The best b’day!
Oh ... it was 6th June... My b’day ... I didn’t even realise. I had actually lost the notion of time, days and dates after coming here... not that life was hectic or I was not getting time to have a look at the calendar but then there were not many incidents when I actually looked into the calendar to ponder upon the dates and probably I avoided the same for the very reason that it reminded me of some days...
Today was different altogether... When I opened my eyes in the morning, the whole room was decorated with colour papers, shining plastics, balloons and what not. It felt like a year old baby’s b’day getting celebrated. It was so nice and on the top of that, all of them stood encircling me, smiling and waiting for me to crack some joke or so. It was such a nice surprise! I had not even dreamt about this... All of my friends; they had come to celebrate my b’day taking out time from their busy schedules... It felt nice... I remembered our college days and b’day celebrations there... all those amazing memories of my life got freshened up... They all were there.... my roommate with whom I shared my feelings, studied hard... all my friends in my group with whom I enjoyed the best days of my life... and even she was there.... my crush... somehow things had not turned in my favour and I had preferred keeping my feelings to myself... now I realised the game of the luck... it turned out to be in her favour afterall she would get a life-long partner for her...
Someone kept a laptop on my lap and then started a video – my b’day video... it was our tradition in college to make a b’day video for the b’day boy or the b’day girl using whatever wackiest pics clicked and using some simple movie maker software or so. Probably that was the only thing where everyone employed the maximum of their creativity. The video was really nice; right from my friends in school, they had put in every other girl’s pic in it portraying me as a complete flirt guy. The songs in the background actually made the effect even worse. It was actually embarrassing to see that in front of my mom n dad but again the way niru was portrayed in it was not important but the love and the affection my friends showed towards me in making the video...
The next event we used to do was to hold the b’day boy and spank him like anything. Whatever anger, frustration anyone had that day would take it down over the b’day boy’s backside. Today somehow they were not in mood of spanking me.... they just brought a cake... a big chocolate cake with the liquid chocolate all over it... I felt like finishing it off all by alone the way it was tempting... Then there were usual fights over putting the number of candles when some of my useless friends persisted on lighting only single candle representing my true brain age.... We had to listen to him... afterall it was simpler to blow single candle on the cake... I had to make some wish before blowing the candles and I did. Just wanted to check whether such wishes come true...
The cake was really sweet whether it felt so because of the chocolate all over it or the love my friends showed towards me... I really don’t know. Chatting with dear friends after so many days and that too for so much time was so amazing. It was Sunday that’s what they told me later, and probably that’s why no one as such was in a hurry to leave for the office or so... What else a person wants in his life? My friends had made that day special... they had coloured and energized those white and green walls of the hospital...
In the evening when they all left, I felt like thanking them by hugging them tight for making my b’day so special... But cancer had made my body so weak that it wasn’t possible for me to even get up from the bed...
That was my last day... I didn’t even see the midnight... My death was not unexpected; in fact it was very much expected or to put it into right words I was waiting for the once for all freedom from the sufferings but what mattered there was the way all my friends made my last day special... when they celebrated my b’day much before 6th June and when even the day was not a Sunday.... they all portrayed it so... Afterall spending a day with your close sweetheart friends is nowhere lesser than a real b’day isn’t it? While blowing the candles on my cake, the only wish I had made to god was to keep the memories of that special day fresh forever... My death made it sure they remain like that before any new incidents overwrite them... In my case at least, the wishes on the b’day candles had come true!
-Niru
