Calgary Jan 2024: With extreme cold warning -39C ( feels like -40 C) and cooped up in the warmth of home and hearth…flashbacks of birthdays present and past.

Jan. 24..A cold bright morning, my birthday, Day 2 of New Year 2024 (Jan 2), and I am eagerly waiting to be surprised by my grand daughter. Since last four years her repertoire of gifts have included hand-drawn-coloured birthday cards, hand made gifts and fresh flowers. This year her gift, I had been forewarned, will be more grownup.

I am instructed to close my eyes as she hands me the paper wrapped heavy gift. I excitedly unwrap it ….it is a Journal with letter I embossed on the hard cover (from Indigo bookstore). She is at an age (8years) when the hand written word has unknown and unlimited powers and as ‘grand mother writes’ prompted her to make her parents gift wrap the journal.

The expectant look in her eyes is as lucent as the embossed green I as I flip open the first page. The blue lines are doing the tango…it’s eons since I lacerated a page with handwriting, and I beam ‘Should I fill it with scribbles, doodles, profound thoughts, quotes, or a missive a day or use it as scrap book or just a dairy for things-to-do’.

Memories flood as I remember the ‘autograph’ diaries of school days and how at end of school year there was a race amongst friends as to who would get maximum personal messages from best and not-so-best friends, class teachers, class monitors etc. It could be anything…quotes, scribbles, pasted pictures.

Out of school and out of mind till years later a friend, who had preserved her ‘autograph book’, shared mawkish sayings penned by many of us. An example, attributed to another friend, written for owner of ‘autograph book’…. ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue; Honey is sweet and so are you.’ Wow 😊

Growing up meant hiatus from any thing ‘diary’, except for the stapled ones for daily expenses (marriage). These too soon lost their utility with appearance of APPLE iPhone, iPad replacing the pen and ink with fingertips.

Now I am back to where I started and the blank page stares at me….

Birthday blues: Returning to January 2 date…

I am being dramatic but there were a few Cheats that dented my enjoyment of my birth day. The most vexatious was ( I did not blame my parents) the timing of being born during school winter vacation. There were no school friends to share in childhood pleasures of opening gifts and playing games. I had to be content with being the envy of siblings and cousins when adults were generous with gifts being the second day of the new year. The spoiler was mother’s whisperings to ‘not to be too greedy’ that prompted me ask for ‘anything would do’ and loose out on fancier presents given to cousins born down the months. Mother felt that most relatives were still under the new year spell of celebrations and counting pennies. This party pooper scenario continued till I was twelve when I preferred waiting for school to re-open to celebrate with friends.

The second ‘Big Cheat’ was the ‘family present’ . My mother would ‘surprise’ me with a woollen cardigan in navy blue till I graduated out of school. The reason being our school winter uniform was navy blue tunic, white blouse, navy blue cardigan and blazer and her present served dual purpose, utility cum gift. She did buy me other coloured woollens but blue was mandatory. I would hope for something fancier, a mystery present, but it remained a wish.

The ‘woollen’ habit has become ingrained and now I inadvertently self present myself a ‘woollen’ every birthday.

Years rolled on and the birthdays pendulated between grand occasions or wishing exercises depending on early morning blues, work commitments or family pre-occupations. Gifts and flowers or things that were necessary sneaked their way into a day that was a follow-up of December revelry and starting of ‘DryJanuary’ spell.

The third Cheat, with passing years, was birthday wishes from relatives and friends. My new year greetings were answered with thank yous and the usual addendum “Oh your birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday in advance’. I did/do feel cheated for not being woken up with calls and messages from relatives and friends, old and new, as we moved continents and cities. The ‘after thought’ birthday wishes continued till Facebook became a faithful conspirator reminding the handful of followers about my birthday. One year, just to check how many remembered without the FB prod, I changed my profile. The wishes dwindled to a handful of faithfuls and I promptly returned to ‘to be seen’ mode. After all it does bolster the ego with double digit wish numbers on your news feed.

2024 and one thing is sure ….time has not altered the pleasure, the contentment of my special birthday gifts, be it the woollens of my mother or years later the gifts of my grand daughter. The one thing that has altered or scaled down is my ‘envious’ feeling towards those born later down the year.

After all I am one of the privileged few to begin New Years on a special note.