I forgot I was an adult

I was born on this day, 23 years back. And 24 years back, on this day, my parents got into a wedlock. So ya, you can say that God ensured that I never forget my Parent's anniversary. It all started with a 'surprise' cake brought to my home at the stroke of midnight when 27th June ceased to exist and I was officially deemed a birthday boy.

I'll be honest. I slept very early on the 27th, I had a bad headache. Even when my mom woke up and wished me, I had this feeling that somebody was hammering my head from the inside. Then something kicked in. Some chemical 'locha' happened and I decided to outrageously celebrate it. I didn't care about anything: what my mirror would say or what others would say. I put on my tee, and peeped from my room. "I'm waiting for the candles to melt away", I sheepishly announced. Laughter.

I cut the cake, and mom signalled that I give a piece of it to dad. Dad instinctively came forward with an agape mouth. I, very normally and coolly, cut a piece and put it in my mouth. More laughter. Then I obliged my parents. Curiously, nobody smeared my face with the cake. Maybe the cake was really good. It in fact was. So, since I was determined to live it to the fullest, I was showing off my pearly 32 teeth all around and indulging myself in everything which was so-not-me!  I thanked the ones who arranged the cake and came to wish me. I answered calls from as far as Kuwait. Yes, my extended family is global. So, of the 24 hours, the first hour was fun.

I woke up around 7am to prepare and be host to a Bhajan program to commemorate my Parent's anniversary. I even sang a Bhajan, you must know that if you are listening to me singing a Bhajan, you are witnessing a rare phenomenon (rarer than people winning lottery tickets). After the program, my friend proposed that we go for a ride to Besant Nagar Beach. Since I was determined to not-be-me, I said a yes and got ready. Mom approved of it, and so did Dad. Off we went with 2 of his friends. We four, went to this 'Broken Bridge', which is a picturesque location. So beautiful, so serene, so calm, so amazing that I forgot I was an adult.

On one side of the broken bridge, a group of guys were jumping off the bridge. A neat 12 feet fall to the grainy sand of the beach. I knew about this thing, but after seeing it, adrenaline started getting secreted from my brain. "Wow man, you totally have to do it!", I heard this from a gust of wind which rustled my hair. "Hey! Just jump and land on my lap!", said the fine sand beneath the bridge. "Oooo. . I so wanna see you jump!", said that beautiful, nifty lady's sunglasses when I glanced at her.

I stepped 4 feet back, like a tiger does before a predatory jump, and ran with all my will, air, and kiddishness. I was airborne for half-a-second. After that I was pulled down by gravity in a neat projectile. Had I had a notebook, I'd have pinpointed my location. There was this  friend's friend's cousin's friend who had a DSLR camera and shot me. In all my excitement, I forgot that I had to land on my knees and palms, and not on my legs and buttocks.

Remember the Newton's 3rd Law of motion? Every action has an equal opposite reaction. You kiss a stranger, and you get slapped. You jump traffic lights, and you end up on a stretcher. You land on your buttocks, and your spine goes on vacation. Now, I was being pulled down at 9.8 metres per seconds squared. That's a lot of acceleration. Even a 0.5 feet drop is enough to send you a current down your spine. Now, my drop was 12 feet. My entire weight fell upon my buttocks which was transferred to the sandy ground. Now, that much was only the first part of Newton's 3rd Law. I made an action.

The reaction is yet to come. In that second which when split into microseconds, I saw that my weight was absorbed by the ground and went straight to Pluto! Pluto, as you know is the God of the Underworld. So, Pluto called an emergency meeting of all the Gods of all mythologies. Zeus, Vishnu, Jesus, you name it. Chitragupta, an accountant under Yama (the Hindu God of Death) came and apprised the Gods of my lifestory. After listening to it, Jesus interrupted, "So, he never got a birthday bump?!". "Hmmm, that's sad on my part. He revers me so much and I didn’t to even that to him?", uttered Vishnu. "Can't we poke him with my trident instead?", sneered Zeus. "Too late. He landed on sand, and there's nothing but sand beneath the sandy ground", replied Pluto. So, it was decided by consensus that I'll be given 24 birthday bumps all at once to compensate for all those years without any birthday bumps, and that way even Newton's Laws will remain valid.

Pluto sent my weight back and it hit me. On. My. Buttocks. Now, 5:45:05:02 pm I hit the ground, and 5:45:06:01 pm, the ground hit me. My neck arched backwards as if I was experiencing exotic pleasure. The folks around me were laughing. I heard one of them mutter, "He messed the landing". Now I know. I messed the landing. I laid on the ground like a corpse. I clutched the sand hard to somehow distract my mind from the pain. Even a kiss on my lips wouldn't have distracted my mind. It was so focused, so concentrated on my aching spine that it even forgot to do its primal function, to think. I was about to blackout. My throat went dry. Someone asked me, "did you enjoy it?". He wanted to hear "No! That was hell!". I uttered, "Hell yeah!".

It took me 20 minutes to get back on my feet. I was not walking. I was wobbling my way to my friend's bike. At a nearby shop, I drank a litre of water, and noshed on a 5-star. Oh, did I tell you that I didn't have anything for lunch and that I had 2 samosas for breakfast? So, ya, hunger exacerbated the situation. It suddenly struck me that my mom has backache problems. I thought whether her problem is as bad as mine, maybe its worse because I'll be healed in a fortnight whereas she's suffering from it since ages.

This entire incident was an amazing experience for me. On all counts. I realized that I had been strapping myself on a leash far too much, that I had so many unfulfilled wishes that I felt suffocated, that I had a self-made dichotomy inside of me -- like a split personality -- which may burst out at the most unlikely situation, that I need to love myself a little more.

One more thing I realized with my backache. The power of pain. In all its painful, stinging ways, it keeps one sane and aware.