What’s Special Today?

 The clanging of a bell woke me up with a start. Sitting up hurriedly, it took a second for me to register that it wasn’t the prayer bell that usually rang at 5:45am; it was the campus bell that rang at 5:00am. Breathing in, I picked up my phone off the floor and pushed the power button – it didn’t light up. I blinked twice and tried again to no avail. Trying not to think of it too much, I plugged in the charger into the C-port and waited, yawning. A few seconds later, the image of a battery with green bars slowly rising to its top popped up on the screen. Shaking my head, I realized that I hadn’t charged my phone the previous day; and if it wasn’t for the bell that had made me get up half an hour early, I would’ve overslept and gotten late. I murmured a ‘thank you’ and grabbed my toothbrush. 

 Two hours later, I was at my desk in my room, clad in my Wednesday-best, jotting down the tasks I had to finish before 5:00pm that day. The unexpected pats on the back and greetings post the morning hostel prayer at the shrine had made me feel uneasy at first which quickly had given way to happiness and I wasn’t going to let that go unnoticed. My phone rang – it was a friend from Church. 

 “Happy Birthday Mita!” her voice was exactly how I remembered it from the last time we spoke – almost a year ago. 

 “Thanks Re!” I tried and failed to match her excited voice. 

 Five minutes later, another incoming call forced our brief-yet-sweet exchange to end. I swiped up the red button on purpose, logged onto WhatsApp and tapped the video camera icon at the top of my family chat group. Three surprised-yet-pleased faces lit up at my ‘good morning!’ 

 “You look nice Annu!” my Aunt said. 

 “Thank you!” I replied, smiling. 

 “Was this planned?” It was Appa. 

 “What was?” I asked back. 

 “This saree; did you keep it for this day?” 

 “Yes,” I frowned, “how did you know Pa?” I asked. 

 “Kuch nahi, lagra hai” (transl.: ‘Nothing, it looks like it,’ in Hindi) 

 “I can’t see it fully though,” Amma’s voice was met with an affirmative ‘yes’ from my Aunt. 

 “Oh,” I said and placed the phone on a window sill and stepped back twice. 

 “Ahh! This is nice,” my Aunt said. 

 Something struck me and I put up a hand, “Do not take screenshots, I’ll send you pictures at the end of the day.” There was silence at the other ends and for a second I thought the network failed me, but when I looked over at the screen, I could tell that all of them were either thinking of doing it or caught-in-the-act. I burst out laughing seeing their smirks. 

 “Okay, fine, but we will have another call by 10pm but then, no excuses.” 

 “Ji, ji, agreed.” I replied to my Aunt, disconnecting the call after a few more blow-kisses and heartfelt word-of-mouth blessings. 

--- 

 I looked at my wrist-watch – it was 2:30pm. The morning had gone by slowly (which was fine by me) with most of my colleagues oblivious of the day’s significance to me till I offered them ‘Coffy Bites’. Now, my direct senior Abhikaa had called me on the pretext of ‘having something hot’ only to leave me with a baby-sitting colleague; she’d left as soon as her phone rang (she was needed at the office – at the far end of our campus). We’d been there for a whole of twenty minutes when suddenly, a hand covered my eyes. 

 “Guess,” said the colleague I’d been sitting with. The person holding my head didn’t speak. I put up my hands and felt an engraved bangle on the hand that was covering my face and immediately recognized it. 

 “Rekha!” I said out loud. 

 The hand pulled away and she laughed, “Yes Di!” I looked over at the duplicate mini-me who had managed to become more than just a friend in the shortest possible time. She was now smiling ear-to-ear and I frowned. 

 “What’s happening?” I began but was quickly interrupted by Abhikaa. 

 “It is time!” she exclaimed and placed a white box in a cover in front of me. I blinked. 

 “Guys, what is going on?” 

 The three of them only laughed as Abhikaa opened up the packaging to reveal a beautiful, chocolate butter-cream frosted cake! The office call, the baby-sitting and the wait – all fell into place and I nearly face-palmed myself for not realizing it sooner. 

 The next hour and half was spent locking away glimpses of lost time in pixels, sitting around lazily smiling, talking about everything sweet under the sky and stealing glances from one end of the table to the other. It was 4pm when we finally said our physically-distant hugs and goodbyes – but my stomach kept telling me that my day was not over yet. 

 At the evening prayer an hour later, I dutifully distributed the Coffy Bites I had kept apart. 

 “Mita Akka? It’s your birthday ah?” Sanghvi, one of the second year PhDs asked, eyebrows risen. 

 “Ji,” I answered her. A Coffy Bite was shoved into my mouth without warning. 

 “Happy Birthday, Akka! God bless you!” she said. 

 “Thanks Re!” I could only splutter. 

 After a favourite dinner of tomato rice, a surprise group video call from my college besties and that pending family video call, I was finally exhausted. 

 I recalled a question that one of my favorite professors had texted in the morning. 

 “What’s special today?” he’d asked. 

 “Oh, probably nothing, since it’s a working day and also the middle of the week,” had been my response. 

 Now, as I lay back onto my pillow, I realize that it hadn’t been one that I wanted, it’d been one I needed – it was all those unexpected, small gestures of appreciation; those tiny efforts to make me smile that had made my birthday an unforgettable day. 

 “Thank you,” I murmured again as I hugged the pillow tighter and closed my eyes.