I was just thinking about how these days (end of Jan) would be like before few years. February 2nd is my b'day and that made all the end-of-Jan exciting. I used to shop for my b'day, pester dad and buy one pretty dress to wear it to school. In our school students were allowed to wear colour dress on their b'days and give a speech in the assembly. There were times when i even bought new slippers and accessories suiting my b'day dress exclusively for the day. I will start fishing for interesting stuffs to be spoken over the mic in the assembly. I will go to the shop nearby and buy MY FAV (obvsly i was the one who gets the max number of chocolates) chocolate, two hundred in number.
Birthdays used to be so special and the prime reason being the colour dress to school. The one celebrating birthday will stand out in a crowd as he/she is the only one or one among the handful in colour dress that day. Every person who cross me would wish me be it a senior,junior,staff or a complete stranger.
The assembly...
Assembly is usually scheduled for half n hour and as far as i remember i dont remember a single assembly that was so short unless it rained. Our schools usual practice is to mention the b'day babies names on stage and that will be done by assistant school pupil leader. When they call out our names we give a stunning entry just like how the celebs do when they appear on a stage show. From that moment till the end of assembly the b'day babies have to stand at the right corner of the stage, in front of the whole school, like a doll. That is when i used to search for my buddies in the crowd. I ll locate one by one(the known faces alone) and smile at them from the stage. If the person i am smiling at is pretty close to me i'd say a hi with the biggest smile on my face. Then when my turn comes i ll go to the mic and give a big speech. Someone celebrating birthday giving a big speech is something that was the biggest dislike in GB LAND but my speeches on my b'days were excused. The reason was standing under the hot sun during summer in the ground, specially when the guy next to you is no someone you like, used to be terrible. When the prayer gets over the b'day guys get a chance to go to class before everyone. Everyone else have to stick to the queue and reach the class in order.
Coming to the chocolates...
Just like the Vodafone ad, the number of chocolates we give to a kid around will be directly proportional to our liking towards them. Each time i give chocolate to someone i'd have one too ( maybe thats one reason for me being so sweet..thanks for saying Shabba! now cont reading) The whole day would be so much fun.
The usual practice on a b;day is to go to each bench and offer chocolates to classmates.Funniest will be when one student who is not friends with u, someone who is almost an enemy to u will reluctantly say "happy b'day" and look the other side while picking a chocolate from the cover you hold. My mind voice "pidikala na chocolate vendam nu solla vendiyathu thane..one chocolate loss..bull shit! ill pick two on ur bday" lol we were small kids so chocolates were more important than people around.
Finally coming to the fun of seeing everyone else in the same old uniform. You wont know the pleasure unless you ahve experienced it urself. Sometimes people we had stopped talking to previously would come and wish. From then on that person becomes a friend too. Birthdays were helpful to patch up too.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...i ve no moods to end this note. I really miss those innocent days. Now i am just left with memories that are really cute.
