To be, or not to be (born in March), that is the question. Well, that may seem to be a stupid question to ask as no one can decide when he or she is going to be born. But, probably that is a question more directed towards parents, than to those born in March themselves.
Why this question all of a sudden? Well, being a March baby, I had to ask this for varied reasons. The very first years of me remembering celebrating my birthday, seem to be the only years when I have celebrated (at least, when my parents celebrated it for me) to the fullest extent. Ever since I joined school, there has been some or the other reason that has prevented me from celebrating it to my heart's content.
Birthdays, in India, are the days when the birthday boy or girl dresses up in colourful dresses (a change from the monotonous uniform), distributes chocolates to their classmates, invites their "close" friends back home after the school, and has a grand finale of all celebrations by cutting a cake with friends and family all singing the "Happy Birthday song" in unison. It is the day, when the person gets the maximum attention in school and elsewhere, with scores of "friends" surrounding him/her all day, many of whom would have been there only to enjoy the extra chocolates that the birthday baby would have been left with after all the distribution. It is also the day, when teachers would hardly scold or punish you for any mischief performed during school hours.
However, if you are a March baby, none of this would seem to be true. In India, March is the time when schools hold their year-end examination. Every year since my fifth standard (this is when exams start to get serious), I remember having had my birthday on an exam day, or at least, in the middle of the year-end exams. You can imagine my plight here. Colour dress or not, no one gives a damn if there is an exam on that particular day. Moreover, if your birthday falls on a break-day, it is even worse. Everybody would be so busy with their preparations that, it would be easier to find a needle in a haystack than find a friend who is ready to party with you (not that I used to party myself). It would feel like a curse and I would perhaps name it, "The Curse of the March-Born Baby".
One of the worst experiences was during my 10th standard exams in 2003. 10th standard exams are one of the most important exams for a student in India. In conjunction with the all-important exams, there was also the Cricket World Cup that was happening, in which India had gone on up to the finals, which was on March 23rd, 2003. The fact that they lost the finals to Australia made you feel even more miserable than what your exams had already made you feel. Such situations continued up to my 12th standard exams. It was only after that, that I felt there would be some respite with this "curse", allowing me to celebrate my birthday more joyfully. But, I couldn't have been more wrong. March, again, fell mid-way through my engineering semesters and there used to be internal exams in my college in and around this time preventing me from celebrating to the fullest.
Four years passed this way and I later joined NTU, Singapore, for my doctoral studies. Last year, was the first time I "celebrated" my birthday outside India away from my parents. Unbelievably, there was the dreaded exam again, a continuous assessment on the day after my birthday. So, the whole of my birthday was spent studying for the quiz.
This year though, it was a different scenario. I am in such a pressurised situation that celebrating my birthday was one of the last things on my mind. I am currently writing my confirmation report and it seems to be taking ages. I am working on a set deadline in my mind and I want to complete it by then. So, there has been absolutely no respite. I spent the whole of my birthday writing my report and then took a short break. To do what? To *write* this blog post. Man, I must love writing!
At the end of the day, I seem to have become immune to this curse. I am not a party person, I don’t drink, and I don’t spend extravagantly on unnecessary things. Probably it is because I have been tuned that way over the last 22 years. If it is so, I take this as a positive reinforcement, as it has taught me to lead a simple but satisfying life.
Finally, I would like to say that, I don’t have any hatred towards my birthday. In fact, I actually love it. There is this unexplainable feeling that I have towards March. For me it is a magical month. You may say I am biased towards the month because I was born in it, but, I don’t care. Without any offense to other months, March is the best month to be born in!
It would be interesting to see what next year has in store for me. Probably, I will be completely free and will be able to enjoy the day as much as I can. That said I am sure irony will play its part and make me feel too old to enjoy birthdays with the same enthusiasm of a teenager.
