A lacy, paper-thin dosa, a witty, hand-written note and a sci-fi movie - a birthday wish come true?

 As each year rolls by, with one momentous occasion to celebrate your being older, there are a zillion things to ruminate about. No, I am not talking about dreaming of your favorite things on the lines of 'Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens' which might have been Julie Andrews' favorite(considering her character Maria had a teeny escape window from the looming nuns at the Abbey, it was but natural for Maria to break into a song at the drop of a hat, and think of kittens, white copper kettles and mittens (Sound of Music), and about the idyllic Alps which beckon many an adventurer - For those in the closets of a chapel to the open spaces of the majestic mountains).

But much as we love to hibernate for as long as we can, the wintry mists dissipate one time or the other. They rise to bring in those shafts of light, to let you see life in a different spectrum. That is when you take your head out of the clouds to get a true blue picture of reality. That is when while picking your roses from the garden, you are aware of the thorns, but you still admire the fulsome red, the velvety petals, however transient, you let the vibrancy rub off on you . That is when you embrace life in all its dualities, composites and contrasts. It is a learning that braces us up for the adversities and helps us make truce for all the conflicting situations in life.

And as long as we open up to this learning, we realize that there is no limited list of favorites in life. It just keeps getting longer, as we create that moment of joy, out of every blessing(big or small - we stop quantifying those too, along the way) that comes our way. Some revelations unfold too, at each phase of growing up.

✅ You do away with rose-tinted glasses and the expectations for roses and cakes and balloons. All you look forward to for your special day is a clean countertop and some thoughtful gift(hand-written scrolls + a book with a musty smell + complimentary homemade breakfast)

✅ Birthday reminders from insurance companies, diagnostic labs and spirituality centers come ahead of the wishes from your near and dear ones. Little do the insurance/medlabs realize that BP+sugar+hormones are as excitable with triggers that keep reminding you, "You are getting older:", "Make a checklist of potential ailments lurking in your body". Nay, that is not welcome at all, as an morning alarm on your 'special day'. These agents, 'ensure' that they remain the grim reminders of the mortality of human life- they don't seek an auspicious time to keep prodding you with that).As for the spirituality centers, they know to strike when the iron is hot, when you are in the crucible of self-reformation, your misguided zeal is bound to spring up on birthdays alone( a notification from ISKCON: my instant reaction was visualizing self with a rudraksah or Tulsi beads sitting under the next best to a banyan tree in B'lore's concrete jungle. If not a tree, atleast a concrete canopy would be the ideal simulation)

✅ The dawn breaks in with the realization - you are at peace with yourself, with the way you are. You no longer want to conform to norms or try to fit in. You create your space with no room for the naysayers.

✅ Even as the bones creak and the mood swings following the dynamics of an oscillating pendulum, you know there is an equilibrium position in life -(C'mon if jumpy electrons can attain it - so can we)

✅ That spirituality is not directly proportional to the glistening grey strands on your crown, neither the temple-frequenting on auspicious occasions helps you rise above your basal being. The divine connect is more about harnessing your core to the larger purpose of life.(Yes, you got it right, Gods are not cloud-residents who manifest out of mists and play truant like a playful toddler - they dwell in your core)

✅ A note of gratitude that you are not hopelessly senile and that your teeth can carry out the regimented exercise(+clenching/snarling when your patience is put to the test) of mauling, tearing and chewing with diligence.

✅That you are entitled to your whimsies even if you grow a year older. This meant conjuring up a sardonic note to Google to be the giant Santa Claus for the holiday season and give its users the 1TB mail storage free - (after all not all the gmail users are Mary Kondo freaks following the principles of decluttering to the 'T'). This was in view of the fact that my mail has a legacy to boast about tracing to circa 2012 - from spam to social to official and to personal mails - they have been well preserved as historic 'fossils'.

✅ That romance can be sans the peach n roses, skies azure, breathtaking sunsets, or smooth jazz running in the background of a perfect candle-lit dinner with a red wine. It could be expressed in something as unexpected as a mega, lacy, paper-thin dosa served piping hot with the perfect side and the kitchen countertop spic n span, the beds neatly done and well, you got to enjoy those few lstolen moments of beauty sleep in the morning instead of jumpstarting from the bed. And when you do get ready for the day, you know the kids have booked a matinee show for the latest Avatar release!

Well, could a birthday have been more enriching or delightful than that?

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