I do not have the exact numbers here, but randomly looking up at my orkut as well as LJ's friends bdays, I feel most of my friends' bdays fall in June. The bday reminders on both orkut and LJ are flooded. 

I do not have the habit of wishing friends when I am reminded through a tool. Its just that I dont feel my wish worth it, bcos I really do not remember their bdays. I only wish people whose bdays I remember on my own. It gives me a better significance of their bdays. Its nothing to do with closeness, but still some bdays are never forgotten. I usually remember bdays, bcos when I begin a day, I usually recollect the date and check my cache randomly to know if anyone was born on that day. So even a distant friend, whom I may not be talking too, also gets remembered. However there are friends too, for whom I plan gift, card, cake etc and  of course expect treat also. There are instances when there are no bdays on a particular day, and I am reminded of a bday nearing up ,say in a week, and I exactly forget on that day. And I also get confused with bdays, especially the June one, I pinged one of my friends on chat last week, to check if her bday was on 10th or 15th. She replied with some %^$&! and followed by 15.

Since I started the bday topic here and I looked up at the reminder on my LJ home page, I take this opportunity to wish navya and ssheidi a great bday and year ahead !

And for those of you who have some time, take this up as a meme, and reply with which month do you think majority of your friends are born. I remember  teemus  having a tool for sun signs on his page.

9 am , am at home browsing and Ljing.. These people got me back to blore and put me on buffer without active projects and with a pc with limited net access and worst, I am seated in another floor and dont have access to my machine in my client area. Looks like a punishment and as if they have put me in an isolation camp.

The only time I get to meet known people is during lunch. Though an over friendly person, I am holding back making friends in this floor. I want to be away from the junta here and planning a quick and quiet exit.

Meanwhile, though content with a normal boring day, close buddies do not want to give up and made it to home with a Bday cake to have a belated celebration. Looks like the cake-cutting will never go out of my life, and yes this year this was finally a surprise unlike the last 2 years.



And though other things in life were getting miserable, I forgot to update that I did make a brownie successfully ! Sholi, a good friend helped me with the process, the key ingredient she taught me to add was patience which I didnt have earlier, so with the auto on and off of the oven, we baked the cake for nearly 1 hour !

ps: bad cake image, I need to crop the first pic :(

For people who took pains in wishing me through LJ, I dedicate this post to update my present status. I have been truthful to my journal. But for the past couple of months, I have been going through unexpected incidents/trauma, which I intentionally failed to record. 

This bday has not been like earlier years,and worst being, its one of my lowest points in life, where I am depressed personally, professionally and almost dont have anything to look forward to. I was hoping for the whole day to just pass. The day did pass, but I want to record this period in my life, bcos I am sure, one day ahead when I read this entry,  I would pat myself for having sailed through this period. 

Gist of the bday day !
- Back in Blore, had to join back work, bcos they changed the leave policy.
- No bday cakes, all of the buddies out of town, they didnt expect me to be in town. 
- No phone, as I dont have a local number yet.
- reach office and client access card does not work, so no cubicle, no landline, and no PC.. which means no Gmail access either
- severe headache, and manage to have dinner. 
- people whom you trust for a lifetime, just turn their backs away and you get to learn a bitter lesson not to forgive them, even if it means, you are all alone rest of your life.  When they dont care about you, flush them out of your life, it is painful, but then it shall also pass.

Good things
- Have wonderful parents and family, whom you can always turn to. 
- Have wonderful friends, the sweet call of 20 month old Mihi, calling me Ninni... is priceless.
-even if frends reach the town at 11 pm, they make it a point to come home to personally wish you. 
- life is still beautiful, there are lot of things, one has to learn to accept and cherish !
 

I am born again today, I am discovering my identity, I never knew what I wanted to be, I wanted to be what others wanted me to be. Today, I find myself all alone, and  I have plenty of things to choose from what life has to offer.  I just got richer,bcos I discovered what I didnt know I could have.  

