took him atleast three minutes to get down. We then proceeded towards Plantain Leaf, where I had Idli Vada( I usually avoid Vadas because of the dirty oil they put in). I was surprised when Allu wished me over there. Poets never forget birthdays. Swapnil also called me to wish and told me that the three musketeers were going to Matheran for the long weekend they were having in Bombay. When I came to my seat I found a yellow letter envelope with "To Neel N Arurkar" scribbled on it. I should have guessed who had put it over here considering that that person had included my middle name in it. But then I could not hold the excitement and opened the envelope.Obvioulsy it should have been Dheepak and Dheepak it was. In addition I also found a mail from him. Care was taken to send the mail at a time when I just logged in , so that I would find it on the top of all other mails...Coincidence??--I dont think so. I replied stating that though I liked the card it was not necessary to spend money and buy it. When you can save money, you should. There were a few mails wishing me and a few phone calls too. I picked up all the phone calls first against the usual practice of Keyur picking it up first anticipating Mukul's call. For those of you who do not know Mukul, he is one of the closest friend I have ever had till date.Over years we had perfected the art of talking without words and could bitch about you without you even knowing about it when we are sharing a table over a cup of coffee.It was a wait of a few more phone calls before a different ring was heard. It was Mukul calling. The last time we spoke to each other on a telephone was at about 1 am , 10th August 2004(have you seen Dil Chahta Hai?) when he had called me from the Bombay Airport.Yes, we had spoken on Yahoo Chat(voice) when I had gone home for Diwali, but not on telephone. We spoke for quite a long time. He told me that with every passing birthday I was moving away from home. I celebrated my last birthday, which was also the first birthday away from home was celebrated at Pune. He suggested that the next birthday could be somewhere even further.Since this is mail is going to be sent to my project group too, I must clarify that I am not writing of the work done on my birthday because the audience would not be interested in that and it was not that I did not touch work for the entire day. Just as I hanged up, Keyur was punching buttons on his engage and told me that he was calling 'Professor'. Professor was his previous landlord who is making lot of nakhras to give back their deposit. When Keyur returned to his desk, I noticed that it took him a unusally long time. He told me that he got one more call after the Professor's call. In just a few minutes two one kg Chocolate Fantasies were there at my desk. Ira had sent mails to the entire group minus me "Join me in wishing Neel for his birthday".The cakes were good. I cut them with a plastic spoon and blew away an unlit candle as we could not find a matchbox. No one smokes in my entire team!!!I served the unequally cut pieces to the team starting with the boss. I told them what Mukul had told me about moving further away from home to which Shubhashis reminded me that I no was no longer a boy. Anirban added that the next year, I could move further away from home, something which Mukul had spoken about too. As people were wiping away their hands, I invited them to a small icecream party as is the norm with our group. Marriages, child births, new cars and all other happy occasions end up strenthening my vow to work out in the gym regularly to burn the fat I am putting on. Later, I learnt that Keyur was in my bus and explicitly asked Saumil to keep mum, because he wanted to order a cake at CCD.Tummy was full and it was a late lunch at about 1330. Keyur and Neha waited for about 10 minutes in the building lobby as Lech finished some of his work before leaving for lunch. We were joined by Sarang, Rajan and Bhavman at Golconda. Two big pieces of cake had filled my tummy enough and I had just a fruit plate and a milkshake for lunch. I had to keep some space for the icecream at four. When our team left at four for the party, we once again had a chance to carry out stress testing for the elevator. It is a big team now. The treat was at Orchard Fresh, a deviation from the usual practice of having it at Amul(I am a fan of Verghese Kurien, but needed a change. Orchard Fresh serves some good icecream flavours like Orange Fantasy, apricot with wine and also milkshakes and sodapops. About 40 minutes were spent here. Once at my desk, I did some work before I retired to write a part of this post. Busy Heramb called at about 7 pm. At about 8 pm, Neha was at my desk to give me some lessons about Futures and Options. Unfortunately, I could not get the demo as the site was down(not writing the name here, beacuase I dont want to advertise about them, especially since the two Cs in their name stand for Chor). Meanwhile, Wilson called me and asked me what future I see about the Indian Market and what stocks can be picked. Sometimes I think I have more domain knowledge about equity markets than the people who are working in that domain. We left by the 9:15 bus. I usually have the habit of travelling home alone(note: alone not lonely). That gives me time to think, observe and sometimes eavesdrop(when people talk about loudly.not intentional).I got down at the BTM water tank and proceeded alone to Balaji. Balaji is a restaurant that serves 5 mm thick rotis(hyped). Regular dinner was skipped as I settled down for a Masala Dosa and WaterMelon juice. I have often thought about not eating at Balaji because that guy employs child labour, but I do not have any choice. My roomies are not open to cooking at home and other hotels in my area suck. Once out of the hotel, I phoned home. I told them how the day was and they told me that they had gone to a temple in the evening. The last time I have been to a temple is with my friends to appreciate the art over there and that was out of the city when we were on a picnic. My sister teased me that there were less than 90 minutes left for the 'special' day to get over and I suggested that she should give me a missed call at twelve. Once at home, Saumil asked me how the day was. Harish had decided to stay back in Infy and Nirmal had gone home for Holi. Meanwhile Heramb, Swapnil and Manish called once again to wish me. After hanging up, I started watching a Anil Kapoor movie going on(Nayak) on some channel out of the 100 odd channels.Back home, I did not have that many options. It was either DD1 or DD2. It was an okay movie and I started watching it. The movie is about how a middle class boy goes on to become a chief minister and weeds out corruption in the society. I was 'engrossed' in the film, when I got the missed call. The day was over. But then who cares. I am no longer a boy.
PS: Some events might not be written since the blog is for all kinds of audiences.