Celebrating Birthdays
by Adelmo Fernandes IT comes but once a year. And when it comes it brings good cheer. Yes, you have guessed it right. It’s your birthday. Everyone has a birthday. It is the day of the year one cannot afford to forget. It is that day when you took your first breath. Naturally, it is also the most important day in one’s life. Ask any tiny-tot when his birthday is, and pat will come the answer. The date remains etched in one’s memory until one reaches old age. Then it is time for the near and the dear ones to remember your birthday. A birthday means different things to different people. For children birthday means parties, games, eating ice-cream, balloons, birthday songs, birthday cake. Probably nothing gives children more joy than distributing sweets to their classmates and teachers. Teenagers may take their friends for a treat to a restaurant or have a birthday-bash at home. To a middle-aged person, a birthday means is getting older by a year and inching towards old-age. It seems ironical that people want to live long but at the same time they do not want to grow old even though living long and growing old are two sides of the same coin. It is said that one should never ask a man his wage and a woman, her age. Incidentally a lady was once asked her age by an acquaintance. “Twenty-five” she disclosed. “But then that is what you said five years ago” the acquaintance reminded her. “I am not the type who says one thing and then a different thing later” the lady retorted. Women, in general, do not like to grow old, or rather do not like to show that they are old. A man once invited his friend for his wife’s birthday. “And which birthday is she celebrating?” the friend inquired. “Today is the fifth anniversary of my wife’s thirty-fifth birthday” the man told his friend. Birthdays also bring birthday presents. Two brothers were discussing about a present to be given to their father on his birthday. “We might as well let him use his car for a change” the younger brother said. We are indeed lucky enough to know our birthdays and celebrate them. There are millions of children in the world who do not know when they were born, as also old people who have forgotten about their birth date with the passage of time. Speaking of birthdays, there are also certain milestones that one crosses in life. On the 21st birthday, a boy becomes a major while a girl becomes a major on her 18th birthday. Then there is the 50th birthday, the 75th birthday and some lucky people even celebrate their 100th birthday. Incidentally, me and my wife share the same birthday. We were born on the same day of the year, though six years apart. So when, on our birthday, I wish her a “happy birthday,” she just says “wish you the same.” http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=110617 - Forwarded by: Sanny de Quepem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.live365.com/stations/61664 Goa's first and only Konkani music station online, brought to you by Ulysses Menezes & Gaspar Almeida of www.goa-world.com based in Kuwait. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
