Dear guys, I got all your wishes... I donot want to say thank you for your wishes, cos I guess I have a right on them...:) I'm 22 from today... As always it doesn't feel anything different from yesterday.. but there's a whole year of difference in what I should tell my age is to people...:) And then ...baam...I realised that celebrating birthdays, was just ... it's a one day thing that changes your age... but then growth is continuous... happens everyday every moment... Ok, we realise that only at few moments in life... and probably birthdays are the times when we realise it the most... atleast for me, I guess... So what did I do for my b'day...? I had asked people not to go overboard to spend the b'day... I mean... it's not that I didn't want a celebration or anything like that... but it's just that ... in the whole process of doing something different and spmething special, I thought that may be we tend to lose that "doing-it-for-you" thing somewhere and end up with "i-did-that-for-your-birthday" thing... not tht anybody would end up that way, but I wanted it to be a very simple one... no hassles for anyone, just a time to be together with people who have known you... I do not know if people understood or misunderstood what I meant, but may be someone must have been hurt that I asked then not to go overboard... so i refrained from making any strong statements further... On the evening of July 16th US time, I came back home at 5 'o clock... slept for a little while, like I always do... Woke up at I think some time around 9, cooked aloo fry (it didn't turn out too good)... I spoke little qith anybody... and fakir and vinay (my roommates) were coming into and going out of the house ... I don't usualy spend anytime at the comp ion the house unles for wirk... and though I thought I would go to college in the night nand come back at 12'o clock, I thought I must enjoy my b'day... I didn't go to college, instead called my sister... she was asleep, but I just had enough time to get wished up by her... it was already my b'day in India... Followed it up with a call to mom and dad... the first... nope second time I was away from them for my b'day...:) Well... I followed it up with an hour and a half completely spending the time in front of the comp, listening to all the songs that I hadn't listened to for quite sometime... and ... I just continued to listen... I sang out loud (the door closed, ofcourse), danced a little, conscious that I was approaching of my b'day, but oblivious of my roommates coming in and out of my room, "i-dunno-thinking-what-about-me"... At about 11:57, when "shakalaka baby" was playing, fakir barged into my room, and said "Chilaka, come"... I laughed out loud, and moved into our living room... and there it was, a beautiful chocolate cake, with two candles each shaped a 2 lighted... and there they were, fakir, anusha, vinay, pande, anitha, aparna and om....the lights went out, the candles were lit, and I blew the candles amidst the "happy b'day to youuu..." Gave everybody a share of the cake amidst the flashes of fotos.... got a phone call from amar wishing me b'day, got wishes from shankar, raj, hari and kalyan, who dropped in to say "Happy B'day"...Got phone call from Anant and Mrs.Anant wishing me for my b'day, and a phone call from roopa wishing me b'day... and then we sat, I thanked everybpdy for doing it all, and decided that we will go to Woodlands, n Indian restaurant the next day... Everybody left then, I went back to the comp, receiving messages from slash, veedee, chatting with balu and ajay, listening to songs all the while... I took leave of everybody, at about 4'o clock in the morning and slept... The next day I got up at around 11:30 am... I got up and started to get ready... I was happy that it was like any other day... I brushed, took a head bath (as mom said), and was going to wear my clothes, when Fakir said "Wear these"... And he tossed three T-shirts, and a Jeans... I remembered that I had told my mom that I'll buy new clothes for myself... And I didm't know what to say to Fakir... the only thing that could come out of my mouth was "Thanks..." Anusha was there too.. and I knew they had it all planned it out since yesterday... I had to rush to college... and I boarded the bus at 1:30 pm., but while that I had forgoten my cell and camera... I had a teleconference at 2:30 in the lab, and I didn't want to be late... I went into the lab., and got to my desk, when Dr.Jack noticed me and said, "Hey Ravi's Here, Happy B'day"... The rest of the gang too didn't waste time in wishing me my b'day, but then we got down to business, and the rest of the aternoon was uneventful... I just made sure that everybody who needs to know