Perplexed reading those lines? Recently I got a chance to attend a kid’s Birthday Party and it was only then that I realized that Birthday parties have taken an absolutely new avatar.
The kids are no more those innocent little creatures who could be fooled with some silly magic tricks or scared with the famous “daadi waala baba” who would kidnap them if they tried disobeying their parents.
While my eyes were busy flirting with the cake adorning the table my ears just hopped to sneak into the kids’ conversation. “Hey I love your shoes...where did you get them from?” The girl though a bit confused carefully drafted her answer and replied “My mom got them from somewhere.” The other kid instantly reacted “I think they are from Reebok” to which the girl said “No they are not from Reebok, do you see a Reebok signature anywhere on my shoes? The boy was stupefied and so was I! Reebok…I came to know about the brand when I was in sixth grade and it took me another one year to recognize its signature and signatures of some other similar brands. And these kids who have just entered their first grade are almost living with these brands. Wow!! I have always detested the brand fad for robbing the innocents off their innocence.
I was still recuperating from my stupidity when snacks were announced and my stomach was almost jumping with joy though my brain was still feeling starved. Staying away from home it didn’t take me more than a moment to fancy the delicacies that would be treating my taste buds and my growling stomach. I could see the ‘ pooris’, the ‘chhole’ and the ever green ‘gulab jamun’ ornate my plate. That moment I was literally reduced to my childhood version who was impatiently waiting for the best part of the Birthday bash..the food! But what came on the plate was a punch on my greedy fancies. All I got was two slices of pizzas, a slice of garlic bread, cheese roll and french fries all ‘made in Pizza Hut’. The kids were flying with joy with those plates in front of them and I was abusing Pizza Hut. What happened to that traditional old menu of Birthday Parties? Why has Pizza replaced ‘Poorie’? Where did ‘Gulab Jamun’ go missing? I was frowning and it took me a while to
Somehow I contented myself with that ‘somewhat-like-food’ stuff. Now came the time when the kids were leaving but what was I seeing? Kids lined up right in front of the Birthday boy and the boy instead of looking intimidated was wearing a broad smile with a tint of pride . Slowly my eyes floated to a table adjacent to the Birthday boy. I saw a pile of lovely boxes each one having a label attached to it which was supposedly someone’s name. Oh! These are the return gifts and the boy is perhaps taking pride in giving away such quality return gifts to his friends. Birthday parties in my age never had any concept of return gifts. I silently regretted having missed out on an uncalculated number of gifts or more appropriately return gifts. The kids gracefully received the gifts and greeted good bye to the boy. The party had been officially concluded but since I was a family member I still had some more time.
So I ventured into a room that was full of Birthday presents. Boxes of all shapes and sizes wrapped up in shimmering colourful papers piled on top of each other. Once again I felt like a jealous child and I started guessing what all could the boxes contain. My birthday parties had extraordinarily predictable gifts. I could make out the gift without unwrapping it. Geometry cases, sketch pens, Tiffin boxes and at the best a set of a variety of colours. Either I was living with a bunch of misers or with a bunch of absolutely unimaginative people who could never think of good Birthday presents.Anyways I gave up my envy and asked the little one to unwrap his amazing gifts. So he called his dad and a mat was unrolled on the floor. A notebook and pen was summoned for and the presents were lined up on the mat. The child started tearing off the lovely papers and I asked him not to tear them but carefully unwrap them because as a child I used to preserve those beautiful gift wrapping papers. But the kid gave me an obnoxious look as if he was saying you used to do that because you never got gifts good enough to preserve so you quenched your thirst by preserving the papers but I am not under any such constraint. I instantly gave up.
As he continued unwrapping the gifts he continued commenting on them too. “I already have this game”; “Oh this game was on my list !”His dad carefully documented all the gifts and the names of the children who bought them. A part of me was still jealous of those gifts. After the gifts were all out the kid instantly stood up and asked for an iPad. Within seconds he was playing a game on that amazing piece of gadget. And once again I was stupefied.
The kids have changed, the age has changed and certainly Birthday parties have taken a Rebirth. So Happy Rebirth-Day Birthday Party!!!
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