Birthdays are all about wishes.
And you get a lot of them. Ever since the explosion of email, one even gets wishes from the bank, the neighborhood e-grocer and your bike servicing company. Everyone is in bliss apparently, that you were born:|
Jokes apart, the ones that matter mostly come on WhatsApp. Cards are passe – its digital creativity to the fore. Most people play it safe – “have a great birthday!”, or just “happy birthday”…nothing fancy and nothing that they can be blamed for afterwards:))
Some others send in gifs of birthday cakes. Ahem. What good can come out of that now. I wonder what would happen if one went to a restaurant and the waiter loaded a jpeg of the butter chicken that you ordered..hmm…
Anyways, there are some genuine ones, although they usually are a few. Mostly from people who know you closely, and who are unwilling to bear the brunt of your sarcasm. But today I did receive an unexpected birthday greeting from the kids of an old school friend, which I have appended below.
This genuinely warmed the heart. Thank you Satish, your kids made my day:)
Wishes of most occasions have become a bit of a bother lately. Take Deepavali wishes for example. Some people don’t even bother to save and resend – they just forward someone else’s greeting. And yes, some “gif” laden mithais to boot. Gifts are picked up for monetary values instead of putting thoughtfulness behind personalisation.
No one even attempts cards anymore. I remember a whole load of e-greeting websites had sprung up in the early 90s, some of them were really good and could be well-personalized. Of course, nothing would ever be able to replace a physical greeting, but those e-greetings were quite close.
Now it’s just WhatsApp:)
Well, I am not complaining. I had a good day, with my close family making it special in their own way. Some friends from school also sent in their wishes, and our comatose WhatsApp group sprung to life (like it always does when a birthday comes up). No Melody toffees could be distributed though…but wait..maybe I will just send in the gif instead??
See you tomorrow!