Kid who was not told his Birth-date ?

I was born, before I was brought to earth, in my mother’s womb on a dark and
cold winter. The winter had the unusual effect on my father. He had a terrible time during
that day, and mother had tough time with her kitchen. They were tired, and there was no
television, no cinema or children to play with. They sat around over the dinner, my father
munching the ‘rotis’ with ‘aloo ki sabji’ and mother attempting to serve them as warm as
possible. There used to be pin-drop silence over the dinner, as the head of the household
had the rule which require no talking during eating. The father was eating on the table
which was a regular size table used for reading, and eating, and to stretch the legs. The
table was called ‘all-purpose’. It was a prize-gift to my father as dowry. The mother used
to wash that table with utmost sincerety and devotion. She would first come near to the
table every morning, and then look at it for several minutes for any cracks, scratches or
chips on or around the table. Once satisfied that the dowry-gift had no calamities, she
would take the nicest dusting cloth in her hand, and then wipe down the surface caressing
the table so that no cloth fabric make a scratch on the table. After dusting, she would soak
the cloth in the water, and then rub it on the table. She used to wait for atleast 5-10
minutes until the water evaporates from the table. I guess, this time she was remembering
and recalling all the lost souls she had in her family during maiden life. She never talked
about her family but always had her moments during those 5-10 minutes, as if she tries to
summarize the entire 21 years of her life in those few minutes. As the days passed on, she
becoming less affectionate to her table, she then couldn’t wait that long to let the water
evaporate from the table. Instead she would take a dry cloth, and wipe the surface. She
maintained her sincerety and devotion towards the table, though.
Today, it was supposed to be another day of husband-wife fight. My father
splashed some of the ‘sabji’ on the table, and tried to cover the splash with his dinner
plate. He knew from experience, that he would have to spent atleast few hours explaining
about things which do not even exist. Before he could comtemplate upon his experience,
it was late, my mother came rushing towards my father and the long tirade of words
began. It began with the table, to the effort she makes in cleaning, to the way he treats
her, and finally to liking towards her parents. The mother charged him for not liking or
respecting her parents. They were fighting and shouting at each other, each one was right
in her or his way. No one wanted to lose in this fight. It happened that the night became
darker and colder outside. They found the urge to go into the bed, as the cotton blankets
were the only means to keep the cold outside. After both of them were exhausted, not by
the ideas but because their mouths were dry, they wind up their excursion, and went to
the bed. Since it was early for them to sleep, and nothing else to do, they thought of
nothing better than making love with each other. The father came near to the mother and
began rubbing his nose against the breast of the mother. He rolled his nose clockwise and
then anticlockwise. When he was satisfied with the rubbing, and knew that the mother
was getting into the mood, he took her head with his hand and then kissed hard on the
side of the neck. The mother, who was initially under the thoughts of their fight, began to
forget about the table and started concentrating on the tingling effects on her neck. This
was enough for them to get started, and they started making love. This being a cold
winter, they didn’t care about the heat and the sweat. This process continued for several
minutes. When the action subsidized, I was born inside mother’s womb.
