The first birthday in St. Stephen's College (and incidentally, the first birthday away from home, since i was on vacation in Kolkata this time last year) was quite a memorable for two particular reasons - I have never been given so many gifts by friends, plus I have never been made to feel as loved as my friends this time made me feel.
The night was lazy to begin with. Aishwarya wished me at 9:30 on Oct 29, because he wanted to be the first to wish me, but was feeling too sleepy to wake up all the way till 12. On 29th October at 10:00 PM, I took adieu from Aashik and went to my room, soggily waiting for 12 o' clock to strike, because firstly, I was feeling sleepy and secondly, I knew that people would come to wish me at midnight. I was almost half-asleep, till I suddenly got a message from Sanjay bhaiyya (5 minutes before 12). Then my brother called, slightly before time, to wish me. And the I could hear voices outside the door, and then a knock.
Now, the door to T-3, Mukharji East, doesn't open easily and thus people outside thought that it was locked. However, on further trying,t he door opened and outside were my senior, Vedant, my friends Aman and Manchit, and my room neighbour David. Now, Vedant thinks that his wishing me first would surprise me, but to be frank, a funny feeling within me told me that he would come - one of those inexplicable things in life, for sure. Then slowly came Jerrin, Rupam, Dipak, Rupam II and finally, Anjishnu. And then dragged to the tennis court and kicked 18 times by 3 men. Oh my, next day my back was paining.
Oh yes, how could I forget ! Kritika and Aditi, as expected, called me and sang happy birthday to me on the phone. Now, this was something I knew was going to come, but what happened in the morning I didn't expect. Sheeni Kapoor also called, quite unexpectedly, and a host of other people sent their messages. Then I talked to Karan for some time in the night and finally went to sleep at about 2:30 AM.
At 6:00 AM, my phone started ringing and I saw that it was my cousin, so I just put the phone on silent and went back to sleep. But when I woke up at 9:30, I saw tens of messages and missed calls on my phone, plus I had a class at 9:35 AM. I just put on SOME clothes and rushed to the statistics class. Then at 10:30 AM, Kritika called me to meet her at the college gate. I went there, and I was so surprised by her birthday gift. She has always been such a sweetheart, and I got further proof this time.
Then it was 11:15 AM, and I had a tutorial at 1:25 AM. But I still had not taken a bath! I went to the bathroom, but regular water supply was gone! And the geiser water was piping hot! I innovated (uncharacteristically) - I dipped my towel in the boiling water and just washed myself. And then rushed back, just in time, for the tutorial.
Now after that, from 12 AM to 5 PM, I was at the Hansraj Fresher's Parliamentary Debate, and birthday luck rubbed on - we won both the tosses, and both the debates that day.
For what happened after that, wait for the next post ....
