B'day Bash & Gifts Galore!

Wait...No! It's not my B'day today. Suddenly B'day thoughts striked me and am here writing one about that. How did I celebrate my B'day over the ages? A snippet here:

Till my 10th Std, I have never celebrated my B'day or never had any thoughts to celebrate it. If I remember correctly, I have been to B'day parties of my cousins and friends only twice or thrice till that time.

My first b'day party kicked off during my 10th Std when I had a gang of friends and I was popular among them for various reasons like: giving sweets to the whole class when Javagal Srinath takes more than 3 wickets or crowned as the 'Man of the Match'; When Superstar's acting is criticized by classmates and I get really angry and fight with them (The real action like Superstar does :)); Being the class rep and pointing to people who cheats teachers (How mean i was? :)); A champion in 'China Maina' game (Have to write a seperate post on this though :)) but the one who always goes near the high jump kattai and stand before it without jumping over it (Basically, was scared to do it!); Being the class topper and last but not the least for transforming from a linear to a cylinder like structure within years! Coming to the B'day party matter now and the way I celebrated it....(I might miss few things because of selective memory :))

@ School:
10th Std - Bunch of friends visited home and had nice food and cake. Guess what the gifts were?? He...he...Friends gifted a small scenic hanging (which was the usual gift those days) and a small Superstar photograph :) And my lovable sis gifted a large Javagal Srinath's poster. Was I that crazy, that people gifted all those posters? Well, I was!!!
11th Std - I don't even remember because I shifted to a new school and hardly got any close friends
12th Std - Now, a new gang has formed here and we were the best biology students by giving nick names to every other person in the class with botanical and zoological names as a secret code for us. What an intelligence! We named a guy as 'Myasthenia Gravis' (which is related to some eye sight..still I remember, good memory na??) for his in depth ogle at others. This gang gave me a card which was full of some funny wordings which I don't remember exactly now...

@ College
1st Year - The reopening day was two days after my B'day and I was already in shock to wear sarees daily to college and hence din't show any interest to celebrate my B'day this year
2nd Year - As usual, got a great group of friends and this great circle was considered to be the best brains but cool buddies in college since each one of us had high aims like doing MS, MBA and used to talk about GMAT, CAT and GRE which most of them in college didn't understand at that period of time. But to admit, none of us in that friends circle went for any higher studies...we all flunked greatly and we regret till now! :( Vetti pechu veena pochu :):) Greeting cards of all cadre was considered to be the 'college type' gift those days and I got half a dozen of them...Half a dozen may not be great when compared to half of a century that my sister used to get and I usually end up in crying to my mom asking how can she get such a huge number when I get only card total ending in one digit. I was silly as any other person of that age :) But, I remember the cards that I got were engraved with some names whom people ottified me with (for no reason at all - It was a fun for people and so as for me too :))
Pre-Final Year - Man! I was dumbstuck to see that a large bag was not enough to hold all the gifts that I got this year. There were lot of good friends in the same class and in other classes, hostel, roomies, friends through Christ friend game and from a group of guys called JAFIERS who prepared 'Kesari' from home and got it for me. And the evening was splendind with my close friends circle chit chatting about all the gifts that I got. When I had lots, one of my close friend got double the amount of gifts than me and we both created a record for the top two positions of gift getters :))
Final Year - All senti cards and Friendship quotes stuck on my wall for this year. After 4 years of great college life and a good number of friends, this celebration din't get a full stop there.

@ work:
I was surprised to receive a bouquet (have never got one before and after this) from one of my good friend whom we call the 'Health Guru' and a book (she knows my inclination towards books). Got a series of presents for next few Bdays like books, dresses, lamp, camera, wallet, wall hangings and cards as usual. But nothing can beat with a pose of having Javagal Srinath and Superstar posters in my hands...Jus kiddin' :):)

Nowadays B'day celebrations have stopped and as before, I don't have any expectations or excitements for B'days. But to be honest, gifts always excite me and anyone for that matter....Do you agree?