A Happy Birthday

Two of my closest friends have their birthdays today. They do not know each other, but they are both very important to me.

No, it’s not a question of juggling two parties. In fact, they are in two different cities and I live in a third.

My most important job of the day was to wish them both a “Happy Birthday”. I have been preparing for this mentally for the past one week. These were my thoughts: Make it unique, memorable, better than others, before others, but how?

1.      Wish them at midnight, well before others?

2.      Wish them on all social media, so they see messages from me everywhere they look?

3.      Send them unique gifts? Like what?

4.      Send them e-greetings?

I delved into my collection of photographs to find the most suitable ones for making greeting cards with a very personal touch – but not a single one appealed to me. I looked up the e-greetings available on the Internet, but did not find a single one that would define my relationship with either one of them perfectly. I did this all week and finally decided to compose two special messages myself. After work, one evening, I picked up my pad and pen and wrote down the two names so dear to me, on two separate pages. Then I sat biting the pen thinking about the opening lines. Minutes passed, then an hour, and then I felt too drowsy to continue.

The next evening I tried again, this time on my laptop, my fingers playing on the keyboard. Suddenly one of them called and I had a merry conversation for over an hour until I was ready to go to bed.

Surprisingly, the next evening, which was yesterday, the eve of the birthday, I forgot all about it and went to bed early. I did not even remember it in the morning, until I logged in to the social media and then, it came back to me with a jolt. Alas! I had already missed out on all opportunities to do 1, 2, 3, or 4. What now?

I had to wish them anyway. One of them, I felt sure was still in bed. I left her a message just so she knew I hadn’t forgotten. I called the other and wished her as warmly as I could. To my surprise, she was as elated as she would be had she received the best gift in the world. We talked for some time and I realized that the day isn’t about how unique I am; It is about how special they are.

I went back to my message to my other friend – she had woken up by then, seen my message and smiled back at me.

My next job is to remind all the friends that I have in common with each one of them, to wish them today. True, I will just be one of the ‘many’ who sent them birthday greetings, but the important thing is that they will both feel loved and cherished by ‘many’.

I shall start right now. Thank God it's a Sunday!