Unlike the bday post I made last year, I have been procrastinating making one this year, though I did http://www.livejournal.com/update.bml quite a number of times before exiting. Well, I realized that getting older means turning lazier too :)

This time I planned to take R and her hubby S and their little one Mihi out for dinner. After Mihi's arrival, they have been out very rarely and I thought it would be a good outing for the little one too. But then, 2007 has been a real mix, the rains ruined all plans of dining out. So Rash and I were held up at her place and RSM were at their home. Adamant as always, Rash and I drover her bike in the drizzle post 10 pm, got some food packed home. While we got the dinner home, R made hot and yummy Gulab jamoons which we had after getting soaked in the rain ! Like last year, the cake thingie was again a spoiler, no surprises for me! The worst part being, I carried my bday cake most of the time friday evening, when Rash was busy parking her bike !! :P Also, we were too busy playing with the kid post dinner, that I had to remind my buddies at 11.55 that they had to set the cake for me !! Well, actually the time thingie atleast had to be right !!! Mihi at 9 months, was given a trial experience to cut a bday cake !! We are getting her ready for her first bday !

Chocolate Burfi has been in my mind for some time now, and early saturday morning admist attending bday calls, I decide to take over R's kitchen after breakfast ! Rash's 6th sense suddenly got a spark and she made a timely escape to office ! Well, the chocolate Burfi was so sticky and bad that it didnt qualify to be called a Chocolate Halwa either :( Another flop for the day ! It was indeed a bad idea to waste a couple of hours in the kitchen, especially when R volunteered to make some alternative sweets ! Another lesson to be remembered.

Good thing about this year was the weekend bday, so I got to catch up with some of my old friends for lunch and dinner both on saturday and sunday. The bad thing being all the extra calorie intake :( And I still have pending treats for the office kids at Corner House ! The most dangerous one wrt to calories !!

The past 365 days have gifted me a rich experience of many things, both sweet and bitter ! At 26, though not very happy, I am content and more confident about many things which life has to offer me, friends, relationships, career, cooking, minus the chocolate burfi ! From every failed step, I am learning a new experience, a new way to brush aside past and move forward, I no longer feel sad about people taking me for granted, I have begun to experience that when people hurt me, they help me prove that I am a better individual than him/her. It makes me pleased to realize that sometimes I am a better friend to him/her than what she or he is to me. With this elated thoughts and perspective of looking at people, I move ahead with a lighter heart !

Couple of days back, I wanted to remove my Bdate from my orkut profile, bcos I didnt like the idea of people flooding my page with bday wishes scraps, just bcos the reminder showed up on their page. I usually wish people, when I remember their bday from my memory, there are cases, when I actually forget to wish people also, but then I prefer that than using a reminder. But then, just bcos my style of wishing people was different from others, I didnt want to edit/hide my bdate on my profile and I let it be, as it was. 

Now, the idea of retaining the bdate, is actually turning out to be good, bcos I realized yesterday that orkut has already started showing up bday reminders for my bday on my friends' pages. Yesterday, one of my old friends AI( the first person, I met at my first corporate world) , with whom  I shared an apartment 4 years back, happened to see the reminder and decided to call me at 11 pm, wishing me 10 days in advance. Now, I am not a person who fancies and gets delighted for bdays and wishes all, but then the feeling of catching up with somebody from past, talking and re-living memories of days and fun spent together was a nice little bday gift. I suddenly felt 4 years younger, new to the corporate world, full of dreams and energy to make it big in my career, looking forward to a beautiful life ahead.. Things definitely have not been as predicted, but then its nice when you go back the memory lane and see how much your life has deviated from the line_of_hopes_and_dreams. There is good and bad anyways :)

Btw, as a self bday gift, I managed to get myself this cool guy. I have been in love with this guy for the past 6-8 months and finally taken the decision to get committed. I think, I was already committed, I couldnt take my eyes off him, inspite of all the new guys reaching the market now . Thanks to ranjith, kingsly, and jnagal for motivating me to take this decision( of shelling out the money) and providing me the right inputs and pointers. Thanks to RC for bringing this for me from the US, I only wish he could reach Blore before Apr 21, so that I get to celebrate my bday with the new man :P 

So, no more mobile camera pics, but then there could be more spam mails with jpgs :) Stay tuned warned !

I woke up at 7 am only and for the first time in many years, I was not the first one to wish Dad on his bday. Dadda as I fondly call him, is the person with whom I spent most of time in my infant years. Mom was engaged with kiddo bro who arrived shortly a year later. Its easier to think and write about how much a mother means to you, bcos most of the time a child spends is with the mother.

I look back at my younger years, and I dont remember Dad teaching my school subjects or asking me to do anything this way or the other. But then I also realize that many of the good qualities I possess today are inherited from my Dad, though he never taught me to do it, he showed me by living examples and I learned it his way, bcos I admired the way he was and wanted to be like him.

