How I celebrate my birthday

Ask me about my birthday plans for this year, or about those bygone birthdays, and I would give you a shock of a lifetime. Do you know why? I don’t celebrate birthdays! If I say I haven’t celebrated my birthday yet, not even once in all these adventurous thirty three years, I am sure you all will have just one reply to say, and that’s I am a liar, a shameless, bloody liar who’s badly craving for your sympathy by portraying myself as a woman who was deprived of the entire happiness that she should have received in all these years. But believe me or not, I haven’t celebrated my birthday even once in all these years. Though birthday celebrations where never forbidden at my home, December 22nd, the day I came in to this world, often went-by just like the other days of the year. It was not because no one was really interested in celebrating my ‘beginning’, but birthday celebrations just didn’t happen, instead I was made to understand that one should never splurge money on trivial things, instead on something useful and genuine. Right from childhood, I was ‘well trained’ to not ask for grand birthday parties and expensive gifts. Being not used to any kind of birthday treats, I never had anything to crib about and never did it ever, at any point of my life. There were no cake cuttings, no new dresses, and no elaborate parties and no gifts from anyone. In short, every birthday of mine went by just like other usual days and I didn’t have any complaints about not having memorable birthdays and attractive birthday presents. As everyone around was so tied-up in their own worlds, busy with their own works, I forced myself focus on mine too and moved on, instead of ranting about why I was not wished or why I didn’t have colorful dresses or memorable birthday parties like most of my classmates.

I am really not in to spending money on birthday parties or dresses. I’ve never asked my parents why I didn’t have them, nor did they try explaining why they arrange anything for me all these years. Not having flamboyant dresses and exciting birthday parties are not things that I have regretted at any point of my life.  May be because I’ve never known how it would be like if I had them each year, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I enjoy my birthdays now. Do you want to know why? As I grew up and started becoming self depended, birthdays were those days of the year when I made sure to do at least one charity work, mostly in the form of donations to cancer centres and orphanages, or even to the temple nearby our home, so that they can feed some of the poor people, mostly children, old men and women, who are often found begging in front of the temple. Those little acts of kindness give lots of happiness and satisfaction, much more than how I would have felt amid grand parties and a flood of birthday presents. Rather than feeding the well-off with a scrumptious birthday lunch, I prefer feeding the poor and needy every year, not because I want people to go gaga over my broadmindedness and kindness, but because it gives me a lot of happiness to see their innocent and contented smiles. More than the glitz of a pair of gold earnings, an expensive dress or an advanced mobile phone, the best gift that I prefer on my birthday is the smile that I can bring on the face of a needy, by lending a helping hand. For this reason, I am happy that my dad and mom never tried spending money on my birthdays or never threw lavish parties for me, made me feel that birthdays are those must-celebrated days of the year.  It has helped me get contented with normal birthdays, so that I can generously donate something every year and help at least one of those needy people out there, perhaps the best possible way in which I can celebrate my birthday.

The most ‘hunted’ woman - In life as well as in death


I was reading an online news paper today and came across this news report that said there’s a new movie coming up, a biopic, based on the life and tragic death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, the most photographed woman of her time, the person whose life was always the most chosen topic of discussion, in the media as well as among people around the world.

I still remember that fateful day, an August 31st, which took her away with it. As usual I was away for morning tuition classes and came back by almost 8 am when dad told me about the tragic news that was continuously getting flashed on BBC. It was hard to believe, but was true; Diana, one of the most beautiful, iconic, woman in the world, was no more!  It took some time for the reality to sink in properly, and I sat glued to the television, even without having breakfast, to know what actually happened to the most iconic woman in the world.  Slowly, the reporters started giving details on the car crash, and it was more than shocking. I couldn’t hear the graphic explanations more and switched off the television soon. Although the day went off as usual, I was sad, terribly sad about the death of someone that I had never seen in my life. Years passed by, and it’s about sixteen years since she left the world that hardly bothered to give her the privacy that every human would want.

Since her death, so much has been written, spoken and cinematized about Diana, the People’s Princess, with everyone claiming their works to be genuine and authentically written. I’ve read a few of them; books and articles, where people have left no stones unturned to write, speak, and discuss stories about her life – childhood, teenage, marriage, children, relationships, charity works, and may other things, only to meanly celebrate sufferings, rejections, heartbreaks and betrayals in their own way, only to create spicier versions of her life and make money out of them.

Some of them went a step further and celebrated even her death, that fatal car crash that abruptly took her away. Want to know why I said this? Just Google her name and you can see endless articles about her death; writings that are grounded with absolutely no authenticity, written only for the sake of fame and money. What’s more nauseating are some of the photoshopped images of her, claiming to have been taken right after the car crash. People are sick! Really sick! Lady Diana is not here to give justifications or proof of authenticity to whatever has been written and spoken about her over these years. She’s not here to ask for privacy or to beg to let her live her live, or  even to urge them to stop speculating about her and her life,  which I think is the biggest relief and happiness of all those writers, speakers, and movie makers out there who keep ‘fiercely’ stating their own views about her life and death.

People have always made her life and even her death a good business to make money, and yet ferociously keep saying about their love for the dead Princess; someone who was always chased by the media in the entire world, someone who badly looked for privacy to enjoy a normal and happy life like others, and sadly didn’t get it during her entire life, and even after death. All the books and movies based on her life minted a huge amount of money, making the writers, publishers, and movie makers rich and famous overnight. But I really wonder if anyone had actually tried understanding what she was and what she had been through, in all the thirty six years that she lived on this earth.

People still keep selling her story for vested interests and the world keenly reads it with excitement of watching another peppery Hollywood movie.  Books after books, biopics after biopcs, people keep portraying her in the way they want, writing and visualizing her life in the way they want, and not in the way she lived.

She’ll be back soon! Yes, Lady Diana Spencer, whom I adored the most, about whom I read a lot, is going to be back through another biopic that will be released sometime soon. So here arrives yet another version of her life and yet another breach of privacy!

Throughout her life, she kept running away from the scurrilous media, craving for privacy and a normal like everyone of us, paid for it with her own life, and still they are not ready to leave her, not ready to spare her even after death!