How do I respond to 'Happy Birthday Pawan'?

Every year on 7th June I feel like 'How should I avoid doing something stupid this year?'

When I was in school my biggest regret was that I could not celebrate my birthday in school and I could never wear a colorful dress to school. The new academic year usually started around 10th June or 15th June and I never got to experience what it feels like when the whole class sings 'Happy Birthday’ for you.

During the morning prayers or during the last bell, everyone could identify whose birthday it is because they were wearing those shiny expensive clothes that they bought from RajaSahab shop in Gulmandi, Aurangabad. These kids got all the attention in the school, everyone got to know who this person was.

Kids distributed chocolates in class on their birthday by going to every bench, and no matter if a girl or a boy in the class is your good friend or not, they wished you Happy Birthday, it was like an ice breaker to form new friendships. If a boy or a girl did not accept your chocolate, it was a political statement, or if they just accepted your chocolate but did not wish you, that was like a political statement too. This was also the only chance for a boy to go in the girls row and talk to them, by ‘talk to them’ I mean say ‘Thank You Babita’.

I never experienced this fame in my childhood and same happened in college too.

I always wished to ask my dad why did you not wait for just 10 more days but then I don’t want to lose out on his money or real estate property, so I never asked him.

Even if today I feel all this school thing is so stupid but back then it was a big deal. At the same time it has created a new problem for me.

So right now in 2020, when I am connected to a massive number of people, I really don’t know how to respond to all the WhatsApp messages or Instagram DMs because I have never got this attention. Even if this attention is all digitally that is fine, because right now our lives are more digital than in person.

I reply very weirdly to people or I have awkward phone calls with people on my birthday. This is also the reason why I keep my phone switched off from 6th June evening till 7th June afternoon.

But I thought I should write about this feeling and let people know about my reasons for weird replies or not picking up calls. I love you all, and when I say I really mean it. I have never really learnt how to hate somebody and I don’t know how to do it. Yes there is the feeling of disappointment or frustration etc with a lot of people but that doesn’t mean I hate them.

I totally believe that we all can co-exist even when we disagree on certain opinions and I am very vocal about this belief of mine.

It’s something that is inherent in me now and that is why I have been able to have some great friends in life from across the world. I want to thank you all who have contributed to my life in some way or other in these past 26 years and I want to say that I do not take this friendship or you for granted, you are valuable to me in life.

Yes I am getting old and I am going to use the phrase “Age is just a number, it depends how young you are from inside bla bla bla” often from here onwards but

Let’s get to the usual routine of what I read/ watched/ listened to this week and I have some great articles I want to share with you all. If you are a new reader and haven’t subscribed to Relatively Correct yet, hit the below button.

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The whole week I was researching about the new podcast episode ‘How can artists help fight COVID-19 crisis?’ and I kept reading some brilliant initiatives that are going around the world, especially the one in Vietnam where the artist says “In the time of war, our job as artists is to draw”

I was also reading the book ‘The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes’ to really understand doing protests or petitions or media trials can help mobilize the community or it’s just noise. The 20th century protests don’t have clearly defined goals, the action steps are unknown to people and there is no way to have people accountable to the commitments unlike what the protests were by Martin Luther King or during Lal Krishna Advani’s time. That is why I start this week’s podcast episode with the question “If I put an Instagram story with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, will it really matter to my followers?” Listen to the podcast ‘When We Met’ on any of the audio apps.

You know how much I love Mark Zuckerberg, so here are some updates about him

• Mark’s leaked audio from the internal meeting about racism, check here

• There has never been a better time to quit Facebook, read here

• Facebook’s algorithm is too greedy to stop it now, read here

It was #WorldEnvironmentDay but are we keeping our digital environment clean?

• Read here what Akanksha Esmeeta has to write about it

I have been telling my friends to download the Signal App and start chatting over there but they are too ignorant towards my recommendations in life. But during the protests in US the app downloads have skyrocketed, read here why

Zoom is no more a conferencing app but a new social network altogether, read here

Snapchat will no longer put Trump’s account in their discover section, read here

Two articles about online petitions that can add to your perspective, read this and this

Reddit Co-Founder quits and asks for black replacement in the board, this was huge news and you can read about it here. Reddit also changed their app icon to black.

And here is the last piece of article that I think you all should read or just question yourself with Why we’re blind towards probability

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I hope you all are doing good and are safe with your loved ones, don’t let the ease on lockdown greed you into stepping out. You are safe indoors.

Take care and feel free to like this post or comment or reply to it when you get it in your email. But most importantly, tell you friends about Relatively Correct, I moved to this new platform just so that it was easier for you all to share about it.

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