Growing up, I
always assumed that everyone had two birthdays; a legitimate date of birth (cake
cutting) birthday and a nakshatram* (payasam drinking) birthday, with questionable
levels of legitimacy. In my part of the world, stars are a force to reckon
with. They make their glittering presence felt in almost everything; from choosing
your ideal life partner to deciding the date of your ‘other birthday’.
You could walk
into my home on my ‘nakshatram’ birthday and you would see amma, my mother,
waking me up, holding a gilded framed photo of a cherubic infant Lord Krishna, blissfully
gobbling up, butter from a pot, for me to look at, as soon as I open my eyes. I
loved circling my arms around amma’s slender waist as she towel dried my hair.
She always rubbed in a pinch of the woody cinnamon colored ‘rasnadi choornam’*,
on my scalp, with a whiff of the warm nutty fragrance to be inhaled in, for
good measure.
 |
| Ammumma serving the birthday boy. |
You would see the
whole house hold buzzing with activity by noon, for the all important birthday
sadya or lunch.
You would see ammumma,my maternal grandmother in the puja room,
lighting a tiny silver lamp filled with ghee, laying out a small banana leaf, the colour of
a parrot’s breast with a small serving each of all the dishes prepared; an
offering to the gods.
 |
| The birthday sadhya |
The 'sadhya'(feast) itself would be customized to include my favorite
dishes. There would be rice of course, steaming hot with just the right amount
of bite, which amma would douse with warmed up ghee. Sambar, the omnipresent
lentil and vegetable stew, avial, a medley of crisp vegetables in a tangy coconut
based gravy, redolent of coconut oil.
Dessert would always be my favorite,
semiya payasam or kheer, which consisted of vermicelli boiled in cardamom flavored
milk, till it swells up soaking in all the milky goodness, sweetened to
perfection and adorned with plump golden raisins and cashew nuts fried in ghee.
You would see no
decorations or a profusion of gifts no return gifts or fancy catered food, on
this “other birthday”; but it made me feel loved and cherished, a feeling of
comforting familiarity much like slipping into your worn out pyjamas after
taking out your fancy party clothes. It gave me a sense of contentment, which
the original legitimate birthday, with its party and gifts, failed to evoke.
May be it’s the virtue
in our stars.
*Nakshatrambirthday: http://www.prokerala.com/astrology/nakshatra/
*Rasnadi choornam:
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