This year’s birthday was memorable for many reasons. It was a good opportunity to reflect and count my blessings.

Prequel to the birthday
A day before the birthday, I met Sukanya and Thulaja for lunch. Little did I know that they had secretly conspired to throw me a mini-birthday party complete with a cake and candles (not lighted as no one had a lighter). I had to ‘pretend’ and blow out the candles as they sang the Happy Birthday song right in the middle of SGH (Singapore General Hospital) amidst curious onlookers. BTW, Sukayna works near SGH so we picked the hospital as the venue for the impromptu celebrations. Thanks gals for the mango cake and the laughs… It was superbly memorable.

The birthday
On the day itself, I took it slow. Contemplated, thanked the Universe for everything and then worked (yes, worked) from home. The day became better as the wishes came trickling in and it felt good to be remembered by many near and dear ones. At the end of the day, 5 of us (Ros, Victor, fellow birthday boy Jens, Lina whose birthday was on the next day and me) decided to have a cozy dinner at The Sheraton. The food and wine was great, the conversation was smooth and we were boisterous. Time passed by real fast and before we realized, it was midnight which meant that it was time to wish Lina. We were loud again. If you were near our table that day and cursed us under your breath for being extremely loud then rest assured because we forgive you. Afterwards, was coffee at Starbucks until the wee hours and then Ros & I headed to Copthrone Waterfront Hotel to sadly watch India lose a vital cricket match to Sri Lanka but that was the only *bleep* of the evening.

Silly Trivia: India lost the last Cricket World Cup finals on my birthday and were kicked out of this World Cup on my birthday. They shouldn’t be playing on my birthday :)

Thank Yous
Thanks to my parents, Nitin, Jana & little Sukhi (missed you guys out here), Veen (for the birthday cake, card and the ‘guess who’ present - as always you never cease to amaze me), Neha (for being the coolest superhero ever), Yams, Lynn, Ema, Sabrina, Derick, Bimal, Shamini, GL, Ros (for the cool iPod speakers), Shakti, Doreen, Maria, Kavs, Lina & Jens (for the HMV vouchers), Victor (for the iPod Shuffle), Mei Lin (for the complementary wine bottles), Sukanya & Thulaja (one more time for the lunch plus impromptu birthday party with cake), David, Carl, Sandhya, Anita, Anthony, Bala, Priya, Sujata and anyone that I may have missed. Special shout of thanks to the people I have got to know through DJNet i.e. Sonam Didi (for the lovely rendition of Happy Birthday on the phone), Prati, Anuj, Dhiraj Bro, Nitesh, Mary (for remembering me all the way from Germany) Sunita, Vejoya, Janice, Rekha, Prashanti, Nirnay, Swaroop Uncle, Subarna, Madhu, Sajan, Sheryl, Rahman, Yuvraj, TD, Bunty, Namchu, Anu, George, Anand Bhai, Sonam Tashi, Umie, Sangeeta, Sarad Daju and all the other wonderful people whom I only know by their nicks.

No Thank Yous
I am done being grateful, now is the time for ‘no thank yous’. If you consider yourself a friend and forgot to wish me on my birthday then it could be that I also didn’t wish you on your birthday… But I am forgetful, what excuse do you have? And my birthday’s on the 23rd of March so mark your calendars. Hahahaha…

PS: Janice and Sandhya who left comments for this post. Sorry, I couldn’t export the comments as well as the photos.