There are certain moments in life when time just stops; the memory never fades; the joy of that moment stays for ever. One such moment is the birth of a child! It is a moment of celebration! Not only for the parents of the newborn, but for the whole extended family. A joyous moment – special indeed – the birthday of the new born.
This special day is celebrated again when the baby turns one. A big milestone for the baby and the parents! Year after year till the child is 3 or 4, parents celebrate this occasion without fail – they are truly happy at their child’s progress and love to share it with everyone. Soon the child turns 4 or maybe 5 when he or she takes over the birthday celebration! The child decides where to celebrate, how to celebrate, whom all to call and becomes his or her own birthday organizer.
We all shared similar feeling about our birthdays when we were young – waited eagerly for our special day to arrive; the day when we get special gifts from our parents, uncles & aunties and friends & families. As soon as the birthday is over, we start wondering when and how we will celebrate our next birthday. We had a special warm feeling about this day, waited eagerly for it to come and celebrated it year after year in our own special way. But not too long. As we became older, we started loosing it – attached lesser and lesser importance to it. Only celebrated the milestone birthday’s – 16, 18, 21 etc. As we entered the adulthood, we lost the spirit of celebration totally; felt that it is just like any other day, so why celebrate it. And slowly the birthday celebration took a complete twist. We started expecting others to keep track of our birthday and create an atmoshpere of celebration. We expected that our loved ones would surprise us with a birthday gift; hoped that friends will throw a surprise birthday party. Instead of “we” celebrating “our” birthday, we wanted “others” to celebrate “our” birthday!
Why do we stop celebrating our birthdays? Have we lost our spirit of celebration? Is it not important to us any more? If “our” existence is not important to “us”, then why should it be any important to anyone else? Why do we throw the responsiblity of remembering and celebrating our birthday to others?
As they say, it takes a long time to grow young – this year, I decided to grow younger. I took upon myself to celebrate my birthday! With joy and happiness! Celebrate that I got a chance to complete one more year in this world! Celebrate that I have got all that I want – enough money to lead a comfortable life, good friends with whom I can share my happiness and most importantly great health to feel and enjoy the pleasure of life. I sincerely want to celebrate the “gift” of “my life”. Happy Birthday to me!
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