Conversations around birthdays
I
"Did you arrange all these for me?"
"Of course you idiot! Do you see anyone else around us, who have their birthday today?"
"No. But there might be! You know one of my grannies also has her birthday today. And you know the Rocket Scientist,...ummmmm....something Kalam..areh the man who has a haircut like me..he also has his birthday today! Do you think I could become a scientist like him?"
"God! You are truly an idiot! Instead of enjoying the arrangements taken care painstakingly by your best friend and thanking her for that, you are talking about some scientist with a haircut like you! Like, seriously?"
"I am so sorry, so sorry! You know I always get distracted by all these ideas running in my head, and then I have to blurt them out! I am sorry, truly sorry."
"Whatever. Now say thank you profusely."
"Yes!Yes! Thank you so much for making all these arrangements painstakingly to celebrate my birthday. You are the simply the best!"
"Hmm. Enough of flattery. Now eat this Chef's special tuna dish that I have prepared solely for you and don't you dare and make any funny face while eating it. I expect top class review only."
"Eww! It looks weird, and smells weird too!"
"Shut up and eat! I don't care how it looks or tastes! I have cooked it for you so just eat! Else I will kill you!"
"Okay. Okay. I am eating! But do you know Shakespeare has the same date for birthday and death day?"
"Do you wish to have the same?"
'Huh?"
"No, no, if you wish to have the same, just continue with your stupid blabbering and I will make your wish come true!"
"Umm.."
"Now eat!"
In the distance, a landline phone rings.
"Must be your mother. Pick up the phone and tell her that you are going to return home in the evening, only when I am done celebrating your birthday."
"Aye, aye Captain! By the way, do you think I can become a Rocket Scientist like Kalam?"
"Ugh! The only thing you can become is to be a certified loon bag! Now go get the phone!"
II
"Listen, I am warning you, don't you dare and pick up someone else's call before mine. The first person to wish you should be me and only me, nobody else!"
"Why are you being so emo?"
"It's not being an 'emo', it's called 'the unspoken right of a best friend'!"
"Yeah right!"
"Yes, right!"
"Hmm, but I stay in a different time zone, so how can you promise that you will be the first person to wish me? I mean, midnight here will not even be early morning in your place."
"It doesn't matter. I have put an alarm and I will call you at your midnight."
"What if you are unable to get up. I know you, you always put the snooze button on, whenever the alarm rings."
"I will not this time. You will see."
"Hmmm..."
"What hmmm? Don't you believe me?"
"Areh! When did I say I don't believe you?"
"But you did 'hmmm' just now!"
"Yes. And what does a simple 'hmmm' mean?"
"Well, it sounded like as if you don't believe me!"
"Oh God! When did I say I don't believe you?"
"But you said 'hmmm' in a weird way!"
"Stop psychoanalysing my 'hmmm'! Sometimes 'hmmm' is just a 'hmmm', an expression!"
"Hmmm...."
"Ugh!"
III
"Will you stop sulking!"
"I am not sulking!"
"You are! And even pouting like a child!"
"I am not! And stop saying I am a child!"
"I didn't say you are a child. I said you are pouting like a child. There's a lot of difference in the semantics of both."
"Okay, whatever!"
"Accha, tell me why are you so upset?"
"Who said I am upset?"
"Your face."
"Have you suddenly become a face-reader? Next you will say that you have become a mind reader."
"I am neither a face reader, nor a mind reader. But I read you far better than anyone else. So just tell me what has happened."
"Uff!"
"I am waiting."
"Ugh!"
"I am still waiting!"
"You idiot! Why did you leave me alone today? You had promised that you would spend the whole day with me and then you did not confirm anything in the morning and so I had to go out with that guy instead."
"Hey! That guy is the one you are supposed to be dating now. And I did not want your guy to start hating me for taking away his girlfriend from him, on her birthday! Anyway, most of the guys you date end up hating poor me!"
"I am not his girlfriend! I am just dating him! That doesn't mean being boyfriend-girlfriend!"
"Okay! But since you are dating him, I thought that he should rather spend the day with you and I will see you in the evening."
"But he's he! You are you! I wanted to spend the day with my best friend, not with the guy I am dating! Friends come first!"
"Okay! Don't get so excited! I understand and I am sorry. But I am here now!"
"Yes! But I was looking forward to spend the entire day with you! I wanted to have a fun day, instead it felt like a valentine's day! And I don't want my birthday to feel like a valentine's day! And I told him so."
"Oh God! You didn't!"
"Yes and I told him that you would have planned the day differently!"
"Good Lord! Now I know why all your guy friends hate me! It's because of your comparison! And all this while I had been nitpicking my behaviour in front of them!"
"But I don't compare! I tell the truth!"
"Whatever. It's the same. Learn to be little diplomatic."
"Hmmm...And where were you the entire day?"
"Well, I was with my boyfriend."
"What? You left me for your boyfriend!"
"I didn't leave for you for my boyfriend. Unlike you I understand that it is important to give time to other types of relationships too and there is nothing wrong with that. And that is certainly not the end of the world."
"I don't care.You left me on my birthday with that guy, and instead spent time with your boyfriend!"
"Ugh! It's impossible to make you understand! You idiot, I didn't leave you! I wanted you to give some time and effort in your dates instead. And that there are other people who might want to spend time with you and you might also start enjoying your time with them, if you give them the chance."
"Hmmm..."
"And hey! I am not going anywhere. I am always with you. But you are growing up. So you need to also have grown up relations, which requires other relations, beyond friendship."
"But what if I don't want to grow up? What if I want to remain like this?"
"But we have to someday, whether we want or not."
"Ugh! I don't like this. You are making me morose on my birthday!"
"I am not trying to make you morose, idiot. I just want you to be aware of the reality."
"Stop being so practical! Uff!"
"Okay sorry, sorry. Come on, I want you to listen to this song from this upcoming movie. This song is appropriate for our friendship and is my dedication to you on your birthday."
"Hmmm...Okay...but I am seriously not able to understand what it means!"
"Listen carefully. It means that deep inside my heart I know that if you are there with me, then I will always be doing alright.."
"Oh that's pretty cool! You mean if I am there, you will always be doing alright! Great! I knew it! I knew that I am the most important person in you life!"
"Actually what I meant that the lyrics appropriately describe how you feel about my presence in your life. Which means I am the one who makes it right in your life."
"What? No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes!"
"I hate you!"
"I know."