07-07-2014
Today, I attended the party of
Methu Shan, my four year old friend who celebrated his birthday at his Play
School. It was a rich and rewarding experience to watch kids do their thing in
a classroom, apart from their size they behave just like adults.
My eyes became a camcorder
recording every moment of the precious celebration, which in my thoughts should
be made mandatory by every Government in every country, for every kid to
celebrate their birthdays at least up to a certain age.
From my arrival to the premises
till the end of the event, the camera was rolling, recording it to mind which
translated the entire event as something more than just a birthday party. It
was a simultaneous recall of my own life at that age on celluloid in comparison
to his live digital feed, running on two separate screens, fortunately both
were in colour even though the our age gapped
a good fifty years apart but colour was already in by then.
My friend had a twinkle in his
eyes that showed that this was the best day in his life, it also showed that it
would even be a better one tomorrow and the best definitely on the following
day and after that, nothing could get a kid down to worry about a tomorrow
because he is living on a no worries lease till he grows up, the worries will
pretty much show up once after the lease expires.
The kids were all at their best
behaviour under the universal mesmerisation of their teacher, which concurs
that, a stranger makes a better Charge` d’ affaires than any parent would. The
teacher got the children to gather around the table to begin the candle blowing
ceremony; he very slowly began engaging the kids in speech building, asking
them simple things about what they thought was going to happen around them and
of course, all of them said that they should be the ones to blow out the
candles.
The cake was brought out to
officially begin the ceremony, Methu Shan’s teacher handed him the candles to
choose the positions of his liking to place them on the red and blue Spiderman
cake, and everyone was watching him with a little envy, but today was his day
to lead so no one could stop him from
being in the limelight.
It was no cake walk down memory
lane to try and remember my own candle blowing days, which was way back half a
century ago, but nevertheless I can associate only having fun and happiness
during my childhood with no real complaints. The candles were lit and Master Methu
Shan did the honours while I stood there thinking to myself about these little
people, who would be responsible to move the world in the right direction in
time to come. These little humans who were standing right in front of me having
fun at a birthday party of which photos would be circulating on Facebook before
end of the day being the most important resources the world has, would also
probably one day be in the same shoes reminiscing about the past just like me.
Happy Birthday Master Methu Shan.
ED.