Birthday Tribute

Today is my birthday. How old? 10th anniversary of my 18th birthday. The birthday wishing lived upto what is expected in the social media era. Facebook wall had countless ‘happy birthday’ messages(special emphasis on countless #lamebrag), texts from close friends and an email from my Mazda dealership. This has how my birthdays have been ever since post-puberty (Ew).

That sounds so sad.

I have never been a fan of hosting big parties. I love my friends. I just don’t enjoy them in groups. I would rather have 10 one-on-one coffee dates with 10 friends, rather than have all of them together in one room. The insecure me hates being the centre of attention, and having to worry about if there is enough dip and whether the punch bowl is full. Do people still have punch at parties anymore?

Man, you sound old.

I have never understood the spectacle around birthdays anyways, especially in the first world. Country of Chad had the lowest life expectency of 49.8 years in 2015. Celebrating your 50th birthday in that country is totally justified. Birthdays in the first world should be more of a celebration of your parents or whoever raised you. They did bulk of the hard work. Starting from feeding you only organic fair-trade baby formula to paying your 600$ phone bill (true story), these are the real heroes.

I present you mine.

Uttam & Nanda Banerjee are the nicest, least unassuming, and most giving humans you will ever meet. They sacrificed a very comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle, moved to Canada and started from scratch. Cue the woes of immigrant struggle. My dad juggled multiple factory jobs while studying for engineer exams. It eventually lead to an enginering job 10 years later. My mom, always a housewife, overcame her initial qualms of speaking English and thrived in stresses of a Pre-board screening officer.

If that wasnt hard enough, they had to raise ME.

I didn’t follow the checklist at all. Yet, neither ever lost their patience. There were no ‘she got at a job at Deloitte, do you have any leads?’ or ‘how much longer are you going to waste your time’ dialogues. I was given the full adult freedom to pursue whatever opportunities suited my interested. There was no criticism of my frequent travels either.I just had to provide notice if I needed a ride to the airport. Indian parents aren’t best at expressing pride. Yet, I could sense my mom’s glee telling my family in India about my teaching trips in Germany or adventures in Iceland. She vicariously lives through my Instagram pictures. (yes, my mom has Instagram).

Parents deserve to be celebrated on their kid’s birthdays. On my 28th birthday, I am thankful for mine: the best parents in the world.