A Special Day

What do you do when your birthday falls on a Monday? I mean practically the whole world hates the day. It marks the end of the joyful weekend and the start of the struggle for survival. Spending your birthday with your colleagues whose faces you see day in and day out is not a nice way of celebrating the one day in a year that makes you feel special. Ya, you could take the day off, but that impossible when you have strict deadlines or a tyrant boss.
So wot did I do? I celebrated my birthday on Sunday, the day before the actual day. Incidentally it was also Jayesh's and Peter's Birthday on Sunday, lucky guys, and I thought I would squeeze in mine too and party with them. Sunday morning and afternoon was spent with family, with the special lunch, and the evening with my friends. How do I describe the evening? Loads of cakes, Loads of food and Loads of Fun. We were done my around 11 at night and I had a bus to catch to head for Pune. Worked called the next day and I had to rush. I reached Pune at 02:00 am in the morning of my birthday, with a slight drizzle welcoming me as I step down from the bus.
As I woke up in the morning, I thought, today ain't gonna be special. I had my share of fun and love n happiness yesterday and today was a normal day. Work on my mind, nothing else! The window showed a dark cloudy sky, after months of scorching heat, it looked like rain, not the pre-monsoon drizzle, but the real spirit of monsoons finally lashing down on the city and its people. OK, so its not gonna be such a bad day after all. But it didn't matter. "Work!". I got to my office and acknowledged the very office like "happy birthdays" and "warm wishes". "I am so glad I met my friends last night" I thought as i saw the difference in the warm hugs from the previous day and the cold hand shakes now. Anyways, I had work to do.
A part of my work required to go and inspect homes that people wanna buy and apply loans for with us. I had scheduled an inspection of a customers flat in Warje, around 12 Kms from my office. The sky seemed to burst under the weight of all the moisture in it and the whole city was gearing up for the downpour. And it started raining as I stepped out of my office for my inspection duty. I was in a rick and got pretty drenched because of the rain coming in from the sides. I like getting drenched in the rain and didn't mind. Nothing like feeling the droplets fall on your skin and feel the cold trickle down your back to refresh you.
By the time I reached the clients home, It was already a big downpour and I had to hurriedly wrap up the inspection and headed back to office, lest I get caught in the rains and get stranded. But the rains had already showed its effect on the city. Standing for half an hour near the customers building trying to hail a rick didn't prove successful. All of them were occupied by people like me, fleeing for the comfort of their home, their partners and warm cups of coffee. I decided to walk, 2 kilometers in the rain, to the nearest junction to try getting a rick.
Walking int he rain is a real nice experience, once you get used to the stare people give you. They think you have gone loco. "Run", their eyes seem to scream, "cover your head you fool", or "I am sure your mom didn't spank you enough for getting wet in the rain"! But its the whole madness and ecstasy in getting drenched in the rain. I was finally enjoying the actual day of my birthday, this feeling was enough.
Then i saw this empty rick taking a U turn towards me. I flagged him down and rushed forward. "Bhai, will you take me to Shivaji Nagar?" I asked him. He said "Baitho na yaar. Par pehle chai piyenge"
"Ok" I said. A Chai will be nice. So we went to this tapri and ordered for tea. We had it in silence and as we were about to leave I started to pay for the chai. N the Rick wala goes "Arrey nahi, my treat"! What? A rick wala treating me? That was something!
I sat down in the rickshaw and it was quite a pleasant ride to begin with. It was raining real great (or badly, as you see it) and the driver guy was real cool. His name was Raj and he loved to chat and we had a great conversation going on about almost every topic. It was nice to see such rick walas in Pune. Usually they are too rude and bound up. But his guy was cool. Then, as we entered the city, the roads started to get blocked up due to traffic. He weaved in through all the small bylanes and managed to make good progress. But the situation was bad. Almost all the roads were flooded and the main roads actually looked like the flooded Malta ("The Japanese Wife" hangover). So we kept going around in circles till it stopped raining heavily and the roads were drained of the yellow torrents. After one and a half hour of driving and chatting around the city, I reached office. The meter was huge, but I didn't mind paying up because I had a good time and at least he had agreed to ply in the first place. I also added cost of the tea we previously had into the fare. On seeing the extra money he asked "Why?". I said it was for the tea. He refused to accept it. "ahi Bhai, I cant take it, it was a treat from me, mera Birthday hai aaj". And I said "What?". Eyes wide in wonder I told him "its my birthday too". Now it was his turn to be surprised. It was such a strange coincidence. Meeting a perfect stranger on your birthday and realising that you share it with him. That was cool.
So I offered to take him to have chai and some snacks. We sat in the near by tapri, having steaming hot tea and pakoras and just talking about the coincidences. He told me about the plan he had for the evening. A small party with friend. Almost the same like I had, the previous night. While chatting with the guy I realised one thing, our birthdays are not meant for us. They are not an occasion for us to celebrate or feel special. Its actually an opportunity for our Friends and Family to show the love that they have for us. An occasion for them to celebrate our life and our companionship. That's what makes it so special. And sometimes you can celebrate it a complete stranger, over cups of tea, just because the occasions for the special day is the one on which you just met.