Atypical Celebrations

Bihari Milwani

Normal people celebrate birthdays. At best, we might also remember our marriage anniversary. But who cares about occasions like 10,000 days of life, 5,000 weeks of marriage, 1,000 months of… whatever? It is much like what record keepers do with cricketing scores.

Mallika displaying the unusual gift

And for any of us to keep score of records in someone else’s life, well, forget it!
Oddly enough, this is precisely what Bihari Milwani enjoys doing most. A number cruncher straight out of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, he not only has all of our birthdays and wedding anniversaries on his fingertips, but at the drop of a hat, can tell you the number of breaths you have taken in life. And so when he gifted Mallika Kagzi a display card reminding her of the number of months she has spent in happy matrimony, nobody was surprised.
But Mallika (who was obviously not expecting such a gift), simply lost her breath.

Swati Punjabi (c) throwing a lavish breakfast treat 

On the card, printed prominently against photos of herself and her husband (that too came as a shock) was the beautiful legend, “500 Months of Togetherness – 29th February 2016”. An otherwise loquacious Mallika was at a total loss of words as she passed the gift around her friends and well-wishers.
If that was not surprising enough, Swati Punjabi pulled off a rabbit from her hat by treating us to a grand breakfast of mouth-watering sheera combined with stuffed puri and potato-peas curry.
Happily, attendance was thin today and many of us could grab double and triple helpings. “I wish I could have got tea also, but getting up at 3:00 a.m. and preparing all this has sapped my energy,” she said apologetically. More importantly, what was the cause of this unusual treat? Pat came her reply: “For losing out on the Woman of the Year polls last week!” Where on earth would you find such way-out generous souls?
Bihari Milwani:
"Halwa-puri khao, Swati ke gun gao" - Film: Big Laaf