How Old Am I?
January is the month of birthdays including my own. Since the beginning of the month family, friends and countrymen are celebrating birthdays of some one or the other. No doubt birth of a person in this world is important. Important to his/her immediate family and the person’s contribution to society and world is also important. So, birthdays have become days of celebrations.
We Indians celebrate Janmashtami and Ram Navami with so much fanfare to commemorate the birth of Ram and Krishna. In our epics as well these birthdays of Ram and Krishna are celebrated like pageants.
People all over the world celebrate birthday of the most noble, gracious, and divine figure Jesus Christ as Christmas.
Scholars have pointed to the Bible’s reference of a Pharaoh’s birthday as the earliest known mention of a birthday celebration in Egypt. Then Greeks took the idea of birthday celebration from Egyptians and started offering moon shaped cakes to Artemis the lunar goddess, they put candles on the cakes for glowing effect. The prevailing opinion seems that the Romans were the first civilization to celebrate birthdays for non-religious figures. Romans would celebrate birthdays for friends and families, while the government created public holidays to observe the birthdays of more famous citizens. Those celebrating a 50th birthday party would receive a special cake made of wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and grated cheese.
All of this said, female birthdays still were not celebrated until around the 12th century. (sic)
For quite some time, birthday celebrations involving sugary cakes were only available to the very wealthy, as the necessary ingredients were considered a luxury. But the industrial revolution allowed celebrations like kindergarten festivals and the subsequent equivalents in other cultures to proliferate. Not only did the required ingredients become more abundant, but bakeries also started offering pre-made cakes at lower prices due to advances in mass production. That is how birthday celebration with “Cake Cutting” came to India. And we Indian are very good at accepting things that brings happiness and cheer, so the spirit of joy has stayed till today.
I remember celebrating my birthday as a little girl doing ‘pooja’ and wearing pretty dresses and hogging on my favourite sweets like ‘halwa’ and ‘kheer’. As a little girl, on my birthdays, I would feel like the whole world revolves around me and I am the center of the universe. I would feel that I had done some sort of charity by being born to my parents and they would be so empty without me being the part of their life. Every flower that bloomed, bloomed for me, every bee that hummed, hummed for me, every person who was happy, was happy because of me. I was the carrier of all things bright and wonderful in this world. So much was my conviction in my existence. And then the unthinkable happened! Or should I say undesirable happened? I GREW UP. I REALISED THAT I WAS NOW LIKE ALL OF THEM. I did not want to be like all of them. I was special. I do not belong here. Why am I born? Why am I here? Where have I come from? Why my parents are my parents? As I began to have more and more experiences, it became more and more clear to me that I do not know anything about anything and more I tried to find out more I realised that in fact no one, not even the ablest of the scientists, astrologers, astronomers know much about anything. In fact, we all, the whole of human race, is simply winging it! Simply existing and figuring out its existence! In fact, I have always felt that every one of the human souls is put on this planet earth for some experimentation purpose and the whole planet is a laboratory of us guinea pig humans! And somewhere in this Cosmos some superior race is looking at us laughing to see us struggle.
We humans have even controlled time by classifying it in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years! On each birthday I am asked, how old I am. Personally, at this moment if you ask me, I have no idea. I do remember the milestones though, 10, 30, 40, 50 but in my head, nothing has ever changed, I keep wondering when everyone is going to catch on to the fact that for the last forty years I have been masquerading as an adult! Perhaps I am like the old saying goes,” Only as old as I feel” In that case I want to stay lost in my bewilderment, because really life is, what we make of it and age is nothing but a state of mind. And to think of it what not we do to add numbers to our life! So many superstitions do rounds surrounding birthdays! Do not wish a person before a birthday. Blow all the candles together! Give birthday bumps. Visit places of worship, etc etc to name a few.
In the end I am thankful to be born as a human race or am I thankful to be born in a privileged family of the human race? or am I thankful to be born in this great Nation India that is made by the human race?! No idea but being born on the planet, is indeed a celebration and I will celebrate till the Cosmos decides to give us human race that chance! Happy Birthday to Me. Nevertheless.