It’s frustrating that this birth is never celebrated or even remembered by the father
or the mother. Young lovers don’t care about their guilt when the mistake was actually
made. Wife who is desperate about the child doesn’t even care to remember the date
when her son was born inside her. This is rather strange in the human mythology. People
celebrate things which are too routine and monotonous, but won’t even remember the day
of their child’s ‘birth’. It is more like knowing and greeting the person with Mr. or Miss
without knowing his name. The best argument for this that I don’t care to remember the
name of the person, since it is unimportant. Well, dear parents, if I say that I don’t
remember your name when any of your stupid and pestering friend or the nagging mausi
or mausa or bua or fufa or mama or mami or shami or kami ask about you. I should say,
that its not important to know the name or the face of the parents. I just live in the house
and is fed by strangers. Whoever cleans my shit is my father and whoever breeds me milk
is my mother. To the school teachers, I would ask the question why should I remember
the date when India got freedom and the new country was born. To my cricket coach, I
would say that I don’t remember that cricket is played with hands and not by teeth. May
be next time, when I play cricket in the Indian Team I will make a shot with my teeth on
the ball of Shoib Akhtar. I feel relaxed picturing the shot and knowing my parents would
then understand why they should celebrate the date when I was born. If I become a
construction engineer, I would say that I have built the bridge but didn’t remember about
applying cement to the bridge. If I become an electronics engineer, I won’t remember that
electricity flows from positive to negative terminal. When I become a surgeon, I would
forget about taking the cutting blades from the body. When I would be playing guitar in
front of the audience, I would first forget that I should connect the guitar with the
amplifier and then forget the rhymes of the song. If I don’t become any of these, then I
won’t remember that I was born oneday. Since, the day of my birth is not known to me,
its immaterial whether I am alive or dead, playing or quarreling, fighting or making love,
studying or smoking. I am so frustrated that I feel that I should demand from the dear
God, to give my mother and father enough knowledge so that they remember atleast their
future son’s and daughter and my siblings actual birthdate.
Our family was a orthodox hindu family. The father was always engrossed with
worshiping God. I respect the his sentiments towards God, where we worship many
Lords, so that if we are asked to remember a God, in the event of near-death experiences,
our brain would first search into the list of the many Gods. As it is known, it would delete
any of the Muslim or the Christian God, then look for the hindu Gods. We can’t challenge
the human brain, as inspite of all this chaos, it would definitely select out a picture of the
God or the Goddess, the selection being very objective. If I would not become an
engineer, or construction engineer, or guitar player or a surgeon, I probably might earn
my living by praying to God. Though, there is not a ceremony, where the person chooses
his particular God, to whom it would be more devoted, besides pacifying other Gods. My
father, as other devoted hindus, would pray to God. His daily tasks were 2 hrs puja, in the
morning and 2 hrs in the evenings. I guess, as other hindus, he would pray to God for
more money, “Dear God, I will visit your Vaishnav devi temple, if you make me rich by 1
crore”. On some days, when he would be slightly more optimistic about his wishes
coming true, he would ask for 2 crores. I guess, as hindus are supposed to do, he would
actually forget about any important work since he is busy in puja. I guess, as other
hindus, he had Gita, and must have read the shloka “karmaneya vadhikaraste, maa
phaleshu kadachan, maa karma f…….” which meant that just do your task, and don’t
worry about the result. I guess, as other hindus, he was smart, he thought that why not
bribe God and do the yes-man-ship to God, instead of working on the manufacturing
reports, or the fault analysis with the machine or the power loss. What else could he had
done ? He was never taught the meaning of Gita, or the upanishads. I guess, as other
hindus, didn’t know or cared to know the meaning or the essence of Gita. According to
his point of view, a person should not be fired from the job, because this will bring wrath
from God and the person’s family. If you don’t fast, then probably God won’t be happy,
because God wants that you should suffer, then only you will come near to him. My
mother, who never felt that God is a masochist, was always concerned about the family.