I wanted to be tall and strong like him, I wanted to write addresses on posts in bold capital letters as he does, I wanted to remember all loved ones bdays among family and friends and wish them on time as he does, I wanted to keep track of all the money spent as he did ( though I am a miser and dont spend as generously as he does), I try to be punctual for any occasion as he does( except for travel, where he reaches the station 1-2 hours earlier), I wanted to wash all clothes all by myself than piling them just like he does everyday as soon as he reaches home from office, I learned to keep all document/papers organized into files/folders as he does, I also learned how to cook and enjoy eating your own food, Dad's cooking talents have been a great encouragement for me bcos I learned from him that you dont have to be a great cook, a desire to experiment, improve and relish food is all that you need to step in and out of the kitchen. I still wish I can drive a 4 -wheeler the way he does, hopefully some day !

No relationship is perfect and there were times when we understood each other less, but all that has infact taught me that you love your parents more than you want to be adamant for some things. There were times, when Dad understood me better than mom did and helped me cope up with issues.

Dad will be always a tall, handsome, strong man, a protector who would protect me from rats, frogs the moment I scream for help, he would come running to close my bedside window when lightening/thunders strike, though I would be very much awake and hiding under the bedsheets waiting for him, whose hands I always preferred to hold onto when I stepped into the beach waters, a provider who has always ensured that I got the best comforts in everything I had to do, who always believed I didnt have to be told and that I would learn on my own.

Happy Birthday Dadda!

Inspite of catching up with college friends on orkut, I knew I was missing something important.. I Knew there was something special this week. With so many things going on at almost the same time, I almost forgot Rash's Bday today ! I planned earlier to celebrate her bday just the way we did mine. Oh, I got lots of Bday bumps to return to her with interest and lots of love ! Earlier we thought we would have a little guest by September for Rash's bday, Unfortunately Roopa and the baby are not in town. And I made Rash more lonely by forgetting to call her even last night !

Rash also misplaced her mobile at her native during the weekend. Her mail to all her contacts says, she has tentatively lost her mobile! So when I remembered her bday today morning, I didnt have an alternative number to call her ! Though I remembered her bro's number, he was driving to work and couldnt pick up the call either..

Well, when bad things happen, good ones follow too. Luckily today, teamie P, had come to pick me up to work. So before we reached office, we stopped at Indira Nagar, got some lovely flowers and dropped in at Rash's place.While standing at her door, I was ashamed for actually forgetting a very good friend's bday, but then when she opened the door, the surprise on her face threw my guilt away. I actually planned to blame it on her lost mobile, but then what are good friends for, so I confessed to her about my very sharp memory going out of order.. Well, I got kicked in return, but then I am happy I could spend some time with her before work.

Another good thing being, she is also working from the client office today, so we get to spend more time together after a long time. We drove back together to office after a really really long time. Today's routine was completely out of schedule and I am beginning to enjoy little changes happening on a boring routine. Hope life brings in more packets of such joy !

Wishing Rash a great birthday and many more good friends like me :P.. Rash is a special friend with whom I have never had girly talks, who pulls my legs when I break down and need to be consoled, who never understands when I pour out matters of my heart,  who irritates me more when I ask her to leave me in peace, who tells me how ugly/fat and stupid I am sometimes, who makes fun of my choice of crushes, and returns back later to compete for the guy, with whom I actually spend time on phone when I dont get to see her at work and inspite of all this, I really love to spend time with her, bcos she is really special..

ps: For the kind of person Rash is, I know flowers was a stupid idea, but then I had no other choice. Well, I finally gave her R's chocs gift to her on her bday ! Well, they are still in my bag, they will be tentatively reduced in number every hour !

Happy Birthday to my dearest Kiddo bro !
Life would have been calmer but eventless without you being a part of it. There are times I always wished I had an elder brother instead of a younger one. But I am glad you were born a year later than me,  introducing yourself as a little stranger, somebody whom I could blabber sweet nothings as a toddler, years passed I found a play-mate in you, running madly with you on playgrounds driving tyre tubes, failing to fly kites, picking up the ball(hoping you would allow me to bat later) when we played cricket,  climbing on the guava trees, racing on bicycles,counting and comparing toffees in each other's hands to check if we had equal, sneaking into the sea without mom's knowledge during summer holidays, comparing gradesheets to be mumma's favorite kid,  being a part of all the fun and mischief we did together and of course sharing all the pain and punishments together. 

