An Unforgettable Birthday Party

          It was the 1st of April, 2015. What clicked in your mind? Yeah, April fool’s day! The most awaited day for many, but right on the day, I forget and get fooled by all. On this day, I was invited to one of my friend’s birthday party. I was pretty excited, and reached the party house on time. You know, you’ve got to be punctual with this stuff.

          The door was wide open, so no suspense on ringing the doorbell. I met and greeted my friend, and joined the other guys at the party. No one needed to tell me. I made myself completely at home. We all sat there for quite some time, cracking jokes and doing other silly stuff. This time I was alert. I was not going to be fooled today. A couple of April fools had been made, and I wasn’t going to be next.

After waiting for another 15 minutes, which seemed like an hour, I was going to wait no more. I mean, come on people! Let’s get this party started! Another friend of mine felt the same. We had all been given small bottles of water. He opened his bottle and looked slyly towards another guy. The next thing is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Squirt goes the water. He emptied his bottle on the poor unsuspecting party-goer. Angry retaliation followed, the water missing the target, and falling on another. This was going to be an all-out water battle. I found the farthest corner of the room, and watched the action unfold.

The bottles were small, so the water got over easily. I was the only one who didn’t get soaked up. I got to know the meaning of ‘having the last laugh’. The parents of the birthday boy weren’t looking pleased, and were trying to wrap things up. They brought in the cake, which was supposed to be the star attraction for the day. It was huge, but only area-wise, not like one of those three tier cakes. It was like those Enter-The-Dragon moments, with everyone saying ‘Oooh!’ and ‘Aaah!’ We started singing the Happy Birthday song.

The cake seemed irresistibly delicious, or deliciously irresistible. Halfway into the song, the junior members of the party lost their resistive forces. And within moments, a bunch of hands splashed, or crashed, into the cake, coming out only with huge pieces of cake. If the junior members can do so, why should the big guys be left behind? Another bunch of hands, digging deep down into the cake, came out with even bigger pieces. One of them figured out an even better use of the cake pieces than eating them. What else than smearing them on the birthday boy’s face? I spoke out in defence of my friend, “He’s the birthday boy. Do let him have his day of the year.” Instead of listening to me, the guy handed me a piece so that I could join in the fun.  After half a minute of smearing, the birthday boy looked like a completely outraged grizzly bear. His parents took him inside, trying to calm him down.

The three of them came back, looking as calm as ever.  Dinner was served, with a nice starter and a mouth-watering main course. The cake didn’t get completely ruined, so each one of us got only a piece of the cake as dessert, owing to its huge size. I was not going to eat it, as only God knows whether the hands which went into it were clean or not. The party was over, and I greeted my friend once again. All I was taking back home with me was an experience not to be forgotten, and the fact that I didn’t become an April fool.

Written by Manas Trivedi

Original story by Mihir Trivedi

This might give you an idea of what happened at the party



Importance of Adult Education

“Let us do something really great

Educate the adults illiterate”

Take a newspaper of a language which you can read. Read out the headlines. Easy? Now take a newspaper of a language you don’t understand at all. Try to read the headlines. Tough? Now try to write in that language. Impossible? How do you feel? Helpless? Possibly exasperated? Imagine the condition of the 775 million adults who have no idea how to read and write, in any language.

Adult illiteracy is one of the major problems in the developing countries. The major cause of this problem is poverty. Parents are not able to give proper education to their children, due to unavailability of money. Also, these parents might not know the long term benefits of investment in their children’s education. Though there might be schools providing education at very low costs, parents, instead of sending their children to school, force them to earn money for the family. These children grow up to become uneducated adults. So, lack of awareness is another cause of adult illiteracy.

The effects of adult illiteracy are drastic. People generally look down upon such illiterate people, and discriminate against them. When discriminated against, these people hide their faces. They are afraid to step out in public. Their self-respect and self-esteem gets completely destroyed. As they have no qualifications at all, they do ill-paid jobs like working at construction sites and working as domestic servants. And even while doing these jobs, they aren’t able to count their money. They couldn’t sign any official paper. So, they can be easily manipulated by others. The ultimate result of all this is poverty. So, poverty is both the cause and effect of adult illiteracy. These illiterate adults might have the potential to do great things in life, but illiteracy holds them down. They have to depend upon others for knowing the headlines of the newspaper, for writing a letter, for knowing the story of a magazine, and what not? They could never be independent.

This problem of adult illiteracy has a very simple solution. Each one of us should teach at least one adult in our life. 17% of the adult population of the world is uneducated. So if each person in his/her life sets a target of teaching one adult how to read and write, in any language they like, adult illiteracy would become a thing of the past. Today many organisations are working for adult literacy. Evening and night classes are held for adults. Illiterate adults should not be afraid to ask anyone to teach them. We can also try to spread awareness about the value of education. After all, education is the basic right of each and every person living on this planet!

“Eradicate illiteracy, let us all say

We’ll educate all, come what may!”

-         Manas Trivedi