Birthday Parties

Yesterday, I went to attend a birthday party of a 3 year old, G’s cousin’s son. As kids came into the house. There were more than a dozen kids, since there are lot of kids on that road, also since the cousin has a daughter and her friends were invited too. The party was no doubt very noisy, with kids chattering away to glory, and felt good, seeing them so excited about the birthday party.

This incident took me back to the birthday parties we would attend. Anytime between 4.30 – 6.00 PM we would be invited for the cake cutting. I would be forcefully made to wear a nice dress (something frilly) , and then the face would be painted with the Ponds powder, and a nice bindi, matching bangles and earrings. At times I would even protest, “It’s not my birthday Ma”. After all this, I would be given a box wrapped in presentation cover.

“Give this gift to your friend after the cake cutting” would be the instruction. “And don’t spill anything on your dress” would be added. “Yeah right, that’s what I am going for, to spill the ‘to be tasty cake on my dress’ and get back to get scolding” would be my thought bubble.

As soon as you reach the friend’s house, there would be balloons in everybody’s hands, and some of them would be munching on a few chocolates and biscuits, which would be kept on a tray in the centre of the hall. Far off, you would see the dining table, where you would see glasses filled with orange coloured liquid, and next to it would be a big bag of chips, and if you were lucky enough, you would also see pakodas or samosas. These would be served to you later, after the main event.

You would then grab a couple of chocolates, and rush to meet your other friends. And like long lost pals, you would chat nineteen to dozen, as if the conclusion to this discussion is going to solve the world crisis. Who cared at that age, what world crisis was!!!!! All we were bothered about is, when will we get to eat the cake, and after all this celebration, after we went home, we had another great event to attend to, complete our homework.

Once the hosts realized that most of the kids had come, more importantly, the birthday kid’s best friend had come, and by now the child has no patience, we would all be assembled to stand behind the kid, while the candles would be blown and cake be cut.

Oh in the meanwhile, we would all wear those birthday caps and those ghastly masks which would cover our faces. Seriously, whats with the masks, first you ask the kids to wear the masks, then you take their pictures, and then how do we recognize ourselves…. The dress which we wore… I mean really, the dress which we wore, so we have to keep an account of what we wore to which friend’s birthday.

Anyway, back to the cake cutting, after this event, all of us would be asked to take our seats, and a paper plate would appear, with the cake, chips (our local lip-smacking hot chips), samosas or pakodas or anything else, and then to quench our thirst, the orange drink. Oh yes, before all this, we would have dutifully given the gifts to the birthday kid.

At times, we would even have some games and prizes, I might have won a couple, but I was usually not that lucky. I didn’t even know about the concept of return gifts….Darn!!! Wouldn’t it have been fun, if I had gone and asked “Aunty, I dint get my return gift”. Then within days, this news would have reached mom, that I had asked for a return gift, the consequences of which would definitely not be in my favour *shudder*

After a mini second helping of chips, and whatever else, we would then wash our hands, and then leave bidding the hosts good bye. Now on the way home, we would discuss on how awesome the cake was, come to think of it, we had no idea of flavor or colour. It was cake that’s it. Also, mentally calculating what we could demand from our parents for our birthdays. Ofcourse, any of these ideas were never considered for the birthdays, but the kids can dream alright!

Once home, we would be interrogated on what we ate, how much we ate, did we behave properly, did we overload our tummies with chips as if we had never seen any. After the 1^st degree of investigation, we would be sent to change to the normal clothes. And then the clothes would be investigated for any blood stains from the murder, ok ok just kidding, a few stains of ketchup and the interrogation would be as close. You would be told “how you should eat and all that”, and if you were a good kid, and had not dropped even a mm of the chips on your dress, then you be given a compliment “Good Girl”. 

 

Finally the nail in the coffin would be “You have spent all your evening doing time pass, now off you go and finish the homework”. And thus, ended our super exciting event of “Birthday Party”