During travelling and especially with volunteers work you will come in some unforgettable situations. This time I ended up on a India birthday party from a girl that just turned into a woman. In other word’s she became 18th years old.
When we arrived at the place I don’t know what was happening. In a small village we arrived at a giant building full with people. Everyone was happy, dancing and eating of course. After some greetings it was time to go inside.
Inside there was a huge hall full with chairs. It looks like a performance, a huge audience all looking at the stage. On the middle of the stage was a girl sitting on a kind of throne and she looked as a princess. This was apparently the birthday girl.
Basically her task at that moment was to greet everyone and people were giving her gifts all the time. There was also a professional photographer who took a photoshoot with her later on. While this sounds maybe amazing, she looked quiet bored and sad at that time. Maybe it isn’t that great to sit there for hours and keep collecting your gifts.
After a couple of minutes it was our turn to give her our birthday wishes. This was quiet awkward, we don’t know even know this girl. Basically it just felt as an ordinary party crash. However she was quiet happy apparently to talk to us and have some distraction of her routine. According to her this was the best thing that happened to her today.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to have a long chat with her. It was time to move to the basement. The basement was turned into a large restaurant. Everyone was sitting on long wooden tables and was eating. Really I have no idea how many people were at her birthday party but I had the feeling it were several villages.
The food was great, of course we had to eat it with our hands. While I don’t have any problems with that, my cousin was still struggling from time to time to eat with his hands. Not because it is difficult just because it didn’t feel right.
We left the party quiet soon. At the moment we left the party we got a dot on our forehead as proof that we went here to the party. I have no idea what the meaning is of this red dot or bindi but I believe it is related to bring peace and harmony. Basically have a save journey home and have a good prospect. However I could be completely wrong with this.
In the end this was an amazing experience. It was such a huge difference with my own 18th birthday party. I only really wonder if the birthday girl found it as amazing as we did. She didn’t look that happy on stage.
