Happy Birthday Abhay-anna!

I guess this is the first time that Abhay has had to write an exam on his birthday and so there was nothing “Happy” about the first half of his birthday and this may not be the last time he would have an exam on his birthday as the month of September has always been the mid-term exam season for as long as I can remember….and that he has now come to encounter this in class six. Well…..what can I say…. Welcome to the real world buddy….. as no matter what …you gotta work when you gotta work!

Anyway, kids these days have a lot of expectations from their parents to make their birthdays special and  celebrating birthdays with cake and a few gifts followed by a quiet family dinner does not exactly quality as “special” anymore…all that’s given anyway! It almost feels like you’re trying to impress your boss when he says “Hmm…I wonder what else is cooking up for my birthday…”!!Phew!

 

Of course….each of us had our own way making Abhay’s eleventh birthday extra special…from home made delicacies dished out by his paternal grandma to the gifts ordered off the internet (as if on Abhay’s birthday registry) on behalf of his maternal grandparents, from  the old-school style of gifting a watch by his grandpa to the host of knick-knacks and gifts bought by his father and to the new-generation  dedication on a local FM station on the radio by his mom…from numerous whatsapp messages (and still counting) on our various family and friends’ groups  to the babbled “Happy Birthday Abhay-anna” from his baby sister…. We all chipped in to make the whole day better than all the individual specials put together…..after all the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts and  I sincerely hope that Abhay grows up to understand the same!!

In keeping with the recently devised  birthday tradition (that began only over three years ago and I don’t know how long we can keep it up as he grows older!) we had a birthday treasure hunt of eleven gifts symbolizing each year of his life, with the first clue handed over by his sister!  So celebrating her brothers birthday, we read about a baby leopard’s “Hide and Seek Birthday Treat” by Linda Jennings and Joanne Partis. Brightly coloured and narrated in rhyming verses, this book (another gem from Kutoohala)  is a sure delight to read aloud to a toddler who will sure be excited to go on a breezy “I Spy” adventure  of various animals of jungle who all missing on the leopard on the day of his birthday!  As the baby leopard goes looking for his friends from zebra to lion, from snake to crocodile and is almost disappointed to find none present for his birthday only to realize that they were all in the hiding for a reason…. To throw the baby leopard a surprise birthday party!! Despite nursing a viral infection, our  little one couldn’t be more excited on her big brother’s birthday……Happy Birthday to Abhay-anna! J