There are have been times, where you had been a pain, hurting my adolescent ego, times when you teamed up with Dad ragging and making me cry and feel life at home was miserable like hell. I am glad all these happened which made me grow up into a bolder lady unafraid of what men say. Though we never agreed on most of the ideas of our career objectives, I am glad the discussions helped us individually think about questions which would have never risen if we never argued about them. Though contrastingly different in our professions, I am confident, even today I would always discuss something with you before I make any move even if you claim I am wrong :p. And yeah, I know how much you hate this concept of my journal, Well, you would have to bear with me atleast once a year when I take your name on this page!

Above all, it is this phase of our lives I love, where I found a great trustworthy( and advice giving) friend in you. You have been with me even when our wonderful parents failed to understand my thoughts sometimes. And I will always admire the assertive "I-dont-care-what-you-think-if-I-am-right" attitude of yours though it bothers me sometimes ! I have gained many important things from your philosophical self which I never knew existed until recently. Wishing you life's best always and be near as ever.

Happy Birthday sdeepthi !
One of my little kiddo LJ friends who always helps me keep up with my logging with her bubbling enthu ! A person who remembers me whenever she forwards some nice sms! A person ready to listen to all my crap even if she doesnt understand what I really mean especially those times when I really don't know what I am talking about people who dont know what they mean to me.. Huh ! :)) Thanks Deepthi for being there always !
With one more bday, I guess deepthi is growing up from a kiddo friend to a mature young beautiful lady, I can sense that especially with all her recent philosophical posts ! 

Wishing you the best of everything you desire ! Yeah as airr mentioned, we are expecting parties too..

Surprisingly this year, many of my friends are calling me a day later and wishing me for my Bday ! Naah, it is not the kind of belated bday wishes I am talking about, thats when you forget to wish somebody on his/her bday and wish them a little late.

However, many of my friends have got my bdate wrong, they think it is on 22nd April and yes, I attended 7 calls like this since morning, not counting the one I got yesterday at sharp 12 in the midnight from a good old friend from mysore, who was anticipating that she would be the first to wish me. Anyways, consoled the upset friend and told her that according to her reference of my date, she is the first. I thought first and last, but then I was wrong and had to attend 7 other calls today morning which was kinda wierd !

I remember my friend praya who has always been regular in wishing me late and then telling me that she thought my bday was on 24th, or 26th etc.. luckily she happens to be on LJ this year and got to wish me on the right day, yesterday.

There are also some very close friends, who really have forgotten my bday, but then what is in a bday when wishes are always there for you throughout your life from your close ones .. its just another day, another year ...

So at 25, I really don't know what to start writing. I go through the archives and see what I wrote last year .. Well, nothing has changed much, except an additional 365 days to my existence in this world.

Well for a change, party began yesterday evening.. Instead of going back home, office buddies Rash, Roopa and myself plan to camp at Roopa's place for the midnight party. Thanks to her hubby S, and her yet_to_be_born 6 month old foetus, for accommodating naughty brats like us in their home.

Roopa made some nice hot Aloo parathas which we had with Curd, butter and spicy chutney. Rash was mad about going and having Ice-cream at Corner House, Indira Nagar. Roopa had Vanilla Ice-creams loaded in her fridge and she pointed to a corner in the living room and asked Rash to go and have her version of Corner-House Ice-cream ! Anyways adamancy is one of the things which Rash and I always carry along everywhere and finally the 4 of us drove down to Corner House at 10.25 pm.

We returned back at 11.15 pm and allowed Roopa's hubby S to get some sleep. Meanwhile, I logged into the net and began bday talks with buddies. At 11.45, all of us were drained and tired, thanks to the e-connectivity which kept me awake. I was wondering if I had to wake up the folks and remind them to sing the bday song while I cut the cake. Yeah, I happened to open Roopa's fridge and already scanned the surprise Black-Forest cake these gals had got for me from Sweet Chariot. I almost spoilt the show, so the gals too lost enthu and retired to the bed. Roopa feels, fridge and kitchen should be the last place to hide things from me. At 12, got royally beaten up by the bony Rash, while half-asleep Roopa was pleading her to keep me alive. 

jnagal and airr get the early bird prizes for midnight wireless wishes! The world here is sleeping and calls would shower in the morning. Rash is awake, staring at Roopa's tummy. Hmm, next year, at 26, we would have a little brat to join my bday celebrations ! One of the different things I started doing in the past one year is to meet online blog friends and some of us have really bonded very well. Thank you all(those I have met and yet to meet also), I am learning a lot from you, your life and your friendships. 

