Soon after we arrived in India last December, Violet started talking about her birthday. It was clear that she was anticipating the occasion much more than in years past.
At first she was worried that she wouldn't receive any presents, but after we'd been here a while, and she'd seen the wares for sale, she realized there were plenty of suitable gifts in India, and that she would probably receive a few of them on her birthday.
Then she got this notion that no one was taking her birthday seriously. She decided that her birthday should be something like a weeklong festival, with life literally coming to a standstill (no school, no summer camp, Mommy stays home from work, Daddy doesn't write, and so on).
Jessica and I eventually figured out that her birthday had come to represent all of the slights and indignities she endured in moving to India. She was worried she would have no friends, for example. And that her parents would be too busy to pay attention to her. Neither of these is true, and last Friday we set out to prove it.
We took a vanload of girls to Hyderabad's best Italian restaurant, bringing with us a delicious cake baked by a neighbor.
The evening had its rough spots. Some Indian children reach school age without ever having been disciplined, so they had a hard time with "Jessica Aunty," who was happy to help them make up for lost time. And we had an incident in the restroom (but what's a birthday party without one of those?)
Tell me, does this look like a fake smile to you?
