My extra-chocolate birthday

Long time that I had felt really impatient to scribble something… and that’s because of this Vodafone commercial…. VODAFONE DELIGHTS… that commercial where the little girl gives a few extra chocolates to her best friend, who means special to her, really made me feel so good... it is one of those ads which brings in a nice little smile to your face, accompanied by a feeling of crisp happiness around you… what’s more serene than the little things that you have done in your childhood? Nothing at all…

This commercial is extra-special to me also because it reminds me of exactly the same thing that I did when I was in Class II. That was my last year in my first school, De Nobili School. I was shifting to a boarding from the next year (bet that my parents thought I needed to learn a lot of lessons!). My birthday, incidentally, falls almost on the verge of the session-end. So, there I was, the second-last day of my school, celebrating my birthday.

In De Nobili, at that time, the norm was that one could wear colour dress (read ghar ka dress) on his/her birthday. So, the birthday kids were easily identifiable. I wore my new birthday dress from dad and mom, took around 100 chocolates with me and marched proudly towards school. My school was just a stone-throwing distance away, so I had to walk. But today was different, I was in colour dress! So anybody who saw me on the way gave me a nice smile and waved HAPPY BIRTHDAY… I clearly remember slowing down my pace, so that more people could cross me and wish me… :)

In school, I had to distribute these chocolates to all classmates in my section, II-C. However, some of my very good friends were in II-A and II-B. The problem was that II-C was in a separate building, while II-A and II-B was in the next building, just above I-A and I-B. It was real pain carrying chocolates from one building to other, coz there was every chance of vandalism. So, I took some 30-40 chocolates in my pocket and went over to give it to these best friends only. Each would get 5! I remember some names even now, though I have lost contact with most of them…. Dipanjana, Jayanta, Bitasta, Shivam, Paromita, Abhishek…. They were delighted, obviously!

Back in II-C, I started distributing one chocolate to everybody. We used to do this during the 4th period, when our Class Teacher used to teach Maths. There was a special friend here also and I gave him 10, in front of everybody else. That was Bumba (Arindam Chaki, to be clearer). Everybody gave me and Bumba a glare of sorts! They were really jealous… I loved it!

But then came the ‘ouch’ part… I ran out of chocolates before I could finish giving 1 each to everybody in II-C! I hadn’t planned to give my best friends more chocos… that was an impromptu thing… and there were about 10 boys and girls who were eagerly looking at me for chocolates, while I was out-of-stock!

My class teacher stepped in…. I told her that my dad had given me lot of chocolates, but I have given more to some friends, and so running short (I was worried that she might tell all this to my parents in the Parent-Teacher Meet). But Mam was generous enough not to scold me on my birthday… But while she was listening patiently to my problem, I told her that I have an idea! I can collect back 2 chocolates from each of my best friends and give these 10 fellows!

I won’t say that she liked my idea, but she just gave up on me! Most teachers had given up on me at that time actually :(. So I went up to Bumba, took back 2-3 chocolates… went all the way to II-A and II-B in the other building and collected few more… The teachers in II-A and II-B gave me really ugly looks, as if I am disturbing heavily amidst an IIT exam! And then it was all done!!!! And I don’t remember feeling embarrassed at all for recollecting chocolates… Though I laugh my heart out now when I think of it now! :)

Incidentally, my best friends didn’t mind at all!!! They still had more than others!!!

Today, I am out of touch with most of these friends and I won’t even recognize them if they come and stand in front of me! And that makes this chocolate incident so much significant to me… Unknowingly, I had grabbed a chance to tell them that they are special to me… and I would miss them at the boarding…

I dedicate this post to all my extra-chocolate friends at De Nobili…

Cheerio!

P.S: Catch the Vodafone ad here... U will like it, even if u have seen it umpteen number of times....