How I look at 25 years of my life ( will write about it in detail in a later post ) :

0-5 - Doing the first of many things, walking, talking, writing, singing. exploring the world, family. 
5-10 - meeting people outside family, making those innocent friendships, were everything you know is all about sharing, giving and taking. studies is something which is brought into your routine. you begin to explore new things.
10-15 - world is not all about being good. jealousy, possessiveness, selfishness, anger, give company and contrast to all good things you are born with. Studies becomes a major part of your life, what you do and achieve now, will open up the roads to future. 
15-20 - late adolescence, you have that first major crush with that special someone wich lasts a lifetime. Studiies is now seen in a different angle, it is either last minute preparations for marks, or that particular subject you are really interested in and want to pursue your career in. 
20-25 - post college, post adolescent life. this is when you start living on your own. You earn for yourself, you start becoming responsible for what you do, good or bad. you start thinking about life seriously. marriage is an issue now. whatever you plan - life, job, marriage, relocation, love, friendships, whatever happens is what finally was destined to happen. There is nothing specific you can do, you need to aim, try, take it the result and move ahead. 

And with that hope, I move ahead, miles to go..

Today the first person I knew since my creation, turns 57 .For the first time, I was the first to wish her, its always Dad who is the first to wish anyone in the family. Kiddo bro surprisingly kept an alarm at 7 am and got up to wish her. I think this is the first time he tried something like this. Even for his exams, he never bothered to set an alarm before sleeping, bcos there were 3 other souls more anxious about his performance. Mumma was surprised as usual by his sudden responsibility and asked if it was me who called him and reminded him of her birthday. Heh, the guy got so furious, he got me also on line through conference call and took my statement that I had nothing to do with his sudden good behavior. It was a good family conversation we all had together, though at different places, I realized I was in bangalore only when I hung up ...

Your "Mother" is your first teacher and is always one for your lifetime. I may not remember the first time, she taught me to smile, the first time she taught me to speak, or the first time she held my hand and helped me stand on my own, but then today if I am what I am, it is all bcos of the support and guidance she had always given me, every step of my life. Above all, a mother's prayers and blessings are divine, bcos its she who believes that you can do it even when you have the least confidence in yourself.. We all work hard and make her dreams come true.

There might have been times, I was a tough child to handle, times when I treated my mother as a foe, times when I had the least confidence in her love for me, times when I wanted to hurt her more, but I guess, all these are also God's way of teaching you things the hard way. I have learnt the lessons of forgiveness, trust, patience, silence through these bitter experiences.. I may not be able to go back and re-do my role perfectly once again, but I will try my best not to hurt the tender heart again.

I can not be a person like her, but I will try to be the person she wants me to be. As a baby when I entered this world, I saw her as a stranger, when I grew up, I saw her as a role-model, a few years later in my adolescence I saw her as a foe, and then when we knew each other well, we are friends learning and sharing with each other, she has been there all time, always by my side whether I wanted her or not. And like last year, I quote again, "Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs, since the payment is pure love."

Happy Birthday iamneo
Have a great year ahead !

Happy Birthday jnagal !!

Have a great year ahead !

Wishing you the best of everything in all your endeavors !

Happy Birthday weltanschauungs !!

Have a Great Year Ahead and wishing you the best of everything you desire..

PS : I was looking at your user info to confirm your bdate, well, its not there, so if its either early or late, inconvenience caused will not be regretted .. :-)) Also, your post count points to 99, so make it 100 on your bday !

Happy Birthday vattax
Hope The Lord keeps showering his mercy on you as always so that you can continue to be Vattax !

Happy Birthday to the one who has always been a sweet pain !
Life would have been plain without him.

Though life would take us far apart, hope I am always close behind as in ( here )

Happy Birthday to my ever-friendly LJ gal buddy  sdeepthi .. (Am sorry that you had to remind me to wish you today) !

Wishing You A Great Year Ahead and You deserve to have more of all that bright and beautiful things that life has to offer you ...