17th of March.. My birthday

This time around my friends found a very innovative way to celebrate my bday. They simply decided not to wish me. The numerous phone calls I was waiting for from 12 at night just didn’t happen. My roommate returned from office at around 11:30 at night, complained of a hectic day and slept. I thought she will wake up at 12, she didn’t . I knew all of them couldn’t forget it , there is nothing called collective amnesia especially when we have been discussing my birthday the past whole week. Its about 12:30, I am whispering to my friend(college friend hence not included in the forgetting act) under my blanket trying not to wake up my roommate. She asks me why I am whispering , and if everyone in my room forgot my birthday. I was ashamed to say yes. I just said they wished and went to sleep. Got me thinking, about all of them . The seven people closest to me in this alien city, away from home , away from anything remotely familiar. How will life be if all of them forgot my birthday? The morning dawned and my roommate again left for office. I am stuck at home as its my off day from work. Again , all she asks me to do is take the dry clothes from outside. I know they have a plan, probably a surprise party. But inspite of knowing, it felt bad. Never has so many emotions unraveled within me on my birthday morning.. I am receiving calls and sms from round the world, from my past , present and future. Infact at some passing moment I feel my college friends were my “true” friends, cause they didn’t forget (no wonder people call me immature). As expected they had a surprise and by night after a wonderful dinner and cake cutting I had forgotten all the confusion I had a few hours back. In this new age of technology we have so many different ways to remember birthdays, birthday alarms, reminders, and our very dear orkut*. Some people I know take off birthdays from orkut, to know how many people actually remember (scale for how much they care), and end up not getting wished by quite a few close ones, and feeling hurt. I was in no mood to get hurt, so I put it up for the world to see, and that way or this, almost everyone remembered. And I was happy about it. How important is it a person remembering our birthday? If they forget our birthday does it mean they don’t give a damn, or if they remember does it mean they care? The theory I developed about remembering birthdays is, if after registering your name in birthday alarms and also after putting it up in orkut, if someone forgets, then they actually don’t care. Don’t care enough to set a reminder in their mobiles. But if you have refrained from all this, don’t expect a call from anyone other than your mom and the neighbour hood stalker. *Orkut- An internet boon . A very highly exploited online friend`s community