Singapore Diaries: A Musing on Turning Twenty Five
That was the 12th of September 2014. And I have been meaning to blog about that for the longest time...but, oh well...you know what they say - old age tends to catch up with you. ;)
Okay. I lied. It doesn't. Age really nothing but a number. And while I freaked out about 25 and pulled a stunt that took me away from home, far from where everyone who know me and care about me, would've probably forced me to celebrate my 25th birthday - I forgot the flaw in my plan.
I was going to be spending my birthday with my Elsa. Who really is a Queen of celebrations (I think she gets that from our mother). I was not really surprised by the notebook. Everyone who knows me knows about my love for writing. The best thing to give me is always a pen and a notebook, and leave me to my thoughts.
But my love for writing is not the point of this particular post. The point is to tell you how I had to celebrate turning 25, when in fact, I had made the elaborate plan to get out of it...
"Oh, I asked my lab friends to come for your birthday party. You'll get to meet them," my sister tells me one of days we're home. She is busy working on her laptop, and I've abandoned all pretense of trying to figure out what Jakobson had said...and am busily playing with my phone.
The only words I catch are 'birthday party'. Oh, no!
"What are you talking about?"
"You know...the birthday party for you. For turning 25. Our friends said they'd come..."
"What exactly did you tell them? My baby sister is turning 25, please come to her party?"
"Well...yes."
By now I was utterly perplexed, "They don't even know me. Why would they come for my birthday?" My plans of slipping into being 25 was getting ruined...
"You met most of them at once...and well, you know Madhubrata's mother."
I rolled my eyes, "I met her father, Didi. This is so weird..."
"Oh c'mon...all of them agreed to come. Isn't that sweet of them?"
"Oh sure...it's a party. Why would someone turn that down now?" I retorted, sarcastically. I didn't tell her the whole party scene was upsetting me because I felt no happiness over turning 25. I was almost dreading it. But she's older than me. So my little age problem would probably get dismissed. And because I continued to look miserable, she said, "Look,why don't you invite your friend too?"
"Because he'll say he's busy. He hardly returns my texts, in any case." I muttered.
My birthday came. And spent it watching Nancy Drew and going to the East Coast Park, in the middle of answering texts, phone calls and IMs. I sang Rachel Platten's words to myself in order to make myself go out of the house that day:
"Nothing ever happens if you stay in your room,
Nothing ever happens if you leave the party too soon..."
Since my sister had to work in lab, I had to go with my brother-in-law, Satyaki da, to see Finding Fanny. I really don't understand why people are raving about it. They bloody killed a cat. And no, I don't that a least bit funny. Oh, well...
The day of the party dawned. By that time, I felt bad. My poor little Elsa...going out of her way to make her Anna feel at home. What she didn't know was, if I was home, I would probably escape somewhere, switch off my phone and refuse to meet anyone. Of course given the friends I have,they would have hunted me down and made me celebrate my birthday. Anyway, we got the house all cleaned up before the guests came. Post 8:30pm, one by one, they started to arrive.
(Unfortunately I forgot to take too many pictures that day. And I really wish I had. Because the party had unleashed a string of fresh characters on me.)
My friend Rini claims that people watching is one of the best pass times ever. I have to agree with her. If I tried to write about every single one of our guests, this would become an awfully long and boring blog post. So how about I just tell you about my cousin and my sister's lab friends who like to define themselves as 'nut jobs'. Well, they clearly have not met some of the people I know. Nut jobs don't even begin to define them... (The cousin doesn't define herself as a nut job,by the way...that's just Queen Elsa's subjects.)
The girl in green is my Queen Elsa. (Those of you unfamiliar with Disney's Frozen...just look up the scene where she says, 'You can't marry a man you just met.' Both my mum and I burst out laughing and agreed that sounded exactly like my sister. So Queen Elsa i.e. Roopsha Brahma Banerjee (my didi) is married to Satyaki da (also in picture), and the lady who got cut out of the picture is our cousin, Sohini (di). The only one in the entire family who does not use my nickname. (And thank God for that.)
And here is Didi and Madhubrata di again, with Arun. (You know I keep remembering the politician Arun Jaitley every time I hear this name.) Anyway - they claim to be crazy people. I guess they are. Most of the people I've met in my life have been a little crazy. But I guess all the best people are.
Even though I'd met a lot of the other people who'd come for my party...I ended up talking to these people in the pictures the most...each of them come with a different story, I have to write a separate blog post for that.
All I can say right now is, I am glad they came to my 25th birthday party. They made me miss home a little less, and feel much more like a grown up. I still cannot believe I've reached the landmark of a quarter of a century...Wow, 25th. You lived up to my expectations.
And because we have to go out now, this blog post will not get the profound ending I ought to have given it...
P.S. - Do remember to keep an eye on this blog. You really need to meet the interesting characters - I'm sorry - people I met on my birthday party day. ;)