She would cook the meals, wash the clothes, wash the dishes and do other household
work. She was so much involved with her work, and never felt the need for God, would
forget to fast. This would be like a catastrophe on the earth. It was like a volcano has
erupted on the earth, and the mankind is under danger of survival. My father would burst
on her like a pest encroaching the fertile lands. The pest would completely destroy her in
a few minute of time, and would only leave her alone when her eyes are completely wet
with water, or if his words, the drainage water. There was also love in the family, the
love was that father was supposed to earn and the mother was supposed to cook, wash
and satisfy the sextual needs, only as and when it was required. The word LOVE, actually
only comprises of four letters. Its just a simple word, if you scrabble it, and say it LVOE
or LEOV, if means nothing. The correct understanding of love, whether it is its spelling
or the meaning is not known to the ignorant or the smart. Love as such has lot of energy
in it, for only a few fortunate ones, though. Love always start with the attraction. If we
lack the attraction, we can’t love the person or the thing. This basic element of attraction
was missing in my father and mother, who would sleep under the same roof and share the
bed without any clothes, but won’t even look at each other or care to even listen to each
other. This being the “arranged marriage” was fully an arrangement of their life. Their
life schedule was arranged already, so that they don’t have to worry. The girl is supposed
to cook, wash and clean, and the boy is suppose to earn. In addition to the primary job,
the girl should be infatuated or atleast have attraction toward the family members. The
boy is supposed to have affectionate feelings with the girl’s family. My father, fully
understood the meaning of arranged, and was always in the quest of fulfilling the
meaning of the word to the fullest. He would flirt with the sister-in-laws. He was thankful
to God, trusting his prayers, that he had been given enough women to work upon, besides
his wife. He would hate the idea of having feelings for the mother. We humans, are so
mentally advanced. We are far far better than dogs, or the animals or the birds. We like to
live in large groups. The marriage is considered a step towards growing the group. We
can’t follow the naïve and brainless birds, who would move to a separate nest after their
marriage. We can’t even conjecture the thought of actually building the nest, just to
attract the life-mate. How can we humans live alone, we live in total harmony and peace.
The birds are always making noise, even when the mother is feeding the babies from its
peak. We even get disturbed when the bird is actually sitting on its eggs. The humans,
according to Hindus, or the muslims, should follow the steps of GOD. They should
imitate the life-style of God, as close as possible. This three letter word, sometimes, looks
very pale, and dry, with no energy, when compared to the simple four letter word LOVE,
which is not fully observed, or evaluated for its freshness, strength and energy.
The family also had an older person, grandmother, who was treated as elderly
since she had no teeth, but wasn’t given much respect. She was like a living robot. Her
fingers were always busy counting the beads, chanting the mantra “om namay shivay” or
“hare rama”. However, she would be very lethargic giving out the sentences.

Actually, there always used to be a picture or an idol of God in every room of our
house. The house was comprised of three rooms. One was the guest room, where the
people used to congregate and then boast about their superiority. There used to be always
some kind of competition to win the arguments. For the dogs outside, it felt as if the
bunch of humans are barking at each other. It’s a cliché in the sense, that we humans,
being the superior race always think that earth belongs to them alone. We never care
about disturbing the peace of animals, birds or the plants. Ofcourse, we don’t even think
that plants have soul. The congregation in the guest room was limited to the weekends
mostly from 5-9 pm. There was another room which was a dinner room, and also served
purpose of common area. This was the busiest room. You enter through this door if you
are going to kitchen, or to the guest room, or to the central bedroom or to the toilet. The
bedroom was more like the night-room, only occupied during the night. That was the
reason why the bedroom had the least dust during cleaning. The house was kept clean
and was floor was sweeped every morning. The duty hours of mother included 6-7 in the
morning, when she prepared breakfast. Then she would indulge herself in washing the
clothes, thinking what has to be prepared for the lunch. When she was happy, she would
prepare ‘dal-sambhar’ and rice’ otherwise you would have to satisfy with ‘dal’ and
‘chappatis’. Her normal free-time was from 12-4 when she would look around for more
work. She would go to the grandmother who was always in the mood of chanting the
mantra ‘om namay shivay’ counting them with the bead in her hand. Grandmother would
nod to her questions. The nods was supposed to be answer to the questions. May be she
was expecting far more than a simple nod. She couldn’t get accustomed to the
grandmother tiny attention which was left from her usual mantras. The grandmother
would actually try to keep her calm. My mother was sure that she would have children
for her pass-time. If God is happy, then son would be born. God’s anger would cause
girl’s birth.

However, still they were ignorant about what is the meaning of the birth and when
does the birth actually take place ?