When it turned midnight on my 21st birthday, I was serving hot chai to people on the streets of Ahmedabad. Instead of celebrating with my close friends and family, I celebrated with strangers and MS volunteers I've known for a few months. Instead of being showered with gifts and balloons, I got strange looks from night watchmen and rickshaw drivers, who wondered why I was offering them chai out of the blue.
Our chai pot was nearly empty when we met a family of 12 who lives in a little plastic tent at Stadium Six Roads. We divvied up whatever tea was left and handed out packets of biscuits to the children. When she heard it was my birthday, the mother said to me, "Tum jiyo hazaaron saal, saal ke din hon panchaas hazaar."
Literally, this means "you will live one thousand years, each year with 5000 days."
Her blessing was touching, and seeing the smiling faces of her children enjoying the hot tea made me feel less homesick on my birthday.
Once we ran out of tea and packed up, Bhaskarbhai, one of the MS affiliates accompanying me on the chai distribution adventure thanked me for giving them all the opportunity to give people a little happiness that night.
In the states, I've grown up with birthdays being centered around the idea of "me, me, me." What presents will I get? Who will wish me a happy birthday? How will I celebrate my completed year? In India, everyone - even little children - celebrate their birthdays by giving to others and hoping for some blessings in return. It's a beautiful concept, but a difficult one to accept fully after 21 years of being trained to expect gifts and approval and love on my birthday.
Today also happens to be the anniversary Gandhiji's assassination. Schoolchildren and Ahmedabad residents congregated in Gandhi Ashram today, sat in front of his house, and remembered the impact he made on this nation.
I'm not sure I would like to live one thousand years, since making it through just 21 years as a happy and healthy individual has proven difficult at times. But if I was blessed to live one thousand years like Gandhi, immortalized in the freedom of a country and the voices of thousands of Indians who were once oppressed by poverty and the caste-system, I probably have bigger struggles waiting for me.
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