Vijay Basrur

Birthdays

Birthdays are always so special, especially if its ours or at least someone who’s close in the family. But when you get invited for a birthday party its a different thing altogether.

When we were kids getting invited to a birthday party was a thrill with no expectations. The fare was pretty standard. A samosa, some chips, some games, cake, a drink and if you were lucky, something to take back home, balloons/pencil/eraser or something very simplistic.

These days birthdays tend to be events. There is an elaborate menu, professional decorators, sometimes professional venues like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, professional entertainers and highly customized expensive return gifts. Somehow though the thrill still prevails for children, the expectations keep increasing.

We (both my wife & me) don’t like it. We would rather keep things simple. For our daughter’s first birthday we took her to an orphanage and donated necessary things on her behalf. Just the experience moves you to tears and makes you thankful to God for everything you have in life. In the evening we had a small gathering with close family. So far so good.

Now that vacations are over & school has reopened, all of Mansi’s friends (or fans) are back and demanded a party. Most of them are from our building and dote over Mansi every evening when she goes for her evening stroll. So we were faced with this task of hosting a birthday party for kids.

We wanted to do something different. While we picked up small gifts for everyone, Snehal did something really interesting. She managed to involve a few kids in the party planning. 2 kids helped out in making hand made cards. 2 of them were responsible for decoration (which is basically choosing what goes where, not the doing part). One of them suggested we add something sweet in the menu. We made veg/cheese sandwiches, corn/cheese balls, chips & custard/jelly.

The party was fun. The kids had a lot of fun dancing & playing games. Some even took home prizes. The food didn’t interest them that much but the all of them were very eager to get their return gift. The curiosity & the smiles on their faces are a pleasure to watch. So all in all it was a great albeit tiring evening.

While we are sure these parties will get bigger as Mansi grows older, there are a few things we are hoping to continue, on Mansi’s birthday, as time goes by

• Visit any Orphanage (we are hoping to do this twice every year). Try and inculcate the joy of sharing.
• We would urge her to give away something precious on her birthday so that she doesn’t get attached to materialistic things as she grows up.
• Relive the simplistic things in life, with her friends if required. Something like a picnic, a double decker bus ride (I hope they are still around), a visit to the beach (with bhelpuri) etc.
• Enjoy the day. Let her do whatever she wants to but make sure its safe

Amen!

Verification Call

So I get nagged by a sales rep to sign me up for a new credit card disguised as a loyalty card. I give in thinking of the poor guy’s daily targets.

A few days later I get a “verification call”. Here goes the conversation
Agent (A): Good Evening Mr. Vijay
Me (M): Good Evening
A: I am calling from **** Bank. This is further to your application for a credit card
M: Yes I know. Go ahead
A: This is a verification call. Can I go ahead?
M: Yes
A: Is your name Vijay Basrur?
M: Yes
A: Is your DOB **/**/1972?
M: Yes
A: Is your residential address *********?
M: Yes
A: Is your residence phone number *******?
M: Yes
A: Is your office address ******?
M: Yes
A: Is your office phone number *****?
M: Yes
A: Have you been working here for the past ** months?
M: Yes
A: Do you want the billing address to be residence or office?
M: Residence
A: Thank You Sir. Have a good day
M: Are you sure this was a verification call? Because all I said was Yes and nothing else.
A: Umm Yes Sir
M: Shouldn’t you have asked me the information and cross checked it with your records?
A: But that is the process Sir.
M: Thanks
A: Welcome Sir

I rest my case for this supremely stupid process.

One Year

Usually when you look back upon a year after any important event, you always try and recollect the year gone by in a compressed format with memories just whizzing past. At the end of it you can’t believe that its’ been a year since then!

This time it isn’t any different but the importance of it is significant.

Our daughter completed 1 year about 10 days back and looks like we graduated to the next phase of being parents. It has been wonderful too see her grow up and even though there have been tough times, somehow in the memories that come back, all of it is fun!

I think watching a child grow forces you to notice the small things in life. The first time she sits up, the first time she ate on her own, the first time she had ice cream and all such. This is a very important learning. The more you start enjoying the smaller pleasures of life, the more enjoyable life turns out to be.

Another huge learning has been experiencing selfless service to my daughter. She doesn’t expect you to change her nappy. You want to do it for her. But when she is not in a mood to change and you want her to, so that you can get on to the next task, you must realize that it is a lost battle. When it comes to my daughter, she is the BOSS (which is our paediatrician favourite punch line) If you have to change her nappy don’t always expect a co-operating daughter. Having no expectations really helps in being happy at whatever life throws at you.

I recently came across a wonderful article on parenting a daughter. Please do read it. The article is called What I have learned raising a daughter (Thus far)

We are sure in the times ahead, we will experience even more joy in our efforts of bringing up Mansi. We hope we can give it our best shot. Keep watching this space.

PS: We celebrated a few days back since we spotted Mansi’s first tooth