Confusion with the Birth Date

I am neither a popular figure nor have any historical significance, but still I can relate myself with those great ones in only one aspect – the confusion of the birth dates. There is a big controversy about the birth dates of few great people and its celebrated on different dates. Even the calendars also put it saying “as per Hindu calendar or English calendar” to avoid any issue.

So, I get birthday wishes not less than 4 times in a year, though no wish or greetings come on the exact birth date of mine. Good thing is that all these wishes come from different set of people. My family, relatives, schoolmates wish me on Dussehra (yes, you can wish me belated one now). When I was born, it was Dussehra day and since then my parents decided to celebrate it on same “Tithi” and not to take any pain of remembering the date. I too was happy as my birthday falls on one of the greatest festivals in India. But the question of ‘what’s the exact birth date?’ used to haunt always.

In one year Daussehra came on 10^th Oct and the next day its Big B’s birthday, then I decided to consider 10^th Oct as my birth date, as it was easy to remember [one day before Big B’s] and started telling that date as my birth date, if asked.

Then one fine day in school, I came across one school record wherein my birth date mentioned as 15^th April, I was utterly shocked to see that. Till then I used to celebrate it on Dussehra, which generally used to fall in any of the Sept/Oct/Nov month, so, sudden switch to April was shocking. I enquired at home, the answer came as – My parents wanted my elder brother (a year older than me) and myself to study in same class, so the teacher suggested this option and they agreed. This started the another birthday. Exclusively for office colleagues, HRs, Banks, Mutual Fund houses, Insurance and many others.

Strange thing is despite having so many birthdays, I get emails on random days wishing me birthday. One of the biggest banks in India [3 I’s and 2 Cs in between], wished me on a random date, I took the screen shot and sent to one of my friend (whenever such things happen I used to send him as a proof). But the second day I got another mail of ‘apologising for the inconvenience by wishing me wrongly’. Actually the inconvenience caused was by their second mail.

But “whats the exact date?” question was still haunting me. Post the graduation, when I started using internet, I tried searching the Dussehra date in my born year, it was 8^th October. This time I was not shocked, as I got used to it. But no one wishes me on this day. So, I only kept a reminder in my mobile, reminding me of the exact date.

Vb