This post is dedicated to all my dear friends who are indeed the wind beneath my wings! (As one of my dearest pal once pointed out)

6 days to go: Well I don’t have a best friends list in particular. But if I had one, ‘Sid’ would top it any given day! No I would not go waxing eloquent about him. His orkut testimonials serve that purpose. So as we met in gurgaon, there was a surprise awaiting me. My first B-day wish in advance with a special card and barista cake!

3 days to go: An email from China office, wishing me in advance… No points for guessing who had mailed dear buddy!

2 days to go: I was in office. And then my phone rang, a good old Thapar friend calling… after quite some time… A soft & refreshing voice that brought an instant smile on to my face. “Happy B-day in advance”. Before I could ask why so much in advance, bang comes the reply: “Because I know you would be at home and I am sure you wont pick up the phone on roaming!”. If only she had known, the roaming blues that lay ahead!! I reaffirm that this wont be the case and she promises to call me again.

7 hours to go: The standard EVS B-day mail hits my inbox! And this time I am also in the hall of fame. What follows is a sudden rush of B-day wishes mail and office colleagues wishing me ‘in advance’. The eternal “When is the party” question is next! I had already prepared for the answer. I am going home and party will have to wait till at least next week!

45 minutes to go: I am on my way back home, trying my level best to catch up with some sleep. But the B-day excitement has gotten over me now. And I just can’t sleep in that luxurious AC coach deluxe bus. My mobile starts ringing again. Its Harpreet@infy calling... from Mysore! She had a bad habit of forgetting things! But this time around, she more than made up for those forgotten times… With this call, I was completely on my heels now, for the ensuing callers…

20 minutes to go: This time its happy b-day wishes via written communication, as a sms beep has my cell ringing again!

5 minutes to go: An EVS-Doon friend calls up to wish me in advance, lest she sleeps after 5 minutes!!

22nd December, 2008 (12 am IST): Phew its my Birthday now!!! And another of my sweet friend calls, bang on time: Bingo! Piyush: He is always at the right place at the right time!

And then follows a flood of calls…
7 in the next 45 minutes: ranging from as small as 20 seconds to 16 minutes!! They come from everywhere: from RJ, left stranded in ambala (now that is another story) to Devein calling from Kolkata, from ‘Sid’ wishing many many happy returns of the day! to Vikas wishing in true Punjabi ishtyle! In between few sms also make their way amidst huge rush! Then the longest call till then (16 minutes), from the lady that gave me the idea to write this article. Thanks yaar :-) I will discuss that amazing trip some other time! 4 missed calls on my cell when the call ended: from my dear cousin@faridabad! Its 12:45 am now…

I wait for half-an-hour more anticipating some other well-wisher taking the pains to call me up at this weird time! Well my other friends are sane enough I guess, no more calls then. So, I finally slept!

6:50am: Once, twice, thrice… No I am not going to wake up. Well, I am sleeping in my cosy bed at home sweet home! So hold-on guys…

7:45am: Ha.. this one does wake me up! Maybe its because from a far-off place seeking urgent attention. A call from Jamshedpur: crisp & concise. Happy B-day!

9:00am: Now this one is special. Because its MJ calling from Chicago,USA. Its still the night of 21st there…

9:15am: “She” calls me again. And I do pick-up the phone on roaming!

The calls keep coming! And I also unfailingly receive all of them! They are all from different zones of India…
In between, I also swap wishing roles. Its Karan’s B-day too! And I take-up the honour to wish him in the afternoon…

From my chemcool batch to the EVS group, all my close buddies: call me, sms me or scrap me!!
There are some nostalgic college days conversations and some funny office ones too! I listen to everyone with growing amazement… There are talks of screwed up jobs and there are ramblings of being unemployed still! There are some unexpected wishers too and some friends who forgot the all-important-day!!

I had to charge my cell twice in the day and almost lost a fortune on roaming! But these things just did not matter… What mattered was how some people not only remembered me, but also those small things in our relationship! And how they made my B-day full of wishes, unforgettable…

The final caller was My flat mate Dheeraj at 10:50pm, making the cut just in time! (Otherwise I had planned to call him at 11:55pm, his b-day is on 23rd, and to make him feel guilty!)

So as the clock ticked 12 again, completing a fascinating B-day, I had perfectly understood the nuances of this very special occasion in everyone’s life!

Many Many Thanks to all my dear friends for making the 22nd December so special for me :-)