The Art of forgetting birthdays

I am a girl of many talents (modest not being one of them, clearly) but one talent that I excel in, and can probably hold classes and give out honours and distinction to others is how to forget birthdays of your friends. Even in this age of technology and facebook, where you have numerous apps that help remind you and get notifications to wish someone, I am capable of ignoring them all and being happily oblivious when a friend’s birthday passes by. Countless times I have seen these reminders pop up on my screen and have promised myself that I will definitely send a message later in the day, but my mind is like a sieve when it comes to birthdays apparently.

The brain is certainly a funny organ, and mine is on a completely different platform most of the time. It can remember useful and useless information with alarming clarity but it always fumbles when it comes to birthdays for some reason. In all, my brain can remember only 5 birthdays (my parents and siblings) and it is shocking compared to the number of people I meet and interact with on a regular basis, not to mention very embarrassing.

But I have learned to accept it a little, more than that; my dearest friends have managed to understand this deficiency in me and only managed a chuckle or two on my behalf. Like R, now I want to respect privacy and thus am not giving away names. I have been friends with R for close to 6 years now, which means 6 birthdays have gone by. Now she has wished me for each of those 6 birthdays even when we were in the midst of final exams. On the other hand, I have wished her only for 1 birthday (earlier this year) and she was a bit shocked that I remembered for the first time. That’s 5 birthdays that I have missed and being the sweet person that she is, she has not held a grudge against me and is one of my best friends today.

Another of my friends K, seeing my strike rate with R, was appalled and devised a unique but effective way of reminding me her birthday. She simply calls and messages me a week before her birthday, now to some this may seem extensive but it works (at least in my case) and don’t worry K, I remember your birthday is coming up.

But my most embarrassing forgetting a friend’s birthday incident is from a couple of years back. I had in my infinite carelessness forgotten another friend’s birthday. Now on this day, this friend called me up and we chatted for like 15 mins about odds and ends and then I simply hung up, still not realizing that it was his birthday. The next day another friend called me and asked if I had wished him, the ball finally dropped. Most embarrassing because the poor chap had given me a call himself despite his birthday.

Now that’s what I call a clutter brain. But what’s cool is that all these people are still my friends in spite of my poor memory and they never forget my birthday, even though me being a March born means my birthday falls right during exam month. So thank you to all who have been a victim of my forgetfulness and here’s to all the birthdays that I have missed and all the future birthdays that I will miss (ya I am not too optimistic).

So, how about you, missed any important dates lately?

The "K" Factor

What is entertainment? If someone was to ask me this, I would say, entertainment is that which relaxes the body, makes you laugh, makes you forget about your whole day with its tensions and challenges, something in which you can immerse yourself but not to a degree where you have to use your brains, that’s entertainment for me. So how can I possibly get my daily dose of entertainment from the Indian Television Industry?

I know I am a minority in this matter, almost every Indian that I know is addicted to some or the other TV show and love to get into lively discussion about the contents of the program. Will she marry him or run away? Will he kick her out of the house or fall in love with her? And the best question of all, also the most common; when will the inevitable consummation scene take place? I mean c’mon people, if a lady actually went through half of what the television heroines are made to go through then they would either kill themselves or kill everyone around them. But common sense is not appreciated by the Indian television buffs as experienced by me in school and in college where my logical explanations were squashed by my friends.

But my problem with the shows is not mainly of common sense, but more about how the characters are a paradox of themselves. The lead heroine is shown to be a strong, confident woman who goes out to work to be independent and support her family (which is usually poor) and meets her future husband (immensely rich) as a boss and then turns into a submissive house wife cowering under her husband or some in law usually in the name of family honour and respect. My point is that if the character is as strong as shown in the first episode then why does she take all the crap thrown at her? An independent woman would retaliate and stand up to her new family, not simper and wonder how to bring the broken family together.

I have never been able to watch a single scene of an Indian show without commenting so obviously I am not the perfect person to have beside you as you clutch your heart and moan about the injustice done to Seeta, Geeta or any such character. In fact I have gone to India, stayed for a month, not switched on the telly and come back happily oblivious to the drama surrounding a fictitious character. I call it a proud achievement; my friends on the other hand, call it a sad thing.

But on the rare occasion, in the throes of extreme boredom, I have sat down with my elder sister, Tanvee, switched the telly to a random channel and commented and laughed on the show going on. Trust me, it’s the best comedy show you will ever experience, well unless you are a fan of the show, then you will just want to kill me and my sister.

So what are you? A fan or a cynic?