the directions to woodlands knew it... I called up Shankar, told Dr.Balaji ( a new member in the Datawarehouse team, replacing Dr.Amr), called Lisa -the ex CATSS worker- she wasn't feeling well though, told smitha, fakir, vinay, anusha, aparna and her roommates, that we will start at around 7 'o clock... Mean while I was also receiving mails wishin me b'day from Malaiappan (my PS mate), slash, mala, and others... At 6'o clock, we watched our favourite tv comedy series "That 70's show", and started for home... Fakir called Anurag if we can start a bit late, cos by the time Anant Bhaiyya would be back, it might get delayd a bit... Anurag spoke to him, and we started home... I went back home, laid on the couch as is my habit everyday... Fakir and Vinay came in and went out, and it was past 7, past 7:30 but no one said "lets start" yet... I knew something was going on, but I used the time to not be disturbed from my nap... Anurag called a couple of times asking me to ask fakir to call him whenever we are ready to go... I noticed fakir in house at 8:00 pm, and told him about our departure... He said he spoke to anurag, and said he's going to bhaiyya's place, and will call me when we are ready... I knew... and he knew I knew... and he knew I knew that he knew... and so on.. I got a call in two minutes, and when I went over to bhaiyya's place, opened the door, there it was, a cake with lotsa candles, with "Happy B'day chilaka" on it, with everybody who was suposed to out that night, gathered... the room was filled with balloons, and colored paper (forgot what it's called)... and everybody crying out Happy B'day to you... I didn't have any wordsto say, I was overwhelmed, I didn't even notice the name on the cake (I thought it was chandra, not chilaka- I knew it only after wards)... I cut the cake again, gave the pieces to all those who missed it the day before, the first piece to Mrs.Anant, bhabhi for us... and then she also prepared ragda paati, chai for all of us... the only thing I could say all the while was "Thank yu" al the time... I was feeling very oiverwhelmed, because Ididn't know if I had deserved al that.. But I had decided not to judge... I decided to accept it the way it was, without questioning anything... It was about 8:45 when we started to think about "what next..." Woodlands..? they would close by 10:00 pm we thought, we called them up , but they said they would take orders till 15 minutes before closing that's till 9:15... So we decided we 'd make a dash for it at Woodlands... Since Bhaiyya wasn't there, Bhabhi wouldn't come, so wouldn't anusha and vinay and so wouldn't fakir,... So we decided to go another day when bhaiyya and sai (my roommate who was transferring to Houston) also would be there... we started out and reached woodlans at about 9:20, only to know that they can't serve anything but dosa at that time... After a little deliberation, we decided to stick out at woodlands itself and have dosas... all of us - roopa, shankar, madhavi, anitha, ashwini, dr.balaji, pande, om, me apara, smitha had different varieties of dosas - from spring dosas to masala dosas tp paper masalas to mysore masalas... It was served fast,m and it was good... But Dr.Balaji had to leave ear;y, and so he left us, but not before he PAID the bill, to our horror.. We objected to it, but he just said since we were students and he was H-1., he did it... We tried to ask the cashierto accept my card, but it was too late... I owe Dr.Balaji my whole b'day treat now... And he left for Gainesville... I made a mental note to pay back Dr.Balaji the next week he would come, and we finished our Dosa dinner, had a couple of snaps, and came out and decided to go to Baskin robbins for Icecreams... On the way back, I caled Pradeep - he had called me earlier but all I got was the voicemail earlier...on our wau to Baskin robbins, I spoke to Pradeep, he wished me b'day wishes and we spoke about other things as we always do... Smitha and Anitha told me I was too silent on the way.. may be I was contemplating about all the people i missed... But it was a great day too... We had our share of icecreams but unluckily I didn't have cash, so shankar helped me out - I had margarita ice wgich was slightly sour and very filling, I couldn't have all of it... It was 11:30 when I came back home... In half an hour I hit the bed, with the memory of a day that very soon became yesterday... (and now it;s day before)... And, my age is changing everyday... guess I'm growing everyday too...but I might only realise it next year on July 17th again... till then... let the time, age and maturity, come to me... I'll post the snaps soon... Just be a little patient... and everything else is fine... Ravi